TLDR
Season 25 got me excited to play my favorite build, and managed to completely ruin it at the same time. The game has had huge potential in mixing and matching sets (especially with Ring of Royal Granduer), and that has both bolstered and diminished as sets have been reworked. My personal feelings are that there is a general loss of build variations from the rework, even though the game developer’s are trying to encourage build variety. I think build tinkerer’s like me would love to see class specific 2-set bonuses have more synergistic characteristics with other class sets, especially when the sets share a similar theme.
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Looking at the patch-notes with a bias for Witch Doctors
When I saw the patch notes for season 25, I got very excited to play Witch Doctor (WD). (https://us.diablo3.com/en-us/blog/23730897/diablo-3-ptr-272-%7C-has-ended-11-1-2021). Per the developer notes, there is clear direction from the game developer’s that their philosophy is to encourage build variety. For example:
Developer’s Note: We wanted to buff the Barbarian’s Hammer of the Ancients playstyle without putting the power into a specific set.
The season included a focus on WDs in order to give them a much needed power boost.
Developer’s Note: We’ve reworked Witch Doctor’s Spirit of Arachyr set, as well as several legendary Witch Doctor items. With these changes, we hope to infuse Spirit of Arachyr with more flavor and gameplay, as well as give Witch Doctors a much needed power increase.
Developer’s Note 11/12: We’ve added a new mechanic to the Spirit of Arachyr set which should give it a more active and thematic playstyle. Additionally, we’ve given Corpse Spiders the ability to benefit from several items that buff pets, which should give more power and gearing options.
In addition to these two philosophical notes, corpse spiders had the following changes:
- Updated Ring of Emptiness to benefit attacks from all non-Fetish pets.
- Corpse Spiders can now benefit from Pet buffs.
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How I liked to play Witch Doctor
Seeing these patch notes, I was very excited to play my favorite WD build (https://us.diablo3.com/en-us/profile/Atropose-1747/hero/111689838). It had never been the most powerful build, but it was strong enough to unlock primals and push the double digit greater rifts. This was acceptable enough for me, since I am a casual player, as I could still complete all of the season activities and unlock the seasonal pet. The build consisted of 2 piece Arachs and 6 peice Zuni. The large queen spider helped significantly with clearly trash because of her AoE damage. When the dart build for Zuni came out years ago, I stubbornly avoided it because I had liked the way my build worked out for me.
Unfortunately the rework of the Arach spider queen has significantly reduced the damage it dealt while paired with Zunimassa. Additionally while Ring of Emptiness was upgraded to bolster corpse spiders, it specifically doesn’t help fetish, which further handicaps the build
- Updated Ring of Emptiness to benefit attacks from all non-Fetish pets.
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A slightly less class biased look at build potential with sets
One of the greatest items for build variety in the game is the Ring of Royal Grandeur. The set bonus is such that characters can choose to wear multiple sets or additional unique items to augment their build in a particular way. The ring works exceptionally well at encouraging dual set with (e.g. Captain Crimsons). In particular I think there is huge potential with the 7 piece class sets, such as Zunimassa, Firebird’s, Immortal King’s, Inna’s, Natalya’s, and Tal Rasha’s. There is opportunity to mix other 6 piece sets with these sets since they incorporate weapons, rings, and amulets.
Typically what we have seen in patches is that set survivability perks have been migrated to 4-set bonuses so that players cannot access multiple of those perks. Similarly the damage bonuses have typically migrated to the 6 set, with extremely large bonuses (e.g. 25000% damage improvement to particular skills). While ensuring that players cannot access multiple of these bonuses makes it easier to balance the game, it also removes build variations from players being able to combine 2-set bonuses with another 6-set bonus in a synergistic way.
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A casual tinkerer’s desires
While I’ve occasionally made triple digits GR in my solo play, I’ll admit that I’m a very casual player that often doesn’t get that far. I imagine that there are many other players like me that love to screw around and try new things, regardless of whether or not they will top the ladder in a given season. I think build tinkerer’s like me would love to see future changes to the game encourage more build variety and tinkering across sets. In particular I would be interested in seeing class specific 2-set bonuses get reworked such that they have more synergistic characteristics with other class sets. To give a couple, albeit WD biased examples:
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Hellthooth, Arachs, and Zuni are all pet themed sets that could potential work with each other.
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Jade Harvester and Mundunugu’s also have a similar feel to them, being themed around spiritual effects.
Perhaps an even wilder idea would be for cross-class synergies. I love that you can wear the transmog of Immortal King’s on a Demon Hunter, since the IK set isn’t Barbarian only. This is true for many of the original sets. Imagine a Inna’s Monk running around with the 3 Ancients, or a Marauder’s DH running with a fetish army by their side. Players would have to play multiple characters in a season and reforge or reroll gear to get the correct base stats. I don’t necessarily endorse the cross-class synergies idea, but I do think it relates to the overall philosophy that I’ve been discussing, and it raises some interesting ideas.
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An invitation to discussion
Am I off my rocker? Does anyone tinker in a similar way with other class builds? What class set themes do you think would pair together well? Is there a better way to encourage more variations in the builds people use?