The bottom line is that in any prolonged fight, the 2-piece bonus is nullified by having all runes on Frenzy. When Rob says, “They didn’t think about this,” he’s right. Right now, we get the bonus from Feared or Frozen mobs. Okay, cool. Except that both are hard CC and will make monsters go CC immune. So will Stun, which is applied from Frenzy, because Undisputed Champion grants all Frenzy runes.
Elite, RG, it doesn’t matter. Sooner or later, they all go immune to hard CC, and when that happens, that 2-piece bonus is effectively worthless. If that isn’t addressed, the set is broken on arrival.
I’m really bothered by the way this has not been addressed by the developers, and why there hasn’t been some kind of post about this. Just change the Fear to Stun and the Frozen to Slowed and KABOOM! The 2-piece set bonus is not only fixed, it’s very, very good. It’s really that simple.
I don’t know why we have to stress this during the patch that is, in part, focused on the new Barb set, but developers: Please don’t let H90 release broken.
Please listen to your community.
The Fear and Frozen were interesting ideas but, alas, don’t work in practice.
The 6-piece bonus needs a buff to make up for the way Bastion’s divides damage and Stricken stacks against more than 1 target.
For solo play, the DR in the 4-piece bonus must be increased.
The Elemental damage bug with Bastion’s needs to be fixed.
If these things aren’t done, the set has no distinct identity, no purpose, and no role that other Barb builds (and/or classes) don’t perform better.
Looking at the lack of communication in the PTR forum, I have a sinking feeling about this patch.