There are many useless skills that do need some loving care from the devs. Having them be viable builds then that would mean more reasons to play D2R.
I think what op is saying is that some abilities should be buffed with support in mind, instead of straight up damage.
Example frost Nova being turned into a DPS ability, instead of something like every x novas freeze targets or something that promotes it being used as a compliment to a damage skill.
Some skills do make sense being low damage, assuming they provide some kind of utility.
I kinda get your point, some skills aren’t meant to be main-damage-dealing skills, they’re offering CC/Utility. That being said…
I wholeheartedly disagree with any argument that suggest Shock Wave is a good designed skill in it’s current form.
- Werebear has only 4 skills to choose from.
- 2/4 of those skills he share with the Werewolf form.
- 1/4(Maul) of those skills is a true main Attack skill that scales with weapon damage.
- 1/4(ShockWave) of those skills is capable of hitting multiple enemies, that skill is a Spell which doesn’t scale with weapon damage at all and is only buffed by + to skills or Amp/Decrep.
Werebear’s design is “slow but powerful”, lots of HP%, Damage% & Defense%. Shock Wave current skill design promotes a perma stun playstyle that goes against all that Werebear is supposed to be.
Werebear right now is literally Barbarian, if he only had 2 skills available, Stun and War Cry. Werebear simply can’t afford 3/4 skills with bad design, taking up the few precious skill slots he has. Seriously, what was Blizzard North thinking.
I made this video not long ago, showcasing some suggestions I had. I’m not claiming these suggestions are perfect but I think it’s in the right direction. I will ask you to focus on the changes to skill design and playstyle and not focus too much on damage/skill values.
- This video was made while Blizz was still tinkering with Shape attack speeds, so I intentionally din’t try to make my own changes to attack speed, other than seeing how ms / ias swapped on Werewolf felt.
Important changes to notice:
Werebear.
- Now has synergy with Hunger, gains “lifesteal %”. (3% + 1% per 8 lvl)
Maul.
- Now has “- To Monster Defense Per Hit” instead of stun. Fit’s the theme of clawing deeper into your enemies and helps with AR. ( -5 x maximum number of charges)
Shock Wave.
- Now has 1.4sec cooldown.
- Reduced stun duration, to funtion more as a “mini-stun”.
- Now always hits.
- Now does “% of your weapon damage”, meaning it can now use damage mods and trigger skills effects.
- Removed Maul synergy, since it will now benefit from damage mods instead(ed%, crit, etc).
- Increased flat Phys damage to improve reliable damage increase per lvl invested.
- Has 75% chance of knocking back on hit, this allows SW to hit multiple times per wave if Knock is triggered. Intended to make SW greatly against lesser monsters for aoe clear but weaker against stun immune/big/boss monsters. In these situations Maul or Fire Claw will still be better.
Fire Claw.
- Now has “Physical to Fire damage conversion %”, (3 + 2xlvl).
- Removed synergies, since it will now benefit from damage mods instead(ed%, crit, etc).
- Increased flat Fire damage to improve reliable damage increase per lvl invested.
Hunger.
- Is now a buff skill.
- Eat a delicious corpse to Regenerate % of maximum life per sec, for a duration.
- Also gives Stamina Recovery Bonus % during this time.
- Offers passive lifesteal to both Wereforms through synergy.
- Skill is meant as a way to better sustain HP while fighting leech immune monsters.
Tell me what you think. 
I just say that its ok if some skills are bad
It may be unavoidable, but it’s hardly desirable. It would be nice if there was an attempt to make all the skills useful in some capacity.
It’s worse for weres since they don’t get to use most skills while transformed. I’d like to see an effort to make the few skills they can use worthwhile.
i don’t see harm if some maxed out damage-optimized build (not 500 mf) with full inventory of charms build could do that. Not a level 90 blizzard sorc with spirit sword and eth elite insight merc tho 
but all “damage skills” that don’t look like prerequisites that evolve (i.e. not ice bolt) should be capable in p1 hell (with proper investment). It makes no sense that fire golem has a mastery, a crapload of synergies, gets help from curses and cannot do much anyway
1 Like
Nice idea. I hope they read this
1 Like