I made a post in the “2.7.7 PTR Now Live” thread about this, but after actually playing the PTR I can firmly say that my initial guess was roughly correct. The Bonus to the 6 set for this build is a sizeable increase, but an underwhelming buff where it truly matters.
Given the nature of how the build is structured, stricken stacks are slow to build. Which results in obviously longer Rift Guardian encounters. This is coupled by the fact that several bosses like to float around or completely move outside of the stacked EQ’s.
With every fiber of my being, I urge you guys to please consider buffing the Lut Socks to give us a way to combat single target encounters. Unfortunately when you just make the six piece buff larger, while it does raise our effectiveness; it doesn’t treat the main symptom.
There is a way or two around this by using WW/Dust devils to help stack stricken, but this comes at the cost of changing the build to basically feel like you’re playing WW instead. If at all possible, I’d love to maintain having the leap fantasy and playstyle of “Leapquake”. The build has been enjoyable for the many years it has existed, and has almost always faced the damage plateau fall off due how slowly it stacks stricken, the one gem we use to specifically help our Single target damage. The build itself feels pretty awesome when you’re jumping on big packs of things, and Area Damage does what Area does do. xD Ultimately, this build can be entirely more satisfying by adding a real bandage to the REALLY weak component of the build. Since we’re kind of limited in terms of choices, ( we can slot in Guardians or Crimsons for more stats or damage/ cooldown, but not without losing a ring slot or leap or something iconic to the Leapquake setup.
So my thoughts are similar to my other post but can be summarized:
Bake in Earthquake’s Cave-In Rune, or Leap’s Call of Arreat Rune. (Or Molten Fury, which still allows us to choose Cave-In)
Treat the Lut Socks with some long well-deserved love. Add a vampiric effect to the leap itself by sapping a percentage of the target’s current total HP. Something to help our front-end damage (.5% or around that delta)
-or-
(a) Consider giving Lut Socks a Nilfur’s Boast “lite”. (yes I’m amused xD) This is my least favorite of the suggestions since it kinda really only does what I mentioned earlier and raises the needle without bandaging the issue? Sorta. The extra buff when fighting 3 or fewer enemies is obviously very helpful and the main reason I suggest this.
-and / or-
(b) Lut Socks allowing multiple EQ’s to come out at the same time. This is more a QoL damage bump that allows us to combat enemies who like to move frequently. Allowing us to ramp damage a bit faster.
-final or-
(c) Buff Girdle of Giants, so that Avalanche can meet the same buffs that EQ is getting and buff Lut Socks to allow it to come out with EQ every leap. (You did give it a buff on the weapon, epic!) I see nothing wrong with adding more sources of damage happening at the same time. This is “MIGHT OF THE EARTH” after all.
If these conjunction of powers prove to be too effective, we can always trade 6pc damage % off. And i’m really trying to stay away from an “Ambo’s pride” kind of solution since leaping and stacking damage is kind of the reason Leapquake is fun. Having it all turned into a split second would be incredulous instant damage but removing part of the identity as well. I’d really love to see these boots get some love for our final balance patch, they certainly deserve it >:D Something to give them some oomph! Especially since Leapquake’s setup lacks a bracer or second weapon multiplier, (Furnace is nice but… bland in contrast. Especially when you consider we STILL suck at killing elites without a rave concert crowd near them xD)
damage is okay. single target still kinda stinky with jump and dump build. 9 minute 125 is okay, but S tier builds can do that in 5 usually. with better single target / small group damage we could hit that with np.
The damage itself under fun “stars aligning” moments is pretty neat to see. (Power pylon into a big group, with oculus ring etc)
But yes, we don’t have up front power once things get enough HP. So our capacity for speedrunning is a lower bar. (I’m okay with tradeoffs between builds of course.) Which is fine since I just flat out enjoy the play style of the build, even when it comes to pushing. The unfortunate length of Rift Guardians is the part that gets me every season, however. Comparatively they’re just LONG. Which would be fine if it was like… condemn crusader situation, where in AOE trash just gets eviscerated.
Being able to finish off elites in a timely fashion when everything else dies would be something that would bring the jump and dump build into better capacity. And right now, we don’t really possess explosive damage once that plateau curve hits, we’re relying on Area Damage to do the heavy lifting of clearing packs. This is all mostly fine since pushing with the build comes with its own pros and cons.
To me however, the cons feel heavily weighted. We don’t really possess a strong option for a third legendary gem once you trade out Esoteric for Zei’s. It just feels like we could get some kind of help with Lut Socks being an open slot for an easy addition to power or QoL.
Leapquake already suffers from a lack of bracer bonus and secondary insane weapon buff. (Though we do have GoG. )
I attempted a few pushes with the hybrid Leapquake and SS just to give it the college try with the bracers and FotVP, still not powerful enough to trade down from Furnace and Molten Fury. Sadge.
This would be pretty tight with Permafrost honestly, and I was never really sure why "first 10 enemies had to ever exist imho. It’s not like SS was ever groundbreaking levels of damage.
