Speaking of the Barbarian, I’m not sure if the proposed buffs to Cranium Basher is enough to make it in a balanced state when it comes to Whirlwind.
Yup I think it should have at least +50 to strength and the ED definitely has to be somewhere around 400 - 500%. It also makes sense to give it open sockets as well.
That’s an item that should destroy anything that gets in its path. To balance it out I think IAS shouldn’t be a priority.
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I completely agree and was thinking along similar lines. What do you think of below…
The Cranium Basher
Thunder Maul
Two-Hand Damage: (119-132) To (560-632)
Required Level: 87
Required Strength: 253
Mace Class – Very Slow Attack Speed
200-240% Enhanced Damage
20 To Minimum Damage
50% Damage to Undead
75% Chance Of Crushing Blow
4% To Cast Level 1 Amplify Damage On Striking
20% Increased Attack Speed
All Resistances +25
25 To Strength
Indestructible
- Proposed Buffs:
- Add +50 To Vitality
- Add 1-3 Open Sockets
- Change Strength from +25 to +50
- Change Required Level from 87 to 80
- Change Amp Damage Cast from 4% to 15%
- Change Enhanced Damage from 200-240% to 400-500%
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Very nice. I’m interested in seeing how it looks in game. Ideally most monsters should be exterminated just with one swipe of the maul (on P1 with a near perfect roll).
Here’s something quick, forgot to record audio.
I don’t know how to play casters, so I mostly show damage differences. Also ignore the Physical Sunder, I wasn’t able to add -15% physical resistance because there’s no parameter for it.
But damn dude, an item like this adds so much visually to the game. The Singer Barb looks badass. That’s how he should look.
2 Likes
This ones a bit more challenging to balance.
It has 650%ED with 3 Ohms, 2430 - 12K on WW.
With Whirlwind, it has a very hard time hitting a monster and when it does, it only hits for like 60% of their HP (In Chaos).
Should the minimum damage be that low? I think the place to start would be to add a roll of 100-250 minimum damage. I guess that would be the roll you would want the most on this item?
AR was an issue as well, but I’m guessing the player would have to sacrifice other items for that.
In order for this to be balanced with BOTD:
Either this item should roll 300-400%, or keep the 400-500% and the 20% IAS should be removed so it caters more to whirlwind. And if we went with the latter, then it could borrow from EBOTD and use 50% bonus attack rating to either undead or demons (undead is more fitting for the name).
What do you think?
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This is a tricky one. I think ED should be around range of 350-400% (same as BotD), buff min damage from 20 to 200, double strength bonus, and add 20% bonus to AR. However, I think there should be no open sockets to keep relative balance. Having sufficient AR is important and think using 20% AR bonus similiar to Death runeword would work well along with increasing minimum damage by an order of magnitude would be appropiate for a massive thunder maul. Lastly, add a massive bonus to vitality to help with the large strength requirement for this item. What do you think?..
The Cranium Basher
Thunder Maul
Two-Hand Damage: (119-132) To (560-632)
Required Level: 87
Required Strength: 253
Mace Class – Very Slow Attack Speed
200-240% Enhanced Damage
20 To Minimum Damage
50% Damage to Undead
75% Chance Of Crushing Blow
4% To Cast Level 1 Amplify Damage On Striking
20% Increased Attack Speed
All Resistances +25
25 To Strength
Indestructible
- Proposed Buffs:
- Add +50 To Vitality
- Add 20% Bonus To Attack Rating
- Change Strength from +25 to +50
- Change Min Damage from 20 to 200
- Change Required Level from 87 to 80
- Change Amp Damage from 4% to 15%
- Change Enhanced Damage from 200-240% to 350-400%
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I was thinking about the same earlier. That does make sense balance wise, and the ED reduction keeps it consistent overall with other items.
Let’s give it a try.
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I was on the fence about maybe removing indestructible and allowing it to spawn ethereal and add 1 Open Socket so if you’re lucky and find an Eth CB, you would have the option to Zod it. Not sure to be honest.
