Some of it has been annoying at times, though I usually do my own thing at least until endgame which makes it not a big deal for me, but I think that even if there’s some associated pain it’ll be alright long-term if they can avoid doing D3 style sets. I’ve gotten a little worried at times when seeing aspects or uniques that make a skill do the D3 standard “300% increased damage” or similar, but as long as we can keep away from the “6pc bonus: X skill does 120,000% increased damage” garbage, we can get through these trying times. 
You make a big assumption the whole dev team look through the data instead of forcing a part time intern with week long workload the sole person for analyzing player data.
1 Like
The problem with sets beyond the power creep was that flavor of the month approach. With or without sets the practices is the same.
Yes the 120000% was ridiculous 
but they are doing the same thing with smaller numbers
1 Like
I’m being patient since so few of their devs seem to have come from the old stock, making them learn the lessons of yesteryear as though they don’t have a decade of research to draw on, but I hope they get it sorted out. 
the problem was in season 1 they nerfed everything into the ground and the exploits were still there!
and then now loot reborn mainly tempering just made items more OP than they should be!
loot reborn reset the whole game completely with no testing of any builds and exploits! like who is play testing these builds!
they add more aspects and more Unique’s to the game when they should be focused on actual skills and innovations to make skills more fluid
like basic attack x2 and then a meaty core skill
but what we got is just spam basic skills
as for sets! i really hope they make set gems? instead
where if you have these 2 types of gems you get this bonus
I strongly disagree.
I am a Human Being and I like to CHOOSE for myself what I want to do.
I don’t need some Dev overlords dictating and mandating “Metas”.
Take D2 for example - I’ll quote myself from another thread:
IF you had all those options and they were ALL relatively viable but differed in Playstyle to a degree, had some strengths wand weaknesses(build multiple Sorcs for example).
How is it that one would choose a roller-coaster “Devs shaking and changing up teh Meta” over Devs designing ITEMS around the Skills that are balanced and Work
vs
Devs constantly changing Skills and the very core of Classes to force them into Items…
I know which I would prefer and frankly, as @LazyLoaf said - I am and I see many others who are also Tired. Of. The. Bait. & Switch.
It’s convuleted and arbitrary.
Build a Solid Foundation 1st.
Get your ducks in a row and ensure Classes and Skills have IDENTITY and can function and perform in a wide range of content.
Add items with Playstyle altering or enhancing, engaging, build-defining etc. But make sure the CLASS is still playable outside of the “special items” - said items should ideally be optional within a standard set of generic items Players can always rely upon to be there to use.
Finally - worry about “Content” Last. I don’t mean to be insulting but it’s true and it’s part;y the communities fault - The Devs seem to be suffering from Content Neurosis.
I’d love for that to stop.
Give me a boring game with diverse Characters that WORK WELL and many builds and I will play that game because I enjoy it and have fun with it while I EAGERLY await new Content.
Currently I dread new content because every single GD TIME it’s change this alter that No Sorry that skill is now TRASH - if you liked the Playstyle it sucks to be you - see you in 6-12 MONTHS when that Skill/Build is graced by the hand of God and put to the Top of the Meta once again!
that’s a load of horse 
p.s.
This game Plays smooth af for me. I ENJOY it. Stop telling me what to Play or gatekeeping Builds because they’re not part of some Meta Spreadhseet.
I’m not saying every single skill should “Shine”.
But if I throw on some aspects and 925 GA Gear - NO UNQIUES /Build “Defining Items” Any class should have ALL CORE SKILLS and Certainly “Mastery”(where applicable) Functioning at a high level vs most all content.
1 Like
The issue is that various builds, that are thoughtfully planned out, with GG gear, should be +/- 10% of one another.
Right now it’s like 80% between the FOTM builds and others.
1 Like
I actually have a hypothesis about the massive flush of new aspects and uniques for S5. I think they’re trying to get as much on the table as possible so that they can try to balance things to the maximal extent possible for the VoH launch. Who knows if they’ll achieve anything during those two months, but I think that’s the gambit. 
I sincerely think a large part of this are tied to Tempers. The builds that excel currently and into S5 (PTR) have Temper support. The skills that don’t lack Tempers.
Tempers feel rushed; it seems like we got 1/2 a system that was really designed for VoH.
Instead of focusing on Uniques, devs need to focus on Tempers as they are more widely accessible. Uniques can’t even get a Temper, and some of the builds need a Unique just to get going.
1 Like
charge wasnt even that good
and i run shaco + charge pants
it was hota that was overpawered
anyways back to a point.
blizzard devs made these 2 both doodoo this season
am i playing some f&*()__+ league of legends meta LCS or what ?
i understand fixing skills but gutting them its a clown behavbiour
What you think you see does not necessarily reflect Blizzards reality of player engagement numbers. So whatever you are projecting to know about game design and what not, shove it.
