I hate the holy fire build as well, but the effort required for MA skills has to be reflected in the payoff as well. Right now the damage is just too low. So low that you’re better of just using death sentry after you kill 1 or 2 mobs.
Right now is just silly that the kill speed with endgame gear is slower than a kicksin with way cheaper gear and a few points in death sentry. Kick assassin isn’t even a top meta build, never mind comparing it to other classes.
They manage to make the build run smoother, aside from the next delay issue. But the power level is still not there for it to be appealing compared to other MA builds, and it’s straight up terrible compared to traps.
True if it could go up to clearing atleast p5 in a solid speed it would be good. Whit out the NHD could it be achived? Or it still would need some dmg buff?
Not sure, it would help if they actually worked on the assassin so we can test it out. Right now certain classes got crazy buffs for pvm and other classes are still kinda meh. I hope they are just taking their time with each class, but they way they are now, the buffs each class got are not really balanced. Paladins, sorceress’s and zons are super powerful- the 3 that have s their builds already gets even more s tier builds. Druids are pretty good and barbs are okay. Necros and assassins still lacking.
Also an idea since blade shield is supposed to be a spell, it should behave like one.
A) Always hit (but can be blocked)
B) Since it is supposed to be shield maybe give it separate 20 % to block incoming attack that stays the same on all levels.
This would make it a proper usable Spell even in non pure blade builds since MB stun is going out of window atleast for PvP.
To make up for the lost of stun, assassins would need an increase in damage overall to compete in pvp. Assassin right now is a chip damage character, with no stuns characters that can unload a lot of damage in a short amount of time wins, especially if they have range. Traps are pretty easy to absorb with - light gear not working on them. So an increase in reliable psn dmg and phy dmg would be necessary for assassins to be competitive. Blade skills do a lot of damage, if they are able to hit and maybe not as clunky to use they could be competitive. Venom could definitely use a dmg buff as well, but who knows maybe plague is enough to boost the psn dmg.
My thought was to allow MA charges to be passively gained. That way they’re actually useable in pvp, right now you’re never gonna be able to build charges on anybody outside LLD. Of course they would have to nerf tiger strike if that was the case.
I like most of the ideas/changes. A couple of things.
DTail: It does not need a bigger radius, but it could be more similar to FoF and expand backwards. Also, the bug where if you kick a physically inmune, the fire does not affect anyone is simply a bad mechanic. I sometimes bring the physically inmune to a different non-inmune pack so that the fire does damage if you hit a non-physical inmune, killing the physical inmune. Makes no sense.
CoT: Definitely needs a buff. We can only hope they will fix NHD, but I doubt it.
Charges should last longer.
Fade/BoS: While you should not be able to cast both simultaneously (like paladin auras), but they should be stackable if the second comes from gear. It makes no sense that Treachery is useful for all classes except for Assassin. Also paladin auras are helpful for everyone while Fade/BoS is personal so having both is not that far-fetched. I may be one of the few people who plays MA with DTail and TS in 2.3. The only way to play it reasonably well is with 50% DR and 75 All res and BoS. I really do not need Fade (only for curse reduction), but I must use Stormshield+1-2 more DR items no matter what.
I do not understand why some of these MA changes were not implemented now on the second part of 2.4 PTR to test. The developers already had some feedback. If we see they are OP, people will say it (Like HF Paladin).
We do definitely need more attack rating for Blade fury. Blade Shield and Blade Sentinel already scale with claws, but I’d honestly prefer to have some attack rating there, too.
I will once again ring my original call, for 25 Attack Rating per level.
Even if you go balls to the wall and get 40 levels in Blade Fury, that is still merely 1000 attack rating. That is easier to add in than anything else. The unfortunate fact is that we simply can’t sacrifice damage for attack rating. It’s not just antithetical to the build, but, where do you even get that kind of attack rating?
You can sacrifice your Amulet and ring slot for Angelic’s and get about as much attack rating, but you’ll sacrifice CBF or +1 skills or what-have-you for your other ring, and +1-2 skills depending on which amulet you’ll use, AND 34% or so critical chance, for a Blade Sin.
It makes your damage no longer good enough to deal with stuff consistently anymore, and that’s only to get maybe a 5% boost.
So you depend wholly on your act 1 mercenary’s Inner Sight to hit stuff.
I’ve been toying with the testing stuff on Blade Fury. Yes it does need AR, 10% per level instead of the flat 10% will do just fine, or just fix the AR bonus from Claw Mastery to encourage the use of Claws. I’m ok with Blade Fury still needing to get AR through the Merc so the build uses Blessed Aim or a Rouge.
The Current version of Blade Fury is not lacking for Damage…
leave treachery alone. There is no need for the suggested change and in all honestly raising the inputted runes would make it worse. No rune word should ever have the runes in it changed for very obvious reasons.
The suggestion of allowing fade and BOS at the same time is something I’d like to play but probably too op without a great reduction in effectiveness which would be forcing the use of more points killing build diversity.
blade skills all need ar per level added, 10-15% per? Aside from simply being needed, many other classes get AR boosts for similar skills.