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If there was ever titan of an item worth zodding it would be The Eth Cranium Basher.
I think it makes sense to have it be able to roll Eth. I’ll first test the non eth version.
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Here are a few more armors up for review to ensure we have proposed appropriate buffs-
Steel Carapace
Shadow Plate
Defense: 1618-1785
Required Level: 66
Required Strength: 230
Durability: 70
+190-220% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 10-15%
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +40-60%
Damage Reduced by 9-14
Repairs 1 Durability in 20 Seconds
8% To Cast Level 6 Iron Maiden When Struck
- Proposed Buffs:
- Add Ethereal
- Add Attacker Takes Damage of 666
Leviathan
Kraken Shell
Defense: 1514-1722
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 174
+170-200% Enhanced Defense
+100-150 Defense
+40-50 To Strength
Damage Reduced By 15-25%
Indestructible
- Proposed Buffs:
- Add +10 To Fire Claws (Druid Only)
- Add +10% To Fire Skill Damage
- Add Fire Resist +50%
- Add 15% Chance To Cast Level 20 Fissure On Striking
Black Hades
Chaos Armor
Defense: 823-1029
Required Level: 53
Required Strength: 140
Durability: 70
+140-200% Enhanced Defense
+30-60% Damage To Demons
+200-250 To Attack Rating Against Demons
Half Freeze Duration
Socketed (3)
-2 To Light Radius
- Proposed Buffs:
- Change Damage To Demons from +30-60% to +90-120%
- Change Attack Rating Against Demons from +200-250 to +300-350
Duriel’s Shell
Cuirass
Defense: (528-650) - (610-732)
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 65
Durability: 150
+160-200% Enhanced Defense
1-123 Defense
1-99 To Life (Based On Character Level)
Fire Resist +20%
Lightning Resist +20%
Poison Resist +20%
Cold Resist +50%
Cannot be Frozen
+15 To Strength
- Proposed Buffs:
- Add +1-3 To Smite
- Add +2-4 To Holy Freeze
- Change Strength from +15 to +30
2 Likes
I’m going to make the maul Eth and test it more later. It needs a lot of help.
I think it should be Eth + Indestructible and I have to put an Ohm rune in it (from larzuk quest).
Strength might also need to go up because if Enigma grants you 80 strength, then an Elite Maul definitely should give that or more.
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When gorefoot and tearhaunch are getting more “faster run/walk” then Wearing full sets need that buff aswell (+20% Faster Run/Walk for example).
Wearing full set has already one major disadvantage: They cannot use Enigma. Sets don’t need another disadvantage.
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What if Cranium Basher gave you crazy bonus to STR, such as +1.50 Strength Per Character Level (+0-149 To Strength)? Is that broken?
Speaking of Gorefoot and Tearhaunch, below are the proposed buffs for these items. We haven’t discussed sets for some time. If you have suggestions for buffing sets, please share and we can discuss.
Gorefoot
Heavy Boots
Defense: 20-21
Required Level: 9
Required Strength: 18
Durability: 14
+20-30% Enhanced Defense
20% Faster Run/Walk
2% Mana Stolen Per Hit
Attacker Takes Damage of 2
+12 Defense
+2 To Leap (Barbarian Only)
- Proposed Buffs:
- Add 10% Chance of Open Wounds
- Change +2 To Leap (Barbarian Only) to +2 To Leap
Tearhaunch
Greaves
Defense: 60-63
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 70
Durability: 24
+60-80% Enhanced Defense
20% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +10
+35 Defense
+5 To Dexterity
+5 To Strength
+2 To Vigor (Paladin Only)
- Proposed Buffs:
- Remove +5 To Dexterity
- Remove +5 To Strength
- Change FRW from 20% to 40%
- Change +2 To Vigor (Paladin Only) to +2 To Vigor
I think it needs to be thought about what the purpose of this armor is and what builds it can be suited for. Steel Carapace has three things that stand out about it. First, Chance to Cast Iron Maiden When Struck. This implies a theme of returning damage, you run with this theme by adding Attacker Takes Damage.
