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 But in general, I would caution folks away from asking for set buffs as the culprit is, most likely, weak or outdated supporting legendaries.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.
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.
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.
I still gonna throw this here. A good Frenzy based spec that can be paired with other specs such as Whirlwind or Weapon Throw can be a hitting point for Barbarians’ recovery.
I always thought Butcher’s Sickle may worth something for Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear based builds and Fjord Cutter may have something extra for Frenzy.
Yeah, this is especially bad when they could have just taken our List 1 ideas and implemented them–just bigger numbers on existing items. The math was already done. We had it calculated to a T.
Barbs would have been thrilled! Sure, it wouldn’t fix our more complicated issues, but it definitely would have put a smile on the community’s face. They could have done that in addition to the current PTR items. Easily.
Totally agree. Even if the numbers you guys proposed were on the generous side, that would come out in a PTR and could be corrected, and would bring the barb class closer in line with the other classes.
I have played Barb class and can’t stand it, so I am not an expert the class, but I have read your guys’ original proposal and it is well thought out and deserves some major consideration and is worthy to have some/all of it added to a PTR for actual testing. It is sad to see certain classes relegated as follower classes or simple farming classes.
Barb as a dps class has been sub-optimal for a long time. I hope you guys get some considerable attention in the next PTR and are not strung along.
Good Luck.
What’s even worse about all this that most of the ‘new’ items are absolutely gimmicky and will be instant souls (or will get nerfed: flavor of time because thats OP af.)
Also, the craft set reworks? No one’s gonna use them except supports which gonna switch to crimson again… Really sad patch, doesn’t really add much to the game.
Thanks Free for this preposal, I really really appreciate you and other on all of this for the Barb players.
To be honest, actually I never expect they buff based on the proposal, Blizz has no credits here and could never learn from it and revamp the sets and supporting legendaries. But just tell us to be PATIENT. Seriously I do not understand why is so difficult to add some zeros to Barb’s set??? Why cannot Blizz do the same thing they did on Chantodo’s set on Waste set.
Barb’s community: We have a community proposal on all the items and calculations, the key is Barb does not have enough damage!
Bliz: Great! Thanks for that! We will consider them in the future patches seriously!(throw a Mortick’s bracer)
Bliz’s inner: (NOT TO TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE BARB BETTER!)
I, and many others, would argue that they flat-out broke Wizard with the last Chantodo’s buffs. But we’ve never advocated for nerfing any other class. All they had to do was look at our List 1 ideas, buff the existing items accordingly (simple increases in numbers). We do not want buffs to sets. Out sets are plenty strong. We need stronger supporting legendaries.
Thank you for your support. We’re waiting to see what Nev writes in her upcoming blog post, but needless to say the Barb community is incredibly disappointed. There was, as you noted, a very easy way to make us happy, and it was a few simple buffs to existing supporting legendaries.
Yup. I mean, List 1 has zero mechanical changes. It could have been done all at once, doled out, or whatever. But as you point out, they could have started now. Instead, we got Mortick’s, which does nothing for our builds.
Strongly agree. I really don’t understand the goal of this patch. Who is this for?
Nev claims it’s for the largest number of players, but which segment of the player base was kept awake at night dreaming of a re-work of Cain’s set? Who desperately needed a reworked Crimson’s?
At what point in the patch process did someone sit up and say, “You know, giving Messerschmidt’s Reaver an affix is more important than addressing the concerns of the Barb community?”
The more I think about it, the more I’m baffled. It’s like, WTF is even going on over there at Blizzard?