Fire traps need a significant damage boost as well.
Venom is probably ok as is but a tiny boost would be ok. It will never be a main damaging skill and although it has lower dps than other poison based skills it is not that far off…
The AR per level on blade skills is the way to go.
If they turned claw mastery into dagger and claw mastery that would be a fine solution but one of the best things about a BF sin is being able to use CB on bosses. Preventing the use of any weapon with CB from being used on a physical damage build doesn’t seem like the best way to go.
So, on a playthrough, you’re ignoring what I would consider 2 of the best crowd control spells for PvM in the game and then complaining about survivability. I’m 100% sure your playthrough wouldn’t have been as painful if you would’ve used either or both of these spells before engaging atleast certain packs. The conversion from Mind Blast essentially gives you free tanks and you don’t even get focused anymore so you can freely build stacks, DPS etc. When I read this, I just saw this red line going through the events of your playthrough. You just weren’t utilizing the Assassins toolkit.
Martial Arts charge up skills need an on hit effect. The skills on there own such as Claws of thunder, Fists of Fire, Blades of ice etc, they do nothing, having to hit an enemy 3 times to then use a finisher just doesn’t seem right The skills are just normal attacks with more attack rating. The on hit effect does not need to be massive damage just something to help.
Claws of Thunder could release charged bolts from the enemy hit.
Fists of Fire and Blades of ice could have an explosion in a radius similar to there second charge.
Phoenix Strike could have elemental damage added to there melee attack as they aoe from there charges seems good already.
Cobra Strike could have a +X% Life steal added to melee attacks
Tiger strike could have X% damage added to melee attack(unsure about that one it could end up being a bit strong but you get the idea.
The only thing that would prob hinder some of these changes would be Next Hit Delay which when spending some charges to quickly can stop some damage from actually hitting an enemy
So, to beat the game on Hell p1 I need to use Finisher, Death Sentry, Mind Blast, Cloak of Shadows, a mercenary and during this rotate between Phoenix Strike, CoT and FoF according to the enemy and trying to see what my current charges are?
All of this while 2.4 Amazon or Paladin hold the left or right mouse button to clear the screen?
And how does Mind Blast and Cloak of Shadows help against a boss pack of Undead Stygian Dolls? Against literally 2 charges of Walking Dead? Against Frenzied pack of Extra Strong Mana Burn Moon Lords? Against the Ancients?
I played on PTR for many hours and I gave my feedback. You can give another feedback. It’s okay. I doubt they are changing the Assassin anymore in 2.4 anyway.
Slightly confused why you’re going “Discosin”, as in using multiple generators. Phoenix Strike has 3 different damage types already built in, spread your skill points a bit in the synergies so you don’t have to play this incredibly stressful playstyle. If you wanna use Death Sentry, that’s up to you, I feel it’s redundant for Phoenix Strike since so many corpses gets shattered. Seeing the charges can be incredibly difficult depending on situation, I would prefer if there was some other type of tracker than just the visual.
I dislike this obsessive comparing that people do to S-tier builds all the time. If you don’t like how MA is or that it is slower than S-tier, go play S-tier. I dunno what to say really?
Stack up some minions/random mobs on top of them and test it out. Boss pack of Dolls: MB to make them stand still in the fire from FoF/fire from PS. Walking Dead: literally sidestep their charge since they charge to locations on the ground or freeze them with PS if not cold immune. Super frenzy stacked Moon Lords: keep them converted with MB, kill elite first, then minions, 1 by 1 or you know, convert 1+, run away a little bit and then Cloak of Shadows to reduce their vision range so you can skip them. Dealer’s choice.
I’ve played alot of PTR as well. I just disagree with your feedback as a main Assassin player with 6000+ hours on my belt. I think you’re right, I doubt they are changing anything else for Assassin. Minor things at most
BoS + Fade - No… except maybe if Fade came from Treachery. Arguably the assassin can only focus her mind on one skill - but if the other came from an item it could work. I don’t think this would be OP as body armour is often where we try for all res anyway. It also prevents higher level venom from builds. +45% ias + BoS might be too much…
SW / SM - more damage would be good. They should wear higher level claws and boots . Also more transparency on the SW gear would be great.
Venom - I think is ok. as its a skill on treachery it would improve the item for all other classes more than the assassin if it was reworked. Maybe at high levels it could scale more.
Disagree with everything. However blade sentinel should not be able to miss. Should just be treated like a physical spell.
Treachery also ironically is best for non-assassin’s and mercs because of the fade proc. Decent armor though early on if you can get a Lem for the IAS and +2 skills. The procs are useless as a sin. Cold res on the armor comes from the Thul implicit, not as a specific runeword mod. Try again.
Yes, and how I said thul can be replaced with “UM” for example and instead of getting cold resist to get all resist.
Yes may be this is the best armor but still it’s not good for a end game (wearing on your assassin).