For the time being, I suggest you get rid of Berserker Rage passive and exchange it for Unforgiving since you wont be generating enough rage to keep up the Berserker Rage passive. Keep the Together as One rune on Call of the Ancients until you get a unity, and change the rune on your Rend to Bloodlust to heal up after procing Nerves of Steel, or simply taking too much damage. That should bolster your survivability by a lot, and keep your swinging.
I'm currently experimenting with my passives and Battle Rage to see if I can't ink out any more dps during trash so I have more time to burn the RG.
From what I've been able to gather from my gearing and playing is that to really start pushing 45+, you need maximize and optimize your stats (with ancients) and iron out your build to simply get the most survivability. The build itself has the dps to push 45GR. (I don't even have an ancient weapon and I'm doing 47.)
Pushing beyond 45 is unfortunately a game of paragon. You gotta start grinding that paragon to get past 45, plain and simple.
The following is highly subjective and I want to split the question into two parts:
I do not think that it is possible to be in touch with the player base as a whole because it is doubtful that a homogenous player base exists and keep in mind how large the player base is according to sales.
Unfortunately, I got the impression over the years that the developers play their game less. They lose the touch to the series. Of course, they actually never had the time to play it extensively as some of us do (2.000+ hours on Wizard class) but it seemed to me as if they were able to keep the balance between the often stated formula about the complexity of games resp. Diablo: easy to play, hard to master.
There are certain elements that remind me of this regression but in order to keep it as short as possible, I want to mention one thing only which is very important to me but each player has his/her priorities. Although I am quite skeptical about the comparison between D2 (expanded, patched, current state) and D3 (same), I miss the skill trees from the former. Those were easy to understand but actually hard to master in terms of optimization for specific tasks, gear setups, party roles.
Removing them was a very hard knockback for me because I loved experimenting with exotic builds in theory and with some even practically. The system was not perfect as some builds, for instance, consisted of 5x20 points and the remaining ones were used for enabling your main skills. So, one often read in guides that you just maximize certain skills and that was all. Please, excuse this rhetorical question but does that justify a complete removal? I do not think so and I am not convinced of the current rune system. The system per se seemed and still seems fine to me. You actually progress to more powerful skills (lore-wise from apprentice to master) and the very late introduced synergy system even granted us more build diversity because low skill builds became an option (not all of them but some, e.g. Fireball- (Level 12), Nova-Sorc (Level 6)). The synergies made the leveling process smoother and it also made sense on higher levels: a high level in Frost Bolt (Level 1) increases my damage with Frozen Orb (Level 30) because it actually shoots Frost Bolts.
As it was stated before, you often just spent one point until you reached the desired skills but an overhaul would have probably helped more than a replacement with a rune system. Diablo is not an MMO and it is not WoW but I still remember the Classic and TBC skill trees. Sure, back then also existed certain skills which were not (so) useful but I want to speculate a bit: how about reducing or refining the skill tree system? Some skills just need one point, some three and some five or probably even more points. Some skills allow certain specializations (I have been playing Van Helsing eight months ago and I enjoyed the skill system a lot.) as soon as you have spent a certain amount of points. You may also find find runes and combine them in order to diversify your skills even further (I know it is from PoE. Also like this game a lot besides Van Helsing.).
Nowadays the developers seem to me to not be in touch with their game, with its soul, with its spirit. D1 had skills, D2 had skills and skill trees, D3 has skills and skill runes but no skill trees. This was just one aspect of the game and after writing this text I have the fear that I may derail the discussion and we fall back in the dark times a.k.a. the months directly after the classic release but this debate is very refreshing for me because this is something that has been bothering me (a former hardcore raider) since the release of WotLK. I just wanted to lay down my thoughts why I think that the developers should get in touch more with the game.
