šŸ¹ DH Balance Proposal - Come Look

I would like to have this Strafe FoK new set.
Set name: Covid Strafe Blaze

CSB 2 pc : Call of 3 clones to strafe together. The clones will last until they die.
CSB 4 pc : During Strafe, you gain 60% damage reduction and you and clones throw out Fan of Knife every 2 seconds. Fan of Knife damage is increased by 1000%
CSB 6 pc : Vengeance gain the effect of every ruin and last forever. While Strafe, you deal 25,000% increased damage.

Active skills to consider: Companion, Vault, Strafe, Fan of Knife, Vengeance and a primary skill to proc Bastion of Will if chosen.

Rework skills : Strafe moving speed from 75% to 100%, Drifting Shadow ruin from 100% to 125%

Gears to consider and changes:

  1. Danetta set for speed farming. Danetta Spite leave additional 1 more clone
  2. Vallaā€™s Bequest. Strafe projectiles piece, increase strafe damage 100%
  3. KMar Tenclip. Gain Drifting Shadow Ruin, increase strafe damage 100%
  4. Lord Greenstone. (rework to strafe) Every second gain 400% increase damage for next FoK stacking up to 30 times. Pair with reworked Emimei Duffer Quiver to give Bladed Armor Ruin and increase FoK damage 100%
  5. Lacuni Prowlers. Reworked to increase Strafe damage by 300%-400% (seriously, DH does not has a single bracer that increase skill damage.

There have been 5 new sets. Two classes have used their new set to solo clear GR 150 in non-season. Monk are 144/145. Barbarians and wizard new sets were the two weakest. All classes provided feedback on the PTR about their new sets in relation to their power.

And Chakram.

Kridershot and Spines of Seething Hatred both need big damage bonuses added to them. While turning the skills into hatred generators is nice since it lets you use those skills with UE, it isnā€™t enough. They need big multipliers to make them viable.

dmktā€™s proposal has multipliers added to both these items (along with buffs to Augustineā€™s Panacea and Sword of Ill Will). Itā€™s definitely needed.

3 Likes

Iā€™ll just throw in that the suggested buffs for strafe weapons are right on. This would be such an easykill for blizzard. DH doesnā€™t have any easygoing, farming LoN/LoD build.

1 Like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbekPaRPJzU

Wudijo was going over the proposal. And I saw yesterday pe3ewe3e going on streams and asking if the streamers heard of the proposal. Hope the biggest german streamer 4fansites is going to cover it.

1 Like

The issue is not whether streamers cover the proposal but whether information in the proposal makes its way to the minds of the community manager, game producer, and the classic game developers who decide to act favorably on the content of this and other DH threads.

Unfortunately, we do not have a dedicated CM, so it is unclear to me what feedback is making its way to Blizzard. I have strong suspicions that the engagement of Blizzard in general with the forums is less in comparison to 6 months ago. This can be seen by looking at the frequency of ā€œblueā€ posts in the Blizzard tracker. Since March 11, there have 3 Blizzard tracker posts: Nevalistis departure post, an update on password length, and announcement of seasonal double goblins. You can also look at the frequency for which key blues are ā€œseenā€.

2 Likes

Me and maybe some other people also, asked him on stream about his input regarding this topic.

I agree with most things he said but I, for years now, donā€™t agree with his view on damage reduction we get from sets/items.

2 Likes

Thank for posting the video, i enjoyed taking in Wudiā€™s feedback. Itā€™s interesting to hear the perspective from different community members. We pretty much want the same thing and weā€™re torn about the ā€˜wayā€™ to buff our class:

  1. Do we boost defense? Which way do we go:
    a. Legendary Items
    b. Sets Defense

  2. How do we boost power?
    a. Legendary Weapons/Quivers
    b. Other Legendary Items like Armor
    c. Set Bonuses

He did make an interesting comment about being item locked with Wraps of Clarity for speed 100ā€™s. The reality is that this item is ALWAYS used on builds that carry a generator, buffing the defense actually frees up the Armor cube slot, which could allow for more diversity and builds in general, ie. cubing Nemesis. The goal of heavy defense per item is to reduce the number you need to equip:

S6 Impale (Elusive + Aquilas)
UE6 Multishot (Wraps + Visage)
M6 Cluster Bombs (Zoeys + Wraps + some other)
N6 Rapid Fire (Elusive + Stone)

Right now we try to mix in CC3/Aughild, in most cases that is the extent of our variety ā€“ but without damage on our defense items, CC3 tends to be the winner and the builds appear similar regardless of which set youā€™re working in.