We have had moments in particular seasons where other builds had quite a nice power gap over others. (Looking at you Ambo’s Rend and Raekor BT rework)
But when it comes to MoTE, it’s had a bit of a…history. It started out as a 4pc set that lacked a six piece multiplier. Mmm season 1 days… And it eventually got those extra two pieces, while also being one of the tankiest builds on the market. So back then it was acceptable to have the damage ceiling and plateau that it had, because of the sheer ability to sponge damage.
Then more and more builds were given strong damage reductions and MoTE’s Leap variants lost that tanky edge. (Though, it still has always relied on Band of Might. Something you could consider swapping out with high enough paragons now but that’s a bit more than just a “casual” investment. I may have considered doing so sooner with pre-nerfed altar, but I’ll have to test it out during Season a bit more.
Back to MoTE’s tradeoff, it has really felt out of place in terms of where it struggles and why it has continued with the same problem for so long. Especially when there are builds out there that kill the RG quicker, without a Bane of Stricken. I’m not asking for an EZ button, but my proposal for Lut Socks seeing some love is something I feel entirely in the deserving wheelhouse.
This, 150%. I’ve always loved the concept or mental headcanon of having this wealth of abilities happening with this set. When I saw Raekor being able to shotgun multiple boulders, I fully believed that should’ve been put into MoTE. It felt like such a “Might of the Earth” visual. XD Quakes, Leaps, Avalanches and boulders. What’s not to love?
While Girdle of Giants is a great buff to EQ, the short duration leaves it feeling just a smidge lacking. Add up enough of those seconds that you’re missing with EQ buff uptime and it really starts to matter in a 15 minute window.
They added Avalanche into the 6 piece, as well as onto Blade of the Tribes. There’s no reason why it cannot also get amped by GoG as well and just flat-out configured to drop with every leap, just like EQ.
All I did was take out APD and put in destruction bracer. Using captains so RCD is defense. Then changed furnace for PEAK 2Her. I figure it does more with the bracers than a blunt 50% bonus to elites. No 3 leaps, but you pump SS like there’s no tomorrow and use leap to pull in mobs and proc band of might. Then went all in for shouts and full fire EQ. It’s a nice middle between full SS and LQ.
This is definitely a way to play, but the hybrid tax ends up costing you. Since EQ is the primary source of damage, you’re trading stacks of EQ for hitting things with SS. This works up until certain rifts, and even Leapquake variant loses outright currently to Crimsons and WW/Dust Devils stricken stacks.
I had a discussion similar to this with Rage quite some time ago and he ended up sharing his powerful insight on it.
Unfortunately this is kind of a symptom of what I mentioned up above. Pro-Slam for awhile was doing pretty nice, but EQ buffs ended up winning over.
I tried changing out the big 2Hander with fjord cutter and a couple different offhands. I think if they uncapped the number of people SS hit it would work better but blade of the tribes felt like a more fun cube item. Anyways, several grifts both with really bad solo bosses no pylons at the end. Difference was 4 seconds in 2 maps 2 different times, lol. The 2H was slightly better for me.
It’s a fun way to play. I’m pretending I have soul shards and an altar. The problems in non season like crowd control, passability, etc, will be gone. Ring of fire shard on the hat will take down huge swaths of elites and bosses with adds. The other shard is up to you.
They really had something going with this weapon. At first it just had a DIBS bonus for EQ, which was nice, but the real amazing thing about this weapon was the interaction with shouts causing Avalanche and EQ’s. The concept behind Leapquake was truly something else. Bouncing around and slamming down on packs with dot damage and causing chaos onto your enemies. This build feels absolutely hilarious and fun when it comes to time-efficient and loot-efficient runs. Enemies exploding when you shout and leap, what’s not to love??
Jumping to this real quick: I think so too, but I would honestly prefer if they made Rumble an instant hit ability, rather than a smash dot on the ground. Condensing it into an instant big hit would make SS feel a great deal better with this set, (since it too struggles getting any real damage out on enemies that simply just…move).
I like this line of thinking, as there are several random ways you “could” play MoTE. And there are obviously tradeoffs that come with it. LightningQuake, FrostQuake, etc.
It’s just painful I think, to see us using WW/Dust Devils because it simply provides better damage output for our skills over time as opposed to playing Might of the Earth with the abilities that it buffs. Kind of like when Girdle of Giants became a thing, it was a moment of "awh… " having to drop Dread Iron and Boulder Toss as the dump. but the trade up in power was obvious. Boulder Toss still remains to this day, in my opinion, what we should’ve used as a fury dump.
This is why I posted about buffing Lut Socks, if they take away some of the damage % on the 6 piece to validate this change I’m okay with it. But seeing them not in the top performing version of Mote is rough. It’s a testament to out of date they truly are as an item, and it’s long overdue they got some legendary power love.
I tried it with lut socks as/is, just not enough reason to take out the EQ/SS belt from the cube. Captains is the way to go, especially in soul shard season. If they changed Luts then maybe…
)
" having to drop Dread Iron and Boulder Toss as the dump. but the trade up in power was obvious. Boulder Toss still remains to this day, in my opinion, what we should’ve used as a fury dump.