I do not want to postulate that Blizzard developers should get even more in touch with their game in their free time. Maybe the QM needs an overhaul? Maybe it is just me reveling in memories of the past (first Diablo II classic kill with a completely wrong built melee necro at level 29)? Some other forum users have said it (including me sometimes): if you do not like it, do not play it. I like Diablo III as a whole, I am excited for 2.1 (going to take some days off as usual when new content arrives) and Diablo II was probably not so great back then as we remember it in these days (shared loot, no respec until the introduction of A1Q1 respec and later the Token of Absolution etc.).
Also, the game developers have a vision or something in their minds how the game should be and this is great. You cannot and should not work on something without a plan. In addition, it is of course hard to get reliable information from the player base (see beginning) but the developers should probably have a closer look at respectively get in touch (more) with the predecessors and their elements, take them, evolve them instead of purely increasing or reducing numbers. They have done this in the past and they should do it a lot more.
Now it is close to 11 AM in my time zone, after reveling in memories I guess I need a glass of red wine now and one of my cigarillos. See you ingame.
Regards,Bandyto
TLDR: Are the devs out of touch? No, they should just get more in touch with the whole series.
Edit: Typos.
Skill synergies would of been really cool to see again, but honestly, not a very welcome change. The skill tree of Diablo 2 did give plays a lot of options, however seeing diablo 3's track record with skill runes, many of the skills would either be severely under powered and not worth while. (Which would cause people who tried out those skills, and eventually hit that brick wall, to respec.) The skill runes not only change the skill mechanically somewhat often, but also gives it an element, which in 2.0 actually started to synergize with +% elemental damage.
I personally would prefer a system that wouldn't require me to respec entirely because I wanted to try something different, or even respec entirely because I wanted to switch a single skill out for a boss. (granted it could be done like Paragon points and their modular reset)
I enjoy finding legendaries that open up new possibilities for builds, that is the funnest part about diablo. But I would hate to remove all my points from various skills because I wasn't going to use the skill it synergizes with anymore. That would quickly become a hassle, and really show the worth of skill's and the synergy system as a whole to be lacking. And I can feasibly see a work around for those issues unless the synergy system itself was gutted and lack luster compared to Diablo 2's.
What I personally think needs to happen is for all the skill's to get reworked again and have their unique elemental effects removed (mostly.
Hear me out.
Imagine if the damage type it self had effect's and properties that we not exclusive to the skill rune you were using.
Imagine if building a character around a elemental type wasn't just about "What rune is the best fire rune, or cold rune."
Instead, the elemental damage had properties that was simply part of the damage type, and you could not only design skill runes to interact with those "elemental properties" but also design the skill runes to have more unique mechanics that wasn't simply "Turn's x skill into lightning and stuns on the third hit."
It could instead be "Turns x skill into lightning (allowing it to benefit from +% lightning damage) and increase's attack speed of x skill (because lightning is fast). Lastly it causes the effects if the lightning damage to do X, and proc X". With the effects of lightning being it's own separate effect that can be interacted with on multiple different levels. (Passives, Active skills, Skill runes, Legendaries, Shrines, etc.)
Anyway, that's my input. I'm going to write up a huge thing on my idea's for elemental damage and greatly expand on this concept, with graphics and examples in a new forum post. (Eventually, but hopefully soon.) I think it could fix allot of the skill/build stagnation, and also add a whole new level of meta for designing legendaries, designing/balancing skills and creating new builds.
Are the devs out of touch? as a whole? absolutely. I want to believe that, and I do believe it.
They are out of touch with a certain crowd generally associated with Diablo 2 and its cousins and relatives..and in touch with a certain crowd generally associated with ...other games....not quite so tightly bound to the RPG genre purhaps.....all at the same time, generally.
the more you dig and examine the aspects of diablo 3 and how these things are admired or crucified by players the more elegant differences you discover WITHIN those players. And that's why these discussions are just a continuous traveling freight train of ideas and debates. a freight train looping and swirling around the country-side forever. just like politics.
you start with 2 groups of people and by the end everyone has branched off, advocating their customized template of beliefs in regards to what skill tree is best and what song is the worst.
