Glacial Spike

Creates a magical ice comet that freezes or kills nearby enemies.

Glacial Spike is a Sorceress Cold skill (level 18, requires Ice Blast) and, with Frost Nova, the prerequisite of Blizzard. It is a bolt that explodes where it lands, damaging and freezing everything within a small radius. Two numbers decide it: the damage, 225–242 at level 20 before synergies, and the freeze, 4.28 seconds at level 20 in Normal, on every monster in the 2.67-yard burst.

The numbers

The damage comes from EMin 32 and EMax 48 with HitShift 7, which halves them: 16–24 at level 1. The minimum then grows +7 a level to level 8, +13 to 16, +14 to 22, +15 to 28 and +16 a level past that; the maximum grows +7.5, +13.5, +14.5, +15.5 and +16.5 over the same brackets. That is 91–103 at level 10, 225–242 at level 20 and 375–397 at level 30. The line reads lvl, so +skills count.

The freeze length is the row's auralencalc: ln34, Param3 50 frames (the table's "Freeze Length baseline") plus Param4 3 a level ("Freeze Length per level"), so 2 seconds at level 1 and 0.12 more a level, 3.08 at level 10, 4.28 at level 20, 5.48 at level 30; then multiplied by 100 plus Param7 3% for each hard point in Blizzard. The table shows the length with none.

The radius never changes and is left out of the table: ln12 with Param1 4 ("Explosion Radius baseline") and Param2 0 ("Explosion Radius per level"), shown as × 2 ÷ 3, which is 2.67 yards. Mana is 10 at level 1 and 0.5 more a level (mana 20, lvlmana 1, manashift 7): 14.5 at level 10, 19.5 at level 20, 24.5 at level 30.

How it works

Glacial Spike fires one "glacialspike" missile; the Basin's page classes it as a long-range single-target missile with radial damage and freezing, and says its range reaches any target visible on an 800 × 600 screen. It is about a third faster than Ice Bolt and Ice Blast and the same size. When it hits, it explodes: everything within 2.67 yards of the point of impact, not of the target, is damaged and frozen; the Basin's picture shows a second monster centred just outside the radius taking nothing. It is cold damage, reduced by each target's cold resistance, see Dealing Elemental Damage and Resistances and Immunities; as a spell it needs no attack rating, and it is cast at casting speed.

Every target in the burst is frozen, held in place for the freeze length, divided by the difficulty's freeze divisor in Nightmare and Hell, see Chill and Freeze. The Basin's page says Ice Blast applies more damage to a single target, but Glacial Spike's burst can damage and freeze several at once, which is more damage a second against a group.

The burst is centred where the spike lands, so a monster standing beside the target is frozen only if it is within 2.67 yards of the impact.

Synergies and +skills

• Ice Bolt: +5% cold damage per level, Ice Blast: +5% cold damage per level and Frozen Orb: +5% cold damage per level (skills.txt Param8 = 5; the calc reads each skill's blvl, hard points only).
• Blizzard: +3% freeze length per level (Param7 = 3, blvl).
• Glacial Spike in turn feeds Ice Bolt (+15% a hard point), Ice Blast (+10% freeze length) and Blizzard (+5% cold damage).
• +skills raise the damage and the base freeze (lvl); the percentages do not move with +skills.
• Cold Mastery lowers the target's cold resistance and so raises what lands.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player. The Basin's page gives no other rule for Glacial Spike against players.

Build notes

• Each hard point is +5% to Blizzard and +15% to Ice Bolt; on a Blizzard build the points here are bought for that, and the freeze comes with them.
• The freeze is the skill's reason: 4.28 seconds at level 20 on a whole burst, where Ice Blast's 6.8 is on one target.
• The radius never grows, so +skills buy damage and freeze length only; aim at the point, not the monster.