As far as I can tell, I think they’re (developers) not happy with GoD6 being such a linear going Set for clearing GR150 regardless of how demanding it is to upkeep. They’re trying to make N6G4 and other builds shine through by nerfing the GoD6 set.
What about either of these approaches instead of cutting down the maximum pierces?
- Make GoD 6p bonus increase resource costs or slow down the attack speed so you underhandedly nerf the build by restricting defensive buffs or passives you can pair up with the build. This forces DH to have resource battery skills like Preparation- Punishment or Bat Companion while lacking discipline or defenses.
- Make GoD 6p bonus make your primary attacks ignore missile dampening effects; no slow down, no tick increase. If that’s the main concern, developers should take this approach but I doubt it is.
- My last option would be diminishing the some damage values or giving GoD6 Set a belt piece by removing one of the pieces such as boots or creating a mandatory Strafe damage increasing belt and giving it Rocket Storm skillrune.
I think main problem in their eyes are about effort required for mechanical skill to operate the builds, so I doubt they’d even consider any of the approaches I consider. If only Missile Dampening is the problem and they take it then fine, the build won’t be dumped for a single elite affix randomly coming up at Greater Rifts and require tons of fishing to get good random chance at elites.
Alas, they didn’t take a simple solution as this and went for nerfing it directly instead. For some change to apply, it must once playtested for prolonged periods and decided upon by a group of people. Without anyone deeming this fair enough to test, the patch notes in PTR wouldn’t serve that way. They can always change it after hearing feedback and playtesting it for their own measures.
Recently, D3 has been taken out from Blizzard Classic Games division and the upcoming Follower changes also remarkable for this. They have a large enough developer group for Diablo 3 under Rod Ferguson right now and I think they can take decisions on their own.