Ice Blade (Druid)

[Speed]

I wonder why there is no cold version of Flame Blade (or even 2 handed Falchion), which also can be not usable against some enemies (resistance, immunity, healing).
Fire Shield has cold alternative.
Flame Blade scales with fire caster level, so Fire Elemental form or Child Of Summer gives bonuses, while Water Elemental greatly decreases effectiveness.
Is there any hidden advantage for pure water/winter spellcaster (wis based instead of str) when compared to fire/summer with access to much more effective Flame Blade and heals?

 

[droid327]

Well casters arent going to get any use out of Flame Blade anyway...

Ice Druids really hit their own late in the game when they get Ice Flowers, which is just crazy fast AOE damage, and Tsunami, which is solid damage and CC

 

[Speed]

Well casters arent going to get any use out of Flame Blade anyway...

Ice Druids really hit their own late in the game when they get Ice Flowers, which is just crazy fast AOE damage, and Tsunami, which is solid damage and CC

I was thinking more about sp saver than damage competition to spells, especially on earlier higher difficulties (less spells and sp, no elemental forms yet, slower casting in animal form) when solo/duo without easy mode like multiple reincarnation bonuses, tomes, farmed/crafted perfect gear, ship buffs.
Flame Blade effectiveness (fire caster level 5+, achievable at level 4 with Elder Of Winter from Seasons Herald and later progress can be speed up with enhancements from trees and items, including combinations like Draconic Knowledge from Dragonborn and Arcane Augmentation from Ikthanors Signet Ring) is comparable (or better) to crafted weapon with one augment and most named bound to account on heroics while it also scales with level and uses wisdom for hit and damage.
Ok, Water Elemental has Ice Flowers (transmutation dc that requires elemental form, so animal caster can not use it, and some other cold spells work only in Wolf form) and Tsunami (both are half cold, half force for summer, and late level 15/17), but Fire Elemental has more earlier fire aoe spells that work in any form (Flame Strike, Fire Storm, Wall Of Fire, plus Body Of The Sun if elemental form vs low damage Ice Storm), 4x SLA that are affected by summer bonus (earliest Produce Flame, universal force Salt Ray, highest damage Word Of Balance, earlier/cheaper/faster level 12 4 sp 20 sec aoe Sunburst vs later overtime Creeping Cold, nice Call Lightning, level 18 20 sp 120 sec Storm Of Vengeance, all work with empower/maximize for free) and better heals.
Blightcaster has Thorn Blade that uses acid/poison and benefits from both seasons as thorn spell.

 

[droid327]

Well "animal caster" really isnt a thing, animal forms are designed for melee druids. Animal form "spells" are special attacks moreso than caster spells. A pure caster druid will usually level up in human form with fire spells, since you're right about that being good early on, and then respec to ice late in Heroic

But Flame Blade usually isnt necessary even then. Without feat and enhancement support for melee, its not going to be a great option compared to your SLA rotation for "SP-conservative" damage.

 

[Speed]

What about first life Wolf on a new server (no reincarnation bonuses, tomes, farmed/crafted gear) that wants to be a combination of primary water/winter only spellcaster and secondary animal form (spell cooldown is not a big problem while you can rotate between available options and also put some melee on easier single targets), so goes into maxed wisdom instead of strength (28 points: str 8, dex 14, con 14, int 8, wis 18+, cha 8 - could go str 14 instead of dex, but wis is already chosen for level ups and there is wis based Flame Blade that is not so bad since caster level 5+), because wants best possible spell dc in that case, but also invests some ap in animal trees, just because like being in that form, use some melee between spells (in addition, elemental is starting at later level 13+) and feels like respec is some kind of cheating (especially in rpg point of view).

Still, it should be simple to implement with just different element.
I believe that maybe not majority, but some people would like it and use more or less in their playstyle, not perfect build combination vision, rpg part or just specific quests/situations (early, low/no sp backup).
There were a few posts about it already on old forum.

 

[FuzzyDuck81]

Moon blade is a PnP spell that could fit the criteria pretty nicely & still be linked to cold. Personally i rarely ever use flame blade, though as a blightcaster I used thorn blade all the way through heroic levels since it benefits from both caster level boosts in thorn knight form to get the higher level version sooner & shillelagh to boost it's damage dice.

 

[droid327]

What about...

What you're describing is a flavor build. And while those are perfectly fine to play, you cant expect the dev team to spend effort implementing new mechanics to support very specific builds that arent really what the class was intended to do.

Plus - since you mentioned playing it to cap - there are a few named weapons that function as Cold Blades. Rauven and Raellia both use WIS to hit/dmg and deal Cold as their base damage type

Also...even if you're building for Cold casting and dont want to respec for RP reasons...you can still use Flame Blade. It doesnt care about your spell power, and the caster level really doesnt make that much difference since the affixes are pointless past early level anyway, you're just using it for WIS to hit/dmg. There's a few other weapons with innate WIS to hit/dmg that you can use as well, including some that take Sentience, which summoned weapons do not (another reason why adding more summoned weapon support is kind of a waste of dev time)

 

[Speed]

What you're describing is a flavor build. And while those are perfectly fine to play, you cant expect the dev team to spend effort implementing new mechanics to support very specific builds that arent really what the class was intended to do.

You are right that every player has its own niche wishes, but I believe it would not be much coding to use already implemented Flame/Thorn Blade part with just different element variable id.

Plus - since you mentioned playing it to cap - there are a few named weapons that function as Cold Blades. Rauven and Raellia both use WIS to hit/dmg and deal Cold as their base damage type

Good suggestion, but still bound to character, requires some farming first with access to Feywild expansion, and available at very late level 29+.

Also...even if you're building for Cold casting and dont want to respec for RP reasons...you can still use Flame Blade. It doesnt care about your spell power, and the caster level really doesnt make that much difference since the affixes are pointless past early level anyway, you're just using it for WIS to hit/dmg. There's a few other weapons with innate WIS to hit/dmg that you can use as well, including some that take Sentience, which summoned weapons do not (another reason why adding more summoned weapon support is kind of a waste of dev time)

Fire Elemental caster level (+3 form and +1 or maybe +3 season, I ma not sure if last +2 season are for both or only current) vs Water Elemental (-3 form) is 7 levels difference that means 4d6 damage (2x fiery + 2x flaming blast, average 14 that is worth like 38 wisdom for modifier) and additional critical (2x flaming blast) plus other progression bonuses per hit, which for first lifer on a new server may not be so pointless on heroics.
Yes, it is completely useless after level 20 when compared to sentience weapons and there is enough sp and variety of options on higher levels.

 

[seph1roth5]

Always up for more options, even if a lot of people think it won't be useful, don't have to use it then lol. I'd just suggest they stop putting garbage effects like stat damage on it.