Talk:Blizzard (Diablo II)

Article Bias?
By far the most powerful offensive cold spell? Then why is it that the vast majority of Cold Sorcs go for the orb? Is it objectively more powerful in terms of DPS? Brainwasher5 (talk) 04:47, October 4, 2013 (UTC)

◄► Tephra ◄► 08:50, October 4, 2013 (UTC)
 * Powerful is not equal to useful. The Blizzard deals a high average base damage and can receive synergies from three other skills to boost that even higher. The Orb only gets synergy from only one skill and each bolt it fires is not exceptionally potent. Nevertheless, it is far easier to hit enemies with the Orb, and its cooldown is nearly half that of the Blizzard (1 second versus 1.8 seconds). The Orb's area of effect is also so massive, you can launch it in the opposite direction of your enemy and still hit them. Blizzard = powerful; Orb = useful.
 * Right, but as you said the orb fires twice as quickly. And even though those ice bolts only do a little damage per bolt, that's a helluva lot of bolts. Given these considerations has it been conclusively proven that Blizzard has more DPS than Frozen Orb?


 * Apologies in advance for sounding like a total noob if I'm clearly wrong, I haven't played this game in a decade or so. Brainwasher5 (talk) 05:38, October 10, 2013 (UTC)

◄► Tephra ◄► 07:32, October 10, 2013 (UTC)
 * Blizzard is used by Cold Sorceresses, who specialize in cold skills only. They maximize its synergies, of which there are three at 5% each. If you get Blizzard to level 20, and add on 300% from maxed synergies, then yes, Blizzard deals more damage than Frozen Orb. Frozen Orb only gets one synergy of 2% for a maximum bonus of only 40%. For Frozen Orb's damage to come close to Blizzard, every single bolt would need to hit the same enemy which doesn't happen. If you are not a Cold Sorceress and are not specializing in cold skills, it is a waste of 60 points to get the synergies for Blizzard, making Frozen Orb the better choice for multi-elemental Sorceresses. Frozen Orb deals less damage spread out over a very large area, excellent for crowd control; Blizzard can inflict heavy damage in a much smaller area, great for tough individual enemies like bosses. Personally, I find single-element specializations to be prolonged suicide as cold immune monsters start becoming a real problem in Nightmare and especially Hell difficulties.