Do Not Leave A6 Phalanx Shield Bearers As Is

PTR Feedback
1

Rehashing this conclusion from another thread in case our developers missed it:

There is a problem with Akkhan’s 4pc bonus and Phalanx Shield Bearers.

Shield Bearers can be repeatedly cast with Akarat’s Champion:Rally. The player can place 32+ Phalanx Avatars on the battlefield at once, and they all independently spam Condemn. Simply put, the servers cannot handle this volume of Condemns, the lag spikes up to 1200ms in solo games, either the mobs or the player dies. (often it’s the enemies).

While Shield Bearers is the strongest rune, it is not a practical choice and players will be disappointed with the side effects of lag – the best build is an unplayable one.

SOLUTION

Pick any of these solutions to remedy the Shield Bearer problem:

  • Cap the number of simultaneous Shield Bearers on the battlefield (12 max)
  • Restrict Akkhan 4pc to Bodyguards and Bowmen.
  • Allow Shield Bearers to attack once per cast, as they did prior to July 26th patch 2.

BUFF THE DAMAGE

Do not let the non-season leaderboards deceive you, I have done GR141 with Shield Bearers, but prior to that I’ve cleared GR136 with Bowmen.

We’re looking at the following performance at ~5k paragon for 50 key pushes:

  • Bowmen: GR136
  • Shield Charge: GR136
  • Bodyguards: GR135
  • Shield Bearer: GR141 (Reduce)

This Set/Skill needs about +9GRs to match LoN Bombardment, pick any recommendation:

RECOMMENDATION #1

Restore % Phalanx skill damage affix, Kassar and Enforcer, like in v1 of PTR.

This raises the raw power of the Phalanx Avatar’s Condemn procs.

RECOMMENDATION #2

Create a NEW bracer that grants 500-600% damage to Condemn and +10 Wrath/second for 3 seconds after hitting an enemy with Condemn.

In the context of the Akkhan’s set: there are 2 ways to gear and play:

  1. Attack Speed and 100% Phalanx/Judgement usage.

  2. Area Damage focused w/ Furnace and 4 Phalanx Bowmen. The player uses Condemn Vacuum to independently crush trash, while selectively casting Judgement and Phalanx Bowmen once per CoE cycle to keep up Akarat’s Champion, destroy elites and rift guardian. (once per CoE Cycle)

This also makes LoN/LoD Condemn a strong trash clearer while addressing its resource issues.

RECOMMENDATION #3

Eternal Union grants 40% Damage and 4% DR per Phalanx Avatar. Allow this to work with Falling Sword:Rise Brothers and Baleful Remnant.

A4 Falling Sword:Rise Brothers should proc Condemn. This scales the damage scales better, more Condemn procs AND an additional. 1.28 * 1.375 = ~76% More damage just by using Falling Sword w/ standard 8 Bowmen setup.

This helps low paragon players and changes the Jewelry configuration. This makes Baleful Remnant quite strong for speeds.

Thank you for your consideration.

10 Likes
2

Blizzard, these suggestions are very important, because dmkt has spent a lot of time on testing. At present, blizzard needs to spend time to optimize Akkhan Phalanx Condemn. Before that, blizzard needs to pay attention to the proposal of dmkt.

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3

Akhan A6 never was 2000%. It was writen but in fact, it was 1500% since always.

1 Like
4

I find it weird how I keep hearing this explanation.

Why was it announced in 2.6.10 patch notes?

The player base was told 2000%, and expects it to be 2000%.

For my own peace of mind, I will test this on live.

2 Likes
5

On D3planner data:

2.7.4.83414 (PTR) data
(https://www.d3planner.com/game/83414/powers/P4_ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_018)

  • Script Formula 0: 15
    Damage Increase

2.7.3.81850(Live) data:
(https://www.d3planner.com/game/81850/powers/P4_ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_018)

  • Script Formula 0:15
    Damage Increase

2.6.10.3447 version data
(https://www.d3planner.com/game/73447/powers/P4_ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_018)

  • Script Formula 0: 15
    Damage Increase

Seems its 15x increase or 1500% all these times since v2.6.10. All that was buffed is description only. Code stays 1500%

3 Likes
6

Yeah the like Abella explain in detail, only description changed, not the code formula.

