What's with Heat Convergence and similar magic options?

[Atari 2600]

Played the heck out of 3.5 years ago, played a lot of Dnd type of RPGs, but these magical items seem...like a lot of setup for small reward? I would say at least 50% of the magic items I find have something similar, but maybe with cold or lightning.

Can someone share a proper way to use Heat-based magic items? "Consume your Heat to perform a powerful attack. The next time you deal Fire damage, you deal an additional 1 Fire Damage for each turn of Heat remaining."

So, you TAKE 1-4 damage each turn, to save up damage output later, but only 1 per turn? I have to be missing something hear, because that would be an awful trade off, and a crap ton of turns to make worth anything lol.

[Atari 2600]

Thinking about it, even having, in this case, fire resistance, it appears not to be worth it?

[Morgian]

These things are just counters. Say you collected three of them and then use a fire spell. That spell deals 3 more damage and those counters are gone.

[Atari 2600]

Originally posted by Morgian:

These things are just counters. Say you collected three of them and then use a fire spell. That spell deals 3 more damage and those counters are gone.

Thanks, got that, but it also says on many of the magic items you collect heat, which does damage to you?

[Morgian]

They are just called heat, they do nothing to you. There are others like reverberate, too, indicating another damage type when they trigger. Some of them have nothing to do with damage, but give other effects. They are Larian's creation and not in the D&D rules.

Edit: most of them are pretty useless or work only for specific classes. If a class cannot deal fire damage, your item would never work for it.

[ACS36]

Just bad items. Ignore them for the good stuff.

[Morgian]

They are everywhere :(

I found only one cloak of protection in the whole game. Many of the good items from the books are not there or unique.

[Atari 2600]

Thanks for the info! Figured I had to be missing something as +1 damage buildup per turn, with most fights lasting only a few, was totally meh. It does get depressing after a while, with these items taking up the loot pool. I have around 15 of them in a chest, heh.

[Noctoculus]

Filler gear. I do not remember them being seen at all in EA. No idea why they wasted development time on them.

[Mr Fred]

Each ray of scorching ray add a stack so it can add up pretty fast when you upcast and cast a couple per round, not the most exciting gear in general indeed but its also on the best caster staff in the game so might as well get used to it.

[SickFish]

It seems like you could set up some sick combos with multiple types of gear the give these resource, then one that helps you spend it. Sounds like a fun build around, or if you happen into something that works. I think they're more interesting than flat bonuses. And the combo potential gets my mind working. I haven't actually done much with them however.

[Morgian]

@Mr. Fred
And that is exactly why they are junk. You spend now upcast spells to add +1 damage to the next fire spell. But the upcast spell already did more damage than the item can ever give. And you cannot gather counters fhis way, because the next ray triggers it. And if not, the description of them has always a clause how long they are there, typically 2 rounds.
They are mostly gimmicks. only a couple sound as one could do something with them (the electricity one, and the one that ups your DC by 1).

[Mr Fred]

Spending heat is a toggle, its pretty much a free 10dmg every other round which again isnt all that good but its there. Never wore a single piece that had it aside from the legendary staff so got used to how it work.

[Catsim]

The lightning gloves from the swamp are pretty good for a monk. Put points into strength and give them the tavern brawler feat so they can use their fists as their main action as well as their bonus action.

If you want to get fancy get the "electrify water puddles" boots from the temple and the "immune to shock" ring from the wizard tower. Then have one of your casters cast create water on your monk when he's in the midst of several enemies. But in practice it's not really that great, there's too many ranged enemies in encounters that you need to run to deal with for a stationary water puddle to be too useful. Just stick with the gloves for the extra lightning damage and the damage burst when you get enough stacks.

[Lxa]

Guys, heat is not useless. I have three items on my barbarian that each give 2 turns of heat each time I do fire damage. She also carries an axe that deals fire damage. Barbarians can attack more than once per turn. She hits someone, I gain 6 turns worth of heat, and when she hits the next person she deals 6 extra damage. That's like a 20% increase in her damage.

*edit* Even if it isn't applied every second shot (might trigger at 10 damage), it still amounts to that much eventual extra damage per shot.

[Burn]

Originally posted by Lxa:

Guys, heat is not useless. I have three items on my barbarian that each give 2 turns of heat each time I do fire damage. She also carries an axe that deals fire damage. Barbarians can attack more than once per turn. She hits someone, I gain 6 turns worth of heat, and when she hits the next person she deals 6 extra damage. That's like a 20% increase in her damage.

*edit* Even if it isn't applied every second shot (might trigger at 10 damage), it still amounts to that much eventual extra damage per shot.

Larian adds a cool new feature to the game so players can dedicate their time to succeed with it in a cool flaming barbarian character... nah just filler gear.

seriously, i love your reply, really all gear keyword can have fun implications but apparently

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

Filler gear. I do not remember them being seen at all in EA. No idea why they wasted development time on them.

some people on this thread are just downers sayings its useless and the developers shouldn't have even tried? smh