After playing to level 80 using Volcanic Orb as the main damage skill, it feels unoptimized and confusing to scale damage. Here are my thoughts on improving clarity and fun.
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Single target DPS> even if you land the core directly on the enemy it will simply roll past your target losing around 60-80% of your DPS. If you spend the 6 point investment to slow it down 95% of enemies are mobile and simply move away from you. My suggestion would be to remove ‘Glyph Of Fire’ as it doesn’t fit the skill idenity cough Runemaster and replace it with “Volcanic Orb’s core attaches to the first target hit” followed by a branch out node “The target that is struck by the core is knocked backwards for the duration”.
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Shrapnel is a terrible investment compared to explosions for AoE. The 3 point investment gatekeeper node ‘Ash Pelting’ is a weird forced utility stun node. This node should be removed entirely or made as an optional branch. The ONLY reason you would go this way is for the Unique item ‘Lament of the Last Refuge’ and we are already punished on damage scaling using that weapon from the void damage. 8 points to scale Shrapnel damage is too heavy of investment and should be reduced to 4-5 for the 96% damage increase. This can be justified because you lose most of your DPS from hitting any intended targets. To finish Shrapnel, add a node with 3 points prerequisite in ‘Eruption’ that reads “Your Shrapnel now homes in on targets.”
OVERALL this skill is lacking identity and the skill tree doesn’t feel good no matter what path you choose. There are too many subskills at the moment. This skill should be a single target DPS dealer first with the core with options to expand the AoE using explosions or Shrapnel in a CLEAR path. Right now, it is not obvious at all how to maximize your damage. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.