I come at this from the perspective that there is no chance of Blizzard nerfing any of the iconic top-tier items/builds in the game, which is why I downplay the importance of a nerf, I suppose. It’s just not in the cards as far as I can see.
Additionally, for me it’s less a question of “choice” than “alternatives”, because I have found zero Lo runes in D2R (SSF) and maybe one in 20 years of on and off playing prior to that in LOD (which I think I used in a Fortitude instead, RIP). Sure I’ll use Grief if I ever get one but I’ve played thousands of hours without one and might play thousands of hours more before I get one. Ditto with Infinity - even if it remains the best immunity breaker, adding other options would still be a massive win.
If a buff to bases were a huge buff to Grief, or if it helped Grief relatively more than every other options, I would share your concern, I think. But it would be a relatively minor benefit to Grief, and a fairly large benefit to everything else.
Certainly I don’t think the marginal boost to Grief would constitute a reason not to buff bases, at the very least. I would not consider it a prerequisite.
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This conversation has been going on for a while, and this suggestion keeps coming up. It seems like the logical solution, really. Grief is practically mandatory for melee builds in the end game, and without it casters have a huge leg up. I think Llama suggested this a while back. Just boost the bases on exceptional and elite weapons, and scale back grief a bit to compensate. It’ll still be good, but it won’t be the only good melee choice. Give Cranium Basher back some mojo.
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Blizzard, for Patch 2.5, please consider changing the Strength attribute to buff 2H weapons across the board so each point of Strength increases damage dealt by 3%, as opposed to 1% for 1H weapons.
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I watched a recent youtube video where they did impact testing comparing using a one handed grip as opposed to a two handed grip and found that two handed grips increased impact power by +50%.
A comment pointed out that D&D (and most roleplaying games) gave two handed weapons a +50% effect to the strength bonus compared to one handed weapons.
Thus, I don’t think tripling the impact of Strength bonuses on two handed weapons is correct, but making it so two handed weapons gets a 1.5% damage increase per a strength point seems to be flavorful, consistent with the history of roleplaying games, and consistent with reality.
I wouldn’t mind that kind of buff to two handed weapons.
I agree with the spirit of this post. Buff melee. However, this specific change would benefit some melee builds and not others. It would also benefit normal mode and not HC (where vitality is more needed).
I think increasing the damage of melee across the board is a better solution.
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It would be nice for WW if they did make 2H viable again. Currently they are just bad in comparison to what is possible dual wielding.
BOTD War Pike that can hit feasibly hit 4fpa WW would be the dream.
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2H WW cannot hit 4fpa anymore. 5fpa is the fastest breakpoint currently. And even so you need an unfeasible amount of attack speed to reach 5fpa with slower weapons like war pike.
It does make sense that 2H is slower than dial wield but by that logic big 2 handers should also hit a lot harder.
I think 2 handed weapons or masteries should be buffed.
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Which is a huge nerf to 2H now, despite them already being weaker as they were. They could simply alter these values, as well as buffing Spear/Polearm mastery with increased % damage, and even adding in IAS % to them.
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Yes, I want a Leap Attack Barb with obscene single target damage, so I support this!
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Honestly if we had a way to add 4-6 sockets to 2h uniques like in pd2 that would go a long way. 200-300ed from ohms is a huge difference and would make them competitive.
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Would be awesome to see a X% ED buff to masteries when using 2H weapons.
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