I believe both nerfs are because of LoNers achieving higher leaderboard spots than intended.
Now I really want to see some change to Shadow 6pc bonus like:
Impale deals an additional 40,000% weapon damage to the first enemy hit and each impale hit reduces the cooldown by x seconds and increases damage by y for Fan of Knives.
or
Impale deals an additional 40,000% weapon damage to the first enemy hit and residual damage is split between all the targets around 20 yards of the enemy hit on killing blow.
I've been using Fortress Ballista and I'm kind of shocked to see it get nerfed immediately after being released. I've been using it cubed with UE6 piece with the following setup:
Fortress Ballista/MWG is used to keep Pride's Fall and Krelm's belt up permanently. FB scales with the APS bonus for Multishot and every shot restores a shield stack, so the only way to truly lose the shield is to take a huge hit. MWG provides a bit more shield but it also provides a ton of LPS just incase my shield falls. These two items work really well together, both providing a shield and the insane amount of LPS complements the big health pool well. I haven't tried swapping MWG to something else yet, might do it when the patch goes live. Shields also benefit from all toughness benefits that HP would, so things like Aquillas, WoC, ect, all make the shield even tougher.
Pride's Fall's RCR will allow me to use Shadow Power - Shadow Glide + Tactical Advantage permanently, combined with Krelm's belt I'm always sitting at 140% move speed, occasionally 190% from Werzechians. It provides the same amount of RCR as cindercoat would but now applies to all skills including discipline spenders.
I may be missing out from not using Vengeance, but I refuse to use the skill for reasons you know why. When all is said and done I feel like all things I lost from not using it, I've made up for: I don't need to rely on Dark Heart for toughness because I have a huge shield and enough speed to dodge just about anything, I may be missing 40% more damage but I'm travelling everywhere so fast I feel I'm making up for the lost time, and resources are even less of an issue because PF effects everything. I could always just swap FoK-FoD to Vengeance but I love the skills CC.
Overall I really like the item personally, but I'm sad to see it nerfed for no good reason. It really didn't deserve it, you're giving up an entire cube slot for a shield, it should be a decent size shield and 30% isn't much unfortunately, I might need to keep MWG.
I think Fortress Ballista is in a good shape as it is, it will greatly boost surviability of those who seek it, but probably won't affect high end gameplay very much since other choices provide much more vital boosts.
On my current 2.3 live solo character, I have 776k hp (vit on helm, shoulders, gloves, chest, nonanc belt, pants, boots, bracers) and 28,816 life per hit (ancient offhand + paragon), meaning I can restore ~3.71% of my max life per hit. With the Fortess Ballista, we can almost double that amount at the loss of "only" a weapon cube slot, however there are two additional factors to consider:
1) Building up a shield of up to 30% max hp will greatly increase survibability by avoiding oneshots in between Vaults / Smoke Screens, much more than just adding flat LoH of the same amount would.
2) "Re"generating health faster will enable very aggressive playstyles without much risk of dying, remember old vanilla lifesteal where the hp bar was riding a rollercoaster all the time.
Additionally, building up 10 stacks will only require mere seconds. Since every single attack will proc the shield much like it does with LoH, M6 + SM6 builds can reach 10 stacks after ~5-7 sec, UE + N6 builds even as a fast as 3-3.5 sec. It will be interesting to see if Fortress Ballista will make any top end build choices, perhaps for some very aggressive support / group builds. My guess it won't, but I still think it's a great addition to our arsenal. I wish the legendary affix was on a quiver to make it viable for Shadow's Mantle (as I consider this set the weakest toughness wise right now, and we can only choose between Spines + Holy Point Shot, both of which are not really compelling choices).
I like Alka's propositions and especially the first one - making a synergy between Impale and FoK usage.
As for the Ballista. as i said i didn't even test it. It's great to see that i was wrong and it's actually a good defensive choice, but perma Vengeance (given the fact it now makes you also immune to CC like similar effects) with Dark Heart and a damage increase seems to mee a too much good deal for high GR pushing.
@wudjo: glad to see you back. I'm waiting for new theorycrafting posts
As for the Ballista. as i said i didn't even test it. It's great to see that i was wrong and it's actually a good defensive choice, but perma Vengeance (given the fact it now makes you also immune to CC like similar effects) with Dark Heart and a damage increase seems to mee a too much good deal for high GR pushing.
Also when you cube both Dawn and Visage of Gunes you can double dip on runes and seethe rune removes the need for Karlei's Point.
-Ballista was a viable choice for dual wielding builds, but after nerf, it might not be as good but not the worst either..
I am still thinking about why Vengeance related bonuses have been set in both M6 and UE sets.
