I've been playing a Seasonal Crusader alongside my Seasonal Barb and have really noticed how much the Crusader class feels polished and refined compared to Barb. They have solutions to problems like Electrified, Single Target Damage vs AOE Damage balance and more for most viable GR30+ builds with a few viable ability and passive swaps that don't significantly hurt damage output.
If Wrath of the Berserker was more in line with Akarat's Champion, Barbs would have a lot less of an issue with Electrified, for example.
Increased attack speed hurts against Electrified. But, it helps with Fury production, life on hit, and damage output. So, some core adjustments need to be made to Wrath to balance it with the new 2.1 game play.
Possible Solve for base ability:
-Add flat damage % increase (25 or 30%)
-Lower attack speed increase to maybe 10 or 15% or remove all together and balance otherwise (perhaps make attack speed mod the new Arreat's Wail)
-Retain Crit increase or adjust slightly to balance
-Add Fury per hit increase or generation
-Change Dodge%? Isn't melee damage the least of our worries and dodge fairly week? Some form of base healing or armor/resist would be better.
Rune Status:
Arreat's Wail - useless in current state. Needs a complete redesign as this damage output on a 120second cooldown is pathetic. Attack speed increase for those that still want it? Insanity - great as is, so maybe the base dmg is 30% and you get 50% with insanity still? Slaughter - okay or maybe a minor tweak needed Striding Giant - Excellent as is I think Thrive on Chaos - Untested, seems unnecessary and weak compared to Insanity. A 30% dmg increase for the base ability would make this more attractive. Possible death immunity to help Hardcore players?
The 120 second Cooldown of Wrath is not in line with Akarat's Champion at all. It's quite easy to get 100% up-time of Akarat's. To even get 75% Wrath up-time we also have to select the Boon passive AND stack a lot of cooldown reduction.
I would also say that Block needs a notable revamp as it is totally useless against magic and should not be.
Love to see more of the communities constructive thoughts shared. Blizzard does listen!
Chance to Dodge applies to ranged projectiles, it's actually a pretty significant defensive bonus, it's just not particularly reliable due to how many kinds of damage can't be dodged.
Personally I like that Barb has an As steroid, it fits and it's nice that at least one classes buff encourages a stand-and-fight mentality. If GRift damage didn't scale to the point of instant death from everything Barb would be fine. Wish people would press harder to get GRifts retuned, since a lot of balance issues stem directly form that rather than from actual deficiencies within a class or build.
As far as uptime parity: That's suppsed to be a difference. Seriously, not every class should have everything the same.
Also Block is super OP against any non-debuff damage sources. Any and all. It's actually the fact that the damage gets so high that's a primary problem rather tah na weakness ot magical damage.
I completely agree with the need for diversity and support that. I don't want my Barbarians to play like a Crusader. Wrath doesn't need to be the same as Akarat's, but it does need to be adjusted to bring Barbs up to a more level playing field and make each of the runes more useful with recent changes to the game in 2.1. Wrath is our bread and butter "steroid" and a huge benefit to nearly any build. But, it's lacking by today's standards.
Basically, Crusaders have a 100% up time steroid that gives them damage, sustain, and defense. Barbs do not. As a result, Barbs currently must commit more skills to survivability at a greater penalty to damage output.
Obviously, reworking Wrath and maybe another skill or two could be helpful to Barbarians to overcome this deficiency.
Regarding Block... I did not realize that!! I thought after the 1.06 patch, magic damage was not longer blocked. As one of the original few Barbs who defeated Diablo pre-Inferno nerf, I'm a bit ashamed I didn't fully understand the full scope of Blocking.
Too bad it is so hard to justify shield usage. I really wish our Block related passive was stronger. It would be awesome to make up for some of the loss of damage somehow.
Yes, greater rift design is part of the issue (really with the random Conduit shrines, Blizzard?).
Electrified design is just as much of the issue in T6 as it is GR35... it's also a matter of gear scaling and party composition. The rest of the easy to avoid with ranged combat magic damage affixes compound the issue. I'm happy to struggle as a melee class (it's that way in all games), but when I see two of the three melee classes doing much better over all, it's clear that Barbs need some tuning.
Core issue is that to survive we must give up more damage than other melee classes as I see it.
Infinite Berseker isn;t the only potential fix here. Maybe, just maybe, we should look into buffing the other already-permanent buffs.
Keep in mind that Crusader gets an infinite uptime steroid through gear, but has no other infinite uptime steroids naturally aside form a single law. Barbarians can maintain two steroids infinitely without any gear requirement. Also keep in mind that Crusader second gear set is one of the largest DPS boosters in the game (upwards of quadruple DPS from the gear set) rather than a flexible set.
