All Vyr 6 Channeled Reverse Archon builds (outside of Bazooka)…
Frozen Orb
Meteor
Energy Twister
Explosive Blast
Arcane Torrent
LoN/LoD Channeling builds…
Frozen Orb
Meteor
Energy Twister
Explosive Blast
Disintegrate
All of the above just to kill 1 build… Bazooka. This is akin to a patient exhibiting symptoms of a malady caused by life style choices/habits and irradiating the patient as a treatment. Later following up the radiation treatment with a statement that the professionals will make dietary and life style change recommendations at a later date (with no guarantee of future actions).
The Typhons set and the complimentary legendary item changes are inadequate. Please, remove the changes to DW, Sigil, MoC, surgically remove/disable/tone-down Bazooka, and revise/expand the Typhons set. I get that the classic games team has a full plate to manage but this really isn’t balancing, rebalancing or improving the Wiz class or the game.
Notice I left out DMO and Firebirds because they have fallen behind and need to be updated. Please don’t break them further and thrust them upon the player base.
Or they can buff other items as well. Some examples Starfire changed to 100% per 10 yards Valthek's Rebuke added a modifier to twister increase by 400% Orb of Infinite Depth changed to 50% damage per stack Winter's Flurry changed to increase cold damage by 300% per cold spell used
I suggested a lot of changes with the goal of dw and es only increasing the dmg of channeling skills and to buff the other builds that needed this stupid mechanic to deal good dmg.
In the post I linked I proposed DW and ES being limited to channeling and the auto cast spells coming from ES. This can be done and made viable and still not affect ALL damage which Bazooka is dependent upon. The devs will have to tweak the numbers but its doable. I also made suggestions to revise multiple items and even buff a few skills so that we have a wide variety of skills/items to use with sets and LoN/LoD, and not be locked into channeling only.
It’s been said before by some folks, back when Death Wish was first buffed back in patch 2.6.1, that Death Wish should only benefit the actual channeling skills themselves instead of the player’s overall damage but this fell on deaf ears; and now here we are today with wizard probably about to take a massive hit because most of their builds are heavily reliant on Death Wish and Etched Sigil.
We may have to wait a great deal of time before blizzard actually work on helping wizards; probably some time next year.
The more I read, the more I understand that D3 is lightyears away from what the players want.
That’s why I only play during PTR. To see if it’s any closer, and sadly, it never is.
What I would like to see if for Blizzard to contract a few streamers that they know, have a StreamerPTR, and give them some tools to modify the game. The PTR client could just have another page in the cube with drop-down boxes, sliders, and a save button.
Let them tweak for 30 days, then build the outcome into a normal PTR, and let the players test.
We could literally be that close to the best version of D3, but alas, corporate mindset rules.
Remember what happened toward the end of D3 vanilla? The Wiz class got bludgeoned because the tsunami of tears in the forums. Remember the quotes?
“I don’t want to fight ice statues.”
“You can’t see anything cuz of Wiz energy twisters.”
“They have so much damage and defense without any penalty.”
“I’m tired of Wiz being in every single group.”
Oh well the old forums are gone now. At the start of RoS Wiz was in a severely broken state and left to rot on the operating table for a year or more. Anytime any mildly good wiz combos that were discovered and adopted (ex: Gale/Hydra/Mirror Images used on the blacksmith’s wife) were quickly nerfed/amputated.
So, now here we are again with Wiz on the operating table and the surgeons are scheduled to perform some amputations claiming necrosis and gangrene, and saying they have plans to do a broader balance pass/review of the Wiz class in the future. This balance pass will most likely be conveniently done shortly before D4 release rendering it mute. The work will cut short because it will be merged into a larger set of changes and the rushed work will be justified by the idea of “nobody is going to care about D3 since D4 right around the corner”.
I’m sorry devs but I’m not buying this wait and see mantra… not after Wiz was burned at the end of vanilla and beginning of RoS.
@cknopp:
I don’t buy the idea of letting streamers design and balance test a game that I want enjoy. They are no better than anyone else. They pay the same amount for the game as everyone else. If we followed what you prescribed then we would have much less variety/diversity. There are lots of good ideas that have been posted in the old and new forums.
Streamers are literally professional gamers. It’s what they do to make money. They also hear/ read thousands of messages a day about the game they are playing, so they understand more about these games than many of the developers.
