Stop removing builds entirely - For example Lightning Spear

PTR Feedback
1

I understand you want to change or shake up the meta but you guys have this terrible tendency of removing/overnerfing and bricking builds completely. Tune them down, not delete them. We already lack diversity, let the people who enjoy a certain build play them.

Lightning Spear for example was good because of numerous boss powers and a lot of Bugs. Removing those as you did was already more than enough. But what do you do?.. You delete splintering, the only thing making it viable. Unbelievable.

And you keep doing this with oh so many builds. To make matters worse, you don’t even revisit them till years down the line. Also please follow your data, look at all skills and aspects people are not using and start buffing.

13 Likes
2

So true, i’m gonna skip S9 entirely because of overnerfing builds, so many great builds gone down the drain: hota barb, LB sorc, Victimize heartseeker etc, stop overnerfing!

1 Like
3

Found on YouTube (not a Link, only the video title)
Diablo 4 Season 9 PTR Silents Sorcerer lightning spear build pit 90 cleared with 32sec remaining

Do you think pit 90 is like removing a build?
It may not be a S-Tier build, but it seems like still being A-Tier and one good build for the escalating Nightmare Dungeons.

4

Have you ever played this game? Do you not graps how atrociously bad that is lol. You’re only further proving my point. To put it in perspective, we need to clear a 100 in order to effectively level our glyphs. The different between doing a 100 and 90 is stupidly high, the scaling is absurd. If we take 15mins to complete the lowest of the low Pit 90 for a 7% change to lvl a glyph this is called a dead build. We’d need approximately 10x the dmg to do a 100 in 15min. Even then that’s terrible. We run Sub 2min 100s on live.

Not to mention the fact that on PTR we use perfect end-game gear. Everyone universally accepts the fact that LS is dead, ineffective and useless on PTR. This is not something you’d have to argue here.

My point is, and I think you can agree. Why not leave the build alive, of course tune it down but not remove the option completely when we have such lacking amount of builds

1 Like
5

I leveled my glyphs to level 90/91 in season 8 without doing any pit above 80.
I think you have never played a B-Tier build in this game.
I did not play any OP builds.
I have not played Spiritborn in season 6, I did not even tested Bloodwave with my Necromancer.

You do not need to level your Glyphs to 100, everything above 46 is ok.
Even an 8 % chance to level your glyph from 99 to 100 on a pit 80 with 4 tries each run will only take about 3 runs.

The different between doing a 100 and 90 is stupidly high, the scaling is absurd. If we take 15mins to complete the lowest of the low Pit 90 for a 7% change to lvl a glyph this is called a dead build. We’d need approximately 10x the dmg to do a 100 in 15min. Even then that’s terrible.

I think you need about 5 times the damage for 10 pit levels.
And yes, that is a lot.
But dead build?
In reality pit 100 should be about the max we can get to and every build that can do pit 60 to 70 is a viable build.
You are only talking about S-Tier to S±Tier meta builds.

By the way, the new Hydra build (not the bugged version) is doing only 10 pit levels more.

We run Sub 2min 100s on live.

I hope some day teleport is not functioning and sorcs have to run like everybody else in this game. All this whining about the pet is not fast enough to collect everything.
I am playing a Necromancer and I cannot do a Pit 1 in under 2 minutes.

You are missing a dose of reality.

Not to mention the fact that on PTR we use perfect end-game gear. Everyone universally accepts the fact that LS is dead, ineffective and useless on PTR. This is not something you’d have to argue here.

Most testers did not use perfect gear.
They want to test this builds without needing hours for crafting.
I even needed to do Belial a few times to get my new unique.

My point is, and I think you can agree. Why not leave the build alive, of course tune it down but remove the option when we have such lacking amount of builds

We have lacking amounts of builds doing pit 100 and better.
But that is what it should be.
Every build that can do pit 100 easily will jump from T1 to T4 in a few hours and skip the whole progression system. Just go to T1, do some bosses to get the right non-ancestral uniques and clear pit 55. Just boring.

