It’s not like the build was even remotely close to power of meta builds…
Fix the bug to kill the build but not actually implement necessary skill changes within same patch.
18 Likes
Im pretty sure they want melee and werebears to remain dogwater. I mean its been almost 2 years and melee still sucks while meta builds continually get unnecessary buffs.
6 Likes
Bugs are nothing more than unintended and unexpected consequences.
Sometimes they’re bad.
Sometimes they’re good.
In this case - it clearly opened up a Build and Options. It may have “technically” been a bug - but it wasn’t a bad one.
The reversion was a lesson in obstinacy, inflexibility and lack of scope/perspective. I’m speaking HQ bureaucracy & “philosophy” - not Dev’s individually.
“Oh no it WORKS and we didn’t intentionally mean to do it!!??1?”
Non game breaking, build enabling, enjoyable and not overpowered.
Can’t have that because it wasn’t SPECIFICALLY stated as X change in patch notes.
Harsh opinion but - imo: True.
Edit
Case in point:
Just look at this:
Developer’s Note: We wanted to implement targeted changes and buffs for the Druid instead of having a particular Druid build be strong because of a bug.
That’s so dodgy it’s cringe!
We didn’t “INTEND” this - therefore = Bad.
We wanted to implement OUR changes - aligned with “our philosophy” at “our own predicted model of pacing” …reverted. Nullified. Redacted.
Embrace a BUG! Own it.
Say: “An unintended consequence of coding or item interaction or spilling my coffee onto my keyboard created a build that many players enjoyed…I think we’ll man/woman/person/identify as XYZabclgbqtetc - up and keep it because Players - our pride and joy - LIKED IT. Enjoy community!”
9 Likes
Last ladder I took a Shockwave bear to 99. I guess this year it will be a Trapsin or Litesorc. Gee I wonder if they will get there faster or slower than the Bear did.
This reminds me of when they fixed the Marrowwalk bug. Let’s completely destroy some of the most underused tabs for… reasons.
1 Like
I’d only just started one and got it to level 45 so far. It’s been great. It’s fun, but far from overpowered. What other bear are you going to run?
I really hope they bring it back. For me, the fix would have been to update the tooltip to reflect the correct damage.
5 Likes
Rip to trash builds.
People forget that hammers synergizing with concentrate was an unintended bug. They fixed the bug, and there was massive backlash by the player base, so they reverted the fix.
Too bad that was blizzard north.
7 Likes
How surprisingly strong from abusing bugs and then cry to revert it back. 
They have no idea how to balance the game or which direction to go. Cannot blame them too much I mean just look at D3. Its a strictly pvm experience but d2 is far more robust with pvp in mind, this is where they fall short! If D2 was the current dev teams creation, you can bet it would be a pvm only experience as well.
I would be impressed if some good items were added that made other under used skills viable. Make a name for yourselves, we want a patch to surpass 1.10 Rune Words!
Yeah, it’s one of the thing I dislike about the game. Many times, you can feel the weird psychorigid philosophy and it’s just awfull.
3 Likes
The devs earlier made a similar mistake and embraced a bug causing Concentration to buff Blessed Hammer. And it became the most OP offensive skill ever.
A bug is a bug and needs to be fixed.
I called that this was gonna get fixed literally the day I found out about it. It doesn’t take a genius to look at how broken it was to know it was,
#1 Unintended
#2 Too Strong
#3 A Bug
I steered everyone away from it too because I knew it was gonna get patched out next patch, if not possibly sooner.
Meanwhile Irresponsible youtubers like Macrobioboi Actively encouraged people to play around with the bug. Encouraging people to build entire characters around it…
Now those characters are basically useless as soon as 2.6 hits, better get your Tokens ready.
1 Like
It’s a bug it should be fixed
Great!
Now how long should we wait for the Developers to implement their own changes to make the skill usefull again?
Because, as it stands, it’s back to 1 point wonder…
3 Likes
You’re comparing apples and oranges. Shockwave wasn’t OP. It was just powerfull to the point you could make an A or B tier build, not a S tier. They made it back to not even a C tier.
I think the devs think Metamorphosis is the “targeted changes and buffs”. 
Druids just can’t seem to catch a break. I didn’t play Shockwave because I didn’t like the idea behind it (shifter playing like a caster) but still, it shouldn’t have been “fixed” and rather officially implemented because a lot of people did enjoy them and having that option was nice.
But hey, fun detected by Blizz so they had to nerf it. 
Cool conc buffing hammers is a bug and needs a long overdue nerf as well.
If meta added deadly strike then maybe it would be useful.
Gface or jalals are still better. Bears don’t need any of the garbage buffs from mark of the wolf. They already have tons of hp and 30% AR is a garbage buff.
Why the heck would a werewolf waste time shifting into bear. For what!? There’s absolutely no utility a bear brings that would be useful on a wolf. If you shifted to use shockwave the enemies would recover out of stun by the time you shifted back!
Irrelevant the point was it was a bug and they fixed it making the skill better or worse is a different issue
Hope they buff the damage for the skill then cause it was my favourite HC character.