There are a lot of skills throughout all the character trees that are extremely under used.
I appreciate buffs that we have made to certain skills but there is a potential to create entire new useful builds by adjusting skills that are hardly used.
We will be focusing on the under used skills in the combat section.
Sacrifice
Increased Damage and Attack Rating at the cost of life.
Attacks multiple targets.
Bonuses
Redemption +15% Damage per level
Prayer +5% Damage per level
(Sacrifice is now the glass cannon class and will be more utilized by the ability to attack multiple targets.)
Bonuses:
Resist cold, fire, and ice +10% damage per level.
Salvation +2% damage per level.
(With guaranteed multiple hits of elemental damage you now have a character that is similar to the Sorceress but with half the clearing speed of one and twice the safety.)
Conversion
Converts 70% of physical damage to magic damage.
Attacks multiple targets.
15% chance to cast level 10 Revive after killing a target.
Bonuses
Thorns +5% Damage bonus per level.
(Conversion is getting a full rework. The magic damage will make the character lean towards Concentration aura over the Fanaticism aura. Attacking multiple targets is essential. The ability to cast revive can help the target bring up a little army and with a maxed out Thorns aura you can now utilizes it with your revives.)
I understand I am not a big time streamer and might not have the influence that comes with it but I truly see some potential with these changes. There is nothing to lose because the skills are already under used and overlooked.
Also: Zeal will essentially stay the same but will now receive its damage bonus from putting points in Defiance instead of Sacrifice. Zeal will continue to be the ultimate all around build.
Yes someone created a neat name for it but it does not take away from the fact it is extremely under used because its not very useful.
I’ve personally made that Avenger build and was extremely disappointed because the skill could be so much more. Clearing speeds need to be at a Zeal speed or it will continue to be under utilized.
Just slapping splash attack on every underperforming skill is a boring way to improve melee. That’s the route Diablo 3 went down.
For Vengeance, what I would rather see are fewer synergies. Removing Salvation synergy and just folding the bonus into the skill itself would help a lot.
I’ve made Avengers before and I find that the following are Vengeance’s biggest issues:
Attack Speed
Single Target
Poor Survivability
Poor Boss Killer
Attack Speed on Vengeance can be pretty bad depending on what base weapon you utilize. This can be mitigated with a fast based weapon with IAS and having A1 Faith Mercenary to boost your APS to the fastest breakpoint possible. Vengeance also struggles, like most melee builds, from being single target. Meaning it cannot kill as fast as caster builds can. It’s also poor at surviving because the bulk of your damage comes from Elemental Damage and not Physical so its not as strong at leeching(which also applies to Mana leech so if you want to live/keep Mana up, you’ll need Life Tap and Insight). Finally, despite it having all that Elemental Damage, it’s not the greatest Boss Killer without Crushing Blow(ideal weapon for Avengers to me has always been Death but all that CB/Deadly Strike comes at a 0 IAS/Slow WSM Weapon cost).
It doesn’t need always hit because Vengeance always has Conviction aura to lower Target Defense(and if you have A1 Merc for Faith, you got Inner Sight too. Consequently A3 Fire can give you Enchant for extra Fire/Attack Rating). I mean unless you have images of Avengers smacking Ubers, there’s a better skill at a Paladin’s disposal(Smite). Vengeance dealing splash damage would make it better(imo) but to fully maximize its damage requires more points than what you can afford(100 points to maximize is too much… Salvation should be merged into Vengeance).
