Buffs to zDPS (Various classes)

General Discussion
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For your favorite class, what buffs would be necessary to compete with monks and barbs for their zDPS role in the current 4 man push meta?

I am no class expert but play demon hunters the most. For DH, I wonder if we were to rebuff calamity and/or marked for death or had our pets give good group bonuses if that would help.

I realize that not everyone likes to play zDPS, but it might be nice to have some more options in the 4 man push meta.

3 Likes
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I think the main thing a ZDH lacks is a means to buff group speed. This could likely be fixed via the Ferrets Pets.

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ZWD, ZWIZ, ZNEC and ZDH all bring competitive or superior party DPS buffs compared to zbarb and zmonk. However there are 2 critical things they currently cannot do.

Heal - although some can provide respectable mitigation, their healing cannot compete with zmonk.

Group/aggro - creating density for trash killer. Although there are some exceptional grouping skills and pixel pulls (Ranslor twister, Briggs curse), none has a long range and reliable way to pull and drag mobs like barb’s ancient spear.

Bottom line: in order for other classes to compete as meta support they need an effective means of healing the party and/or a reliable long-range pull.

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Not a new sentiment from me, but zDPS shouldn’t exist and is but one of the contributing factors to the solo/multiplayer divide.

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Actually Saders were better at pulling than barb, till the immunity to CC came in to play to stop permanent freeze, stun or whatever that counts as crowd control. Now Barb’s pull is better because it works as a burst where as the Sader’s pull works like damage over time. If Blizzard made Steed Charge Draw and Quarter not proc CC cooldown till the end of the duration of the skill rather than during it, then it would be viable again, but still not as good as before. Also this buff would need to take in to account the extra duration you get from Swift Mount, but I’m guessing it’s too damn complicated to code.

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I play zDH so this thread is a good place to share feedback.

zDH currently has several good legendaries and skills to help groups, many of them are damage buffs, most of them are DIBS with the exception of Wolf Companion and MS Windchill.

That said, healing and pulling seems to be more valuable, so here’s what I’d change to make them competitive:

  • Entangling Shot: cold rune should work exactly like Barb’s Ancient Spear:Rage Flip – that alone would open the door to some meta participation.
  • Fortress Ballista: A spammable shield should help allies.
  • Smoke Screen: Healing Vapors should be applicable to allies too, and perhaps scale with life per hit since we have some innate boosts
  • Caltrops: Bait the Trap’s 10% CHC could make a nice group buff, but it’s redundant with Windchill.

Restoring Calamity and Wolf Companion Damage bonuses to their original state would be welcomed as well.

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LoD introduction opens up options on SP bd. Time conscientious players will look at squirts spec and healing, in particular ToN shield bubble is important. However, with karini in place, zmk healing is not needed anymore. This is proven by NA s17 hionpotuse team clearing sub 10 min with crudader rgk, znec, zbarb. Also, various 3p 150 with wiz, barb, necro. EU 3p R1 s17 is 10 min clr with no zmk. LoD is less dps than LON buff s17, however diversity in groups comps should be possible in the up coming patch. While no trash killer is stronger than SP snd zbarb is best fit for it mechanically, the other 2 spots can be flexible unless you are aiming for 5 min or under 150s. For the majority of player base, speed 140-145 goals should see plenty of diversity opens up. The problem isnt the effectiveness of other compositions, its the player mind set of blindly copying the R1 spec. Coming patch unlocks a lot of the pigeon holes, question is will you think outside the box like hion’s team did?

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A long time ago, the Crusader used to be able to provide this with Consecration / Bathed in Light, because the healing provided by each circle stacked. As soon as this was altered so that it no longer stacked, the Crusader lost the healer role. They obviously also had a gathering mechanic of Condemn / Vacuum.

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As soon as this was altered so that it no longer stacked, the Crusader lost the healer role.

Id argue that even if it still stacked, crusader wouldnt play the same role because of :

  • the nature of healing being not scalable (with attack speed for the most part, unless theres some part of mechanics im unaware of that affects the tick rate of spells like this) which would make it not enough past certain difficulty level (and outside very few attempts of extremely farmed up players, crusaders never healed a GR that would be anywhere close to anything considered top right now).
  • limitations when it comes to group wide damage reduction (in which, once again, unless im forgetting some spells/ runes crusader doesnt even get close to monk)
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like way back in day

game play

build guide

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/4le8ro/gr120_1338_eu_1_ns_with_crusader/

diablofans /builds/80761-2-4-1-heal-crusader-gr120

crusader healer that replaced zMonk before the nerf they should bring this back

1 Like