PTR - 2.1 patch discussion

[Coldkil]

Making this thread just to consolidate the information and have a single reference about that.

Forst official patch notes plus some datamined informations are on DiabloFans, like HERE.

Well, buffs for many less used ability and some mechanics rework - discuss

As for DH - we already knew of the DEX rework which is fine; most notable things are a switch from poison to cold damage for many abilities and buffs all around to less used ones like Strafe, Rain of Vengeance, Impale. Plus the new Shadow Set bonuses look way better than before (permanent Shadow Power is huge).

[Fhi]

Whoa, the new Shadow set 4piece. I should wait till 2.1 to continue playing my DH.

buffs all around to less used ones like Strafe, Rain of Vengeance, Impale.

RoV and impale are actually my most used abilities -- found a few Lightning pieces. Don't know how it'll perform beyond Torment 1, but it's really fun to play at the moment.

With the buff to Gloom, is it better than Healing Vapors? Thoughts?

Bounteous Maximus
Number of bounties required has been reduced from 150,000 to 10,000

Some Hordes
Number of kills required has been reduced from 5,000,000 to 1,000,000

Splinter is Coming
Number of kills required has been reduced from 25,000 to 1,000

Finally looks like someone did the math and realized what ridiculous achievements those are. lol.

[Pendulous]

Got some comments on some of these new legendary affixes:

Shadow Power lasts forever: that feels dangerously OP
30% increased damage after killing an elite: I don't like affixes like this. Like the one that boosts your power when you open a treasure chest. You're never going to get the boost when you need it.
Picking up gold heals you for that amount: Incredibly underpowered, and basically worthless.
Teleport no longer has a cooldown but costs 25 arcane power: I know that's a high cost, but that's pretty damn powerful. I know they can't go through walls, but it makes it feel too much like Diablo 2's teleport.
Seven-Sided Strike applies Exploding Palm: Haha, no. A long cooldown skill that is used a kill ability, applying another skill that you would have applied in the first place. Feels very weak.
Also I love how that's the only monk-specific one I see...

As far as class changes:

Strike From Beyond seems cool now, but I feel it will largely be inconsequential. It would be better if it increased the damage of the next spirit-spender rather than making it cheaper.

Fists of Thunder: Massive base damage buffs. While this is probably going to make it very effective, it still doesn't make up for the fact that it attacks SO slow.

Sweeping Wind: base damage buff, which isn't what it needed. It was already necessary in any build ever. Also, still no duration increase, and Master of Wind was redesigned to not even have a duration increase. What. The. FUCK.

One With Everything removal: Depending on the math, this might mean that I have to completely redesign my gear. Thanks....

Seize the Initiative removed: So, with monks not having any good offensive passives, they took away the two necessary defensive passives, and didn't get them shit for new offensive stuff. Yes, the change to dexterity means Seize is pointless, but this still doesn't change the fact that most of these changes really mean nothing as far as the weaknesses to monks. It might even make them worse.

[Coldkil]

About monks, Blizzard is aware that as soon the pattch kicks in very likely people is going to see a toughness value lower than before due to theremoved influx of one woth everything. I don't understand (because i don't play my monk much) if it will be more worth to keep it and gather an item set with all the different single resistances or just drop it and go for AR on pieces (single resistance and AR are mutually exclusive afaik, for sure you cannot roll both on an item via the Mystic).

The DEX rework is better than old dex to armor passives; very likely we're going to have aroind 13k armor by itself (maybe more), given the fact i'm nearing 8k dex with my gear.

DH basically neede more survivability because we were really squishy. I think some changes are pretty overkill anyway - i'm looking forward a cold damage melee build as soon as patch hits. About Shadow set bonus, Marauder will still trump easily over it - the efficiency and damage it provides is something totally out of hands (basically because with that turrets will both get advantage from + turret damage and + spender damage affixes).

Though i really dislike the build - it's powerful but i feel very passive, i prefer a more active playstyle (basically i like spamming my abilities). Very likely will switch to a Nat+Shadow setup and see how it works.

EDIT: they now need to rework the Gloom animation because it simply sucks (you become all red and cannot actually see you armor, while all other runes just give you the wings).

