Next Patch: Deathwish adjustment

General Discussion
1

The Wizard Legendary Sword Deathwish has found its way again into a build whose main source of damage is not a Channelling Skill, but where the Channeling Skill rather gets used to buff something else via Deathwish while channelling, just like it happened many times before.

Pre-Nerf Etched Sigil Meteor
You use Etched Sigil to proc Meteor and Deathwish buffs Meteor while channelling. The Channelling Skill itself is not the main damage source.

Pre-Buff Fragment of Destiny Hydra Builds
Place your Hydras, and then use a Channelling Skill to buff the Hydras via Deathwish. The Channelling Skill itself is not the main damage source. Now with Fragment of Destiny being buffed to also empower Hydra, Deathwish would be the inferior option, however, Deathwish still was required in the cube for Season 22, since it gave a 4th Cube Slot.

Manald Heal + Arcane Torrent Builds
This build was once very powerful. Manald Heal deals damage to enemies everytime you proc Paralysis on them with a Lightning Skill, which in this case is Arcane Torrent with the Lightning Rune. Arcane Torrent itself is not the main damage source, but rather procing Manald Heal, which also gets buffed by Deathwish while channelling Arcane Torrent.

Pre-Valthek’s Rebuke Buff Energy Twister Builds
Valthek’s Rebuke did not always have a 400% damage multiplier to Energy Twister, and so after the Etched Sigil change to only proc Energy Twister, Deathwish was used to buff ET while channelling instead of Valtek’s Rebuke. The Channelling Skill itself is not the main damage source.

Most recent: Buffed Firebird Set with Spectral Blade and Mirror Image
Deathwish also found its way into the recently buffed Firebird set. The Channelling Skill itself is yet again not the main damage source, but rather the 6piece bonus of the newly buffed Firebird set that procs when you deal damage with a fire skill, which is this case is Mirror Images casting Spectral Blade… which get buffed via Death Wish while using a Channelling Skill.

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I am not saying that Deathwish should be changed now, but next season would be as good as a time as any other season to do so.

For this season, Deathwish and the new Firebird’s build should remain as they are, but something should be done about Deathwish sooner better than later as it turns almost every Wizard build into a Channelling Build.

Deathwish should have been changed a long time ago.

A suggestion to fix this issue:

  • Make it so that Deathwish only buffs Disintegrate, Arcane Torrent and Ray of Frost instead of all damage while channelling.
  • Change Light of Grace to buff all Channelling Skill and give it a large Damage Multiplier to Channelling Skills and Channelling Skills only.

Then we can finally have dedicated Channelling Builds that have a Channelling Skill as its main damage source, instead of Deathwish and Channelling Skills finding their way into almost every good Wizard build where the Channelling Skill is just there to buff something else.

14 Likes
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I 100% agree with changing Deathwish but I hope they also add a new Meteor multiplier at the same time.
They might have to change Fazula too to stop any kind of Bazooka build - for example adding the 50 Stacks to Vyrs 6 piece and giving Fazula all the Archon runes instead.

3 Likes
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I’ll just say that if they ever decide to change deathwish, then they need to make sure that they provide buffs to a number of our skills that relied on deathwish in order to make up for the loss power. Don’t repeat etched sigil, where they changed the item to be energy twister only without so much as provide a buff to most of the skills that relied on it.

8 Likes
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I agree. Firebirds would need a buff as well, maybe by buffing the Wizard Hat Archmage’s Vicalyke so that Mirror Images also deal e.g. 300-400% increased damage or something like that.

It is just very annoying that almost every good Wizard build uses a Channelling Skill as a proxy to buff the damage of another one. There literally is no Wizard build that has a Channelling Skill as its main damage source, at least non comes to my mind.

Or they increase the existing once. There already are the Niflur’s Boast boots and the Grand Vizier staff that give damage multipliers to Meteor.

The Grand Vizier only gives 300-400% increased Meteor Damage, so maybe that can be increased to 600-800% or even 1000-1200% Meteor Damage to make up for the Deathwish and Etched Sigil loss.

Or they create a new Legendary Source that causes Meteor (and only meteors to drop, e.g. when after you spend xx Arcane Power or maybe even when you use a Channelling Skill. The old Etched Sigil caused me to come up with an idea for a Mockup of what itemization in D3 could have looked like:

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The old Etched Sigil was fun with procing Meteors. I still play that build in non-season from time to time. In the patch notes it says they also changed legacy Etched Sigils, but it did not state how exactly legacy Etched Sigils were changed.

All that Etched Sigil nerfing could have been avoided if they had changed Deathwish to only buff the three Channelling Skills instead of all damage while channelling.

If that is enough of a change to not make Bazooka overpowered, then it would probably a good idea to do so.

1 Like
5

Mirror Image damage has zero impact on Firebird. They only proc the FB effect. This buff would be useless.
And we had a nice build variety with FB which got obsolete once Mirror image with deathwish crept up. Just restore old 4pcs buff and do away with Deathwish so we can do our damage on our own.

5 Likes
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I like the current version of a skill-agnostic damage burst. Makes it unusual.

3 Likes
7

You are right, I forgot about that.

But what about adding +2 or +3 Mirror Images (or whatever) and also allow them to split when they die, while also letting them deal e.g. 200-400% or 400-600% increased damage?

That way it would benefit both the Firebird set as well as LoD Mirror Image builds!

