Builds in need of a power boost

Crusader
1

Okay, so with the new set introduced we have our powerhouse for being a top clearer, but with that, we have a lot of builds and sets that did not recieve a boost.

Now these are just my estimates, so if I hit something far off, do tell me. Also I gauge power in gr level instead of %, because it doesn’t always matter where the power comes from, as long as it’s there. The aim is also gr 140+ as the top clear level.

Rolands legacy:

Sweep attack: Roughly 8-10 grs behind. Sweep attack has more or less a very clear build, with both good defence, some item variation, ad friendly and a defined style, it’s just lacking power.

Shield bash: 20? grs behind. Shield bash is still hurting with the animation bug, which makes gauging its power very hard, the build itself has some really good advantages, being a big area hit, it could serve as a decent speed gr build. Healing is a bit weak, but that’s probably due to the animation bug.

Armor of Akkhan:

Condemn: Roughly 6-7 grs behind. Condemn is a strong build in that it can serve as a dps version of a support monk, with a very potent grouping mechanic. While many may claim that the set itself cannot be increased because of the two strong items that define this build, remember that the new max to aim for is 140. Otherwise this is a great group build for public games and it’s currently our toughess build in the game.

Blessed shield: Roughly 8-9 grs behind. This build has a decent strength on LoD version due to the stacking of fire damage, but on Akkhan it has a little bit less damage. If a set buff would happen, then it would be slightly behind condemn in power. Otherwise, the build is tough and has great item synergy, strong in groups and very easy to build.

Phalanx: ?. Phalanx has not been updated enough to have a stable numeric to follow.

Seeker of light:

Blessed hammer: Roughly 5-6 levels behind. Hammerdin has amazing mob clearing power, ad friendly and great for solo play. It’s almost banned in group play due to high latency issues, due to the attackspeed of the hammers. Decent single target damage. It also has several variations, from tanky to more glass cannonee.

Thorns of the invoker:

Roughly 3-4 behind. Invoker is weird, since its power is defined with how many rares you can find in a grift. So the killing power of it is strong, but it’s either in need of some aoe, or just more power in single target, for now, the lack of mob clearing slows down its grift progress.

These are the ones I focus on for now, and some of them are easy to fix. And I 'll update if anyone spots any big irregularities. I also did not include Valor set, because it’s early to gauge all of what the set is capable off.

5 Likes
2

Invoker needs aoe badly. Can’t kill trash or rares. Last time I ranked with it I had to go through 7 floors. I could have had the Guardian up in 2-3 with a variant that could kill trash.

2 PC. Aoe thorns now affects the 6pc bonus, Vo Toyas now affects 6pc would be my suggestions.

5 Likes
3

Yeah, but then the 2 piece needs to be like only half the strength of the thorns hit, if it affects the 6 piece (due to how hard and fast you hit) . But yes, that would make it more viable.

4

Id say leave the set values as is and just change the mechanic of the 6pc. If it needed to be taken down which I doubt it could be.

5

Yeah, but you know how it goes, you always overbuff stuff and I always underbuff it, so somewhere in between and it’s perfect :ok_hand:

6

Ha! Nearly got coffee on my phone lol. Truth be told I don’t think it would be too strong with the same value in Aoe. I’ll explain; when I’m hitting into a blue pack it takes one coe cycle per blue mob to kill after 126. I figure if you were to kill one blue with what I suggested you’d still need one more cycle to finish the other two.
Stricken plays a huge part in the damage of the 6pc currently and it being applied to only one monster acts like a damage break. Also the 6pc still doesn’t prof area damage. If it did your suggestion would be a lot easier to agree with.
Keep in mind you wouldn’t be able to stand and tunnel as long as you had 25 stacks and generating enough blocks to reset Cds.

I don’t see this set being as strong as AoV pre Nerf with what I suggested, but I can math it out when I get home from work and tell you for sure.

7

Yes ofcourse, but I guessed that that would be the case whatever happens. What is though is that you’ll kill everything else in close proximity, which means you’ll get fairly good clear speed from that.

But ofcourse that leads into:

Which would be the downside of adding the aoe, because you wont get lots of blocks. Still, you can switch to hunting rares completly, because you’ll take down most mobs around them aswell, to some degree you can even skip most elite packs. That can also save on cds so you can recover a bit while moving on to the next pack.

8

I think Roland’s Shield Bash could be a really nice build.

They have to fix the animation (after 5 years) FINALLY. Then, they must change the bracers so that is has no more hit limitations.
Piro Marella should get a 700-800% multiplier + enable Shield Cross rune (otherwise this is Invoker hitting with a shield).
The 2h flail should get a buff too.

