Supposedly, Aspects that have X values are being increased. Because Thorns however is not tied to Weapon Damage, I don’t know if this will apply to any of its Aspects.
If Thorns persists as an Affix, it can roll as a Greater Affix. Mastercrafting this will allow it to scale even higher.
Affixes as a whole have been increased which will increase Thorns.
We have not seen what all Tempering Weapon Affixes there will be to see if anything interesting is there for Thorns.
Thorns as far as scalability in Damage, should receive a contribution from Weapon Damage. The formula would be a Multiplicative Bonus going off your highest DPS Weapon.
It already gets multiplied by your class’s main stat, just the values on even 925 gear cap fairly low.
That’s why I say there should be additions to the Skill Tree and Paragon for Barb & Druid so that we can make the choice to spec into it.
Sure but the problem is adding means subtracting unless you have dual-function Passives in the Skill Tree. While Strength should scale, so should Weapon Damage.
I’m not entirely sold on that, especially given Thorns is technically a defensive stat - at least in so far as you need to get hit.
Giving Barbs access to a shield would help tremendously, but I’m not sure how that would work exactly - would it go in one of your DW slots? Would equipping two shields then be a thing lol?
Thorns, or Retaliation, is not Defensive it is just retaliatory damage. Other games (Grim Dawn) have done a better job of expanding on Retaliation and creating Skills that open up to allow the player to deal damage when they take damage. For people who have played WoW (assumed most), this would be like Warrior’s Revenge Skill.
In order for Thorns or Retaliation Damage to work, you WANT to get hit. This makes it very awkward to play in a group where your effectiveness and damage go down tremendously and it gets to be VERY boring and frustrating.
The Seneschal in S3 showed us how annoying this could be considering it draws aggro and splits enemies even without you taking things like Mockery.
With taking damage also means you need to be as tanky as possible. Normally this means Heavy Armor and a Shield. Considering they likely will not allow Barbarians to use a Shield, a similar outcome could occur if they added Defensive and Support abilities that allows you to Parry an Attack. The damage would be greatly mitigated (but still apply so the Thorns retaliation is calculated still). This acts as a “Block” just with a different name and more thematic to the walking arsenal.
Additionally, you would add a second source outside of Challenging Shout to Taunt enemies. While enemies are Taunted, their Attack Speed would be increased, but so would your Damage Reduction. Let’s call it “Dull Pain” which draws aggro and acts like Fevered Rage (Grim Dawn) in a way.
Idk man my thorns barb can VERY easily solo any and all content in game, all bosses, t100 nightmare dungeons etc i think you just have issues setting your build up properly
I found razerplate with 15k thorns
Problem without it I have 36k thorns challenging shout 62% iron skin 105% 34k health.
Plus’s affix 20% dr basic attack.
Razerplate I get 50k thorns challenging shout 56% iron skin 85% with only 30k health.
So you still lose more then u gain and that’s a problem needs more.
Thorns will be one of the best builds in s4.
Lots of new tech!!!
Yeah the new Razorplate is insane.
I am rolling Barb this season just to play Frenzy/Thorns, should be fun.
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Stryker a few things to consider:
- You forget the bonus you get for berserk damage on the thorns damage itself. Plus the other buffs like damage close when the final calcuation is finished.
- There is needleflare for AOE but also to basically proc throns more often against the enemy against total hits to you.
- Greater affix life on weapons will make the challenging shout version of the thorns go through the roof.
- You can use something like Penitent Greaves plus greater affix crowd control duration to make challenging shout last longer. Plus you get the chill damage buff too!
- @Apache222, the real problem here is that necro minions should in theory also get artillery shrine from tyreals might, so the mighty thorns barb in waiting for AFK might lose to necro AFK now in terms of who can be more AFK in a fight.
