First off, this post isn’t for the forum Andys that think post count matters.
I’ve spent 48 hours on my current rogue. Lost the first two rogues to bosses, but that’s a HC thing. I am running DoK, and not the meta version found online because I think using the shadow clones for damage is dumb. Honestly, it didn’t make much of a difference when I did use the build guide version.
Anyway, I really think the new changes did slow down player progression if you aren’t playing a meta build. Anyone running LS, Bloodwave, DT, or Earthquake will still just one shot their way to easy T4. The rest of us are in for a huge grind to get to where T4 doesn’t take forever to kill anything.
I’m not going to say it’s too hard or that I think the grind is too much.
What is too much is the grind for non-meta classes starting in T3 to early T4. I expect this kind of build dedication to be pushing the leaderboards for a top 10 spot. It shouldn’t be required for getting into the final difficulty tier to finish the season journey which for me is the only real reason to play seasons.
No, I don’t have triple crit MW on every slot. I don’t have any Mythic pieces and only 1 unique. But again, that type of gear and upgrades shouldn’t be required for T4, but for pushing top spots. Plus, I don’t like boss farming. I would rather get what drops naturally.
My suggestion for DoK would be to look at the disparity between actual damage numbers from the skill. The range is all over the place. My top damage hits are around 80M but those only happen occasionally. Most of the time I am seeing numbers around 15M. It’s like I have a Fists of Fate equipped at all times.
I personally would change the Pit mobs that have Damage Reduction and Extra HP to higher pit levels as well. It should start maybe around pit level 65. That way the non-meta players could reach ten above T4 and have a good time in open world T4. But they would also need to grind some if they wanted to do T4 bosses and harder difficulty end game activities.
- Salasarn, of clan Naughty Forum Children
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Thats literally what T4 is tho. The highest torment level.
Playing off meta this season myself, i had a phase where i sticked to t3 a little longer, but since a few days t4 is a cakewalk.
I mean, you said you dont like doing bosses, thats absolutely fair. But if you avoid ways to improve your build, you really shouldnt expect to do fine in t4.
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While I am not playing HC, I am doing this non-Meta Journey…and have every season.
The whole “getting to T4 is for the top 10%” is a gimmick. It is something they said for engagement purposes. I have hit T4 earlier than I have ever hit it paragon points-wise this season, only because I was eager to try and push there.
But really the requirements have not changed that much. Just have to let the paradigm shift happen in your own head…the numbers (pit wise) have shifted down a bit. But the effort on the players part is still the same if you were not copying builds and making your own.
I hit for about 28-35M on crits and my OP’s hit for like 150M, on Sorc and nothing special on gear just…single GA, sure one or two were re-masterworked when they hit something useless on the 1st tier…but for the most part I just went with what I got.
I do think Blizzard is terrbile at balancing the game for natural progression of non-broken builds…but that comes back to not being able to balance or even understand the importance of balance between classes and the environment so they don’t trivialize their own game with something like PooWave.
Unless you are on Eternal…those requirements have shifted up a little bit.
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I’ve been doing this a long time, played a lot of D3 was top 10 multiple times on HC leaderboards not only in US but the Asia and Europe servers. Bosses aren’t the only way to improve builds, and yea I could run all 200 of my mats to maybe get a minor upgrade. I also could farm obductite and go for MW crits on every piece. But I see that and boss farming for GA as post end game content. Also, I have to be defensive capped for HC as I don’t play a one-shot build. So, a lot of spots where uniques are take up much needed defensive rolls. I’ll get there maybe. I think highest DoK in HC is pit 75 and that’s likely with BiS or close to it.
The answer lies in more resourcing for bringing low outlier builds into a reasonable pit range and developing under-utilized capabilities imo.
I do the same with MW, and GAs. I just use what is dropped without too much target farming for BiS. Before the change it was fine. But now it feels like it did when I was pushing leaderboards in D3 but only to finish the season journey.
I think the journey should be doable before you grind for hours to get that small increment in damage. Lilith knows I spent more time doing that in D3 then some of these guys have spent on these forums.
As far as balance goes, I’m not going to get into the whole Blizzard is bad thing because one way or another we are still here. I think they have to keep the S tier builds in play because someone casual likely isn’t going to have the time or inclination to farm for small % increases just to finish the season out.
Well if you’re only using one unique and your build would benefit from uniques, bossing is the way to go. They only drop uniques and are a good way to get 1-2GA uniques that your build uses. Also doesn’t hurt they occasionally drop mythics. Can even run em in T3 and you’ll still get good loot.
It would, but then I lose a ton of resistance. I’ll have to balance it carefully. Even with the Uniques, I’ll likely still be at a wall. Pit 58 just took the whole 15 mins. More damage wont matter much if I die.
So I’m doing off-meta as well, shred druid. Not sure if that’s stronger or weaker than your build but… I did hit a brick wall at T3 where investment to improve was much higher than I was able to farm. Then I started doing boss runs and found a lot of uniques that worked pretty well w/ my build.
There’s quite a few uniques that have a decent chunk of resistance as their implicit stat. Could be worth looking into. My current amulet gives 30% all res and lets me overpower a lot.
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Yup, I also hit a wall in T3 which I’m currently climbing. I’m 90% sure Blizz will adjust the drop rates of Gem fragments (hard to max your resistances) and rates of Legendary runes (hard to get the Mythic you want) by next season though lol
I can’t progress any farther with my build. I suppose now it’s Meta or bust.
Even after finishing 12/12 MW I can’t climb 1 pit tier.
Well Nyurei has 1000x no 1064x as many posts as you so oh god the irony the responded to you first.