The problem with this is that this is just a bad theme. Tactics that depend on reflecting damage necessitate getting hit in the first place, which runs counter to all other things you are trying to do. The only other stat on this armor that supports this is the Faster Hit Recovery. However, this is elite base armor, which means you are going to be in Hell Difficulty, and not getting hit is even more important. Furthermore, the Iron Maiden spell is horrible in the “when struck” category of Chance to Cast. At level 6 it has a duration of only 24 seconds, which at 8% chance to cast means you have to get hit roughly 26 times a minute to have Iron Maiden up half the time. Furthermore, Iron Maiden only returns damage when you are actually dealt damage. It’s a decent skill for a Necromancer with Skeletons and Golems to take the hits, and where he can just cast it on monsters, but not a huge benefit to a melee character after Nightmare. Other characters that might benefit would be a Summon Druid, an Amazon with a focus on Decoy and/or Valkyrie, a Conversion Paladin, and maybe an Assassin with a strong Shadow, but only if they could inflict the curse without being in melee themselves.
The second thing to stand out is the Regenerate Mana, useless to something like a Barbarian who is one of the few characters that could even theoretically tank the hits to benefit from Iron Maiden. It would be more useful for a Sorceress, or maybe a caster Druid. Or perhaps an Amazon who struggles with mana. Hmm… an idea there…
The third item that sticks out is Repairs Durability, which is nice I guess, but not the most useful on a non-Ethereal piece of armor, which is the other thing you lean into. Except this thing is named Steel Carapace, not Ghostly, or Spiritual, or anything else that might give the image of always Ethereal, nor does the image (which is pretty cool) give the impression of Ethereal either, suggesting more physical and magical synergies instead.
The name tends to suggest a bog-standard defensive armor, but that role is already filled much better by other armors, and it’s not Classic Diablo so that role is even more narrow. I would suggest leaning into making this suitable for an Amazon/Druid, and would do that with one major change, make it: 18% Chance to Cast Level 6 Iron Maiden on Striking.
Okay, that suddenly makes this armor much more interesting for an Amazon who uses Decoy or Valkyrie. Not the best for Freezing Arrow or Lighting Fury (the top Amazon builds) or the melee Spearazons, but it would work very well with Strafe, and decently well with Exploding/Immolation Arrow and Plague Javelin Amazons. It would also work well for a Summoner Druid, and possibly a Blade Fury Assassin with a decent Shadow.
Okay, now it’s just little tweaks to make it fit those roles better. It might be worthwhile to increase the Faster Hit Recovery to 27%, that hits one higher breakpoint for both the Druid and Assassin, without effecting the Amazon. Resistances are lacking for Hell Difficulty (as is a problem with almost all of the unique armors). Amazons and Summoner Druids can skimp a little bit on Resistances, but not a huge amount. Maybe give it +40% Fire and Lightning Resistances? Possibly, minus Requirements, because 230 strength is a bit much for an Amazon to invest… but probably not the -30% as that would bring it down to 161 Strength, and it ought require a bit more strength than a typical Amazon build. Okay, so this is what I end up with:
Steel Carapace
Shadow Plate
Defense: 1618-1785
Required Level: 66
Required Strength: 184
Durability: 70
-20% Requirements
+190-220% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 10-15%
+27% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +40-60%
Fire Resist +30%-40%
Lighting Resist +30%-40%
Damage Reduced by 9-14
Repairs 1 Durability in 20 Seconds
8%-18% To Cast Level 6 Iron Maiden on Striking
There, a bit of a niche build armor, but interesting and viable for an odd Amazon or Druid build and it builds off what is already there.
I guess I really don’t get where any of this is coming from. Leviathan does not make me think Fire Damage at all. It implies something more like Crushing Blow or shrugging off damage (which is its current theme). Main thing it lacks is Resistances, which also seem to me to be in the Leviathan theme. I’d suggest something like this:
Leviathan
Kraken Shell
Defense: 1514-1722
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 174
+170-200% Enhanced Defense
+100-150 Defense
+40-50 To Strength
15%-25% Chance of Crushing Blow
All Resist +20%-30%
Damage Reduced By 15-25%
Indestructible
It would be a real choice for combat character that needs high strength for some other piece of equipment.
