Sacred 2:Blizzard

NOTE: The contents of this page are exclusive content found only by installing the player-made mega-mod Diablo 2 Fallen.

With the invocation of this spell, entire hordes of the Sorceress's enemies are left chilled or dead, drowned in a hail of ice. Wretched survivors of this wintry storm can do little but crawl and lament their fallen kin before they, too, succumb to the cold. This is a Spell Damage Based Combat Art. Aspect - Cold Spells Innate Abilities (Lvl 1) Total Damage: 45-45 (26-26 Physical, 19-19 Cold) Hits per second: 3.0 + 0.04 per level Hailstone Count: #8 Radius: 3.4m Regeneration Time: 13.0 seconds Modifications See also: Sacred 2:Combat Art Modifications Bronze Roar - Adds a chance to stun opponents (30% + 0.3% per level). Gale - Increases the base cold damage of each hailstone by 16.9 + 7.6 per level. Silver Hailstones - Increases the total number of hailstones dropped by 25%. Wrath - Increases the base physical damage of each hailstone by 33.9 + 11.3 per level. Gold Nimbus - Increases the chance for critical hits by 20% + 0.2% per level. Momentum - Increases the drop frequency of the hailstones (+ 1 hit per second, number of hail stones is unchanged).

Blizzard

Skills and Attributes

The following skills will affect this combat art:

• Cold Spells Lore - improves combat art damage, critical chance and casting speed, allows for modification points.

• Cold Spells Focus - reduces regeneration time and allows for higher level combat art without penalty, allows for modification points.

• Concentration - directly improves regeneration time

• Ancient Magic - directly improves combat art damage and lowers opponents' resistance to its damage

• Combat Discipline - will increase the damage of this combat art and lower its regeneration time if it is placed in a combo.

• Damage Lore - will improve the chance, duration, and strength of Freeze (secondary damage effect) triggered by Blizzard's cold damage.

The following attributes will affect this combat art:

• Intelligence will increase its damage and spell intensity

• Stamina will lower regeneration time

Usage Strategies

• The number of hailstones dropped with each cast slowly increases as Blizzard levels up. Taking the Hailstones mod will increase this amount even more, resulting in 25 or more hailstones dropped with each casting by max level.

• Choosing both damage mods {Gale and Wrath) gives the additional benefit that each hailstone will do more damage. As not all the hail stones will hit small size (normal) mobs, the more damage each hailstone does the better if you plan to use it to kill normal mobs in addition to bosses.

• For hitting non-boss monsters more easily, the faster falling mod Momentum is very good. While it doesn't change the total damage inflicted, it ensures that the damage payload is delivered more quickly, giving enemies less time to move out of the way. At max level, drop speed will be tripled. Even without Momentum the drop frequency will gradually increase as Blizzard levels up.

• In order to improve the chance to hit target (non-boss) enemy the Sorceress should target the ground in front of the approaching enemy. Timing is key and if timed well the enemy will run into the stream of hail stones as they land.

• Slow-moving enemies, such as zombies, can be targeted directly. The ice storm will show centered on where you first click, but the hail stones will fall on where the enemy currently stands when they begin to first fall.

• Items with bonuses to Combat Art Range will increase the area of effect. This may be counterproductive for attempting to hit smaller targets however, as the hail stones will have larger empty spaces between where they hit.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Multi-hit attack that can hit multiple enemies, or hit a big one and finish him off in one spell.
• Very good against bosses (all hail stones hit).
• One of the most powerful CAs in the game in terms of raw damage if modded for ice damage, physical damage and crits.

Cons

• Long regeneration time.
• Randomness of hail stones and small range of AoE make it hard to use on moving enemies that don't stay near the Sorceress.

Gallery