Many thanks, everybody!
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind waiting a while longer since I feel like it might take the devs a good bit of time to make more substantial changes to Barb. If tomorrow we were told “we’re working on it, but it won’t be ready till August” , that would significantly increase my hopes of getting some good results.
The current patch notes are, to put it mildly, beyond disappointing.
I’m going to contact Nev directly and ask for clarification. Giving us Mortick’s but nothing else? That’s like throwing a bone to a starving dog except, whoops, the bone is made of rubber.
No need. Most of your answer lies in the patch notes. It’s important for us to balance what we can do with how many resources we have available to do them, and to do as much as we can for as many players as we can. For this patch, we focused on items as many players as possible could use, with a couple noted exceptions that were long-standing requests. Mortick’s Brace was a good fit for this, because we agree Barbs needed a significant boost.
We wanted to make sure to include something for Barbs, but that doesn’t mean we are done forever. I have a blog coming soon™ (I hate using this because memes, but it applies here as it’s working its way through various approvals and still needs localization) that will explain more of what you can expect from patch to patch in the future. Please bear with me. Transparency takes time and a lot of coordination.
Wow. Mortick’s Brace. Yep, that’s all the Barb class needs for perfect balance.
Wait, there are players that can’t play Barbarian? And by that logic, we’ll never get buffs to a single class or class specific item ever again, right?
Thanks for the reply, Nev, but this doesn’t add up.
Mortick’s Brace doesn’t offer Barbs a significant boost. It does very little to only a few of our builds. At best, it’s a lateral move: we swap current items for Mortick’s and gain the same exact bonus.
I cover the patch notes here: Hold on. Pause. Excuse me? - #3 by Free-1746
I think you can understand our frustration: This patch has nothing of substance in it for Barbs. These items address none of our concerns or problems.
That’s completely understandable, and I also understand that your hands are often tied–we all have bosses, after all. But I think we need some clarification here:
Are Barbs going to get additional buffs?
Even if we have to wait a Season or two, that’s fine. We’re willing to wait if it means getting meaningful buffs. But we’ve been on the backburner too long–the data in our proposal paints that picture clear as day. So do the various data analyses that we’ve done Season after Season.
I literally cannot promise you’ll get everything you want or have proposed, and honestly, that would be a bit unfair to ask of anyone. Some changes proposed might be literally impossible, or pose such significant engineering risks that we can’t pursue them. As an example, we’ve encountered cases where what might be one great change to the game is such a risk it means we can’t add three other things, either because of the work involved adding it or testing issues arising. There’s dozens of factors that go into class balance requests, feedback, changes, and bugs that I cannot begin to list here (largely because I have a lot of other work to do today with the PTR live, my apologies).
Please wait for the communication I’ve already mentioned. I know you all have been more than patient. But I’m asking for a little bit more while I work within the limitations I have to get you the information you’re asking for.
That’s completely understandable. Our proposal was always split for this reason. List 1 is just inflated numbers on existing items. It represents what we need in order to deal meaningful damage with our builds.
List 2 is, of course, the dream list–the stuff that would truly fix all our problems, but that we’re less likely to get for the reasons you mention in your response.
Regardless, we need buffs. Please know that our frustration isn’t directed at you–we’re not looking to shoot the messenger! But I feel comfortable speaking for the Barb community when I say that this patch as it currently stands feels like a slap in the face.
That’s completely reasonable. I certainly don’t want to add more stress to the pile, and I appreciate the assurance that we will get the info we want.
Nev,
I realize that this is not barb-centric but…
How difficult is it in general to change the percent modifiers for a given set bonus? It seems that a simple solution to underoerformibg sets is to give a simple numbers boost. In this scenario, no game mechanics are being changed and it would be a seemingly straightfoward, albeit inelegant solution.
We don’t necessarily want set bonus increases.
Our sets are, to be honest, plenty strong.
Our supporting legendaries are outdated–incredibly so. We need our problems addressed through supporting legendaries. See our proposal, List 1.
Hi Free,
That is why I said it wasn’t “barb-centric”. I would say in general that some 6 piece class sets underperform in comparison to alternate choices. I am not a programmer but in some cases a simple number change can help remedy the problem to increase build diversity.
35 or more people down-voted my other reply " Lool what a load of BS 
" when replying to the blue
Lol @ you
I’m not qualified to speak about other classes, but bigger numbers on set bonuses don’t increase build diversity.
Build diversity comes from supporting legendaries. If a build is underperforming–or, in the case of Barbs, an entire class–it should be addressed through supporting legendaries. Our List 1 does exactly that–if you haven’t, please give it a read and you’ll see what I mean.
Other classes may be having issues with sets–I don’t know as I’m only an expert on Barb. But in general, I would caution folks away from asking for set buffs as the culprit is, most likely, weak or outdated supporting legendaries.
I think the opportunity to have significant changes are limited given the age of the game, how much in terms of resources that are being dedicated to D3, an internal change in focus to D:I and hopefully D4. I would love to see some of the proposed changes introduced; however, I also know that anything that can change game mechanics is more likely to cause issues.
If that’s the case, they should outright tell players that so they don’t end up wasting their time.
All classes have issues with sets and legendaries (or to be more precise: with the massive multipliers on them). The massive multipliers on sets and legendaries that only buff predetermined skills and builds are the primary reason for why there is so little build diversity in the first place.
I know, there is not much going to be done about that at this stage of the game, but if there is something that could be done to increase build diversity effectively, it is to reduce the multipliers on sets and legendaries.
That’s true, but one thing this patch shows is that they’re willing to do exactly that. They’re adding new affixes to items and introducing new items. That’s good news!
Barbs don’t mind waiting for buffs if we know that buffs are coming.
we listen 
We hear you, but please Blizzard also read this.
There is no item/skill buff in the patch for barbarians while there are generic items and gems that may work for other classes. This does nothing to elevate barbarian performance but it can increase other classes, which upsets the balance further. Morticks and echoing fury is not going to solve it.
This looks to me like chasing one’s own tail. Nothing is ever being fixed. S12 buffs were better balanced. Cannot understand the reasoning of other items.