I’ve been playing Masquerade in seasonal, with very early gearing progression, sub 800 paragon. For GR speeds, been running CoE+Krysbin’s+Zodiac with Scythe of the Cycle+Maltorius’… Lots of MS with Stuart’s+Lost time. Similar to: https://www.d3planner.com/868969008
EDIT (6/8/2020): was able to clear GR90-92 in 2.5-4m time with a different build:
https://www.d3planner.com/135494342. Better than I initially thought, but Masquerade definitely still needs a damage increase, about 4 GR’s worth (~doubled damage output).
Videos:
[2.6.9 PTR] Masquerade Crystallization Speed + Feedback:
[2.6.9 PTR] (GR90-105+) Masquerade Voracious Speed
What feels bad + bug:
The biggest issue I’ve been having is that Simulacrums seem to be dying, which by the way, is not an issue limited to this set alone.
For Masquerade in particular, the 2 piece states ‘Your Simulacrums no longer take damage’.
In this instance, simulacrums dying is most likely a bug related to the 2 piece that provides multiple runes.
Self Sacrifice rune:
If you would die with a Simulacrum active, instead the Simulacrum is destroyed and you are fully healed.
I think what’s happening is the rune procs, kills off the simulacrums (even if you have Final Service in the build), and because the 4 piece is entirely dependent upon Simulacrum being active, you have no mitigation anymore after they die.
This feels exceedingly bad for multiple reasons: first, you don’t realize often that your simulacrums aren’t alive any more.
Second, you’re running a build that’s meant to not stack loads of cooldown (typically) and this means your Simulacrum often has a 30+ seconds or more of cooldown remaining after they die. So even if you do realize it, you’re more likely better off just dying on purpose to reset. Moving on…
Simulacrums sometimes will lag behind in the rift. This makes it more difficult to aim their spears or have them within the same room (for levels with doors).
Edit (6/3/2020): I do not like that the damage from the 6 piece triples simulacrum damage compared to player damage. I’d prefer if my own damage were the same as theirs. This is especially evident when you are walled off, or around corners in levels with many obstructions.
Damage in solo speeds feels pretty low compared to many other sets and builds. I’ve been farming GR80’s consistently in 2 minutes or less. Compare this with PoJ TR Monk, which can readily farm ~GR90 3m or less at the same gear and paragon level.
EDIT (6/8/2020): Since date of original posting was able to clear GR90-92 in 2.5-4m time with a different build:
https://www.d3planner.com/135494342. Better than I initially thought, but it definitely still needs a damage increase, at least 4 GR’s worth (doubled damage output) to be competitive.
Bone Prison bug?:
What feels Good:
I’ve been favoring the Crystallization Bone Spear rune (love the 30% AS, and ramp up). I feel like the runes on Bone spear are fairly varied, which leads to a variety of playstyles.
Edit (6/3/2020): Just found out that Crystallization is added in with weapon affix, similar to how Echoing fury works. Neat little mechanics tidbit there.
Compared to many Necro builds which heavily rely on corpses, this build does not, aside from needing a little essence, and that makes is so much more easygoing. Combine that with not being heavily reliant on CDR, and it starts really shine in this way. A more Attack speed / area damage based build is great to see, especially given the history of Necromancer relying on LoTD and Thorns builds.
Having damage come from yourself and simulacrums… casting Bone spear, a spell that pierces with most runes, feels great when aim is on point. Elites and good trash pulls explode, and you’re able to follow spears as they continue through the level, hitting additional targets sometimes.
LOVE the level of toughness from the 4 piece when it is working. I’ve always felt necro needed more toughness, especially when it came to sets, and seeing this in action for Masquerade is nice.
Suggestions / Feedback:
Feedback wise I will agree that additionally pairing Bone spirit with the 6 piece somehow might work out well. However, I’m not in favor of requiring Bone Spirit (if you want to go only Bone Spear, and equip more skills for toughness, CC, or mobility, you should be able to do that.
I can certainly see interplay with Crystallization bonus IAS and Bone spirit cast weaving being appealing.
Having the set significantly reduce the cooldown (by 75%?) of Bone spirit would be very handy.
Side note: I think bone spirit’s 15s cooldown is exceedingly high to begin with, so perhaps adjusting this baseline cooldown as well as tacking additional cooldown for the set would be a good comination.
Could also play around with increasing the projectile movement speed of Bone spirit (might require adjustment of Defiler Cuisses to be based on distance rather than seconds though). Note: credits to Lord_Fluffy for mention of projectile speed.
Thank you for reading.