I completely agree, that going forward, is not making new and more powerful runewords, but to bridge the gap between uniques and runewords. Me being stubborn and liking the looks of uniques, I have made a Doombringer frenzy Barb. Even wrote a guide: Unique using Frenzy Barb guide
Gist of it you need level 27 frenzy and 75% IAS to hit max breakpoint with Champion Swords. I have bought perfect and near perfect Doombringers, and even put an Ohm in the mainhand (and I will even put a Ber in the offhand). As is I can squeeze out 6000 damage with 4000 life. Or around 11-12 k with the double attack on Frenzy. I farm 8 player games the ice caves and WST, I have to pick my monster spawns of course, but I can blaze through the succubus and the skeletons and most of what is there.
You wonât need perfect Doombringers with Ohm runes in them. Above average with 40% ED Jewel will be just about the same. When that is said, the damage is on par with some good Oath runewords I suppose. Better min damage, and each swords gives around 300 life, and a large bonus to attack rating too. Cast weakness and are indestructable. I just like them
Builds can be done it just takes so much more work to build around a unique item with the current power of runewords. I just want more viable options, no need for more power just equal power.
If Diabolical agrees then thats good enough for me. Those changes definitely sound interesting and those rune buffs could definitely help out unique items.
Agreed. And it isnât just the game experience that makes someone capable of offering real solutions that actually make the game more interesting, itâs quite a bit more, including creativity, which you clearly have.
I see where youâre coming from, but keep in mind, Spirit is the caster equivalent, but itâs far cheaper. And I really donât think thereâs anything wrong with niche items that provide ridiculous amounts of value relative to the cost, as long as other options exist. Keeping this same line of reasoning, Grief simply doesnât have a viable competitor for its throne, while Spirit (in a weapon) has quite a few. Although it certainly needs a competitor in shields.
Iâd rather see other weapons brought up to snuff, and even then, I donât mind Grief remaining the single-target-damage king, we just need other weapons with better clear speed. For example, Stormlash actually beats grief on a dreamdin (clearing mobs), but thatâs only because light immunes are easy to break, and the dreamdin certainly does that, so the CtC on stormlash reduces hell monsters life total in an AOE, while the tick damage from holy lightning reduces them ever further, before zeal finally strikes them and kills them. Stormlash also has a huge amount of CB, so its single-target-dmg against high HP enemies will always be quite good.
Before I get any deeper, Iâd like to say, alot of what youâre proposing (and what Iâm about to propose) wouldnât only work to balance, but add a layer of depth and make the game more interesting overall. 2.4 will actually accomplish that (to an extent) by doing nothing more than removing casting delays on druidâs fire spells and hydra, while also making the fire aura deal more damage the closer the monsters get to the pally. These changes alone will enable a slew of addition builds and items. Dragon will no longer stun lock pallies in place as they cast hydra every other attack. Phoenix will no longer stun lock characters in place as they cast druidâs firestorm every other attack. Honestly, this single change will be HUGE. Hand of Justice + Dragon shield and armor (or Phoenix shield) will probably have the shortest clear time of any melee build in the game, seriously. Itâs so close to being s tier right now, this build might end up being ridiculously OP. Possibly even in PVP, depending on how dramatically they buff holy fire.
I honestly think HoJ + Dragon will be so much faster than Grief, itâll be a forgotten RW once people figure the new builds out. And this is only one example.
What I would personally do to dethrone Grief even further, is really utilize CtC effects on striking. The problem is that WW doesnât proc CtC effects, so Iâd start by changing that, then working from there. This simple change opens the doors on so many different builds for WW barbs. And since WW doesnât get IAS from off weapon stats, you have a serious slew of CtC builds available. Guantlets with CtC that donât get used by any other class would be used by barbs.
Another problem is the stark lack of options for hammers, when theyâre the best single-handed weapons in the game in terms of sheer numbers â highest average damage with the same possible hits per second as a phaseblade, although theyâre insanely slow, and almost none of the RWâs available work in hammers, since the Legendary Mallet can only have 4os max, and none of the mace-only weapons work in hammers.
Iâd give Legendary Mallets a max of 6os, and give the mace class an inherent 10% splash dmg, rather than 50% dmg to undead. Iâd also buff botdâs IAS to vary from 60-80%, in order to make Thunder Mauls viable as two handers. Iâd also raise the max hits per second on two handeders to 4.25 attacks per second, rather than 3.25.
I know youâre wondering âHow does this help uniques? Youâre buffing a RW dude! WTF you traitor???â but bear with me, lol, this is just the start, and a way to balance two handed builds as well as hammers. Right now, dual wielding Grief is king for Ww barbs. But with the changes above, we have buffs that make maces capable of beating Grief for clear speed, and BotD ends up capable of occupying LMâs. An eBotD LM or TM dealing 10% splash damage would do better than Grief PB for clear speed, and Grief doesnât add enough IAS to work in any hammer class.