In season 8 most classes were doing around pit 110 with most builds below pit 100.
We need most builds between pit 80 and pit 100 and above pit 100 should not be the norm.

1 Like
6

You’re spot on. They change way to less stuff around every season and after they introduce something it takes a very long time until gets luckily in the spotlight again.

Same with Strike of Stormhorn and they could just do some rework.

Strike of Stormhorn

I guess I would like this version even more:

Strike of Stormhorn V3

Inherent

  • Chance for Ball Lightning Projectiles to cast Twice is converted to Chance to cast a Super Ball Lightning
  • 130-250 Ball Lightning Projectile Speed

Affixes

  • 2-4 to Ball Lightning
  • 1% more Damage against Boss per Rank of Convulsion
  • 17-21.5% Chance for Ball Ligthing Projectiles to Cast Twice
  • Lucky Hit: Up to a 40% Chance with Ball Lightning to Deal 5500-8000 Ligthning Damage to Elites and Bosses

oder

  • Lucky Hit: Up to a 40% Chance with Ball Lightning to Deal 2500-4000 Ligthning Damage to Elites. Damage doubled against Bosses.

Power:
Ball Lightning splashes on impact dealing 175-225% of its total damage instantly. It Stuns enemies for 1 second if it reaches its maximum range.

Super Ball Lightnings are larger, deal 225% increased damage, have a higher Lucky Hit Chance, and their Stun duration is increased to 3 seconds.

Sorcs are in desperate need of a strong boss killing build. And ofc the Lucky Hit effect works with + to Ball Ligthning Ranks and the Ball Lighning multis on the Power.

Check this out for more Ideas:
Sorc - Hydra and past season Uniques

1 Like
7

Having the TOP builds be able to squeeze out the extra 10% or whatever from glyph leveling and the B tier or whatever you call it, should be just FINE by not having that extra 10% of power.
By doing that you make a larger gap between the best builds to the lower. only because the best builds want to have “harder content this, harder content that”
I do not agree with this at all.
(Yes i played top build and lower level build. i know the difference.)
when the top builds can progress normal, and the lower level builds basically going to the casino gambling to get a upgrade. With the players time. i got a problem with that…

8

The ONLY thing they needed to do was to get rid of the OP snapshots and leave splintering alone. That absolutely would have fixed the problem. But they decided to shoot her out back instead.

1 Like
9

Then give constructive feedback.
This was only the PTR, everything got just tested and can be changed.

This topic will not change anything.

10

Good idea! Don’t bother checking the updated patch notes, either. I’m sure it will just be more nerfs.

11

I agree. Back in season 6, Blood spirit was a very fun and viable build utilizing the unique cheat piece for necro. Blizzard decides that the unique is bugged and scaling way higher than it should so they fix the bug (now they are nerfing OP) making this item completely useless. Okay I understand the damage it scaled was unintentional, but the build was good enough, not broken like the SP. Instead of killing the build, make the damage scaling useful. There are many useless builds in the game because they don’t want us to have fun.

Whenever a certain item or skill is activated useful and viable and enables good builds, players tend to use that skill/item as they see it as the best option, like barrier generation on the soul rift. In an effort to discourage players from using a good item that they themselves designed to be good they nerf whatever was good about that item rather than buffing the useless items to be as competitive as the ones players prefer.

Ever since they nerfed Blood Artisan’s chest unique, every nerco build just runs SoFD. I wouldn’t be surprised if they remove the +1 to all passives on the unique (the only affix people care about) rendering the item beyond useless. More useless than Tyrael’s.

S9 is hit with nerfs. They need to do more buffing of useless uniques and skill in order to encourage build diversity and fun.

2 Likes
12

Should never nerf or tune down unless it is affecting server performance.

ALWAYS better to help classes that are under performing.

1 Like