Rather than make Barbs more like Crusader make them more like Barbs except BETTER. Keep WotB a non-permanent buff, but make it a bit stronger while up. Then add some better defensive options (not that barb options suck).
Seriously WotB is already miles ahead of Akarat in terms of damage gains, just give some defensive benefits outside of the uptime. For instance each rune could give a passive benfit, making it an actually unique "megabuff" compared to other class "megabuffs."
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If Wrath of the Berserker was more in line with Akarat's Champion, Barbs would have a lot less of an issue with Electrified, for example.
Increased attack speed hurts against Electrified. But, it helps with Fury production, life on hit, and damage output. So, some core adjustments need to be made to Wrath to balance it with the new 2.1 game play.
Possible Solve for base ability:
-Add flat damage % increase (25 or 30%)
-Lower attack speed increase to maybe 10 or 15% or remove all together and balance otherwise (perhaps make attack speed mod the new Arreat's Wail)
-Retain Crit increase or adjust slightly to balance
-Add Fury per hit increase or generation
-Change Dodge%? Isn't melee damage the least of our worries and dodge fairly week? Some form of base healing or armor/resist would be better.
Rune Status:
Arreat's Wail - useless in current state. Needs a complete redesign as this damage output on a 120second cooldown is pathetic. Attack speed increase for those that still want it?
Insanity - great as is, so maybe the base dmg is 30% and you get 50% with insanity still?
Slaughter - okay or maybe a minor tweak needed
Striding Giant - Excellent as is I think
Thrive on Chaos - Untested, seems unnecessary and weak compared to Insanity. A 30% dmg increase for the base ability would make this more attractive. Possible death immunity to help Hardcore players?
The 120 second Cooldown of Wrath is not in line with Akarat's Champion at all. It's quite easy to get 100% up-time of Akarat's. To even get 75% Wrath up-time we also have to select the Boon passive AND stack a lot of cooldown reduction.
I would also say that Block needs a notable revamp as it is totally useless against magic and should not be.
Love to see more of the communities constructive thoughts shared. Blizzard does listen!
Personally I like that Barb has an As steroid, it fits and it's nice that at least one classes buff encourages a stand-and-fight mentality. If GRift damage didn't scale to the point of instant death from everything Barb would be fine. Wish people would press harder to get GRifts retuned, since a lot of balance issues stem directly form that rather than from actual deficiencies within a class or build.
As far as uptime parity: That's suppsed to be a difference. Seriously, not every class should have everything the same.
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/68185/how-does-blocking-work-in-diablo-3
Also Block is super OP against any non-debuff damage sources. Any and all. It's actually the fact that the damage gets so high that's a primary problem rather tah na weakness ot magical damage.
Basically, Crusaders have a 100% up time steroid that gives them damage, sustain, and defense. Barbs do not. As a result, Barbs currently must commit more skills to survivability at a greater penalty to damage output.
Obviously, reworking Wrath and maybe another skill or two could be helpful to Barbarians to overcome this deficiency.
Regarding Block... I did not realize that!! I thought after the 1.06 patch, magic damage was not longer blocked. As one of the original few Barbs who defeated Diablo pre-Inferno nerf, I'm a bit ashamed I didn't fully understand the full scope of Blocking.
Too bad it is so hard to justify shield usage. I really wish our Block related passive was stronger. It would be awesome to make up for some of the loss of damage somehow.
Yes, greater rift design is part of the issue (really with the random Conduit shrines, Blizzard?).
Electrified design is just as much of the issue in T6 as it is GR35... it's also a matter of gear scaling and party composition. The rest of the easy to avoid with ranged combat magic damage affixes compound the issue. I'm happy to struggle as a melee class (it's that way in all games), but when I see two of the three melee classes doing much better over all, it's clear that Barbs need some tuning.
Core issue is that to survive we must give up more damage than other melee classes as I see it.
Keep in mind that Crusader gets an infinite uptime steroid through gear, but has no other infinite uptime steroids naturally aside form a single law. Barbarians can maintain two steroids infinitely without any gear requirement. Also keep in mind that Crusader second gear set is one of the largest DPS boosters in the game (upwards of quadruple DPS from the gear set) rather than a flexible set.
Rather than make Barbs more like Crusader make them more like Barbs except BETTER. Keep WotB a non-permanent buff, but make it a bit stronger while up. Then add some better defensive options (not that barb options suck).
Seriously WotB is already miles ahead of Akarat in terms of damage gains, just give some defensive benefits outside of the uptime. For instance each rune could give a passive benfit, making it an actually unique "megabuff" compared to other class "megabuffs."