Grim Ward is so amazing but it needs some tweaks! please read

PTR Feedback
1

Hi Dev Team :slight_smile:

I like the new Grim Ward its really nice to have another tool for the Barbarian. I played around with it now for 2hours with a War Cry Barb - what is in my opinion the best Specc for it.

But it definitely some tweaks (my humble thoughts/suggestions)

  1. Why is it still fearing? Thats really annoying. The slow and the dmg taken increase is more than enough.

  2. The Corpse-Requirement needs to go. It feels really clunky. You cant use Grim-Ward in half of the Chaos Sanctuary because Grim-Ward is not working on Undead Corpses. Also until u get a corpse to place a Grim Ward everything around it is already so low hp that it has really tiny impact. Placing it before start enganging a fight like a trap / curse would make that spell so much rewarding and beautiful.

  3. Why is there no Synergy with War Cry? It is such a cool Spell now but u almost have no points left to put it in Grim Ward AND find potion. Remove 2 Synergys from War Cry and Make Grim Ward one. (This is also a War Cry Barb problem - after more testing ill make a post about that)

  4. make the effect work on every type of creature - also bosses and champion packs / rare / unique monsters. the impact right now is too tiny to really wanna invest heavy points there. and that makes me sad because now the spell has so much potential.

i hope you guys consider this - keep up the good work

thx for listening.

16 Likes
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i dont think grimward affects warcry atm. im 20pnts in find potion (so 120% extra dmg) and i dont see much of a difference if any. the mobs are feared and stunned and the merc seems to do more dmg, but not the warcries :frowning: yeah they def have to remove 1 warcry synergy. theres so many and for such low %

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good point on the still fearing we already have howl i heard another user say this i think u guys might be right, i too am loving it but that is a great point. Use howl as normal for when u need to fend them off make grim ward for dmg and slowing goood call guys

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If you’re by yourself the fear will keep you from taking a ton of damage. I’m not sure removing the fear would actually be a benefit solo. The slow combined with the fear should keep them from running too far, though it’s a huge point investment to max both skills. No other curse requires 40 points to maximize the effects.

It requiring a corpse is definitely obnoxious. I only tested it briefly, but at first I used the IK gear included on the test barb, which has cold damage, so that at least allowed me to test how annoying it would be to play a barb with cold damage and grim ward since you blow up half the mobs and can’t create wards.

I made a dream, dragon(s) and hand of justice to see if the 120% damage debuff would be nice combined with aura damage. It didn’t seem to have any affect at all (they were feared and slowed, but the auras took the same number of ticks to kill things with or without it up). The tooltip doesn’t indicate any specific damage type, so it seems like it should be a multiplier on all types of damage.

When using other offensive shouts, the grim ward instantly overwrites them and re-applies. The confuse procs from dream would override the ward though and block it from re-applying. I’m not sure if this applies to all necro curses. edit: in some cases I think you’d want this if they’re breaking an immunity or whatever.

1 Like
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I played a little with the IK barb maxing Grim Ward and Find Potion then went Mace and WW for the build. I found the grim ward to be a little awkward but some of the times felt really strong. It could also be I don’t know how to play WW barb.

I think I struggle with adding 20 points to find potion, and also having ward require a corpse. I wonder if find potion could add something passively to make that 20 point investment feel better. Maybe 1% magic find for the barb or something on theme.

I want to add meaningful feedback but I just don’t feel like I have good suggestions. Ideally I would like to see the warcry tree be like a warchanter/bard. Shouts buff the team, rush into battle, grim ward as a damage buff, and some meaningful attack skills.

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Agreed. The fear effect on Grim Ward is annoying while trying to clear an area. The fear effect is redundant with Howl and should be removed.

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replace fear (terror curse) with decrepify curse (-phys res, slow, -dmg), we dont need new mechanics from d3 that never have been in d2 (like multiplying dmg instead of additive bonus or -res)

2 Likes
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40 points to max out what is effectively a curse sounds like too much. Also, I’d second removing corpses as a prerequisite as well as the fear effect.

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I doubt that will happen, since it has always had that fear effect and now got that joke synergy from find potion.

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It would be interesting to see if the “Delirium” helm could have this changes applied for its Morph effect at lvl 50 … Also, having in mind these changes, it could be interesting to try “Heart Carver” dagger with Necro, if the conditions to “4 to Grim Ward” and “4 to Find Potion” are not limited to Barbarian only, but for any class …

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but the fear is complete contra productive and on top if it - the problem is - none of the barb builds do have 30-40 points left to spend in the new grim ward and its synergy. i mean you want the full 100% dmg increase synergy from find potion.

but lets be real. which build is gonna use grim ward?
beserk? definitely not. it is hunting elite packs. killing 1-2 monster and moving on. no time to place a grim ward and its not necessary. and you fear with howl to seperate the monsters from the elite pack

ww-barb could use it potentially. but as a ww barb you dont want your mobs to run around feared. you wanna have them stacked and slowed.

same goes for war cry. the radius is already tiny. when mobs are spreading its really not helpful for a singer barb

it might be okayish for frenzy. but still frenzy do not have a lot of left points to spent into grim ward

grim ward should work as a pocket tool. your own little decrepify that works on everything (bosses / uniques / champion packs). you place it before fight starts.
and i think its NOT op since to make it like a necro decrep u need to spend a lot of skill points into it.

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The fear is still on Grimm Ward? That’s dumb.

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Yeah, it’s definitely counter productive. Needs to be removed.

1 Like
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i mean give it life and let it taunt. if you wanna keep the fantasy. but fearing is not helping

1 Like
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I agree with you, it is counter productive. GW debuffs a group of enemies, but when you use that skill there is no longer a group. It’s the single reason why no one used it.

I think ww would much rather use Berserk, GW would be clunky to use even without the fear.

1 Like
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i need to back up on my statement , Grim Ward is a great skill to make a leap attack build

the fear is need so bad in that skill . you leap attack the first target and after Grim Ward monster become so slow with the insane damage of leap attack monster die in 1 hit

this is not a fast cleaning speed build but for me a fun one d2 maybe will have a leap build nothing op, but i feel fun

4 Likes
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love this! looks fun. I’m making a leap attack barb now

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i need to find a good 2handed 5 socket and will make Doom to slow the monster more
but leap attack is so buggy in melee , the dev will need to fix leap first

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How about Grim Ward for Throw Barbs? Would it be helpful for them by any chance? I haven’t use Grim Wards at all on live or on PTR yet so I don’t know how it would interact with them…

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Agreed.

Improve Grim Ward by removing the fear effect while keeping the slow effect and damage bonus. The fear effect is redundant with Howl and just annoying while trying to clear an area. Consider changing Grim Ward synergy from Find Potion to War Cry. Instead, they can improve Find Potion by adding a bonus to Gold Find % per skill point.