Lots of positive changes making it into this patch but some game decisions from the patch notes I just scratch my head at.
On the "we'll make you have fun because we know what fun is" comments: The most fun i've had with this game is generally doing the things blizzard decided 'were not fun' and subsequently nerfed. This includes exploring the alternative builds people have created (tank dh, cm wiz etc) which stray from the 'cookie cutter' playstyle of the particular classes. The funny thing is that none of these builds were particularly overpowered and there are still problem mobs you encounter. It simply provided a different type of challenge and required a different skill/stat/item balance. Anyone who's had to deal with fast/jailer/extra health hulking/phase beast packs as a vanilla dh knows the pain but for a tank dh, they're easier than a kiting hard hitting pack which normal DH's swat aside with ease.
The amount of proc nerfing, which looks to be to offset loh in most cases does the following:
- Removes the viablity of the inventive builds and customisation of the classes (using the skills already provided) or makes them very expensive and exacting to gear right (cm wiz for example).
- Forces players back into the 'at launch' play styles as specified by the base class types. The standard set of skills and a kite + potions + spam play style.
- Regardless of the damage buffs (WD aside, they really needed some love) it removes an equal number of skills from being useful. WD firepit, DH caltrops, DH shuriken cloud for example were great for procs which is what they were used for. To have the proc effectiveness hammered into the ground removes it as a 'valuable' skill. Why would a DH sacrifice one of the 4 available skill slots to shuriken cloud if they weren't running a melee spec?
- Devalues and limits the effectiveness of any item with stun/blind/chill/freeze/immobilize/bleed/loh and lifeleech (already nerfed hard ages ago). So armor/weapons now are just primaries, resist, crit + more crit + socket for more crit. Whats the point of having the other stats if they are effectively useless.
- The MF/GF solution is pretty elegant and nicely worked into providing some endgame benefits to work towards. The only thing that doesn't make sense is the cap. Paragon + neph + gear bonus (with mf averaged every 10 mins to disable swapping if its that big an issue 'read: not fun') would be amazing. With the cap, MF and GF gear joins the affixes listed above as having very limited functionality.
So while theres a lot of good and i have much love for the coding and graphics guys, it just seems some of these things just aren't well thought out. I used to eye off items with interesting affixes all the time whereas now I just can't see the point.
I really hope the drops are sorted out at last. everything since 1.03 has been pretty bad
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On the "we'll make you have fun because we know what fun is" comments: The most fun i've had with this game is generally doing the things blizzard decided 'were not fun' and subsequently nerfed. This includes exploring the alternative builds people have created (tank dh, cm wiz etc) which stray from the 'cookie cutter' playstyle of the particular classes. The funny thing is that none of these builds were particularly overpowered and there are still problem mobs you encounter. It simply provided a different type of challenge and required a different skill/stat/item balance. Anyone who's had to deal with fast/jailer/extra health hulking/phase beast packs as a vanilla dh knows the pain but for a tank dh, they're easier than a kiting hard hitting pack which normal DH's swat aside with ease.
The amount of proc nerfing, which looks to be to offset loh in most cases does the following:
- Removes the viablity of the inventive builds and customisation of the classes (using the skills already provided) or makes them very expensive and exacting to gear right (cm wiz for example).
- Forces players back into the 'at launch' play styles as specified by the base class types. The standard set of skills and a kite + potions + spam play style.
- Regardless of the damage buffs (WD aside, they really needed some love) it removes an equal number of skills from being useful. WD firepit, DH caltrops, DH shuriken cloud for example were great for procs which is what they were used for. To have the proc effectiveness hammered into the ground removes it as a 'valuable' skill. Why would a DH sacrifice one of the 4 available skill slots to shuriken cloud if they weren't running a melee spec?
- Devalues and limits the effectiveness of any item with stun/blind/chill/freeze/immobilize/bleed/loh and lifeleech (already nerfed hard ages ago). So armor/weapons now are just primaries, resist, crit + more crit + socket for more crit. Whats the point of having the other stats if they are effectively useless.
- The MF/GF solution is pretty elegant and nicely worked into providing some endgame benefits to work towards. The only thing that doesn't make sense is the cap. Paragon + neph + gear bonus (with mf averaged every 10 mins to disable swapping if its that big an issue 'read: not fun') would be amazing. With the cap, MF and GF gear joins the affixes listed above as having very limited functionality.
So while theres a lot of good and i have much love for the coding and graphics guys, it just seems some of these things just aren't well thought out. I used to eye off items with interesting affixes all the time whereas now I just can't see the point.
I really hope the drops are sorted out at last. everything since 1.03 has been pretty bad