The reason, I imagine, that hurricane and armageddon are relatively unchanged in effectiveness in hell is due to the unbelievably ridiculous regeneration that mobs have now. Even in normal difficulty in act 2, if you wait a few seconds, a creature will regen noticable hp.
Incidentally, molten boulder does additional physical damage now. Which means that it's better than tornado, in my opinion, on most creatures.
Here's the deal. On certain creatures, molten boulder explodes instantly, doing almost no damage. These are mostly bulky creatures, like threshers. The multiarmed raiders in act 2 are very large, but can be knocked back. The little guys that get whipped into frenzies in act 5 cannot be knocked back.
Molten boulder hits a creature many, many times as it goes through it. Help the poor thing if it gets caught in the path of the boulder. slvl1 molten boulder drops a venom lord in normal difficulty if it hits it for the full duration.
The multi-hit nature means that you're doing a lot more than the listed damage. And tornado seems to be even harder to aim in 1.10 than it was in the past. I was never that skilled with it, but casting it in 1.10 is resulting in me sending tornados off 90 degrees in the wrong direction some of the time :P
However, molten boulder would be useless against something that was fire immune and could not be knocked back in later difficulties., because of the cast timer. The creature would just out regen it.
One more thing about molten boulder: The fire trail is bugged and causes almost no damage. Most of the time, it doesn't even hit a creature walking through it. Which is a real shame, because it's supposed to do the most damage of the three components.
A fire specialist seems to be the way to go. In 1.09, elementalists got the shaft because nearly everything was 99% resistant to cold in act 5 hell, so hurricane was worthless. Arctic blast does more damage than inferno if you max it out, but since it's cold... i'm leery about it being useful without a wand of lower resist.
Edit: Bejebus, volcano does physical damage. No wonder I was able to kill diablo with it. Molten boulder increases the physical damage, while fissure and armageddon(!) increases the fire damage.
With maxed molten boulder and volcano, you have the ability to nail any type of creature (except flying over water... grr) with physical damage. Interesting.
A fire elementalist will need to get fissure, because armageddon's 6 second cast time will CRIPPLE you in combination with the other timers. Fissure further boosts volcano's damage, but fissure only gains damage from firestorm and volcano.
It is starting to look to me like Volcano might be the strongest skill in the tree, if you can keep the target stationary.
Interesting. Very interesting. I think i'll back up my save file and switch to a fire-elementalist only build. Havn't hit lvl30 yet.
Incidentally, molten boulder does additional physical damage now. Which means that it's better than tornado, in my opinion, on most creatures.
Here's the deal. On certain creatures, molten boulder explodes instantly, doing almost no damage. These are mostly bulky creatures, like threshers. The multiarmed raiders in act 2 are very large, but can be knocked back. The little guys that get whipped into frenzies in act 5 cannot be knocked back.
Molten boulder hits a creature many, many times as it goes through it. Help the poor thing if it gets caught in the path of the boulder. slvl1 molten boulder drops a venom lord in normal difficulty if it hits it for the full duration.
The multi-hit nature means that you're doing a lot more than the listed damage. And tornado seems to be even harder to aim in 1.10 than it was in the past. I was never that skilled with it, but casting it in 1.10 is resulting in me sending tornados off 90 degrees in the wrong direction some of the time :P
However, molten boulder would be useless against something that was fire immune and could not be knocked back in later difficulties., because of the cast timer. The creature would just out regen it.
One more thing about molten boulder: The fire trail is bugged and causes almost no damage. Most of the time, it doesn't even hit a creature walking through it. Which is a real shame, because it's supposed to do the most damage of the three components.
A fire specialist seems to be the way to go. In 1.09, elementalists got the shaft because nearly everything was 99% resistant to cold in act 5 hell, so hurricane was worthless. Arctic blast does more damage than inferno if you max it out, but since it's cold... i'm leery about it being useful without a wand of lower resist.
Edit: Bejebus, volcano does physical damage. No wonder I was able to kill diablo with it. Molten boulder increases the physical damage, while fissure and armageddon(!) increases the fire damage.
With maxed molten boulder and volcano, you have the ability to nail any type of creature (except flying over water... grr) with physical damage. Interesting.
A fire elementalist will need to get fissure, because armageddon's 6 second cast time will CRIPPLE you in combination with the other timers. Fissure further boosts volcano's damage, but fissure only gains damage from firestorm and volcano.
It is starting to look to me like Volcano might be the strongest skill in the tree, if you can keep the target stationary.
Interesting. Very interesting. I think i'll back up my save file and switch to a fire-elementalist only build. Havn't hit lvl30 yet.
*Pren_LL-AB
USEast HC
Dark_Mutterings (Necromancer)
Doug_Winger (Wearbear)
Heroic career and 1.10 aspirations cut tragically short because NOBODY CAN DO ANYTHING WITH A 22.2K CONNECTION WHY DOES GOD HATE ME.
USEast HC
Dark_Mutterings (Necromancer)
Doug_Winger (Wearbear)
Heroic career and 1.10 aspirations cut tragically short because NOBODY CAN DO ANYTHING WITH A 22.2K CONNECTION WHY DOES GOD HATE ME.