Ethereal Feedback (Part 1)

the +100% to all skills is a massive boost, it will literally take all the extra dmg you get from all your other multipliers and DOUBLE that dmg output…that’s way more dmg output…

HK, I bet you find at least 40-50 of them by the end of a season ending with 2500 paragon.

Most of the build guides for Season 24 will resemble S23/2.7.0, unless something changes.

Well, I hope thats the case otherwise it’s RNG on top of RNG on top of RNG hell with no way out.

Yeah. And I think people are underestimating how hard it’s going to be to get a really good one for your build.

It seems easy on PTR when you can pop 20 bags from the goat every rift. When the rate that you are able to acquire ethereal weapons slows way down on live, I think people will find it’s a bit of a grind to get the correct ethereal with one of the legendary powers they want.

It could take a lot more than that if you add too much RNG to the roll options.

I went through about 50 of The Oculus before I got one with the power I wanted. And I had two power options I could use! They will probably be compromises made, e.g. maybe in season 24 I play with an ethereal Wizardspike instead of The Oculus, because I happened to find a Wizardspike with the correct power.

Adding another layer of RNG could take a 1 in 20 roll to a 1 in 100+ roll, and you could go an entire season without sniffing a viable Ethereal. I’m okay with them being rare, they are supposed to be rare and powerful. But adding another level of RNG to the roll doesn’t seem like a good idea. Ideally you should at least have a chance to get a decent one without needing to play 40+ hours a week. Adding too much RNG to the rolls might make that impossible.

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They are not terribly uncommon. I get like 1 every 5 grifts.

Hey TinnOnnMuin – that’s half the problem right there – you wanted exactly one(1) very specific Ethereal rolled with a very specific legendary effect. In addition to point :one: the restriction of the All Damage Affix to a specific set of underperforming skills and :three: dial up the utility rolls, they could restrict the Ethereal’s legendary rolls on a per item basis:

Ethereal Windforce (with heavy 600% to Archery): should only roll with corresponding legendary affixes for Archery Skills (DML, Yang’s, Manticore, Strafe Pierce, etc) + Dawn + Echoing Fury + Fortress Ballista + Bombardier, etc.

Ethereal DoomSticker (yes converted the 1 xbow to a 1h melee weapon type): should only roll with Holy Point Shot, Karlei’s, Lord Greenstone + Dawn + Echoing Fury + Fortress Ballista.

Ethereal Buriza (as +2500% to Elemental Arrow/Chakram): should only roll with + Augustine+ Kridershot + Spines of Seething Hatred + Sword of Ill Will + Dawn + Echoing Fury + Fortress.

This way you’re mostly satisfied getting the Weapon Type you desire. The less influential RNG for the Passive is not too significant towards your ability to use the item, if you get a DoomSticker with Archery, oh well it’s just ~8-10% damage loss. The 35% CDR affix roll on these items will contribute to the desirability of Echoing Fury and Fortress purposeful as you’re still able to dump Dawn.

This approach might translate differently for other classes, but it makes 100% sense for DH and Crusader.

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Yes either restrict some of the RNG on the rolls or double the drop rate. With skills and passives that’s RNG enough, perhaps these have to be Primal Ancient.

Something I’ve noticed (and somewhat dreaded) is that a lot of the legendary powers I’ve seen thus far pertain to energy twister. It kind of reminds me how restrictive some of the legendary powers are.

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Me when I open a bunch of bags on PTR and ID all the Oculus’s:

Twister
Twister
Twister
Furnace
OoID
Furnace
Furnace
OoID
Furnace
Twister

Where’s my Orb powers, damnit! Well, that’s not true, I’d get a bunch of Triumvirates too. Not that one, RNG gods! Was my goat sacrifice not deemed worthy?

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I can’t wait for the live version of the season, just so I can rage at all of the Energy Twisters ethereal items that I’ll likely get (at least going by how many of them I’m getting in the ptr).

I get your point, and the game needs balance builds for years within class or among classes. However, these Eth weapons are not designed for solving the balance issue long existed but they are designed for fun for just a season.

So please don’t take it too seriously and wish these suddenly appeared and disappeared green weapons can fix anything.

Dex classes even roll strength at these weapons. And for 2H weapons, wiz has +300% dmg but bard only +200%

It seems that there is a wiz bias in the current dev team. Maybe some of their friends are playing wiz because I know none of the dev plays the game themself.