1 Like
9

Question, was it ever established on whether the aoe runes where added into the shield glare “pool”? Basically, do they add up all their damage hit in aoe, and count it as one hit for flail of the ascended? If so, then yes enable shield cross, if not, then changing the bracers aren’t a top priority (saying this because I have a pair of perfect rolled primal ancient bracers :wink: )

10

I think so. Since Shield Cross counts as a ‘Shield Bash’, all of it’s damage will be added.

I think the Flail is rather bad to play, since Shield Glare has an animation. Shield Cross however would be a significant buff. Because all the side shields would be Pounds or Crumbles, which basically tripples your damage output (into all directions). It makes so much sense. You’ll basically stand in big packs with PE and burst them down. And all of that damage will be added to the Flail.

Top priorities:

  1. FIX ANIMATION
    1b) FIX Flail glare
  2. Unlimit the bracers, increase multiplier
  3. Buff Piro Marella (% and Shield Cross)
  4. Buff Flail %
11

Had to try it myself to make sure, so it’s not adding all damage, it’s counting every enemy hit as a seperate stack, meaning that shield cross would be worse for our damage, since all the small shields count as a seperate hit. If the rune is added, then the side shields would not be counted as a pound rune hit, but rather the main hit would be (main hit 700% dam → 1320% dam pound rune, shield cross small additional shields 155% dam)

So if the shield cross rune would be added, they would have to change how adding runes work, so the smaller shields actually count as pound runes, otherwise the flail will stack up really quickly with weak attacks.

Also just gonna add to this, if Jay’s suggestion of having invoker 6pc work with 2pc invoker, it will be more alike shield cross shield bash, if you were comparing them in playstyles.

So, as I see it, it would be far more easier to have them fix the animation bug and then add a hefty multiplier, then we’d atleast have a working shield bash build, and it’s sort of unique to any other build out there.

I know you’ve been asking for shield cross for a long time, but if it stacks multiple stacks per hit, then the damage would be far to low on the shield glare burst.

1 Like
12

Well; I think overall the playstyle of having Shield Cross is far superior than this stupid Shield glaring which interrupts your attack with its clunky animation. Also, if Shield Bash’s attack speed is fixed, you’ll have 4-5 APS which means you can literally spam glare with the bad animation every second.

If they add Shield Cross, it should of course be applied to the current rune. So, if you use pound, you get 4 pounds. If you use the lightning rune, you stun in any direction. This would be so much more interesting. We don’t need more single target builds. It’s fine. Make Shield Bash a viable, high speed 360° smiter.

Also, damage can be adjusted by simple number tweaks.

13

I don’t like Shield Cross, but the Lightning version you’ve mentioned sounds good to me.

But on Top:

[Drakon’s Lesson]

  • Legendary Bracers

Secondary

When your Shield Bash hits 3 or fewer enemies, its damage is increased by 342% and 25% of its Wrath Cost is refunded. (Crusader Only) [300 - 400]%

Words in bold: required change. Delete 3 or fewer.

14

I could see the change to drakon’s for the reason to have two playstyles. One for the pound + shield glare combo, and one for other aoe runes.

I dont believe that they should have random rune + shield cross rune constantly, but removing the limit atleast gives the ability to have a strong spammable shield cross or whatever else rune you want to play. You can ofcourse use shield glare if you want with those aoe combos, but for some of them it might be better to just spam and ignore the other button.

I’ll mention again, I’m giving them the least amount of changes so they’ll be more inclined to do those changes.

If they:

Fix shield bash animation.
Remove limit on drakon’s.
Add multipliers.

Versus:

Fix shield bash animation.
Remove limit on drakon’s.
Add multipliers.
Change how flail of the ascended stacks damage.
Add shield cross.
Change how shield cross combines with other runes completly, make all small hits do the damage of the pound rune, also change remove the range limit on pound rune (yeah it has much shorter range than every other rune)
Change shield glare animation.

So I want to believe they could pool enough resources to do the second list, but I highly doubt it, so atleast suggesting something that would seem more plausible.

15

Ahkan definitely needs a boost in damage. 1500% in 2019/2020 just doesn’t cut it.

1 Like
16

They won’t fix SB. Nev already mentioned that fixing the animation is a really BIG thing that requires massive work and she even said she can’t promise it. Blizzard polish is no more.

1 Like
17

And what about changing flail of the ascended effect? Instead of doing damage, boosting SB damage. The gameplay will be quite the same and It Will Be possible to use Shield cross rune