With skills getting some attention with elemental swaps i'd like to gauge your opinions on what should change.
Currently i'm happy with the way holy/lightning are currently, they both have multiple viable builds in all torment levels with a rune in practically all skills.
Fire - in an okayish state currently. definitely playable with jekangbord and cindercoat (also blazing sweep being broken surely doesn't help). I'd like to see a fist of the heavens rune with fire since who doesn't want to shoot massive fire bolts? also big potential for a condemn rune or bombardment, pretty surprised one doesn't exist for fire.
Cold - pretty abysmal state, 0 generators and just 2 spenders. i'd like to see a punish and smite rune for Cold for generators, and possibly a justice rune. for spenders shield bash calls out to me for frost, bashing something with a massive icy shield and slowing them down seems to suit the flavor for me. adding in some supporting help with some other utility spells and it could easily be a thing.
I hope Blizzard wont change anything. I like both my Blessed Hammer Thunderstruck and Justice Crack both doing the same lihhtning damage. There is one thing I'd like to be changed however - as far as I noticed there are couple more items adds Fire damageand very few with lightning. For example there is no Lightning damage chest or eeapon if I'm not mistaken. People able to achieve up to 115% bonus fire damage, can you do the same with lightning? And I definitely won't be happy if Blizzard will switch elemental school of damage of skills I'm using for example from lightning to holy while all my gear is +lightning damage.
I hope Blizzard wont change anything. I like both my Blessed Hammer Thunderstruck and Justice Crack both doing the same lihhtning damage.
some elements definitely need buffing so skills will change. They won't change the iconic skills defining builds, but they still change the skills around. for example in justice burst would stay but something sword of justice could easily change elements.
Off the top of my head, and from my personal experiences, here's some skills that could use reworking.
Primaries -
Punish has 1 fire rune and 4 physical runes. You could make the Rebirth rune holy, being a healing based rune, while Retaliate could go Lightning, in keeping with how lightning enchanteds 'punish' (pardon the pun) attackers.
Slash is fire heavy, but otherwise has a decent mix of elements (1 holy and 1 lightning).
Smite is an obvious candidate for elemental overhauling, having nothing but holy damage runes. Shatter could be made into Fire, as it explodes, and Surge could be made Lightning (working off the name of the rune).
Justice is holy heavy, with 4 holy runes and 1 lightning rune. Crack could arguably be converted to Fire, befitting its nature as an aoe rune. Conversely, Burst could be made fire and Crack remade into lightning, so that the elements fit their names.
Secondaries -
Shield Bash is a glaring offender here, with a full 5 holy runes. Shattered Shield or Crumble could arguably be made fire runes. It's a little more difficult to validate making any of the other runes lightning, but it should probably be done.
Sweep Attack, at first glance, appears to have a good mix of elements, counting a total of four different ones. However, cold is an odd outlier for Crusader skills (much like Poison was for Wizards pre-RoS). Blazing Sweep is bugged and deals terrible DoT damage. And the rune that's named Holy Shock, actually deals PHYSICAL damage. Fixing these runes would be a good idea.
Blessed Hammer, like Sweep Attack, counts 4 different elements, including the odd cold rune. It's clearly one of the strongest and most used skills, so this probably gets a pass.
Blessed Shield is holy heavy at 3 runes, but the non-Holy choices are pretty good (Staggering Shield and Combust). Again, this skill should get a pass.
Fist of the Heavens has 4 lightning runes and 1 holy rune. It's hard to argue for crawling fire bolts (even though Wizards have them), but the Reverbation rune, with its explosion and shockwave, should be a candidate for fire conversion.
Defensives -
Most of the skills in this school do not deal direct damage, except on specific runes. As such, they can be largely ignored.
Utility -
Condemn runs 5 holy runes, another candidate for elemental shuffling. Any of the runes could easily be shifted to fire, while arguing for lightning may be a bit more difficult.
Phalanx, like its schoolmate Condemn, runs 5 runes which are all physical. Again, you can easily choose any of these to be fire or lightning, and maybe choose one to be holy as well.
Laws -
Like the Defensive school, this has no direct damage, so it gets a pass.
Conviction -
Falling Sword has a decent mix of runes - 3 physical, one fire, 1 lightning. Oddly enough, it seems to be missing a holy rune, which pretty much forces holy users into the other Conviction skills, depending on their gear.
Akarat's Champion uses fire runes across the board, but since only one rune deals direct damage, it's not that important.