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The D3 Team is already extremely restricted on time and resources. So how does working on new things such as adding Ethereals to the game, “for just a season”…Really do anything for anybody. Everybody (for the most part) wants balance standardization between all class/builds. I think we could all agree to skip a Season for the D3 Team to do that right? “Season of Balance” wouldn’t be such a bad thing would it? Most of it is just tweaking numbers to bring all the builds closer together in terms of balance.

I don’t get it… what’s the fun in playing the same builds from the previous season?

There are too few new additions:

Class Season 23 Season 24
Barb WW/Rend, Zbarb WW/Rend, Zbarb
Crusader Heaven’s Fury, Bombardment Heaven’s Fury, Bombardment
DH Hungering Arrow, zDH Hungering Arrow, zDH
Monk Tempest Rush Tempest Rush, Inna’s Allies, WoL
Necro Bonespear, Grim Scythe, C. Explosion, Mages Bonespear, Grim Scythe, C. Explosion, Mages
WD Spirit Barage, Darts Spirit Barage, Darts
Wiz Firebirds, Twister Firebirds, Twister

Am I missing something? Is this supposed to be fun?

I normally spend most of my time experimenting with stuff on PTR – I just can’t sink the hours into it on 2.7.1. There’s nothing ‘fun’ to report, only complaints. I’ve found enjoyment playing other games – imagine that: for me the PTR is like the Super Bowl.

It’s so bland that I’d rather turn the channel because it’s like watching last year’s Super Bowl, except the players are wearing different uniforms, the game plays out exactly the same way, the same final score, same touchdowns, same penalties. It’s a sad time for D3.

Tomorrow, I hope they’ll deliver some patch updates to be enthusiastic about.

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I absolutely think that is the case. The best guess on drop rates right now is 1/100 legendary drops and there has been enough different tests to suggest that’s about right. That doesn’t sound like a lot, and it really isn’t, but that’s the case for any ethereal. Once you add in the layers of RNG the odds drop drastically. At that rate, I expect a lot of complaining when reality sets in.

To the OP:

A lot of that is what I’d call “cleaning up” and that’s what I’m hoping we hear about before a second PTR patch. I do think at the core ethereals allows us to do some different things in the vein of past seasonal themes if some of these inconsistencies are corrected.

Time has demonstrated they can’t tweak the number correctly. How is the coming nerf on necro and no touch of FB?

They do introduce the new set inna, FB, bone spear build, God in the past don’t they? That is new build isn’t it? Also, you can do GR faster with Eth weapons.

Dude, people have been playing WOL for years and POJ for years as well. They do not make change in your main class does not mean they did not make the change.

If you feel no fun with Eth, just don’t play it. The D3 is almost in maintenance mode and no matter the change in builds, there is always a best build for pushing GR and yes, this best solution is played by people for years for pushing.

It is actually a lot! I usually get around 8-10 primal ancient with Paragon 1K from past seasons. So you can have about 40-50 these weapons with low paragon. It only rolls for around 8-10 possible weapon skills. So among these 40-50 item, I would say it is very likely you find a useful weapon with desired skill combination if you do not run out of luck :)

It’s an obvious trend to let builds be overpowered for 2 seasons then nerf it into oblivion…Wait and see till next season I suppose.

It might be the case and we will see. But the the nerf comparison between sader and necro, although I have not tested both in PTR, from paper, it seems the necro nerf is much heavier.

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Newer, but stale. GoD6 is 1 year old, and arguably offers boring play mechanics compared to its original release. Bone Spear is a good build, but now approaches 1 year since they tuned up the set, FB is newer at 4 months age, but causes lag and is an outlier build with janky MI mechanics.

I embraced the new leaderboard and its fresh set filters last patch, I played and augmented every relevant build in the two classes that interest me (DH and Crusader), got top 10 rankings on pretty much all boards in Non-Season NA. I’ve geared up a follower for survival, etc.

Correct, but I’m telling you – Ethereal is not good enough a change to bring me, a Non-Season player, to Season. And since there’s nothing else to do as a Crusader and DH main, the patch as it stands today is a bust for me. I’m not saying everyone shares my story, but if you play DH and Crusader, it’s a dull patch.

D3 will likely be maintained until D4 releases. That’s probably 2-2.5 years of D3 patches. Why aren’t there like 100+ GR140 capable S-Tier builds to choose from? Why is the product of 3-months time just Inna’s and Ethereal Items?

Again this is perspective from a solo GR pusher. The bar is hung too low. I wouldn’t coddle these Ethereals, they could be so much better.