With that said, they also have a vested interest in making the game worth playing again (more watching subscribers, hype).
If they did what I suggested with DatModz, AlkaizerX, Quin69, Rhykker and Bludshedd, they would get huge amounts of visibility and draw more players. These ppl take these games seriously. Just be sure to NOT invite Lord Fluffy. His insecurities would make him awful for this type of work.
I know that you don’t think that it would work, but as we’ve seen, neither does the current dev team.
I mean, why make new sets that add nothing, when a dozen small fixes could unlock the overwhelming potential already available?
And that’s what the streamers would produce. QoL, followed by streamlined mechanics and well balanced damage/ toughness.
PS: I would bet my current AMD stock holdings that the 5 streamers that I’ve named have exponentially more time played in D3 than the entire dev team since launch.
Why wouldn’t they be considered as “experts” when it comes to making adjustments?
And the best part? D4 isn’t crazy far away. So even if it goes badly, it’s all going to be old news soon, anyways.
Actually Rhykker doesn’t play as much. He “reports” on games. He recently said he plays D3 about 3-5 hours a week. I agree with your premise though. Pick the mass streamers (not necessarily the vloggers).
There are plenty of streamers and non-streamers who are quite knowledgeable about the game and could provide valuable insight. Streamers are bias because of their desire/need to generate money from playing the game. They are more likely to focus on builds that work in their best interest and neglect other stuff. The folks you listed all have a high degree of respect in the community but I don’t like turning off my brain and letting others do all the thinking for me. I would rather the mass of players test and kick the proverbial tires than leave all the design and testing to a select few of streamers.
I rarely watch streamers. I might check out a quick video or two but I simply don’t have the patience to watch someone else play a video game for hours. Sometimes its the audience in the chat that turns me off and sometimes its all the side activities that turn me off.
This ^^ is what I was talking about in my response to Oblivion. The attitude captured above is why I do not trust that a future balance patch will set things right. Also, don’t assume that D4 will be worth buying/playing. I use to pre-order Blizz games, but not anymore… not after BlizzCon 2018… not after the Warcraft 3 Reforged fumble. I bought the Necro DLC without even questioning the quality of the product. I’ll evaluate D4 carefully and with heavy opinions before I consider buying the product.
Looked over the list of builds. I disagree that Explosive blast has been hugely impacted here, since most channeled EB builds already required fixed position and ramp up / time for procs to occur. The delay is impactful for nephalem rifting EB channeled though.
I agree in general sentiment though. Weaving casts gave builds like channeled meteor and twister more depth.
I happen to prefer the non channeled variations of some of these… Twister, FO… but that’s beside.
Cratic,
Channeled Meteor Shower (Tals & LoD) is a constant tap-cast channel to trigger meteors. With those builds one does not stand for 5 to 10 seconds in 1 place channeling which means those builds are destroyed by the 1 sec delay in buff activation. Channeled EB (LoD) can be run in the same tap-cast channel as the above to maintain mobility and activate Hexing pants.
The devs are breaking 2 items and a long list of Wiz channeling builds, but aren’t touching WD Firebat staff. We aren’t WW barbs you just hold down right mouse button to clear an entire rift floor.
Wiz is the premier channeling class and is getting unnecessary and unfair heavy-handed treatment.
Oh I agree on Meteor and many others listed in the OP. The weaving is nixxed by the change ergo rotation, positioning, and mobility are infinitely less interesting with such builds as a result. LoN rapid fire treatment.
LoN/LoD Rapid Fire treatment would require significant changes most likely to compensate damage and defense wise. We can’t disappear in-place thus become untargetable and maintain channel state. RF’s ramp up is much faster as well and doesn’t cost any resource.
I liked having different channeling mechanics between the classes so the game play doesn’t feel homogenized. Firebat staff increases the attack rate of Firebats which makes Rapid Fire and Fire Bats quite similar.
WD’s get to keep their Grin Reaper pet’s auto cast spells doing 100% damage (AFAIK). This includes the Grin Reaper pets channeling Firebats! Granted this would most likely be a lag fest in high GRs due to area damage. We have broken hat (Vickalyke), illusion pets that get ignored by mosters, and pet A.I. which makes them run about like retarded cats with brain trauma. Our pets don’t channel and their damage crippled at the rune level.
Keep in mind that I love animals especially cats and dogs.