Don’t really see that helping much. Its theme seems to be around concealment and curses, so maybe something like Cloak of Shadows or Dim Vision. We have a lot of Cloak of Shadows charges already floating around, so I’m leaning toward Dim Vision as an O-skill. That could benefit Amazons or Sorceress who want to be a bit more sneaky. Add a Weaken curse when struck and that would make an interesting piece of armor for a range character who wants to sneak attack enemies. It’s also missing resistances, which is a struggle for elite armor, and seems to fit the name Black Hades well to, so I’m not sure why it doesn’t have that. So I’d suggest:
Black Hades
Chaos Armor
Defense: 823-1029
Required Level: 53
Required Strength: 140
Durability: 70
+140-200% Enhanced Defense
+30-60% Damage To Demons
+200-250 To Attack Rating Against Demons
Half Freeze Duration
All Resistances +30%-60%
Socketed (3)
-2 To Light Radius
+3 to Dim Vision
14% Chance to Cast Level 7 Weaken when Struck
There, that’s pretty useful to a ranged character, the sockets could be used for Rainbow faucets for elemental Amazons or Sorceresses, and a physical Bowazon could use IAS/Damage jewels.
Make it +1-3 Charge instead of Smite. That’s more thematic, and with the Holy Freeze would be great for a Jab/Impale/Fend Amazon.
My pretty comprehensive thread on improving sets. I’ve also included it far up thread here.
Perhaps you can comment in my thread once PTR reopens for 2.6, and we can get some attention on it again.
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No it won’t be anywhere near broken, that’s a great design choice. All of the Unique Mauls in this game are extremely basic when it comes to modifiers: Enhanced damage, crushing blow, and then a bunch of random modifiers that don’t do the item justice.
0-149 strength is perfect since this is the holy grail of Mauls.
The only other maul that comes close is Blood Tree Stump:
It has +25 strength which shows that +strength is a suitable trope for mauls and should be utilized more to make them stand out from other items like swords and axes.
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Even after juicing it to the gills (+150 strength, ethereal, +ohm) that’s only just enough to have it be in a healthy spot.
I’d say it’s balanced in this state because Berserk is basically a 1 shot for most monsters. So if you can proc Amplify dmg with Whirlwind then an Elite is going down with Berserk.
I guess the Devs would just need to buff whirlwind and it would be perfect.
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What do you think about all these changes below for the great thunder maul?..
The Cranium Basher
Thunder Maul
Two-Hand Damage: (119-132) To (560-632)
Required Level: 87
Required Strength: 253
Mace Class – Very Slow Attack Speed
200-240% Enhanced Damage
20 To Minimum Damage
50% Damage to Undead
75% Chance Of Crushing Blow
4% To Cast Level 1 Amplify Damage On Striking
20% Increased Attack Speed
All Resistances +25
25 To Strength
Indestructible
- Proposed Buffs:
- Add 1 Open Socket
- Add +50 To Vitality
- Add 20% Bonus To Attack Rating
- Remove Indestructible
- Change Min Damage from 20 to 200
- Change Required Level from 87 to 80
- Change Amp Damage from 4% to 15%
- Change Enhanced Damage from 200-240% to 350-400%
- Change Strength from +25 to +1.50 Strength Per Character Level (+0-149 To Strength)
2 Likes
Yup that’s very good. I didn’t even have the 200 to minimum damage on. An Elite Thunder Maul is supposed to be a force to be reckoned with. The current state of it is a complete disgrace.
Also I can’t believe it only had 4% chance of amplify damage, even on 15% you have to wait until next Xmas to get a proc.
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To make two hand weapon really usable, i suggest two hand weapon can wield with 1 hand with 50% less damage penalty for the following class
two hand mace - paladin 1 hand
two hand staves - druid 1 hand
two hand spears - amazon 1 hand
two hand crossbows - assassin 1 hand