Moving onto uniques, now that hammers are actually viable, just give Schaefferâs Hammer and Stone Crusher 55% IAS to hit max frames on WW, and give them both self repair, so they can spawn ethereal.
Now weâre left with an entire weapon class thatâs viable, uniques and RWâs alike.
On top of all of this (and piggybacking off of your ideas with runes and Larzuk) Iâd give some of the higher runes a 5% chance to cast a level 10 spell like Teeth on striking. That chance stacks, of course, but Iâd have the level of the spell stack as well. 10% chance to cast level 20 Teeth on striking for two of these runes in the same weapon.
Imagine a kitted out, ethereal Schaefferâs Hammer, with 10% CtC level 20 Teeth. Lol. Thatâs one hell of a weapon. Imagine Lightsabre or Azurewrath with that same CtC 20 Teeth on a zealot.
Of course, some of these uniques will simply need to be buffed individually (on top of the changes listed), which is fine.
With the changes you listed in the post I thought was amazing + the changes Iâve listed specifically for hammers and WW, and runes giving CtC, uniques are seriously capable of competing.
Guys, you are forgetting about Grief few more things like Venom (which is literally always-on) and 20% DS (which frankly not as important). What make Grief so deadly? 3 things - insane attack speed in the right base (PB) which make grief ideal vehicle to deliver CB/OW/Procs (like lifetap), venom that allow you to deal with physical immunities AND suppress monsters healing and +damage last 2 elements drive you through last 10-15% of any monster health. Try zeal or melee with Grief with zero CB ⌠wonât work well okey it will work no better than many other unique.
Lets face it - in D2 melee donât kill mobs - things that comes with melee do - CB do most of the work. Spells that proc off the weapon wonât do much damage. Donât trust me? test Bonehew with level 16 bone spear 50% proc chance. Why it useless? quite simple - no synergies ⌠so your level 20 Teeth wonât actually do any damage in hell
Meh, monsters donât heal if you proc open wounds. The prevent monster heal stat doesnât do much at all for Grief.
That attack speed only matters when needed for specific breakpoints. For example, a 35% IAS zerker attacks at the same hits per second as a 40% IAS PB on a WW barb, because they both hit max attacks per second. So most of the IAS on the PB ends up completely wasted.
Venomâs damage is basically negligible, as is all lower level elemental spells/skills on hell difficulty, especially without conviction.
Bonehewâs bonespear is bad because Bonehew is insanely slow and bonespear only hits targets directly in front of the attacker, but spells that proc off the weapon can be ridiculously overpowered, hence the Riftsin. Many elemental spells on weapons are quite bad, for the exact reason venom isnât good on Grief, but CtC teeth would move in all directions around the attacker. It isnât meant to decimate the entire hoard without attacking them. If it gets monsters reduced to even 60% hp before a melee weapon strikes, thatâs an insane boost in clear speed.
i split my butt off explaining this issue from day 1 on these forum op sadly , all these forum are control from a small group of d2jsp user having multiple account and voicing other feedback for this game so now he are stuck with a paradise 1.10 meta for bot and cheater where a few item rule the game a meta that remove all option and choice and creativity to the game , all you have to do is have enigma and put your 114 skill in 1 skill and spam 2 button 1 button for enigma and the other one for your main skill , and now you enjoy d2 1,10 meta
You missed that part where I said about synergies âŚ
The only useful procs are curses. Out of curiosity try play with maxed teeth necro with zero synergies in it (like make summoner with maxed teeth instead of CE) - you will see how weak bone line w/o synergies. Heck if you remove concentration from hammer you will have rather âinterestingâ time in hell act 3-4-5. Look even if you say running paladin with Fana or merc with brumble or faith/beast on weapon of yours Bonehew proc wonât do much damage at all because w/o synergies level 16 bone spear do negligible damage in hell. Other point that you missed why Grief so cheap - it not work along without CB - true that you donât need much but you still need it
Still getting some content out⌠wouldnt mind to have uniques which can compete in rare rolls with runewords. There was even some philosophy in classic that godly rare beats uniqueâŚ
And a couple magic were interesting too and are occasionally still.
so now he are stuck with a paradise 1.10 meta for bot and cheater where a few item rule the game a meta that remove all option and choice and creativity to the game , all you have to do is have enigma and put your 114 skill in 1 skill and spam 2 button 1 button for enigma and the other one for your main skill , and now you enjoy d2 1,10 meta