Having played only 2 seasons, I must say this season was exceptionally fun for me with the experience of strafe impale. Remembering the last season I played - season 22 - gears of dreadlands was the best of all other class sets, but it is still a very clunky build with the “charging up” and quite unnerving when you charge up, but it doesn’t charge up - needless to say I didn’t play as long in season 22 as I did now in season 27 - Strafe Impale was so smooth and IT HITS HARD, it was such a pleasure to play (Why not make it permanent? And Buff it a bit more so not only the botters eh super high paragons players that seems to get no sleep at all, but the casuals can hit 150 with a “braindead” (Thanks for the very positive set name giving Raxxanterax) build?
I was very sad to see Strafe Impale would be gone. I guess season 28 it’s back to just making the quest for stash and then going offline again - until something FUN comes around again or strafe impale comes back and hopefully more buffed - because gears of dreadlands isn’t gonna keep me around for long - not even with double primals, double kadala legendaries and 25% pool.
When I play diablo 3 I want to have fun, chill and turn off, not get unnerved by clunky builds, or actually “work” like it’s my job to play D3.
This!
Games should have this kind of drive… not feeling like a job.
I think all we can hope for strafe wise is Gears of Dreadlands is buffed back to near what it was, because its pretty bad atm. Would be nice if they just put strafing impale on the shadow set. We need either for us strafe lovers.
There’s a difference between a game feeling a chore/job and being able to clear all content, even at the highest difficulty, with one button. Arpg’s have always been designed for the user to pick and use multiple different skills to combat hordes of enemies and overcoming obstacles for achievement. This isn’t to say that there aren’t builds that are super clunky and needs some work, but the other extreme of asking to be able to clear the hardest difficulty with one button would devalue the reason any sense of achievement is there in the first place.
What’s fun is subjective here, as what some people find fun may not be other’s cup of tea etc. Some people loved the brain dead build where you could watch netflix while gaining paragon for ultimate relaxation gaming. Some people preferred In-geom/echoing fury F&R for more damage and efficiency even if it meant pressing a few more buttons to achieve it. It’s a tough task for the devs to find that balance where most people can enjoy what’s available without catering to one crowd over another.
I was sad to see GoD6 nerfed. It’s still an A tier build but it’ll never have that meta shine it used to.
In terms of strafe builds, the new Nats buff is looking like it’ll also be another strafe build, most likely stronger than current season strafe impale.
The thing to be careful is that you don’t want the whole class to end up with only strafe related builds. We sorta have that this season with strafe UE MS, strafe nats (cluster bomb push version), strafe S6 impale and strafe GoD6. The only build that wasn’t strafe related this season for a class set was M6 and most people hated the cluster arrow sanctified power. Variety is just as important for people who (gasp!) may not like strafe 
Strafe impale has the gameplay Gears should have had. It’s smooth, easy on the hands & very gratifying to play. I’ve spent more time playing this than anything else this season.
Which was a mistake, m6 should have had strafing with mimicking strafing sentries that follow us around spinning for the win! j/k
The thing about strafing impale was its easy on the hands for people with arthritis or long play sessions, GoD is close though. I just wish the’d move GoD up about 5+GRs, seems too far behind the others. Thankfully its amazing in t16/bounties.
As far as the shadow set, I mean they could add a qualifier that if your using strafe, it activates the same as season, other wise shadow would work as normal so the set doesn’t actually change to strafe, its just an option.
Looking foreword to your next DH guide
This is why the brain dead build worked so well. It was an “option” to play a build in a way that doesn’t require much effort. It was weaker than standard or mace/sword based impale builds, so it made sense and it fits. The line gets a bit muddied when there’s a call for one button builds to clear the hardest content in the game, competitively. This is a bit much.
Unfortunately, the strafe power would undermine GoD6 if it became permanent, as no one would play GoD6 as it essentially would do the same thing, but stronger. You’d have to rework GoD6 to be something else to have some sort of identity if that were to happen. This is the case for some other classes as well. A lot more work than I’m sure the devs could possibly do while moving forward with the game.
This wouldn’t be fair to those who enjoy shadow the way it’s always been because the strafe option would be considerably stronger as the strafe power adds roughly 8 tiers of damage over the original playstyle. Don’t get me wrong, i like strafe impale, but I’m also sympathetic to those who enjoy the original elite hunting playstyle and I’m not a fan of kicking them to the side for the new fling.