On the topic of target power, i do have the numbers modified for GR139 @ 5k paragon ā€“ i did not inflate the power of the defensive items, only the set bonuses and legendary effects.

5 Likes

Give the new CM a break.

Probably afraid of the sharks who will attack and not quite ready to dip the toes.

Took Nev several years to build up that thick skin.

1 Like

I think most of your suggestions are good and pretty well thought out. That said, I think Shadowā€™s Mantle should be spruced up a bit instead just buffing the 2P, one of the major flaws of sets is that they literally buff or only work well with one ability. Sets should be more generic rather than less generic and you even pointed that out in a sense.

For Shadowā€™s Mantle, maybe a slight buff to 2P and a couple improvements:

2pc :
Unchanged but additionally, Bolas, Chakram, Fan of Knives and Impale all cast twice when used.

4pc :
Unchanged

6pc :
Bolas, Chakram and Impale deal an additional 100,000% weapon damage to the first enemy they hit. Fan of Knives increases the damage of your next attack by 100%.

Shadow Power > Well of Darkness :
Reduce all resource costs by 30%.

1 Like

I donā€™t understand this part.

Chakram is generator when used with offhand.
Bolas is generator.
Fan of Knives is costing nothing and is long CD.
Impale is generator when used with Dagger.

You need more discipline? Why?

Itā€™s leaning toward HC a bit, giving the option to not use Gunes with Vengeance : Seethe and potentially skip Chain to go with Captains for extra synergy. This would also give the option to use Clarity or Strongarm in a different setup, maybe even Aquilla. You could also switch runes on FoK to the spender for more usage of the 6pc bonus.

Sometimes Impale is a bit annoying when youā€™re doing too much damage and not getting the generator procs from Karleiā€™s that often. I know you can switch out gear and runes/build but again, SC it doesnā€™t matter, HC it could mean you lose your character if you forget to check what setup youā€™re in.

Shadow is not using Gunes.

Not everyone likes to play in pigeon holes.

1 Like

Thanks for all the hard work putting this together. Everything here sounds awesome. DH is by far my favorite class. Looking forward to next season. Hopefully the Devs will give us some love.

2 Likes

i use gunes with s6 impale when farming t16ā€¦

1 Like

Nor do I. Itā€™s been so long since Wudi operated at normal paragons, that heā€™s lost touch, imho, with how much of a toughness boost DH sets need. His super high paragon hides this from him. Try doing a GR121 @ p1200 with s6 impale - itā€™s painfully fragile.

1 Like

new set will revolve around the chicken bow

He plays seasonal, so I donā€™t know that this is true. I wouldnā€™t be so quick to discount his perspective, since heā€™s played such a mix of classes.

I think it comes down to a difference in game philosophy. How squishy should your average build be? I think wudiā€™s point is that DH is no more squishy than other classes, and I think heā€™s probably right. If you want to say that toughness is a problem across all classes (which many do), you might be right about that as well.

1 Like

He has done very impressive clears at lower paragon in the past. This season he has higher paragon than normal, likely due to the pandemic and more free time away from his studies.

Our ranged builds can skimp on defense if the player can stutter step, but in order for those closed range builds to work, UE Grenades, Impale, and even Cluster Bombs, we have to up the defense ā€” otherwise the build is not playable for the majority.

Maybe he is thinking, crank the power more than I suggested and we sacrifice our offensive gems for defensive ones so we survive? (DH is accustomed to always taking offensIve gems), When we group, we swap in offensive gems for an extra 30-60% boost in power.

So add 2-3 extra GRs on top of 140. You know you wonā€™t survive, but now you have to wear esoteric alteration or gizzard or whatever and you are back to GR140 top clears.

This might create an N6 Rapid Fire scenario, where high paragon players can skip the defensive gem/item in solo play, which is concerning, but tends to be unavoidable.

2 Likes