When you finally have 2 people who agree on everything, one of them holds a belief that makes them splinter away from the last guy and the process just repeats itself.
that's why they have to do whats best for the quality of the game. not whats best for casuals or hardcore sociopaths, not whats best for simplicity or advanced complexity. not what looks the best or sounds the best...
they have to adopt a philosophy of attractiveness, for lack of a better word. That's why I feel they are out of touch.
if a class sucks make it attractive. make people want to use it.
if an item sucks make it attractive. make people want to use it.
if a skill sucks make it attractive. make people want to use it.
same goes for builds,areas, etc....
but they don't seem to place these things on a pedestal. and I feel that doing so would really drive the game's image upward.
is having the 5 gems good enough? no. make new ones. this was old news many many years ago. and here we wait.
is having dry under-powered legendary items good enough? no. make new ones. this was old news many many years ago. and here we wait.
is having everyone use the same 5 or 10 legendary items good enough? no. make new ones. this was old news many many years ago. and here we wait.
is rune XYZ being completely worthless shit for months good enough? no. make new ones. this was old news many many years ago. and here we wait.
it just seems like a deafening roar how boring things are and how much everyone wants to explore something new like weapons or items or builds, and how long it takes this new stuff to come out and how underwhelming and recycled it happens to be.......
they took lobbys out and hummed and hawed and wedged in clans and communities...
they took PvP out and hummed and hawed and gave us a brawling arena
they took charms and gems and jewels out and hummed and hawed and now are rolling out legendary gems.
they took stat assignment out and hummed and hawed and now you assign stats with Paragon...
they took wild cool legendarys out of the game and hummed and hawed and now are scrambling to give their legendaries fascinating powers...
all the while the forum has been blowing up about those topics screaming for jay wilsons head on a stick asking what the fuck they were thinking???
it just seems like a really sick sad merry-go-round overall.....even if they are on the brink of this big huge content patch....
legendary gems and legendary potions is not rocket science....it should have been a no-brainer YEARS ago...and yet....here we wait...twiddling our thumbs...i'll be using that expression more often...
and this decimates any notion that "the game is bought an paid for" or "these improvements are the icing on the cake.."
people want improvements forcefully injected into the game. they CRAVE interesting assets becuase these assets are tragically absent. And these people craving this stuff are not industry professionals by any stretch. it does not make their opinion less valid.
that craving for interesting assets is the very very beginning of any Role playing game ever created or you can fuck off and die. its that desire to graft a world that is interesting. and that when you the GM or game designer in Diablo 3's case gets to describe that world you so gleefully created to a person? CREATES A PERCEPTION OF THAT WORLD in their mind.
so when the D3 team is describing their world of sanctuary by having players run to town to "insta-brim" its legendary items because they are boring useless pieces of shit. Or allowing their characters "bank accounts" to swell up into the fucking BILLIONS of gold...or allowing them to blend through 20 thousand dumb fuck monsters while watching "Big Bang Theory" on TV......it really does not say a whole lot about them being in touch with the player base.....that's my take on it personally...that a massive amount of the changes they are celebrating as upcoming features? Are child's play. They are ancient history and they were deleted into fucking oblivion with the most incredible abandon and incredible ignorance.
my 18 year old brother doesnt concern himself with such nonsense. he just begs mom for her credit card and a lift to the fucking toy store to buy the ultimate evil edition version and play until level 25. this is actually happening. its real life shit.
If that's their goal and thats their idea of a great game, a "hack and slash ARPG" that accomplishes that with beautiful graphics and "stat sticks" and thatthey owe the players nothing more; to me personally, that's out of touch.
This post. Whoa.
I haven't followed game Dev posts or interviews, but I've been heavily feeling what this guy, right here, is saying.
