Blackthorne's Battlegear Ultimate Rework Suggestion

General Discussion
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Yet another suggestion for [Blackthorne’s Battlegear] rework. I know there were plenty of them, but most of them were more focused toward straight boosts or adding farming utilities, not working around its unique style. The fact is this set might have a great potential, especially when there are only a few defensive builds. Unfortunately, right now it is an obsolete and totally forgotten since like… I do not know, Reaper of Souls release?

Non-class sets were mostly taken as a supporting fillers, but when Legacy of Nightmares had been buffed, it proved its power of possibilities. Just look how many Legacy of Dreams and Nightmares setups became high tier builds. So IT IS a high time to give our poor Blackthorne a love it missed for so long! Because what is more satisfying in Diablo than seeking a new ways to slaughter those foul demons? :smiley:

I hope I did not bored You with this overlong introduction, did I? :smiley: So this is what I suggest:

> (2) : Character becomes immune to [Specific/Most/All?] monster affix ground effects.

In this setup it definitely MUST be a first (or 2nd - point 2. in Overview) bonus because it is not too powerful to make others class sets overpowered, yet further ones in fact are.

>(4/5) : Reduces [All/Non-Elite] Damage taken by [50/60/70/80/90?] % when there are no elite pack within [20/30/40/50?] y range.

Sorry if it sounds a bit like Unhallowed, but I do not have any better idea right now and without it one could get oneshotted by a single trash mob. :smiley: Those numbers are just an overview.

>(6): Getting hit by elite’s pack affix increases Your damage by [XXXX] % and reduces all damage taken by [XX] % for [5/10/15/20/30] sec, stacking up to [XX] times.

The best part of this rework. And quite a RNG I would say, but sounds no less fun. Basically this bonus puts into REAL use Blackthorne’s original bonus, turning it into a deadly weapon.

Overview :

1) It would be a defensive build, basing on kiting elite monsters far enough to keep 2nd bonus active, and close enough to keep getting stacks from their abilities. A bit like Vyr, but focused toward getting hit instead of damaging and faaaar more flexible in building.

2) The greatest problem with reworking this set is in its parts. Because of belt and neck + cubed Royal Grandeur it MUST have a 6th part and one of those parts converted into head/shoulder/hands or it will be turned into SLIGHTY overpowered hybrids.

Otherwise 2nd and 3rd bonus could be merged and some builds like Roland (because this one is the biggest thorn here for now with its 13k% bonus) would need to have their set bonuses swapped in order to avoid those damage boosts synergies.

3) Most of those [bolded] parts are for customization in order to preserve some kind of balance. Also in (2) may be turned into inversion instead of immunity, but personally I think it would be too much.

So…

This is only a starting design and any customization, suggestion or discussion is dearly welcome. But as I said: It would be nice to keep this set original purpose. :smiley:

In the end It is worth much more than rotting in the Hall of Shamefull Drops.

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“Blackthorns now is legacy and no longer drops”

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Unless it’s a class specific Set, I think it’s pointless to make a non-class Set a powerful 6-piece one. That’d make it comparable and perhaps even outshine LoN and many other class specific Sets.
While design feels okay, it also force you to kite the trash away from Elites while in practice that wouldn’t really fly. So, I wouldn’t know for real but I reckon St.Archew’s Gage is encouraged for the downtime that may arise.

I rather vote on having a Druid DLC and turn this into a Druid specific Set, or forced to be used with Squirt’s somewhat.

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I like the immunity to ground effects extending to more affixes. But I find kiting builds to be frustrating because you’re now working against the map and AI as well as RNG.

I tend to go for more generic “jack-of-all-trades” builds because I am a filthy casual who doesn’t like to fish for perfect rifts.

I’d really rather the non-class stuff have lower level requirements (say level 20 or 30) so that they can be useful during those pre-Gift levels. After that, they get quickly overshadowed by the real sets, with the exception of the Sages maybe.

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Best solution indeed. Be gone faul set items nobody wants.

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Preface: This is from way back, so I don’t remember all of it in specifics.

I used to have an old Blackthornes build on a monk that worked pretty good. Back when monks could use the skill…can’t remember which one…that made all of your resistances equal to your highest resistance, I had a monk with a resist all of 4ksomething. Combine that with the immunity Blackthornes used to give you to ALL ground effects, and the medallion that makes you immune to arcane damage, I could stand in the middle of everything and between the high resistances, the immunity from ground effects/arcanes, and the high dodge from the dex, and be almost totally invulnerable. Then Blizzard went and nerfed both Blackthornes and changed the high resistance skill, and it killed that build.

The only real problem with it was it was a support build only. Almost nobody these days wants to play a support build that doesn’t do uber damage…which is why nobody would use Blackthornes unless it’s redone to the point that it’s no longer Blackthornes.

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