All sets should be skill-agnostic imo and rather revolve around a certain Archetypes instead of around a few specific skills,…

e.g. a Berserker set for the Barbarian that adds a Rage Meter, or a Juggernaut Barbarian set that causes him to be immune to all CC and increase his damage and defense based on CC Resistance, “Wind Runner” DH that gives a damage bonus based on Movement Speed and Discipline, Engineer DH set revolving around Explosives Traps and Gadgets, or Bone Magic Necro set, Blood Magic Necro set, Summoner Necro, just more different than they are if that makes sense.

And btw, I am also not saying to change the Firebird set, I am asking for changing the Deathwish Legendary Sword from buffing all damage while channelling to only buffing the damage of Ray of Frost, Disintegrate and Arcane Torrent.

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No. We should be able to cast our fires skills ourselves and not rely on squishy Images with bad AI.

Wastes set unrelated to Whirlwind? Vyr unrelated to Archon? This makes no sense.

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If it remains a viable build (as opposed to an optimal build), then it should be okay.

Changing Deathwish to only buff Disintegrate, Ray of Frost and Arcane Torrent will accomplish that, and if you only gain +2 or +3 or +4 Images (aka a 50% / 75% / 100% buff as opposed to the 325% increased damage from Deathwish, which would be equivalent to +9 Mirror Images), that would be guaranteed.

If you stick to the philosophy of D3’s current itemization, then it does not make sense, but I would argue that it is a bad design philosophy because it both reduces item and build diversity.

It is like when you wanna play a HotA Barbarian, you definitely know that you gonna use The Gavel of Judgement because it buffs HotA’s damage by several hundred percent…

… but if you had various Best in Slot Legendary Weapons where…

  • one calls down Storms of Lightnings and deals increased damage based on your lightning resistance,
  • another legendary that instantly kills non-elites when they are below 15-20% health and also deals increased damage based on your life per kill
  • another one that has a 10% chance to active Wrath of the Berserker for 5 seconds after you have spend 200 Fury
  • another one that reanimates enemies as random Skeletons or Demons and maybe even has a small chance to summon a mid-level Demon Lord or something like that that fights for you for 15 seconds
  • another one that gives you a large Fire Aura which increases in size the more often you attack
  • etc …

… that would actually give you interesting choices to make and ways to build your character and item around, and something similar could work with sets that are not defined by a few specific skill, but rather by an archetype.

1 Like
10

I disagree with the approach and premise of your argument. The only change I would want for DW is to change it to a wand.

1 Like
11

What would be the benefits of turning it into a wand?

12

This is something I would agree with.

Better transmogs.

13

Not sure about that, especially if the transmog doesn’t even look that good. After all, most of the wand transmogs don’t really look all that good imo, as such I doubt a deathwish wand would be much different. It’d be better to just ask for swords to be able to use wand transmogs instead (and vice versa).

1 Like
14

You can get max AP rolls on wands but not on swords.

Asking for the above transmog option is a totally legit request that I can agree with. Now leave the damage and the channeling mechanic of the sword alone, switch it to a wand, and go go gadget transmog.

We have a plethora of wands, sources, and other goodies that require immediate attention.

2 Likes
15

Wand transmogs imo look better than sword transmogs. I always transmog my wands into a Magnus Wand, which is the third of the normal wands.

Imgur

But I agree that the legendary wands do not look too interesting, except Atrophy which works well for a fire build:

Imgur

There are also a lot of 2handed staffs that look really, really good, including some legendary ones, especially Valthek’s Rebuke, which is my personal favorite:

Imgur

It is just too bad that two handed staffs are currently not used by any Wizard build, except maybe some off-meta LoD builds.

Right, thanks for mentioning.

16

delete deathwish broken

17

I don’t agree, but that’s just a difference in opinion.

3 Likes
18

Deathwish design was a mistake, along with ES. it shouldn`t buff the damage universally. Deathwish should only buff one or two skill, of just buff chaneling skill alone.

1 Like
19

For all of you guys who want DW and Sigil nerfed and/or changed to only buff the channeling spells let me take you back.

Patch 2.1.2, GR-51, 4-man FB-6 Disintegrate. Jump forward to about the 34 second mark and then play and watch. Watch as the Wizard just stands there, holds down right click, and slow kills stuff. Do any of you really think 325% damage to disintegrate in its current form is going to be viable at GR130+?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiQiCjZKENE

Yes, lets nerf Wizard back to the point of RoS release were the devs gutted the class, never finished developing the class changes for the expansion, and just let it languish.

If you really think this is going to be viable, you’ll get your chance to prove it before next season starts. Today, 3/28/2021, Season-22 ends. You can run a LoD Disintegrate build. Just load up the same skills, put DW in the cube and go go GR 130, 140, 150.

2 Likes
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In my original post I suggested to also give Deathwish a damage buff, and also to rework Light of Grace to work with all Channelling Skills and also give it a damage multiplier to that item.

Of course 325% is not enough, but the issue is that the 325% currently applies to al damage and not just to the three Channelling Skills. You can buff the damage later, after it only effects Channelling Skills.

It is not a nerf when you compensate for that by buffing builds in other ways.

I agree that Deathwish the way Deathwish was and still is designed is not good, but Etched Sigil pre-nerf was really cool.

Maybe they can redesign it so it procs Meteor Shower instead of Twister, or maybe they can create another Legendary Source that automatically procs Meteor Shower either every second when you channel, or after you spend xx Arcane Power.

Yeah, and that is fine.

A lot of swords look really good, like the Runesword, but these fit more on a Barbarian. for my Wizard I prefer to have Wands, especially the Magnus Wand.