Phalanx from Baleful Remnant and Falling Sword - PTR Bug Report - Diablo 3 Forums (blizzard.com)
Now that the patch is live, following up on my previous note regarding Phalanx/Condemn.
It seems like the Falling Sword Avatars of Order still do not last indefinitely with Eternal Union, nor do they proc Condemn.
The Phalanxes from Baleful Remnant do proc Condemn, but also do not last forever with Eternal Union.
However, the Bodyguard Rune Avatars of the Order work as intended.
The old version of Eternal Union affected the duration of all three.
Are we able to get some clarification/consistency as to why these don’t work?
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I am struggling to put into words how much I dislike this new Phalanx Crusader. I tested it on all PTR phases and I had very minor hopes for last minute changes before the patch went live, but I am very disappointed. I feel like we got the worst of all worlds:
Gameplay:
We constantly need to spam Judgment to make sure that every enemy is even eligible to be damaged by our Phalanx. This feels bad, because we don’t really have any impact with our button presses, it feels more like a support class to play. This would be somewhat acceptable, but we actively hinder ourselves by rooting enemies, while Condemn NEEDS to hit multiple targets and relies on it heavily.
Then we further need to CONSTANTLY spam all of our abilities, Condemn + Generator for Focus and Restraint, our Law and Phalanx. Yes, you did give us a change to Eternal Union to have Bowmen last forever, but it’s a ring slot that doesn’t add any damage at all. The only thing we get out of it would be the convenience of not having to spam 1 more button at this point. Absolutely useless.
We also have to give up on basically all mobility due to the fact that so many abilities on our bars are just mandatory.
Performance:
It feels bad most of the time, because we have very little control over what targets the Phalanx decide to shoot at, we just position ourselves and hope for the best. The damage feels extremely lackluster. I might be okay if we were better at grouping up enemies (Why doesn’t judgment pull enemies? THAT would have been an amazing synergetic Angelic Crucible power for the season and introduction of this new set).
On top of doing very little damage, we also have basically no mobility and very little toughness or recovery.
I can just not understand the decision making process here. You introduce a set rework together with a season theme that does NOTHING for the set itself, instead we get a power for Blessed Hammer, which is essentially a completely dead build.
And it would be SO easy to fix in my opinion.
Eternal Union could have a damage buff so we don’t have to rely on Focus and Restraint anymore, opening up a skill slot and increasing the ease of use of the build significantly.
Judgment should no longer root, but instead just pull enemies together.
With this, the build could actually feel amazing and what you said it should feel like, a battlefield commander judging enemies and then having the soldiers destroy them.
As it stands now, I feel like I can once again not enjoy a season where my favourite class, Crusader, is just out of the picture for any group play or solo XP or solo push.
I am begging you to make some changes before the season start on Friday.
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I checked the leaderboard, saw dmkt’s build, copied it. Loaded up a 130, first key (decent average starting map). Started mowing stuff down like whoa. Got to the rift guardian, WITH A POWER, and fun stopped because it was single target. That’s my only complaint so far. Poor single target damage. I tend to dislike fishing so bosses, so…
That build I pushed with is the solo meta IMHO. It has plenty of room to go up too. Make sure you save the last pylon for the boss, stack your stricken. Pull it at around 80% boss health.
One other thing I’d like to add. Not taking Condemn on the skill bar allows you take Iron Skin Flash, which is a MAJOR quality of life improvement. This build is now really good in my eyes. They did well despite the lag it causes.
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I was going expecting a 3-4 minute clear so when I got to the boss I wasn’t in my wildest imagination expecting it to be a problem, lol.
Did a 135, it felt easier than the 130, mostly because the boss came with some adds.
I like your build. I almost think you could replace stone skin with the horse to speed things up.
80% health remaining or gone?
Thinking about it, the Iron Skin button is going to make angels for the season player.
I DID kite the boss into the spot with the zombie pits. There are a lot of maps you can create your own adds.
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I kept dying in the 140s, not fully augmented. Iron Skin solved all of the problems. It also helps make longer range body pulls, easier to get to oculus ring.
Melee the boss with Punish while applying Phalanx/Judgment. When the boss’s health reaches 80-85% pull the pylon so that nemesis bracer triggers the adds. Those adds essentially multiply the number of Condemns that hit the boss. Be sure to keep those adds close to the boss.
I don’t know what to expect with Angels post nerf… does it still make sense to spam Rally being how they don’t immediately cast Condemn?
Have you tried using Guard instead of punish? That armor bonus stacks up with stone G’s and your high paragons.
I will give Guard a try. Survival is very different than what I remember it being on the PTR.
Probably not. The only change for seasonal would be to change out Iron skin for Angels. I’d keep everything else as/is.
It seems the Warhelm of K. doesn’t do anything other than give us the CDR. With AC:Rally, we don’t even need it and then we could go for Aughild.
Yeah Kassar’s 60% damage increase doesn’t visibly do much. Eternal Union at least provides less buttons to push. I’m using Guardian+T&T+CC to test along with the set. Right now it feels better for something more speedy for gr90s. I’ll test for the push. Not sure if any of you have tested it yet. I am thinking though with Kassar Strongarms and F&R it might perform better.
I may have not been clear, sorry. Warhelm of Kassar gives us 0% dmg, it’s bugged and not working properly, we do however get the CDR, which can be beneficial for Bowmen or Shieldbearers. Without the CDR from WoK we cannot get 100% uptime on Bowmen. Using Eternal Union is out of the question, a ring that gives no dmg or defensive increase is not feasible. Shieldbearers is surely the strongest option for pushing, but is absolutely horrible when it comes to Rift Guardians, I have closed quite a few rifts, because I could not kill the RG. You basically NEED a pylon for the boss or have a boss that spawns a significant amount of adds.
All in all, the Akkhan rework is just a nightmare, none of the reworked items work properly, none of the seasonal powers do anything for us. A lot of people left fantastic feedback on the PTR forums, but seemingly all of it was ignored. I’m dumbfounded.
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Prior to the patch, i confirmed Kassar did increase Shield Bearer damage. When did you last run this test? Today?
Yeah, I’m not sure if I can post screenshots here, but I used the exact same gear and only switched helmets (Akkhan Set + Warhelm) on the zombie in “The Old Ruins”.
Average hits for both were pretty much the same, around 200k crits. There was a very very minor difference, because the helmets didn’t have the same stats, but pretty much negligible. Repeated this multiple times to be sure, I cannot see any difference in dmg (of the condemn explosions (no condemn rune)).
The result was also the same for Bowmen. There is, however, an increase in the direct damage the Phalanx do, which doesn’t help us of course, but I thought I should mention it.
This is good to know. We have some choices now…
Strongarms + Kassar → Aughild
Kassar → Tasker (watch for lag)
F&R + Akkhan Amulet → Endless Walk + CoE
Aughild is likely best due to the extra defense and elite potency. I will confirm your findings, then switch to test.
Following up.
I’m confirming Kassar is ineffective for damage, really just a convenience item. I switched to Aughild for pushing and clobbered GR146 in 12:58. This is the strongest, all-purpose variant. It surpasses LoN Bomb. We’re in S-Tier territory with the likes Marauder, Wave of Light, Corpse Explosion, Rathma and Raekor.
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