I'm losing interest in the game (A world and game I've been in love with since my young teenage self first got his hands on D2 when it first came out) because there's very little reason to get those legendaries. I can't even begin to count how many times I've opened up my inventory after picking up a Legendary to then look at the portrait and say "crap." out loud and move on. Not just crap for my build, but actually useless as a legendary. A legendary that either doesn't have a useful affix, or out right doesn't have one.
One thing that i do believe is that the Dev's are slowly learning. Whether it be the efforts of the community managers, or trail and error on their part, but the new Crusader armor and all the Phalanx Legendaries is a move in the right direction concerning legendaries that opens up new possibilities for new builds.
The greatest draw to this game for me besides loving the lore and aesthetic is the theory crafting and getting that new legendary that might open up new possibilities for builds or newfound power. It's never been "Now I can crush my enemies even harder!" No, its been "What can I do with this that will be really cool, and fun, but also not suck." And there's very little of that in the game right now. But what's worse is what legendaries ARE in the game right now that do harbor fun affixes and abilities, are deemed completely useless or nonviable to enjoy late game content or progression. Paragon levels come to a grinding halt if you're stuck in torment 3 with a build that can't take you further. The exp just isn't there. I have less and less incentive to play if I'm grinding away at a steeper and steeper hill, and the only way to fix that is to play something I don't enjoy in the first place.
What's more troubling is that Legendary gem's will also come to a grinding halt if you're gear or build is capable of taking you to newer heights. Changes have been made, which is good, but they're still lack luster, or simply not enough. Add one or two more build options for "the best builds" and buffing mid tier builds to be a little better isn't expanding the depth of play, it's just giving a few builds a hand to hit a new wall, and reaffirming the "best builds" their seat of power to enjoy the new content faster, and more efficiently, difficulty wall free!.
I'm looking forward to the new patch, but I'll still be waiting for a patch that introduces a plethora of new legendaries with unique affixes, and skill changes that actually rewarding to theorycraft. New build possibiliies for dynamic builds with varying styles of play that are as equally rewarding as the next. Perhaps a patch that makes all elemental damage not only balanced(God damn Cindercoat) and competitive, but also unique with their own draws and quirks.
This game has a lot of work... I look forward to accompanying this game along that journey, so long as it doesn't destroy itself along the way.(Or me for that matter.)
0
For the time being, I suggest you get rid of Berserker Rage passive and exchange it for Unforgiving since you wont be generating enough rage to keep up the Berserker Rage passive. Keep the Together as One rune on Call of the Ancients until you get a unity, and change the rune on your Rend to Bloodlust to heal up after procing Nerves of Steel, or simply taking too much damage. That should bolster your survivability by a lot, and keep your swinging.
0
I also recommend equipping your Templar with this little gem. It's literally "Get any single target, such as the rift guardian to 20%, cheese mode."
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/eunjangdo
Love this thing. Make sure it has attack speed so your follower can keep whatever he's hitting stun locked.
0
This is my Barb, more or less running a similar build to what's been said and shown, and I can consistently clear 47.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Uthstar01-1627/hero/34757090
I'm currently experimenting with my passives and Battle Rage to see if I can't ink out any more dps during trash so I have more time to burn the RG.
From what I've been able to gather from my gearing and playing is that to really start pushing 45+, you need maximize and optimize your stats (with ancients) and iron out your build to simply get the most survivability. The build itself has the dps to push 45GR. (I don't even have an ancient weapon and I'm doing 47.)
Pushing beyond 45 is unfortunately a game of paragon. You gotta start grinding that paragon to get past 45, plain and simple.
0
I personally would prefer a system that wouldn't require me to respec entirely because I wanted to try something different, or even respec entirely because I wanted to switch a single skill out for a boss. (granted it could be done like Paragon points and their modular reset)
I enjoy finding legendaries that open up new possibilities for builds, that is the funnest part about diablo. But I would hate to remove all my points from various skills because I wasn't going to use the skill it synergizes with anymore. That would quickly become a hassle, and really show the worth of skill's and the synergy system as a whole to be lacking. And I can feasibly see a work around for those issues unless the synergy system itself was gutted and lack luster compared to Diablo 2's.
