Wouldn’t it be more convenient for you to compile a list of these changes in one thread, instead of spamming the forums with a new one for every idea you have?
I’m sure the people who approve, will donate their hearts.
As much as we all dislike Seks, c’mon now, it’s not like the forums are super active or have some sort of limited space, and each skill deserves its own rework analysis, as shown by how much effort they put into each one.
Now, as someone who literally just built a druid thorns summoner who uses an Edge bow and Spirit of the Barbs, is it underwhelming? Yeah, sorta. But it’s also not nearly as bad as people think. I think it’s something like 700 damage returned for anything that gets attacked. Is that amazing? Nope. But when you multiply that by 10 summons, that’s up to 7000 damage returned (x10 enemies), per attack. Now add onto that the damage the actual summons do themselves, since that’s what you’ve invested in. Add onto that a level 15 Thorns aura, which is I think 800% enemy damage+88 damage returned, again multiplied by up to 10 (for solo play), you’re looking at sizeable damages returned whenever anything attacks your minions (and it is noticeable). Now personally, I also added an Act 3 merc to the repertoire, who casts a high level Static Field relatively frequently, which obviously chunks down enemy health by a good amount in the first place, allowing your summons damage and damage returned to work even better.
So does SotB really need a tweak? Well yeah, sure, it could be better. But is it useless? Not at all. It’s just not “the best most powerful fastest meta” way to play or whatever. So I’m happy with it as it is, and this is coming from a budget druid using crap like 2 piece Death’s, 3 piece angelics (x2ring), Edge bow, etc, and got through Hell with ease and no problems whatsoever. And SotB was a big part of why.
elitists who only swear by the most optimal Op builds
the excited weirdos(no offence) who try to make the weirdest build possible and that consider everything good because it can kill a Monster despite being largely bellow average
They are perfectly allowed to enjoy lacklustre builds like thorns build
But if a skill needs tons of knowledge and investment to be bellow average… sorry it’s just not good
These people have an Optimist fallacy, it honours them but it’s not realist
The majority of the community
https://strawpoll.com/polls/NPgxkxxJBn2/results
Yeah I know it’s only 34 people but still only 1 thought it was viable lol doubt the % would change much with 1k surveyed
Also, a build viability is not, “can it beat hell”
99% of D2 game time is spent after beating hell, farming and leveling
skill rework spirit of the barbs:
Aura now effect enemies instead of allies
Affected enemies have -10% physical resist -2% per level
( this works like conviction and can break phsycal immune like decrepify)
Hardly needs any knowledge, as I said, I used a simple Edge bow, and the Summons skill tree, and some low level but effective set item combos.
I’m the most pessimistic person I’ve ever encountered in this life…just sayin’
34 people is not the majority of the community, not even 0.1% of the community. Irrelevant.
Sure it is.
For most, sure. For others, making a thorns druid summoner build and enjoying the game and being admired by others for using something different (this actually happens to me as I play this build in groups, btw), is entirely a good and viable thing. If you just want to play Sorc or Pally or any other class using Enigma and whatever other endgame stuff to mindlessly and endlessly grind for stuff you don’t even need anymore since you’re already so GG, go for it. That’s not exactly the endgame for me or the one I enjoy (though don’t get me wrong, I enjoy farming endgame too…I just so happen to enjoy relaxing and playing fun off-meta builds too…it is a game after all, it’s meant to be fun? Not a job).
Like the people that say Throwing potions are fine because they provide a good source of gold for the first 5min of the game, despite being 100% useless for the rest of the game
Or that stamina is fine and doesn’t need rework because of Act 1 norm where it has an impact… despite not being relevant anymore beyond that
Sure my poll only has 34 people but it’s still 33 players out of 34 that consider Spirit of barbs trash lol
i was just thinking about stamina potions. that it might be cool if they also provided a run speed or attack speed bonus for the duration. that would surely make them more useful throughout the game. i’m also hoping for some more variations of damage potions. maybe some crafted version. but also unique drop. i bet you have some ideas for those.
Really bad … even with a bear with 10,000 life the damage is only 1000 ? you do realise that 1000 with % DR from most monster in hell (50 % ) would only be 500 ? and that comming from a hit taken from the (BEAR) which mean a wolf with only 2 k would only give back 200 damage… minus % DR from monster 100 … Going with both other spirit is still wayyy better. Could be good if they had something else maybe ? not just that.
Kinda like that idea, and kinda hate it at same time … Would be cool when a magic attack hit you or thing like that, but when a fire imune attack you with fire ? yeah … not that much anymore.
I do think it should return damage to both ranged and melee if it doesn’t already (I’ve never bothered to use it, I do see the tooltip doesn’t specifically mention melee the way thorns aura does so it seems like it should already work that way or they should update the tooltip).
I don’t think it needs to be a huge DPS source itself, maybe a few tweaks to make it more useful throughout the game like changing the damage type to magic or making the damage it does ignore all resistance (like holy bolt does) would be nice.
They could add some secondary affect to the damage like reduces targets defense on hit. That could make up for losing the AR bonus of a Wolverine.
Also, why does it have such a small radius compared to the other spirits?
Requires level 30 to unlock, literally the weakest level 30 skill in the game.
Out shone by previous 2 skills in tree regardless of level investment. Oak provides more defense, Wolverine provides more offense. Barbs gives you well… weird a$$ dps but it is super conditional? At least Wolverine increases chance to hit, and across all minions that really does add up, same with the extra HP from Oak… the minor amount of dps it adds is terrible considering the other 2 options.
Skill description for radius is wrong, but nobody GAF.
potential skill changes:
Spirit of barbs returns the damage as straight magic, no matter the source. Helps with Phys immunes, a problem that oak and wolverine do not address.
We also need for Spirit of Barbs to be something OTHER than Paladin Thorns, but “requires an extra 24 levels to unlock and is Way Worse.”
Literally has no synergies with anything.
An additional effect, like lowered phys immune, lowered defense, lowered damage, per damage return would be amazing.
Maybe just make it that (besides the flat damage returned) the attacker also has X% chance to receive Open Wounds damage ?
It’s not overpowered and it also fits perfectly with the theme of “barbs” and nature.