Heaven's Fury is holy across the board. Fire and lightning could be easily substituted for any 2 of its runes.
You would think Bombardment would be fire damage, but it's physical throughout all five runes. It's somewhat logical in this case (how do you stuff lightning or holy damage inside a barrel?), but an argument could be made for a fire rune.
I hope Blizzard wont change anything. I like both my Blessed Hammer Thunderstruck and Justice Crack both doing the same lihhtning damage.
some elements definitely need buffing so skills will change. They won't change the iconic skills defining builds, but they still change the skills around. for example in justice burst would stay but something sword of justice could easily change elements.
Shield Bash
One on One - Lightning
Crumble - Fire with reworking the explosion so it explodes wider
Pound Physical
Sweep Attack
Holy Shock - Holy
Blessed Shield
Piercing Shield - Physical
Fist of the Heavens
Retribution - Fire or scale from highest % of fire or lightning
Iron Skin
Reflective Skin - Thorns turns into Holy damage while active
Explosive Skin - Fire increased radius as well
Judgement
Mass Verdict - Extends the effect to 25-30 yards and then pulls them into a 10-20 yard area
Conversion - Fire
Condemn
Shattering Explosion - Fire
Reciprocate - Physical
Phalanx - I wish this skill overall would either do damage based off your current weapons element type. IE Holy Damage weapon does holy damage physical only weapon does Physical etc etc... If not the spell colors of runes below should change to match element for sure.
Shield Charge - Fire
Bowmen - Holy and need to be able to spawn more than one set at a time like other runes
Bodyguard - Lightning
Falling Sword
Rise Brothers - if possible follow Phalanx rule above does damage based off weapon and make it follow the rune you have selected if you are running Phalanx
Rapid Descent - Holy
Heavens Furywould be nice to see some non holy variants but the runes I'd suggest changing would probably upset a lot of people and change gearing/builds but these are the best elemental changes I can think of
Ascendancy - Lightning (name change too imo to match lightning)
Fires of Heaven - Fire
Bombardment - would be nice to see Phalanx treatment from above or similar
Annihilate - Lightning and stuns for 1-2 seconds
Mine Field - Fire
Targeted - Holy (Holy powers helping to increases your ranged targeting skills to 100% i guess?)
It would be nice if they gave all slots with elemental affixes and equal option for all other elements. IE Elemental belts for everything not just lightning. Not just being able to reroll light to holy but an all new item with special bonus.
Not sure what I would change but I would like each skill to have holy dmg as an option. Don't see why they cant just give you the option of every element available to your class.
Currently i'm happy with the way holy/lightning are currently, they both have multiple viable builds in all torment levels with a rune in practically all skills.
Fire - in an okayish state currently. definitely playable with jekangbord and cindercoat (also blazing sweep being broken surely doesn't help). I'd like to see a fist of the heavens rune with fire since who doesn't want to shoot massive fire bolts? also big potential for a condemn rune or bombardment, pretty surprised one doesn't exist for fire.
Cold - pretty abysmal state, 0 generators and just 2 spenders. i'd like to see a punish and smite rune for Cold for generators, and possibly a justice rune. for spenders shield bash calls out to me for frost, bashing something with a massive icy shield and slowing them down seems to suit the flavor for me. adding in some supporting help with some other utility spells and it could easily be a thing.
Smite
Roar: Fire's just okay.
Celerity: Should move to lightning.
Rebirth: Move to holy.
Retaliate: Stay at physical.
Fury: Maybe ice?
Slash
Electrify: Okay.
Carve: Move to holy.
Crush: Fire's okay.
Zeal: Move to physical.
Guard: Move to ice.
Smite
Shatter: Move to ice.
Shackle: Move to lightning.
Surge: Move to fire.
Reaping: Move to physical
Shared fate: Holy's okay.
Justice
Burst: Lightning's fine.
Crack: Move to ice.
Hammer of Pursuit: Holy's fine.
Sword of Justice: Move to physical
Holy bolt: Holy's fine.
Primaries -
Punish has 1 fire rune and 4 physical runes. You could make the Rebirth rune holy, being a healing based rune, while Retaliate could go Lightning, in keeping with how lightning enchanteds 'punish' (pardon the pun) attackers.
Slash is fire heavy, but otherwise has a decent mix of elements (1 holy and 1 lightning).
Smite is an obvious candidate for elemental overhauling, having nothing but holy damage runes. Shatter could be made into Fire, as it explodes, and Surge could be made Lightning (working off the name of the rune).
