In what world do you live that made you think this dev group was capable of making multiple semi balanced builds per class per season.
Like s4 butchered so many builds and shattered any coherence of balance. Like hota barbs and lightning ball sorc in s2
chain lighting graphic effects are a full 10 out of 10 super cool. the damage is really horrible but the graphics are freaking amazing. So if you wanna look uber cool, play a sorc in s5. if you wanna clear stuff play anything else that does more damage even a necro minion or a druid wolf pet if thats even possible! haha
It is time to replace the sorc designer. If Adam is the one approving these changes he needs to be dealt with too. My friends on the inside say it is absolute chaos and they have no idea what to do about sorc or druid.
Based on what I am seeing, I have to agree.
I mean, just play the class and you’ll see where the class needs helps. It’s not difficult. At the very least, don’t nerf Teleport and Ice Armor. Like we understand flame shield, but why nerf the other two skills?
Blizzard, Teleport is always going to be an auto-take skill because it’s one of the best, if not the best, mobility spells every designed. Just lean into it rather than trying to “balance it”.
yes teleport is the best skill hands down, im just shocked its not a barb only ability
Doombringer - yep that’s bad. Definitely no synergy.
What’s worse is - Sorcs got MACES and not A X E S! (OP vs DoT 
… 
talk about synergy)
This is what happens when you have no BASELINE Core Balance to the classes and you take Players on a rollercoaster ride because they’re trying to Balance the Classes to Fit the GEAR vs Balancing the Gear to Fit the Class!
Chain Lightning for example: The Skill should have a solid baseline and be strong in and of itself.
It should have multiple ways of being played.
If the Devs want to introduce a piece of “Build defining Gear” - then that should ONLY dictate the “How” that Skill is played - not revamp the entire Skill, passives etc to fit the item itself.
Put a negative conditional “Your Chain Lightning does X and Orbits you etc BUT does less damage BUT the Explosion - oooh that’s the good stuff!” something. anything except messing with the SKILL as it stands.
I said this in another thread about Balancing the Core - the essence of each Class 1st and foremost. Set a Baseline:
Allow Players to adapt and learn their Identity because frankly right now, moving the goalposts by messing with the numbers far too much, is affecting morale.
Season 4 had, from what I’ve read, great feedback and solid numbers.
This is not the path to retention. This is not the time to “shake up the meta”.
Let Barb be STRONK! They had multiple great builds and that’s awesome! Tone it slightly if necessary but don’t MESS WITH IT.
Make ALL Classes Strong! Make Core Skills all WORK.
Make your Players Happy.
Adjust the Gear around the Skills - not the other way around.
Edit - adding: Know when you have something Good. Read the Crowd. It may be that one has to alter a plan or go off script to keep the vibe up and save some things for another day or rework them to fit in to what’s working at a later date.
They had to of done something to nerf all damage from all classes for the PTR. No one is doing near as much damage in the PTR as they do in the season. Season 5 better not have this built in or d4 will be back in the gutter again .
Yeah! I complaint about maces many times. OP weapons for a class that doesn’t have a guaranteed Overpower mechanic, no Overpower synergy in skill tree and paragon.
But someone said “You will probably get a nice 3GA mace somehow.”
Wow! Is that the best thing about maces upon sorc?
yes all odd seasons are from the same dev team. I based on the PTR i know i can skip all odd seasons for the rest of d4.
ps - I already called the s5 to be very bad a month ago and I guess I should have bought a lotto ticket instead of predicting this mess.
Bliz please dont move any of those rotten “oddball” season devs to the great “even steven” season devs team. At least I know I will have fun ever other season
Since sorc has mace lets change it from overpower damage to underpowered damage since that would work for sorc 100% of the time.
This is a sorc weak joke
Barbs have leap, its sorta like teleport only it has absolutely zero cooldown. you know, because barbillions also applies to lack of cooldowns.
OK, what I’m reading about the Sorc in PTR is depressing. I’m keeping the forums page open to see if there’s anything worth redeeming the Sorc but… T_T
I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: Not another penny will Blizzard get for D4 releases and content until Sorc is FIXED.
Ie, not buying the expansion until this class is where it should be. If that’s never, so be it.
No sorc not trash, it is just mainly played by the whiniest casuals
I’m surprised this thread hasn’t had one of those guys that thinks he is smarter than everyone else tell you the class is fine yet.
The class is in a horrible state. It really has not been good outside s2 bug build. It’s just been ok. Now it’s not even ok.
Whoever is in charge of Sorc balance is flat out bad at their job.
I do think it’s worth noting that the in the PTR pit and NMD bosses are super bugged. They spawn with trillions of HP. But if you die, for whatever reason, their HP pool goes back to normal.
This is why I think people believe every class is nerfed but really it’s just the bosses are bugged.
That said, the sorc is just in an awful spot. Those caps on the only reliable multiplicative scaling are brutal and no new item even comes close to making up for it.
I actually didn’t realize the nmd bosses were bugged too. I knew the pit ones were. I feel a tiny bit better but not much.
Huh, that explains the 5-10 minute fights with bosses in these yet cruise through trash. I figured my single target just sucked that bad 
Yep, just got off PTR. Deleted it, and will not be returning for S5 at this rate. Took a break S3, and think I will for S5 too and just wait for the expansion to release.