For strafe lovers, this should be the push. The biggest difference between S6 and GoD6 this season is that S6 was considerably stronger. If strafe GoD6 was stronger than S6 by a large margin, no one would have played strafe impale.
With that said, GoD6 should be able to do speed 115-125’s next season with the theme buffs. This is similar territory to strafe impale this season for most players. Let’s not forget about strafe Nats as this can potentially be stronger than strafe impale currently.
Word
Without strafe multishot, impale only, id still use GoD for T16/Bounties as its got speed. They were different. One has speed, one has power even though some overlap. I was just hoping the strafe impale stayed for GR slow and steady playstyle.
That applies to every spec/class though since the beginning of d3. They are always changing, boosting/nerfing. Enjoy water ele monk? Oh we’ll change that! Enjoy Nat… j/k They are always changing sets. And they could adjust the damage if thats an issue. I feel they really hit a nice feeling/playing spec that was really fluid, just think its a net-loss seeing it go away.
Oh if I was Dieoxide I could do 115-125s. me? prob dying in 105s lol.
First lines I read I could already sense the dislike to strafe impale and the following list counter arguments. Dieoxide I heard this name before I think you are a pro - a wait you are a streamer and content creator - look. We are not all pros - may i say the majority are NOT pro aka casual?
Dieoxide may I remind you it was Blizzard themselves that said they let the season run longer, BECAUSE PEOPLE HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH IT.
Fun - is that a word you rarely heard in D3? Yeah, as a content creator fpr D3 I think you rarely heard that word, if you are honest and think long and hard. Many casuals are like me, we are NOT going to work for a game, we are not going to play keyboard piano, we have a short fuze. If the game sucks we move on. As faith wanted it - I came back to D3 this season´and stayed longer than anticipated, because it was fun. (Maybe I also remind you Blizzard introduced alot of “easy” game mechanics this season? The AOTV Crusader? - YEAH - EZ = FUN, WD Jade Harvest Pull Mobs? - EZ = FUN, UE Strafe? OH WOW - EZ = FUN. Come on man, if you want to play the hardest builds there are out there be my guest, but as it stands the majority of builds right now are NOT FUN.
As I said items 2x drops are not gonna keep me around if the set I play is absolute gut wrenching. Heck, Blizzard can make Primal drops 100% and I’m not gonna stay around cuz the playstyle is not fun.
To be fair, the majority of the semi-recent changes to builds/reworks have been towards sets that did not have an identity, but rather a generic multiplier that could be used for anything and were very weak or mechanics that did not work well (i.e. inna’s, akkhans, firebirds, etc). Shadow not only has an identity (elite hunter/boss killer), but it has always been a popular build since it’s iteration. It doesn’t fall under the same category as the others mentioned.
Haha, come on. Don’t sell yourself short.
I’ve always stated that I really like and enjoy strafe Impale. Even said it in this thread a few times. I was simply addressing the overall picture.
Not sure what me being a content creator has to do with what I initially wrote. I’ve been playing this game since release, which is almost 11 years. I started streaming in April 2020. I’ve been more of a casual much longer than I’ve been…well…anything else.
My stream centralizes around helping others understand and play builds while showcasing what builds can do at the top level. My video guides offer options to play builds for both veterans and casuals. I have no vendetta or secret plot/wish to keep casuals down…or something.
I don’t recall them ever saying this verbatim. Yes, this season was fun, but people have been begging for S28 and patch notes since November.
Actually, a lot. Often times I may go against the grain (meta) if I don’t find it fun. I’m a full time teacher “IRL”. Content creation is something I do on the side as a way to give back to the community.
Understood. People find different things fun and you don’t find most of the builds in D3 fun. Nothing wrong with that. I myself don’t find most builds in this game fun either, but I do venture out of my comfort zone and try things because I generally enjoy the game. I’m sure there has to be something other than strafe impale that you can enjoy for next season that isn’t terribly clunky.
My only objection to your original statement was making just 1 build, that requires one button to clear GR 150’s easily. That’s a bit of a stretch. Climbing leaderboards/aventuring towards the hardest “content” is not suppose to be chill, it’s suppose to be difficult. Speed farming though, however, should definitely be chill.