glacial spike

Glacial Spike on its own is not a problem. It requires a good deal of setup including 5 frostbolts and a 3 second cast time to get off. We want something like that to have good payoff. The problem is the synergy between Deep Shatter, Ice Form and Glacial Spike. The intent of the Deep Shatter talent was to make your Frostbolts feel powerful. It wasn't intended to make Glacial Spike deal 2 million damage.

We've made a hotfix change to Deep Shatter. Icicles will no longer benefit from the extra damage from Deep Shatter. We think this change allows both Deep Shatter and Glacial Spike to feel powerful on their own.

Thanks to everyone who brought this issue to our attention through playtesting.

08/09/2016 05:04 PMPosted by Jethroo

how is 300k a good pay off

I know where you are getting the 300k number from and it's possible there are more things at play than just the nerf. Our intention is that a Glacial Spike can hit in the 700-900k range at level 110 with proper setup. But when paired with Deep Shatter, it was possible for Glacial Spike to hit in the 2 million range. Since players have somewhere in the area of 2 million health, this is unacceptable. We like setup and high payoff, but we do not want spells that deal 100% of a player's health in battlegrounds and arenas.

If spells have a lot of setup and counterplay, we're comfortable with them doing damage in the 700k-900k range. If a spell has little counterplay but perhaps a long cooldown, we can see it hitting in the 400-500k range. Hopefully those numbers can serve as reference when giving feedback.

But to be clear, 2 million is way out of bounds and to suggest it is okay feels a bit disingenuous.