I tried and drafted a nice overview with the links to items but apparently I can’t post links
First I would like to a say a thank you to the team that puts efforts in the making of these new patches that keeps changing the game as we know it.
Below is a list of the current PTR changes and some feedback regarding them.
Pandemonium
The seasonal buff seems interesting and well within the spirit of hack and slash game play. However the duration for such buff is very low at 5 secs duo to the fact that it requires a player to go through multiple levels to achieve higher stacks to potentially reach the 500 or 1000 stacks buff. I’d see a better result at maybe 10 secs duration. And for the usual bug fix of any buffs like this please fix the cow level interaction.
New Crusader Set: Aegis of Valor
The set damage output feels weak but the play style is fine. The 2 piece bonus seems to have a 3 sec internal cooldown which results in a lot less fists of heavens. Also since fist of heavens has only 2 multipliers of damage [Darklight] at 250% and [Khassett’s Cord of Righteousness] at 170%, maybe add a damage bonus to the 2 piece.
New Monk Set: Patterns of Justice
The new monk set seems extremely underwhelming both in damage output and toughness of the set. The set requires a built-in damage reduction and with [Vengeful Wind] at 300% being the only damage multiplier to sweeping wind maybe the new [Eye of the Storm] requires a rework for the set to function better. Overall it feels like the set requires a x15-20 times more damage to perform anywhere close to the other monk sets.
[Chantodo’s Resolve]
I believe sVr posted in length about this and nerfing the proc coefficient of the damage is not the way to go and most likely is not intended. Hopefully the set works properly after revisiting it post PTR and the scaling of the IAS is addressed and not the damage procs instead.
[Wrath of the Wastes]
I personally am so happy about this set and the changes to the 6 piece to include the rend. While the [Lamentation] provides a 200% Damage multiplier to rend, The set itself synergies perfectly with rend with 2 piece at 500% multiplier and 4 piece at 200% which makes me wonder if the set was originally designed for rend and whirlwind as a supporting element. The other item modified for this set is [Ambo’s Pride] that makes the rend damage happens in 1 sec just like Raiment of the jade harvester set for WD but in a very smaller scale. The sword applies rend with whirlwind each sec for smother gameplay and unlike rend that the damage is calculated based of your mainhand weapon this mighty weapon’s rend application calculates rend damage based on both weapons equipped (if dual wielding) alternating each sec. This brings the barbarian class in line with others like crusader and wiz and personally i can’t wait to play it when it goes live.
P.S don’t you dare touch this one.
[Remorseless]
This 1-handed mighty weapon increases the damage of [Hammer of the Ancients] by 250% while both Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients are active. While I can only guess the reasoning behind this new item was to boost the performance of IM6 HOTA and possibly LON/LOD HOTA, it can also be a nice addition to the currently powerful R6 Hota where it can boost the build with a slightly different gameplay by 4-6 GR level.
[Bracers of Destruction]
I have to be honest the problem with [Sesmic Slam] item has not been resolved if this change remains as it is currently on PTR. While [Fjord Cutter] is a very nice addition to various builds for [Sesmic Slam] with 50% AS to match HOTA and 150% damage multiplier to catch up, the problem stays the same where restricting damage to certain amount of mobs reduces the power of all associated build significantly and they simply just can’t compete. I don’t see any problem aside from the “first 5 10 enemies it hits”. Maybe remove that part and no one will notice
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[Fury of the Ancients]
I just assume this is added for any LON/LOD barbarian builds AKA HOTA.
[Bone Ringer]
O boy… This one change was only made to bring the power of the current thorns Necromancer solo/4 man RGK. However this will kill any build that uses command skeleton and not the thorns variant AKA Crit command skeletons, Hybrid Corpselance etc. I have a suggestion that might solve the thorns problem without the need to necessarily eliminate all command skeleton’s builds. The necromancer passive [Aberrant Animator] increases necromacers thorns for pets by 200% where is double compare to Barbarian class and 4 times compare to Crusaders. If this passive is changed to lets say 100% then along side the changes to Blighter there won’t be a need to change [Bone Ringer] at all and while toning down the power of thorns necromacer, other command skeleton builds are unaffected.
Bug Fixes
Last but not least thank you for fixing [Spite] although Gargantuan needs a lot of help (maybe a damage multiplier on that item?) but it seems to be fixed where the spell cooldown is still an issue in instances where you re-summon these bad boys before the buff end they do not gain the buff again for 45 sec. If this is intended to have an internal CD then RIP but in any other case i hope it is brought to your attention.
Squirt’s Necklace fix is probably my favorite fix in this patch where to my limited testing it appears to function properly without any issues.