we’d love for you to focus testing and feedback on the Wizard changes around Etched Sigils and Hydras,
Here you are asking to test the Hydra builds. However, the Hydra build I want to test requires the 4th cube slot. It changes the spells and play style I would use. Please advise how to test this without having the 4th cube slot. Thanks.
Tarkus
Sorry mate, but I’m not sure how else you expect to work around this? Change your build, or if that’s not feasible for whatever reason, wait until next week when the second stage of the PTR starts and you can test your build with the season 22 theme.
Well, I would hope they would have added the fourth slot for testing. Seems pointless otherwise.
The seasonal theme (i.e. clones and 4th Cube slot) won’t be available until the 8th of October. They made this very clear in the 2.6.9 PTR Announcement blog
This time around, testing will consist of two phases:
- Phase 1 - October 1: During this phase, we will be introducing Legendary and Set item changes
- Phase 2 – October 8: In this phase, we will be adding the Seasonal Theme content
NOTE: Phase 1 content will persist throughout the entirety of the PTR. Phase 2 content will be an addition to the existing content.
The PTR Bug Report sticky and the PTR Feedback sticky both say…
Please note PTR 2.6.10 is phasing in content over the next two weeks. The current focus is on Legendary and Set item changes . Seasonal Theme content will be added in phase 2 which is scheduled for an update on October 8.
Not sure how much clearer you want them to make it…
@Meteorblade
Please get better at reading comprehension before posting condescending replies.
we’d love for you to focus testing and feedback on the Wizard changes around Etched Sigils and Hydras,
This is from Blizzard. They want feedback on Etched Sigil changes and hydras. How is one supposed to provide feedback on how these things work and feel without using them in the proper build? That was my point and if you’d actually read the original post you’d see this. Or do you need more time to convince people the Season 20 theme is working as intended.
The same way as everyone else? Create a viable build under the premise that you’ll only have access to the default 3 slots in Kanai’s Cube, tweak as needed, then enjoy getting to add a 4th item in when phase 2 begins and making your build stronger/tankier during the season. I’m sorry bud, this really just feels like you’re making things harder for yourself needlessly. I empathise, but you’re just going to either have to adapt your build, or wait for the second phase of the PTR next week. Best of luck to you.
That’s ironic, when the answer to your question is literally in the blog announcing the PTR, and in lots of stickied threads.
Which you can provide without access to the seasonal theme.
The item changes will come to non-seasonal before Season 22 starts when Patch 2.6.10 is applied to live servers. As non-seasonal heroes will not have access to clones / 4th cube slot, what you’re testing in the first week of the PTR is what non-seasonal heroes will have access to after Patch 2.6.10 gives them the amended items.
Again, as per the announcement blog, the Season 22 theme isn’t due to be implemented until Phase 2 of the PTR on October 8th. So, yes, it’s currently working exactly as intended, i.e. deliberately not yet active.
The fact that the Season 22 them is not yet active is NOT a bug.
And Seasonal Characters. You can create a Season 22 Character now.
So, you can get your Seasonal Character(s) ready and prepare them for the Season Theme when it’s added October 8th.
Indeed you can. They just won’t have access to the theme until October 8th.
omg, let me try to say this s l o w l y.
I read what they said about the fourth slot. I read when they said it will be available. My whole point was that it was stupid to do it that way. Just like the current season them is broken and stupid. My point is they should hotfix it and put the fourth slot in and let people really test it for two weeks. But many say to test it for a week on a build you’ll never play, which is stupid. But I guess I was too subtle. Was that clear and s l o w enough?
Expand your thinking. Haven’t spent my entire professional career teaching and performing experimental design, and doing quality assurance and reliability for high tech companies this is a flaw in the testing methodology. It’s a PTR or Public Test Realm and if it doesn’t meet your testing objectives, which was my original point, it’s worthless. There’s a reason almost everyone I know quit the PTR after the first day. It’s because there’s not real point to it.
The point of the first week is to be able to test the item changes without anything being skewed by the seasonal theme’s clones / cube slot.
Anyway, disagreeing with how they’re doing it still doesn’t make this a bug.
Unless, you know, you play non-seasonal heroes where the 4th cube / clones still won’t exist even whilst S22 is running.
Because the change to them are not just for S22 but non season too…we test them without the Seasonal theme first then test the Seasonal theme.
The game is now about seasons. Without seasons it would be even more dead than it is now. Very few, if any, serious players play nonseasonal. Blizzard doesn’t even care. Most season 20 builds can’t even be used in nonseasonal because of the cube changes. If they had allowed the fourth slot you could still test the nonseasonal builds by leaving it empty. But then no one would play.
If I had to guess, the reason they are doing it this way was because the last PTR and Season 21 were such disasters they just want more time to make it work properly. Unless you’re someone who believes the Season 21 theme is working as intended, this is readily apparent. For me, Blizzard lost all credibility with the “it’s working as intended” comment.
Anyway, we can agree to disagree. Not worth more discussion. They rarely listen to their base anyway. Have a good one.
Take a look at the PTR solo Crusader leaderboards…
Non-seasonal, we have a solo GR150 at around 5900 paragon.
Seasonal, we have a solo GR140 at around 2200 paragon.
That clearly indicates that the new Thorns/Bombardment build is way over-tuned and we know that because the results in the first week were obtained without having been skewed by the seasonal theme’s 4th cube slot / shadow clones.
Had the theme been available from the start and a GR140 had been cleared, it would have been unclear exactly how much of that was due to the theme, and how much of it was due to the underlying build itself.
Just a casual player here. I tried out the wizard build with the new additions and I didn’t really see much a difference in damage. It didn’t seem as exciting and fun to play as the last patch with the updates to the DH with the Shadow’s mantle build and the GoD build. Maybe the 4th cube slot will change that.
My tip for you: Play Bonespear Necro next season 
That is the new DH
Nope. won’t. Wizards are dead for S22. What I would like to see is them not wasting so much time on Seasonal themes and instead fix the blatant issues. Ask yourself: what would be more existing? A new seasonal theme, or a season where they adress unbearable crap that has piled up over the years.
if you look at wizard sets, just as an example… there’s Vyr (which is not wizard but Archon) and Typhon (lame, its only Hydra). Tal Rasha or Firebird are dead and DMO, though buffed, is as clunky as before. I mean, how long would it take to buff the damage of Firebirds and Tal Rasha? A mere minute, at most…
Don’t misunderstand here, I’m not saying numerical buffs are what these two sets need, but damn, without those they are on the level of Blackthorne or close to it. At least that should be done. And that’s what I don’t get.