An elegant way to balance Cast When Damage Taken

In patch 1.0.0, Cast When Damage Taken invokes any combination of spells each time your accumulated damage exceeds the trigger point. The damage trigger is 440 at gem lvl-1, and increases as the gem is leveled, reaching 1090 at lvl-9. Any damage done by triggered spells is cut by 70% less at lvl-1, but this penalty decreases by 4% with each gem level, reaching 38% less damage at lvl-9. All triggered spells are auto-targeted and cast with zero mana cost, without any interruption of your character's other actions.

The lack of any cost or drawback to using Cast When Damage Taken to trigger defensive, non-damaging spells makes this gem useful to any build that can tank its modest damage trigger. A very popular CWDT combo for Life-based builds combines Enfeeble, Molten Shell, and Enduring Cry to instantly and automatically boost character defenses whenever damage is taken. Since no damage is done, there is no incentive to level up the CWDT gem past lvl-1, making it a zero-maintenance, cost-free investment.

Here's an elegant way to balance Cast When Damage Taken with an ongoing mana cost comparable to its benefits:

Apply the same level-based scaling factor to both the damage reduction and mana cost of all spells triggered by Cast When Damage Taken.

At lvl-1, CWDT would cast triggered spells at 70% of their mana cost and produce 70% less damage. As you leveled up the gem, mana cost would decrease and damage would increase, but the damage trigger would increase as well. This would give players an incentive to increase gem level to the point where CWDT triggers often enough to be useful, but without excessive mana drain. The number of spells linked to CWDT would likewise be naturally limited by the amount of mana needed to support them.

surprisingly - as a CWDT gem user and "fanboy" - I agree.

but supported skills should still cast without the animation.
otherwise, it would render the gem useless.

so you want the developers to nerf the one buff they added to the game after build destroyer 1.0.0 ?

Yes please!

i posted in the other thread but:

Make it so the gem will only cast its supported gems at the level of itself at most. A lvl 1 one would cast lvl 1 molten shell, despite a lvl 20 molten shell being attached.

I like the idea in the OP, if a nerf is actually necessary. Not the one just above however.

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lilbuddha написал:

i posted in the other thread but:

Make it so the gem will only cast its supported gems at the level of itself at most. A lvl 1 one would cast lvl 1 molten shell, despite a lvl 20 molten shell being attached.

I like this idea better!

(Assuming it's OP, I haven't tried it yet)

Just have it use the skills mana. which it should anyways. No life build can sustain that much mana usage.

I dont understand why everyone tries so hard to get this nerfed.
This support was one of the best additions to the game in a long time.
It automates several processes that were very tedious to do: casting buffs/curses.
Implementing quality of life changes to games should always be top priority in a game, and this support is the epitome of quality of life.

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gh0un написал:

I dont understand why everyone tries so hard to get this nerfed.
This support was one of the best additions to the game in a long time.
It automates several processes that were very tedious to do: casting buffs/curses.
Implementing quality of life changes to games should always be top priority in a game, and this support is the epitome of quality of life.

it should actually use the mana of the skill though. It currently does not.