sorc orb synenergy question

[Zayl]

im wondering about the orb synenergy with frost bolt

if i have lvl 20 orb
and i put one point into frost bolt

does that multiply by my orb lvl
ex 2% bonus for one point into orb X20 = 20% damage
or does each extra point just give me 2%

a detailed explanion would be great

(btw sry for spelling mistakes >.<)

[Borje]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

If you check out the stickies there is a guide explaining how synergies work (I should know - I resently wrote this (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=618150) post thinking I was coming up with some new math).

The short answer is: no, you get a 2% bonus to your frozen orb per point invested in ice bolt. In other words, it's the amount of hard points spent (hard points=points you've acctually clicked in and not gained from +skills items) in the synergy that gives you the bonus.

This is how the synergies work, a little bit more in debth:

First of, 2% is just another way of writing 0.02 (%, pronounced percent is "per cent", cent meaning 1/100)

Total damage=initial damage*synergy bonus

where the synergy bonus=1+0.02*points in synergy

ok, so the number 1 is because you will allways do 100% of your initial damage, right? The bonus you get is another 2%/point invested. So by one point invested you will do 102% of the initial damage. The maximum synergy bouns you can get from Frozen Orbs synergy is +20% and that is by spending another 20 points in Ice Bolt.

One of the finesses of Frozen Orb is that it only needs 20 points in the skill and 1-17 points in Cold Mastery so you can spend the rest of the 60ish-80ish points in another element (Fire or Lightning). That's because the increase to Frozen Orbs damage by the synergy is so small so investing in it isn't worth it. For instance, if you use the popular combination of Frozen Orb and Fire Ball, your Fire Ball damage will be increased by 14% instead of 2% and that's quite a bit more!

Lastly: The points spent in synergy will automatically add up to the damage the skill is showing so whenever you get your Frozen Orb and have one point in the synergy (since you have to, because it's a pre req.) the bonus will allready be showing wherever you can see the damage of you Orb.

[sirpoopsalot]

ok, so the number 1 is because you will allways do 100% of your initial damage, right? The bonus you get is another 2%/point invested. So by one point invested you will do 102% of the initial damage. The maximum synergy bouns you can get from Frozen Orbs synergy is +40% and that is by spending another 20 points in Ice Bolt.

small correction.

[Borje]

Ofc you are right, thx for correcting me =)

[Lizardking]

a quick question; why is orb so unpowerfull (on the screendamage) ? :S

[zarirazz]

a quick question; why is orb so unpowerfull (on the screendamage) ? :S

the orb generally has damage around 300-400++ cold damage per shard. imagine 5 or more shards hit a monster with careful aiming. then, thru cold mastery, monsters' resistance to cold damage is even lowered, thus they take even more damage=)

[Borje]

You can without überexpensive gear get it up to around 400 dmg/shard. Well, I haven't counted the shards (you could give it a try...) but there are a lot of shards. Multiply the number of shards with the showd damage and you get the total damage, are there 20 shards? sure thing! Are there 30? Most likely... (after some searching in the forums I found someone saying they are counted to be 46) that is 46*400=18600 damage. It has both the power of a huge area of effect and the power to deal massive damage to a single monster. If you get a Frozen Orb to pass right through a big monster like Mephisto probably around 20-30 shards will hit him and that is more than 10000 damage!

Also all the cold skills has a lower displayed damage compared to fire and light because the mastery is -enemy res instead of +skill damage. If you get your cold mastery to level 17 that is -100 to enemy res and that will double the damage done to a monster without any cold res, if the monster on the other hand has, say 50% cold res he will end up with -50% res and that is tripple the damage displayed. For Mephisto, who has 75% cold res, if you get your mastery up to lvl 32 (not to hard to do with good gear) you will do eight times the diplayed damage!

EDIT: ah, Zarirazz was faster =)

[Lizardking]

O_O what the hell 18600 :| Gotta try it when i got some more time, wanna make a amazon first

[Borje]

note that it is impossible (at least not possible in any way I can think of) to get all shards to hit one monster. But when a Frozen orb is casted in to a large pack of monsters and you don't see any, or at least just a few, shards spinning all the way out and dissapearing you can be sure you did a pretty huge damage to that pack!

[phool]

20k is actually pretty miniscule when you're trying to kill a mob compared to a synergised blizzard, fireball, lightning, especially as they have aoe and in the last 2 cases no spell timer. A fireball with good equipment may manage 250k dps against a tight pack of low resistance monsters. Orb's strength is that it can get that damage with only 26 points invested and cold mastery makes it a lot stronger than fire and lightning against monsters with high levels of resistance like mephisto for if you can't afford infinity or massed facets.