1 Like
7

Yes – and I confirmed in game, 16x damage indeed.

1 Like
8

I understand that limitless stacking is causing monstrous lag, but limiting it to 10 Shield Bearers is the same thing as asking not to use it. They have little radius of action and remain immobile. During cleaning it looks good, but in Boss it would be very difficult. It would be interesting to add to your request that they increase the radius of action to hit single targets more easily. So it would still be feasible to use them.

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The Bodyguards and nothing is the same. Ask to work only with Bowmen. That seems to be the intention.

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Shield Bears in V1 worked great without Unrelenting Phalanx. Successive activations of Condemn with was to be expected. In V1 I did 139 without Unrelenting Phalanx. That’s why I kept my build without Unrelenting Phalanx in V1 and V2. Looked good to me! In V1 Unrelenting Phalanx with Shield Beares activated only once, but in V2 it started to work… If they go back to attacking only once per launch I will definitely remove the shield and get the same performance as the tests in V1.

11

I vote they revoke these changes, unnerf norvald & keep bombsader. Its much more fluid.

1 Like
12

Doesn’t this seem like a very low GR push at 5k? Shouldn’t we clear at about 10 GR levels higher at such paragon…?

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Yeah it’s terrible. I’ve revised the original post to request a 12 Shield Bearer cap w/ more detailed recommendations.+

14

Cool. That’s better. Thanks for the edit. Given that LoN Bomb/H-Bomb are still no S tier builds, +9-10 GR levels is hardly anything but a modest request to make…

15

It is set at 9-10GRs because serious pushes by more talented players will likely do another +2-3GRs on the ultra high end.

My own LoN Bomb pushes cap out at GR145, some amazing players have done GR147-148 at my paragon, so i rate my personal skill and persistence 2-3GRs below the very best. LoN Bomb is an A+ Tier build. I would like to see A6 Condemn as strong as Arachyr’s, maxing out at GR147-148 @ 5k paragon.

Lastly, recommendations #2 and #3 require the removal of Aughild or F&R, we conditionally ask for 500-600% to recoup the loss.

Hope this gives some insight into my thought process.

3 Likes
16

I think priority to fix the “bug” of correctly buffing A6 to 2000% is above everything else. This is a 31% correction. Nearly 2 tiers.

I think at 5k, with proper pushing Condemn isn’t 136 but 140+. You play too many maps and mobs. All the pushing results are primarily 4 maps and 6 mob types, so when you compare tiers/power with other sets, your pushing also need to match others in my opinion.

I tried another push with my 1k ptr scrub toon. I went extreme and only go for field of misery, i opened a 136 and managed to spawn the RG with 9 pack condy zap on a 1 floor grotesque. No power, so I OT by 20s. But bear in mind this is a 18k mainstat sader with all rank 25 gems. It would be a clear if on live with 13x + gems. No angels ofc.

If i use abella or BabyCeltic on NS, i am confident of pushing 143-145 on current 1500% and 147+ on 2000%. So i think first change A6 to 2000%, fix various performance issues, then discuss the missing powers.

17

Was this non-season, also, which rune did you use?

18

Season. I don’t have NS 1k toon :joy:

But I didn’t use angelic powers.

Bowmen… Ranged FnR style, this para too low for melee. Had to constant on the move, stop or stuck = KO. RG was blighter… Played him next to a big obstacle. Every time he does the tickle thing, hide behind it as they can’t penetrate obstacles. Too extreme/intense. Buff definitely needed, but in my opinion, after the 2000% correction

19

Do you recall the Phalanx and Condemn runes?

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Bowmen and unleash…didnt bother with tweak as you got them covered. I was more interested how can it perform in extreme pushing. Some of those results you and Rage used in the benchmarks includes these kind of pushes.