What I personally think needs to happen is for all the skill's to get reworked again and have their unique elemental effects removed (mostly.
Hear me out.
Imagine if the damage type it self had effect's and properties that we not exclusive to the skill rune you were using.
Imagine if building a character around a elemental type wasn't just about "What rune is the best fire rune, or cold rune."
Instead, the elemental damage had properties that was simply part of the damage type, and you could not only design skill runes to interact with those "elemental properties" but also design the skill runes to have more unique mechanics that wasn't simply "Turn's x skill into lightning and stuns on the third hit."
It could instead be "Turns x skill into lightning (allowing it to benefit from +% lightning damage) and increase's attack speed of x skill (because lightning is fast). Lastly it causes the effects if the lightning damage to do X, and proc X". With the effects of lightning being it's own separate effect that can be interacted with on multiple different levels. (Passives, Active skills, Skill runes, Legendaries, Shrines, etc.)
Anyway, that's my input. I'm going to write up a huge thing on my idea's for elemental damage and greatly expand on this concept, with graphics and examples in a new forum post. (Eventually, but hopefully soon.) I think it could fix allot of the skill/build stagnation, and also add a whole new level of meta for designing legendaries, designing/balancing skills and creating new builds.
1
I haven't followed game Dev posts or interviews, but I've been heavily feeling what this guy, right here, is saying.
I'm losing interest in the game (A world and game I've been in love with since my young teenage self first got his hands on D2 when it first came out) because there's very little reason to get those legendaries. I can't even begin to count how many times I've opened up my inventory after picking up a Legendary to then look at the portrait and say "crap." out loud and move on. Not just crap for my build, but actually useless as a legendary. A legendary that either doesn't have a useful affix, or out right doesn't have one.
One thing that i do believe is that the Dev's are slowly learning. Whether it be the efforts of the community managers, or trail and error on their part, but the new Crusader armor and all the Phalanx Legendaries is a move in the right direction concerning legendaries that opens up new possibilities for new builds.
The greatest draw to this game for me besides loving the lore and aesthetic is the theory crafting and getting that new legendary that might open up new possibilities for builds or newfound power. It's never been "Now I can crush my enemies even harder!" No, its been "What can I do with this that will be really cool, and fun, but also not suck." And there's very little of that in the game right now. But what's worse is what legendaries ARE in the game right now that do harbor fun affixes and abilities, are deemed completely useless or nonviable to enjoy late game content or progression. Paragon levels come to a grinding halt if you're stuck in torment 3 with a build that can't take you further. The exp just isn't there. I have less and less incentive to play if I'm grinding away at a steeper and steeper hill, and the only way to fix that is to play something I don't enjoy in the first place.
What's more troubling is that Legendary gem's will also come to a grinding halt if you're gear or build is capable of taking you to newer heights. Changes have been made, which is good, but they're still lack luster, or simply not enough. Add one or two more build options for "the best builds" and buffing mid tier builds to be a little better isn't expanding the depth of play, it's just giving a few builds a hand to hit a new wall, and reaffirming the "best builds" their seat of power to enjoy the new content faster, and more efficiently, difficulty wall free!.
I'm looking forward to the new patch, but I'll still be waiting for a patch that introduces a plethora of new legendaries with unique affixes, and skill changes that actually rewarding to theorycraft. New build possibiliies for dynamic builds with varying styles of play that are as equally rewarding as the next. Perhaps a patch that makes all elemental damage not only balanced(God damn Cindercoat) and competitive, but also unique with their own draws and quirks.
This game has a lot of work... I look forward to accompanying this game along that journey, so long as it doesn't destroy itself along the way.(Or me for that matter.)