ItemPassive_Unique_Gem_015U_x1- Now gains .5% increased Armor for ever stack (Downfrom 1%)
I'm fine with that... 1% was indeed OP with maxed gem + maxed stacks... But now comes THIS:
ItemPassive_Unique_Gem_015_x1- now gains .5% increased damage (Downfrom 1%) for 4 seconds (upfrom 3). Gaining a stack no longerrefreshesallexistingstacks
No longer refresh stacks? Gem is now completely useless... What's the point? the way the gem works on the PTR is for each EB cast, you gain 2 stacks. Now, the maximum stacks we'll get is 4? (EB can only be casted twice within the 4 seconds timeframe)...
Lets hope they revert it to its previous version...
Yes, I know... I totally table-flipped when I saw the post up on the front page... I don't know what the devs are thinking over at Blizzard, they've been doing the "stacking buff" mechanic for decades and now they're completely destroying its purpose?
I sure hope this is only a test and that it will be changed back because from a design standpoint, this looks like an incredible mistake.
Flipping out before even seeing the complete changes is brilliant.
My guess is that they changed the gem to require less maintenance by increasing dmg per stack per rank and making stacks expire quickly. The old design of infinite stacks heavily promoted using macros to maintain it which although officially against the ToS it is completely unenforceable and has been commonplace since the start with MF gear swapping... All that the stack expiration means is that you need to find another spell to use between cooldowns.
once 2.1 hits live and legendary gems are introduced you will want to reconsider playing a DH.
Since Sentries don't proc most of the gem powers you will want to revamp your gamestyle a bit with sentries just being as a support and not your main firepower. I know exactly what you mean right now because I also play DH and knowing that it's not really you killing mobs and elites but your sentries, not having any control over what gets killed can be a bit frustrating but I myself can't wait to rebuild my DH from fire to cold and start shooting at stuff myself
You must have missed the change to the pet gem. The datamine says it provides %pet dmg now instead of %pet cc so it is likely infinite scaling now instead of hard capped. This should allow pet builds to remain viable which puts M6 back as the only build for DH.
Lets hope they revert it to its previous version...
I sure hope this is only a test and that it will be changed back because from a design standpoint, this looks like an incredible mistake.
My guess is that they changed the gem to require less maintenance by increasing dmg per stack per rank and making stacks expire quickly. The old design of infinite stacks heavily promoted using macros to maintain it which although officially against the ToS it is completely unenforceable and has been commonplace since the start with MF gear swapping... All that the stack expiration means is that you need to find another spell to use between cooldowns.
Any changes yet? Seems to be quite some difference between the new patch and the datamined data.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Wiberg-21958/hero/35061489