Any good discharge builds still?

(Not sure what this has to do with Discharge, but...)

There are a few reasons why Firestorm with (Barrage) CoC is a bad idea.

The first, which you brought up, is defenses. Firestorm needs something to hold enemies in place or otherwise distract them, otherwise they tend to run through the flames directly at you (and take minimal damage in the process). As you run away and kite, your damage suffers heavily.

The second is that Firestorm shares no similarities with projectiles, so you cannot double dip on supports.

As an example, Barrage CoC GMP Fireball double dips on the GMP linkage. Not only does Barrage shoot more bullets (faster), but each crit bullet creates 5 fireballs instead of one.

Another example is Barrage CoC Chain Fireball. Each bullet chains (which gives you 3x the chances to crit!), and each Fireball also chains (which gives a total 1.5x damage multiplier).

KB CoC Firestorm matches the second part a little bit better (since both can benefit from Conc Effect), but still does nothing for the first part.

The best single target dps from CoC comes from running Fireball/AB/IceSpear CoC Barrage with GMP and standing right next to the enemy. You hit them many times in quick succession and each crit spawns 5 fireballs, 5 abs, and 5 ice spears which all shotgun at melee range, dealing absurd amounts of damage.

The same linkage is also fairly decent at clearing AoE since the 5x projectiles fan out and cover a lot of area.

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Now, an alternative to Barrage which does make Firestorm more interesting is Area skills like RoA, Reave, Cyclone, Ground Slam, and several other strong CoC applicators. The latter three especially stand out since, being melee, you're going to need melee-level defenses in the first place.

The only problem then is that if you've already made that decision, you might as well use a better damaging (and larger area) Area skill such as Glacial Cascade, Ice Nova, or as this topic mentions, Discharge (linked above as the "Fakener").

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I personally feel that Firestorm is actually incredibly strong once you get quality on it (and L3/4 Enhance makes it even more powerful in a +1 linkage), but it requires something to hold enemies in place to keep the damage up.

I would suggest one of three methods:
- FreezeMine prolif, then either cast the firestorms yourself (slower) or summon totems to cast firestorm for you while you are freezing things.
- Run an area skill with CoC FrostWall Firestorm, which will both hold enemies in place and damage them heavily.
- Be super tanky with a strength/Doon build and cast Firestorm (+spell echo) yourself manually.

thank you for the detailed reply pneuma.

I had to reread a few parts and will actually bookmark for reference,
I'm really loving the idea of coc chain fireball combo.

So far with firestorm i've been unable to apply it without tanking
of course which is counter to my goal of single target dps...
poor planning. gotta find some other build for it.

not willing to stack fire damage so I gotta go after global crit
to help both FB it and my phys.... gonna check if AB/spear or fb is
also a projectile. that would help with synergy.

thanks again.