A little history first:
- Season 1: “Wow, Bane of Winter looks neat” I didn’t use it because I was new to the game and went frost claw instead so I could learn the game.
- Season 2: “Bane of Winter still looks neat, but I want to down Aberroth this season” I rolled erasing strike instead.
- Season 3: I could get none of my friends to play, so I didn’t play. Bane of Winter still looked neat.
- Season 4: “Oh, Bane of Winter got buffed. Oh neat a 1 LP one dropped.” And here’s where the feedback begins.
Bane of Winter’s art? Top class, it looks like a fun weapon.
Bane of Winter’s unique effect, voidwinter bolts? Hell yeah, more autobomb for my autobomb? Sign me the hell right up.
And then I used it. On warpath autobomber.
Overall it did less damage than dual wielding two completely un-modifiable Blades of the Forgotten Knight.
Then I actually looked at the weapon:
- Void Knight struggles to get Chill Chance with Melee Attacks
- Void Knight almost never builds Attunement
- Paladin has very little support for void damage but builds Attunement
- Forge Guard has no support for void damage and doesn’t build Attunement
- Sentinel overall rarely builds Dexterity in my experience
Ok, maybe I made a mistake and it’s not really a Sentinel weapon despite having Javelin compatibility. - Mage struggles to build Time Rot with Melee Attacks
- Mage, as a whole, has no use for void damage
- Mage, as a whole, scales of Intelligence 90% of the time and Dexterity the other 10%, no Attunement to be found
What class is this weapon designed for?
But that’s not even its biggest sin because on warpath you drop all 8 bolts on their internal cooldown of 0.08 seconds - 0.64 seconds in and all have been used. You now have a very non-unique weapon for 1.36 seconds. Sure, those are small numbers when taken individually but if I put 200 hours into using that weapon, it only acts like a unique weapon for 64 of those hours, the other 136 hours? It is quite literally a sword with two T4s and a T7 corruption.
Going line by line on the weapon, assuming max roll:
- implicit +115 melee damage → 48.3 spell damage. Dragonhorn wand is 54-60 spell damage. Oops it lost to a one handed white item.
- implicit physical pen is useless. What is even going on here? It’s a cold/void weapon.
- implicit elemental pen is half useless. What is even going on here? It’s a cold/void weapon.
- chance to cast voidwinter bolts, 87.5% downtime on high roll
- voidwinter support, doesn’t matter
- voidwinter support, doesn’t matter
- cold taken as physical, the only thing that can’t be replaced by a single sword
- 42 void damage * 0.42= 17.5 flat spell void damage
- 42 cold damage * 0.42 = 17.5 flat spell cold damage
- 42% of added melee added to cold/void spells as flat spell, at least 50% depending on class.
You know what else has +17.5 spell cold damage, +17.5 spell void damage, and +48 spell damage? A Longsword with T4 for both spell damage and a T7 corruption for Spell damage on a little higher than minimum rolls.
That is what Bane of Winter is for two thirds of the time it’s being used.
But there’s a third issue in its design as well.
Voidwinter Bolts have no support. They have no skill tree. They are what they are forevermore. At some point, around 200 corruption in my experience, they become a pretty effect whose 24k dps is negligible compared to 100k on warpath and 50k on devouring orb. And there is absolutely nothing that can be done on the player’s end to address that nor is there reason to because the class skills will always benefit better from investment. I could grab +21 Attunement on a T7 slam to buff Voidwinter ooooooooooooor I could grab +21 Strength or Vitality because that’s what Void Knight scales off of.
For 780 days I waited for a chance to use a badass looking weapon with a fun sounding effect. What I got was so ill-fitting to anything, so gimped in its unique tier item status that I’m done with the season, the disappointment of this weapon is that great.
- Warpath hits 40 things per 2 seconds, Voidwinter Bolt is 8 casts per 2 seconds, maybe it hits 16 things with pierce, more often it hits 4.
- Frostclaw fires at least 40 projectiles per 2 seconds that also pierce, Voidwinter Bolt is 8 casts per 2 seconds.
- Lightning Blast hits so, so many things per 2 seconds, Voidwinter Bolt is 8 casts per 2 seconds, maybe it hits 16 things with pierce, more often it hits 4.
Why is Voidwinter Bolt limited to being visual confetti? Bosses and Rogues give enough of that already.
Why can’t Voidwinter Bolt be strong? The new rogue set has no issue on this front. World Splitter has no issue. Ladle has no issue.
Why is Bane of Winter worse than a magic sword 66% of the time? World Splitter doesn’t have this issue - it is always going to make your melee attack be a big, strong SMASH!
What class was Bane of Winter designed for? What playstyle?
Why does Bane of Winter exist? Why is a T4 magic sword a low tier chase item from endgame content? Why does Bane of Winter not live up to any other harbinger drop?