I just dont like to play the same thing every season, so its good they swap the meta around. Nothing wrong with it. There is usually more than 1 build for each class that is capable of finishing the season. This season I played 4 different builds as a necro that I did not play before and that were all capable of finishing the season.
Can you try not to be toxic or is it offensive when someone disagrees with you? I don’t think “shove it” is warrented.
Also I clearly never said YOU were wrong.
I accept your opinion and voiced my own.
Also - Read the Forums and watch some content creators.
It’s now working well for Blizz right now.
Finally - It appears you might have missed my point:
IF the Classes had a Solid Foundation to begin with - Meta would be UP TO THE PLAYER.
There would be no Game of handholding and guiding Players to the next best Flavor of the Season build.
If all things were Viable you would have a problem making a decision without being told what to do?
If the game for example had 10x VIABLE Sorc builds … you would see that as “I don’t like to play the same thing every Season”???
Ok then.
I can be less toxic. Will you be less toxic towards the devs?
Unless you have every single skill do the same exact amount of damage, there will always be a meta dictated by that damage. Yes, even a single digit more damage in a skill will lead to people only playing that build.
I prefer a game where there is variance by tweaking some numbers and shift said meta around, even if it means certain builds are not viable at certain times. And again, the outliers we are seeing, cannot be addressed because of the community we are. Look at all the whining right now about the PTR. They are trying to dial it down, to bring everything a little closer together, but everyone and their dog are shi tting all over them.
1 Like
I’m really hoping they add the skill size, duration, damage, etc. to a LOT more skills for the expansion. It’s a decent system overall, but as you say, many skills didn’t get any love and it shows in the builds. 
1 Like
Absolutely, the temper manuals need more tuning. Thats what I meant with lack of data. The PTR for season 4 did not give a full picture of how the system would play out. And now after half the season is over,they have the data and you are seeing a lot of changes on the PTR already. Thats one of the systems that will also see constant changes over the seasons.
I agree with you to a point: Yes if X skill did even 1% more DPS then it would be favored or if it was inherently safer but with same dps and so on.
That’s where the “Build Defining Gear/Items” comes into play.
Want to change the Meta Devs? That’s how they do it.
Instead of only (as in D3) 1 build being pushed to the front - push 2 or 3 from a pool of 8-10.
More variance and more choices.
It’s driving people crazy that the Class(es) are getting pushed around up down left right constantly every single damn season.
While you might like “Mixing it up” Season to Season which I assure you I share the feelings(I’ll usually swap classes to mix it up though) …
Some form of FOUNDATIONAL CONSISTENCY is imperative!
Some of us aren’t super versed in every minute nuance of every skill and node etc.
These changes and alterations of interactions at the very CORE drive me crazy.
Gear should be going through iterations - not characters(within reason of course! balancing and patching is necessary…)
Alter the numbers on Gear to throttle strengths and weaknesses and promote metas - NOT, mind you, like D3 which was 
those 1000’s of %'s.
It’s ok to take some away from items and give a little to another one to INCENTIVIZE a different build instead of forcing it.
I’m speaking in subtle changes and terms.
Blizz is a tad egregious and clumsy in their approach and in MY Opinion is doing it backwards.
I would love if that were true - I want everything dialed down and kept in check.
In fact I’d love it if 95% of the Multipliers were either trashed or reduced to very very minor values.
Sadly if it was primarily additive with few multiplicative factors - then Metamagician hard core players would be quite upset.
As for people crapping on the Devs - I cannot speak for them. I try(I hope I succeed) to be reasonable and speak neutrally, be proactive, find solutions & common ground and keep most of my emotions out of it.
Folks should learn to not take a game too personal.
Many of the tempers feel like they should have gone into uniques. This also has the balancing effect of avoiding powerful tempers of getting stacked everywhere possible, e.g. the double cast of basics if limited to just 1 item due to a unique status, this would have been a good balancing approach.
I think philosophically if the purpose of tempers was to balance out RNG, e.g. finding vulnerable or critical strike damage on a weapon, they should have focused on the core affixes for tempers rather than crossing over into ‘build enabling’ or ‘build defining’ temper capabilities.
I treat every new season as a new game, I look at them in a vacuum. Whatever was in the seasons before has to bearance on the new one.
Getting everything on the same level is not a viable business model for them. It takes way too long to get there. WoW devs took years to get there, massive overhauls over the years as well. But they have a subscription model, they can afford that luxury. And since they had success with that kind of shifting in D3, they will not get change that anytime soon.
Shifting the meta is fine, but doing stuff like S3 “lol charge now does 900% more damage, have fun” isn’t like some puzzle to solve - they’re blatantly selecting a handful of builds and everything else can shove it.
Game your way they said. 900% buff on a skill you’ve never used. They need to stop controlling the meta. Leave more generic aspects.