Justice is holy heavy, with 4 holy runes and 1 lightning rune. Crack could arguably be converted to Fire, befitting its nature as an aoe rune. Conversely, Burst could be made fire and Crack remade into lightning, so that the elements fit their names.
Secondaries -
Shield Bash is a glaring offender here, with a full 5 holy runes. Shattered Shield or Crumble could arguably be made fire runes. It's a little more difficult to validate making any of the other runes lightning, but it should probably be done.
Sweep Attack, at first glance, appears to have a good mix of elements, counting a total of four different ones. However, cold is an odd outlier for Crusader skills (much like Poison was for Wizards pre-RoS). Blazing Sweep is bugged and deals terrible DoT damage. And the rune that's named Holy Shock, actually deals PHYSICAL damage. Fixing these runes would be a good idea.
Blessed Hammer, like Sweep Attack, counts 4 different elements, including the odd cold rune. It's clearly one of the strongest and most used skills, so this probably gets a pass.
Blessed Shield is holy heavy at 3 runes, but the non-Holy choices are pretty good (Staggering Shield and Combust). Again, this skill should get a pass.
Fist of the Heavens has 4 lightning runes and 1 holy rune. It's hard to argue for crawling fire bolts (even though Wizards have them), but the Reverbation rune, with its explosion and shockwave, should be a candidate for fire conversion.
Defensives -
Most of the skills in this school do not deal direct damage, except on specific runes. As such, they can be largely ignored.
Utility -
Condemn runs 5 holy runes, another candidate for elemental shuffling. Any of the runes could easily be shifted to fire, while arguing for lightning may be a bit more difficult.
Phalanx, like its schoolmate Condemn, runs 5 runes which are all physical. Again, you can easily choose any of these to be fire or lightning, and maybe choose one to be holy as well.
Laws -
Like the Defensive school, this has no direct damage, so it gets a pass.
Conviction -
Falling Sword has a decent mix of runes - 3 physical, one fire, 1 lightning. Oddly enough, it seems to be missing a holy rune, which pretty much forces holy users into the other Conviction skills, depending on their gear.
Akarat's Champion uses fire runes across the board, but since only one rune deals direct damage, it's not that important.
Heaven's Fury is holy across the board. Fire and lightning could be easily substituted for any 2 of its runes.
You would think Bombardment would be fire damage, but it's physical throughout all five runes. It's somewhat logical in this case (how do you stuff lightning or holy damage inside a barrel?), but an argument could be made for a fire rune.
Celerity - Lightning
Rebirth - Holy
Slash
Carve - Physical
Guard - Holy
Smite
Shared Fate - Lightning
Surge - Fire
Justice
Sword of Justice - Physical
Shield Bash
One on One - Lightning
Crumble - Fire with reworking the explosion so it explodes wider
Pound Physical
Sweep Attack
Holy Shock - Holy
Blessed Shield
Piercing Shield - Physical
Fist of the Heavens
Retribution - Fire or scale from highest % of fire or lightning
Iron Skin
Reflective Skin - Thorns turns into Holy damage while active
Explosive Skin - Fire increased radius as well
Judgement
Mass Verdict - Extends the effect to 25-30 yards and then pulls them into a 10-20 yard area
Conversion - Fire
Condemn
Shattering Explosion - Fire
Reciprocate - Physical
Phalanx - I wish this skill overall would either do damage based off your current weapons element type. IE Holy Damage weapon does holy damage physical only weapon does Physical etc etc... If not the spell colors of runes below should change to match element for sure.
Shield Charge - Fire
Bowmen - Holy and need to be able to spawn more than one set at a time like other runes
Bodyguard - Lightning
Falling Sword
Rise Brothers - if possible follow Phalanx rule above does damage based off weapon and make it follow the rune you have selected if you are running Phalanx
Rapid Descent - Holy
Heavens Furywould be nice to see some non holy variants but the runes I'd suggest changing would probably upset a lot of people and change gearing/builds but these are the best elemental changes I can think of
Ascendancy - Lightning (name change too imo to match lightning)
Fires of Heaven - Fire
Bombardment - would be nice to see Phalanx treatment from above or similar
Annihilate - Lightning and stuns for 1-2 seconds
Mine Field - Fire
Targeted - Holy (Holy powers helping to increases your ranged targeting skills to 100% i guess?)
Stop homogenizing the game. Every class is farming for the same gear it's annoying.
My Barb - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Plague-1902/hero/1082227