How is experience calculated within the Arsenal system?
Is based on how many times you use it, or how much damage your abilities do?
Also what is the most optimal way to level up the skills?
I need 1-handed Mace expertise to level 10 in my technique slot, and I’m basically forced to totally play my barb in an unintended build just to level the expertise up. Very un-intuitive if you ask me, but it’s w/e.
I guess the only thing I can do is run dungeons over and over, or is there another way?
Thanks,
1 Like
You have to keep using the weapon that you want increased as much as possible. So if you want mace at level 10, then you need to use maces when you fight as much as possible. If you switch to a different weapon, it will stop increasing.
I hope Blizzard takes a look at the Arsenal leveling system in the future. It just doesn’t rest well with me that I have to play in an non-planned build just to get the Arsenal system to work with me.
When I was leveling my Druid the progression felt better. I didn’t have to change the way I played my character, I just needed to kill stuff and exchange offerings at the spirits to unlock my boons… Would be nice if the Arsenal system worked the same way.
What do you mean that you have to play a non-planned build? If the build you are going for requires mace mastery 10, then it seems pretty reasonable to have to use maces constantly to get to max mastery level. How else would you expect to get to max mastery if you don’t want to use the weapon you are trying to master?
It would be nice if whatever you pick for your technique gained xp at half rate for being slotted. You would still get it faster by using it, but it wouldn’t force you to use a weapon that is not right for your build.
4 Likes
I’m running a 2 handed hammer build, HoTA… The only thing I need Maces for is the Technique slot, HoTA has a high lucky hit chance and 2-handed bludgeon weapons have a lot of stun chance via lucky hit if you take the correct talents. Maces give you a lot of additional damage vs stunned targets… It’s the must have Technique slot.
Maces are for stats and technique slot. That’s it. They do nothing in my build other than the passives offered from Arsenal.
I cited the Druid in my last post because it seemed more intuitive. Druids require a grind too for the class mechanic in order to unlock the boons, but you just need to kill mobs and turn in the offerings – it’s a consistent progression that does not force me to play a totally different playstyle.
The Barbarian Arsenal system requires you to play in ways you never intended to just for the sake of getting a level 10 skill in your technique slot.
I’m running around with Frenzy/Double Strike, and swapped 2 of my main skills out for other skills in order to facilitate the grinding process of getting my Mace skill to level 10. I use Lunging Strike/HoTA in my main build, or Bash/HoTA. That’s quite a deviation in play style, if you ask me.
The other classes have not forced me alter my play style in anyway. I’m not asking to get spoon fed a streamlined process or anything I think it’s fair that the Barbarian have a class-mechanic that makes sense though. This is Diablo – you’re suppose to grind for loot/overall exp not grind skills like it’s an Elder Scrolls Game.
Why can’t I kill enemies like the druid and turn in offerings or something to a Barbarian Master somewhere that can train in weapon expertise? Seems like a way better progression then what it is currently. How come the other classes don’t have to go thru a stupid grind process just to level up class mechanics?
I just feel like with all the nerfs, situation with aspects, and the class specific skill mechanics, the Barb is objectively in a not so great spot.
I see what you are saying. I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I like the current system, but I also see your point. I don’t think giving offerings to increase mastery would make a lot of sense for the class. The alternative would be having some kind of weapon master that you could pay to train you in items you don’t tend to use, but I doubt the devs would implement something like that as it would undermine the current system. I guess based on the current way it is, you just have to decide if having the mace bonus is really worth it to you because it seems you may be stuck using the 1 handed mace until it maxes out.
Also, as far as I can see from videos on youtube, the barb is still the top class for damage. So, I think we are still in a good place.
Yes how you gain Expertise is a very bad system and is contrary to how the concept of the Technique slot. Expertise is only gained by physically using that particular weapon on a skill. The Technique slot is supposed to apply the Expertise effect to all of your attacks on top of the weapon you have equipped. If you picked Polearm as your Technique, this means you gain Lucky Hit.
The problem here is if you take Frenzy and Double-Swing for example, both can only be bound to DW weapons. You absolutely like you said, cannot level Expertise on Polearm unless you either entirely respec your Basic or take a skill like Deathblow to level it. Unless it is on your Primary Skill, it levels really really slowly. If it is on your Primary though, just by playing you will probably be Max Proficiency around 40 easily. This means that it is too easy to mean anything on one hand, and too difficult to level on the other hand.
This is not a good system and I would argue needs to either have Expertise levels just go away (automatically LVL 10) or, any weapon type in your Technique slot gains Expertise on every skill use.
The other option is just get rid of Expertise leves ans ebmn
I think you guys are misunderstanding how the technique slot works, the technique slot only ever gives you that weapons base bonus, even if you leveled that weapon to 10 then equiped it in the technique slot you would only get the base bonus, only the equiped weapon you’re using for abilities gets the level 10 bonus, which shouldn’t be an issue to levels since you’re using that weapon, right?
At the end of the day 10% dmg to stunned < 20% additional dmg as bleed. There’s no reason to use 1h mace mastery anyway.
20% damage to stunned enemies when using dual mace
Take the two passives that give you thorns and turn thorn into bleeding when an enemy hits you opens up the technique by giving you an intrinsic bleed.
So now I have the crowd control bleed affect in place still and all the damage buffs associated to the crowd control – in addition to that an additional 20% damage on top to stunned enemies just from the technique slot.
The uptime on stuns is insane in my build, having that 20% extra damage in addition to the other stuff really ramps up the damage.
PS ; I don’t care about the most optimal way to play, and I don’t follow meta builds. I will never see myself trying to push tier 100 dungeons and logging billions of damages with hits. I’m not that hardcore of a player. I will however continue to push and push and adjust my build accordingly so I can continue pressing thru the tiers.
1 Like