@Fhi: healing vapors is still really good, but the idea is that with Shadow set you get an automatic cloak+heal when really needed (though not spammable) and you get a permanent 8k LoH + 35% damage reduction, so ideally you'll need less healing overall. Add to it the new armor from dex, Perfectionist etc. I think ti will be a very viable setup.

Build i'm planning to play http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...Sf!cbef!ZbYZcc

EDIT2: since all poisons skills seem to be gone from DH (which is not a problem) i hope that Serpentine rune being still poison is only an error/something left behind. Would also like to see a FoK cold rune (and baybe assin knives which i like a lot XD).

[Fhi]

The DEX rework is better than old dex to armor passives; very likely we're going to have aroind 13k armor by itself (maybe more), given the fact i'm nearing 8k dex with my gear.

That sounds about right for Strength classes, without shields. But strength classes have passives and abilities that increases Armor or Strength (Finery, Nerves of Steel, War Cry, etc), but DH only has Perfectionist and Monk doesn't have any I think. Armor probably won't be as high as non-shield STR.

[Coldkil]

As for DH, we don't need that amount - we're ranged so we don't get hit as much as melee. For monks though i don't know how good are thiose changes, counting everything it seems they're not in a good spot. Well, PTR will show the flaws and Blizzard will respond accordingly (i hope).

[Underskilled]

As a Wizard main, I'll be honest, I was pretty disappointed by the notes so far. I was really hyped hearing that they were planning to change the Firebird's set, but, well, they didn't... The damage was buffed, sure, but they could've raised the damage all they wanted, nobody ever gave the set a thought because the actual bonuses weren't worth everything you'd lose.

And along with that, what needed to be buffed wasn't, and the 'buffs' to the channeled spells are only going to slow down builds with them substantially. The Energy Twister buff was a step in the right direction, but the skill itself is still too random to reliably clear rifts at the same speed as some other classes, and contribute a lot to groups. However, they buffed MB/Conflag even more, and with the new Depth Diggers it's going to be pretty much required to have a Mirrorball to get anywhere. I won't complain about the Hydra buffs, though.

Teleport no longer has a cooldown but costs 25 arcane power: I know that's a high cost, but that's pretty damn powerful. I know they can't go through walls, but it makes it feel too much like Diablo 2's teleport.

I wouldn't get too excited about this. It's on a wand (So no Thunderfury, WoW, Serpent's Sparker, etc), and as you mentioned, the cost is pretty substantial, and, thinking about it, what use are you REALLY going to get out of it? Faster bounties, I guess? Illusionist pretty much ensures you'll have teleport when you need it, this just seems overkill, you shouldn't ever need to teleport 4-5 times over a second or two, you pretty much just use it to get out of bad spots.

Overall, I guess I'm happy I have a decently rolled Serpent's Sparker, and Mirrorball, since without having the hugely specific gear we've always needed, we didn't really get any big changes for the better, and won't exactly catch up any more or less with the other classes.

[Fhi]

Disintegrate makes me sad. I already hate knockback enemies, now that it has an initial cost, it's going to make Arcane Dynamo-charged Disintegrate even more painful.

[Wass]

As a hardcore wand of woh using wizard that already runs 4x firebird I will DEFINITELY give the 6p a shot. If that ability can crit then it'll be amazing.

[Hellfury]

Blizzard fix to resolve Wizards dependancy of Magic Missils
-buff MM more
-buff deap diggers to increase MM to retard numbers
-increase the channel spells arcane costs so they don't become more viable


derp.

- - - Updated - - -

As a hardcore wand of woh using wizard that already runs 4x firebird I will DEFINITELY give the 6p a shot. If that ability can crit then it'll be amazing.

have fun equipping a SIX piece set bonus that only helps on trash, where we don't have any difficulty already

[Underskilled]

Blizzard fix to resolve Wizards dependancy of Magic Missils
-buff MM more
-buff deap diggers to increase MM to retard numbers
-increase the channel spells arcane costs so they don't become more viable


derp.



have fun equipping a SIX piece set bonus that only helps on trash, where we don't have any difficulty already

It's not just that, but comparing what we're getting to some of changes the other classes are getting.

ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_758_x1 - Whirlwind reflects all projectiles back at the attacker.

ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_904_x1 - Seismic Slam is cast in all directions.

ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_906_x1 - Condemn has no cooldown but instead costs 30 Wrath.

p1_ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_941 - Your Seven-Sided Strike applies Exploding Palm.

And my personal favourites.

ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_905_x1 - Increases the duration of Phalanx avatars by 200%.
ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_909_x1 - Phalanx now casts twice.

Crusaders are literally going to get a permanent army, of invincible mobs that can do pretty insane damage, and for all we know they won't even need to lose their permanent AC as well.

[Hellfury]

Start getting thsoe shards into Tasker and Theo and the Hydra wand, because MM and Hydra and probably the next and only thing.

[Wass]

Blizzard fix to resolve Wizards dependancy of Magic Missils
-buff MM more
-buff deap diggers to increase MM to retard numbers
-increase the channel spells arcane costs so they don't become more viable


derp.

- - - Updated - - -



have fun equipping a SIX piece set bonus that only helps on trash, where we don't have any difficulty already

Come again? How is that 6p bonus not helpful in rifts? Do you even wizard?

Also I said "give it a shot" which mostly is interpreted as "try".

[Hellfury]

Come again? How is that 6p bonus not helpful in rifts? Do you even wizard?

Also I said "give it a shot" which mostly is interpreted as "try".

I do wizard 800 hours and a paragon level of 530 say so.

I know well enough that 2000% weapon damage when a target dies near another doesn't make this set any good, maybe if it was a 4piece bonus but a 6 piece nope, alot of more interesting legs are given up to fulfuill the 6(5 with ring), this 6piece set bonus at most helps with trash kills.

[Deldavala]

Well. Demon hunters are officially trash in Greater rifts atm. Wizards are struggling along with barb due to low chances to procc furnace.

WD, Monk and Crusader are still really strong which is nice.

Some new fun items that can open up some new builds(that wont be good in greater rifts anyways)

[Wass]

Wait and see. We don't even know if it can chain react or crit. (My guess though is that it can't do either, in which case it will be bad as per default.)

I could still see this implemented with wand of woh. Pure damage is all I can ask for when soloing t4-5 in hardcore.

[Underskilled]

Wait and see. We don't even know if it can chain react or crit. (My guess though is that it can't do either, in which case it will be bad as per default.)

I could still see this implemented with wand of woh. Pure damage is all I can ask for when soloing t4-5 in hardcore.

There's not much left to wait and see. The PTR is up, people are on it testing things, the set is being tested, and I haven't seen any positive results so far.

And if you're looking for pure damage, why lose out on ~40% fire damage through Magefist/Cindercoat to run this? Or miss out on a full set of Vyr's? It doesn't take a massive amount of math to see either of those would pump out substantially more damage than 2000% damage, only over 6 seconds, and only in the small area where something died.

That being said, the feedback on the official forums is pretty reflective of this so far, which is good. Seeing as the PTR has literally just started, it's plenty of time for changes to be made.

[Coldkil]

That being said, the feedback on the official forums is pretty reflective of this so far, which is good. Seeing as the PTR has literally just started, it's plenty of time for changes to be made.

Basically this. Blizzard has explicitly said that Greater Rifts are structured in a way (timed runs, same monster density, gauge raising based oon monster hp, etc) so they can be used as a common ground to balance classes. The idea of leaderboards for us as a way to brag our accomplishements is way more useful to them as a huge pool of samples to look at to see how things turn out and what changes are needed.

Talking a little with people on PTR, DH new set is cool and all, but Mara6 is still the best setup we can run at the moment (some things slightly changed and a couple of more option in abilities but that's all).

[Wass]

I miss out on cindercoat only if I ran the firebird build, haven't even seen it once so far. Rng gonna rng.

[Deldavala]

That being said, the feedback on the official forums is pretty reflective of this so far, which is good. Seeing as the PTR has literally just started, it's plenty of time for changes to be made.

They need to address the balance issues currently though. DHs are left in the dust. Wizards and Barbs are far behind the 3 other classes. This is due to the crazy scaling in Greater rifts.

On the other note. Beckon sail DHs is immortal due to a bug, MM/hydra is the new top build for Wizards, And Leap/rend barb is probably the new top specc for barb.

Monks will still be Zdps with some alterations, WDs will still be DoT with some alterations, Crusaders will have to switch from Shotgun to fire.