AoEs - Area of (in)Efficiency

[Prestige]

Hey.

You can already guess what this thread is about, so let's just get to it: AoEs. They suck. 90% of the AoE spells in the game are bad. First off, let's start by listing the good ones so we can see what makes them good (and then draw conclusions for the other spells).

Volcano - Frankly, it is not as good as people think it is, but it's a step in the right direction. An AoE with damage that basically can't be avoided unless you have an immunity and extra damage if you step on certain tiles. Fair. What makes it bad is the fact that it has a cd of a minute, which means that it's rather suboptimal (but we aren't here to discuss magma <3)

Earthquake - Nearly impossible to avoid but the bigger reason is the fact that it has no clear borders so people are sort of misled by the spell. Still, it does its job well and it's an actually good AoE. Cool.

The last one is a big one, as it's (imo) the best AoE in the game.
Let's talk about Crystal AoE.

What is there to say about this magnificent beast that hasn't been said before?

Thank you Lady Gaga, I'll take it from here. (stream chromatica for good skin <3)

This spell is everything an AoE wishes it could be. The damage on it is instant (yes, you heard it right, instant! you don't need to somehow trap ur opponent for 10 second so they can take ticks, but rather, it does damage immediately! amazing isn't it?) but to make it even BETTER. This spell deletes every projectile from the game. Just like that. Not only it has 11 damage (and following ticks), but it also protects you from orb-spells, javelins, fast-moving projectiles, and so on. You could call it the dash strike of mages but the only difference is not all of us have it.

Now, since people are usually only convinced by numbers, let me show some of the worse AoEs here.

Black Hole - This one is tricky but the main reason why it sucks is how easy it is to avoid. Yes, even easier than traditional AoEs. It's basically an outdated version of Volcano. It deals 4.5 damage per tick and has 38 seconds of CD, but how long it takes for it to start makes it kind of bad.

Inferno - This is actually just crystal wall. But it doesn't delete spells. And it doesn't have a good range. So it's a much worse crystal aoe. I will say that it doesn't deserve being as good or even buffed until a bigger issue in Explosion is addressed (yes I am looking at YOU Pyroclasm)

Flood - 4 damage per tick, 42 seconds of CD. it does, however, heal you for your rpl x 2. So it's just a much worse version of Melodic Repose. Isn't that nice?

Pond - 6 damage and 25 seconds of CD. Don't let the CD distract you though. You are only landing one tick, which means this is worse than practically every homing in the game. This needs to have higher damage and higher CD.

White Squall - Atrocious range. It does deal nice damage and also has a 25 CD, but the range is dogshit. It needs its CD upped along with a damage & range increase.

QUICK EDIT: I forgot to mention Holy/Occult/Cosmic AoEs. Their damage seems to be fine now considering how big they are (mostly Holy/Occult). Cosmic is mostly fine too, since it lacks damage but has a pretty great slow.