I’ve added quite a bit of material to the OP, including an extended analysis about the build’s problems, the actual nerf, and lots more in the conclusion, including how to move forward.
If the d3 team is actually serious about communication with players, there are SO many things they could be doing. Here are some random ideas:
Highlighting top performers of each class and posting a little interview complete with a build guide (they used to do something similar to this, as many will remember)…monthly Q & A with a developer, twitter questions, feature some content creators…the list goes on.
In a world where mass communication and connecting with people is easier and more efficient than its ever been, for a brand with as much influence as Blizzard to be failing this badly is hard to reconcile. The d3 fan base is quite literally the people in line to buy D4, and it appears that they haven’t made this connection on a very basic marketing level.
I realize its a very big “IF”. Maybe they crunched the numbers, and are willing to lose a certain amount of people over the mismanagement of D3 for the rest of its lifespan?
This is very spot on. I am currently 4 GR levels higher than my clear last season. With some major elbow grease I can likely squeeze out two more GR’s with some fishing, but I dislike fishing, so yes, my clear was predominantly no fishing in season 18.
In the end, I think the buff needs to be reverted in entirity to the 200% max, that gives rend that pop that we need and deserve.
In the future, I would love to see Rend modified even further, and the Waste set no longer provide dust devils to prevent an lag issues moving forward.
That’s exactly how I DON’T want to play. Even I, barely doing level 100 Grift with 1150 Parangon and largely under optimized builds, can see everything is wrong in this video, that’s not how we should have to play.
In some random FB Diablo group and they are all acting like Barb got a bigger buff than Crusader. Got told I hadn’t even played it and to be happy that he can now do 100s. Urghhhhhhhhhhh.
In an ideal world, Dust Devils are easily fixed. Just modify them so they deal the entirety of all WW damage (skill x all multipliers) in a _single hit that is absorbed by the impacted enemy. In other words, prevent DDs from ticking and from continuing to exist once they damage a target. One calculation for impact, then one for procs. I think it’s reasonable to assume that would cut all lag in half.
As for Rend, if we had a 200% multiplier on Lamentation, it wouldn’t need much more unless you want to play a LoD Rend build, in which case you would need one or two more multipliers totaling about 800%, and that’s not likely to happen for a single skill. Rend is gonna be Wastes set or bust.
Yeah, that’s frustrating, but bear in mind that they’re not looking at the bigger picture. If we had kept the PTR buff, they’d be doing easy 105s right now, and 100 would be even easier.
Casual players will benefit the most from a reversion of the nerf, even if they don’t see it yet.