Given how the mechanics worked, i am fine with Vengeance in M6 builds (rucksack/manticore setup is basically a must, leaving cube spaces for Dawn/Gunes).
However with UE and how fast the Ballista shield stacks, i would rather have the damage bonus baked directly in the set for balancing it and leave the space for Ballista in the cube (again given that Yang/DML is the bust have equipped combo).
More variety and usage of different items across the board. Vengeance as a must have ability for every spec kinda sucks.
I'm still playing around with the shadow mantle build and finally just got the ancient Karlei's last night before I went to bed. So far I've managed GR 66 before I got the ancient dagger.
Instead of using obsidian ring of the zodiac I've been using broken promises and using gogok gem. It's working quite well and today I hope to test further now that I have the ancient dagger.
Currently debating on changing bane of stricken gem with another, bane of the powerful maybe. Not sure.
Anyways, this is another idea I don't think I've seen others mention. Going to test more now. The servers are trash today. :/
I am playing M6 on the PTR currently. Visage of Gunes in the cube as armor. It's nice damage and good toughness too. Over 100 mil toughness with Vengeance up. I still can't decide on F&R or Endless Walk though. Not got a decent Endless Walk set yet however. 60 was so easy. 65 felt hard trying to move so Endless Walk might help there. Not got an ancient Manticore yet either but mine has 97% CA damage. Playing with Maelstrom btw.
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I believe both nerfs are because of LoNers achieving higher leaderboard spots than intended.
Now I really want to see some change to Shadow 6pc bonus like:
or
or
"____________________________________________"
here's a small inspiration for ideas
https://youtu.be/CV0XbbdGDQ8
I've been using Fortress Ballista and I'm kind of shocked to see it get nerfed immediately after being released. I've been using it cubed with UE6 piece with the following setup:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#QUVTfS!aZch!cYacYZ
+
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/passive/ambush from hellfire
Wearing:
UE6
Hellfire + F&R
Yang's + DML
Werzechian Bracers
Krelm's Belt
Cubed:
Fortress Ballista
Pride's Fall
Convention of Elements
Gems:
BotT
BotP
Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard/zei's/stricken
Fortress Ballista/MWG is used to keep Pride's Fall and Krelm's belt up permanently. FB scales with the APS bonus for Multishot and every shot restores a shield stack, so the only way to truly lose the shield is to take a huge hit. MWG provides a bit more shield but it also provides a ton of LPS just incase my shield falls. These two items work really well together, both providing a shield and the insane amount of LPS complements the big health pool well. I haven't tried swapping MWG to something else yet, might do it when the patch goes live. Shields also benefit from all toughness benefits that HP would, so things like Aquillas, WoC, ect, all make the shield even tougher.
Pride's Fall's RCR will allow me to use Shadow Power - Shadow Glide + Tactical Advantage permanently, combined with Krelm's belt I'm always sitting at 140% move speed, occasionally 190% from Werzechians. It provides the same amount of RCR as cindercoat would but now applies to all skills including discipline spenders.
I may be missing out from not using Vengeance, but I refuse to use the skill for reasons you know why. When all is said and done I feel like all things I lost from not using it, I've made up for: I don't need to rely on Dark Heart for toughness because I have a huge shield and enough speed to dodge just about anything, I may be missing 40% more damage but I'm travelling everywhere so fast I feel I'm making up for the lost time, and resources are even less of an issue because PF effects everything. I could always just swap FoK-FoD to Vengeance but I love the skills CC.
Overall I really like the item personally, but I'm sad to see it nerfed for no good reason. It really didn't deserve it, you're giving up an entire cube slot for a shield, it should be a decent size shield and 30% isn't much unfortunately, I might need to keep MWG.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/TastySouP-1157/career
I think Fortress Ballista is in a good shape as it is, it will greatly boost surviability of those who seek it, but probably won't affect high end gameplay very much since other choices provide much more vital boosts.
On my current 2.3 live solo character, I have 776k hp (vit on helm, shoulders, gloves, chest, nonanc belt, pants, boots, bracers) and 28,816 life per hit (ancient offhand + paragon), meaning I can restore ~3.71% of my max life per hit. With the Fortess Ballista, we can almost double that amount at the loss of "only" a weapon cube slot, however there are two additional factors to consider:
1) Building up a shield of up to 30% max hp will greatly increase survibability by avoiding oneshots in between Vaults / Smoke Screens, much more than just adding flat LoH of the same amount would.
2) "Re"generating health faster will enable very aggressive playstyles without much risk of dying, remember old vanilla lifesteal where the hp bar was riding a rollercoaster all the time.
Additionally, building up 10 stacks will only require mere seconds. Since every single attack will proc the shield much like it does with LoH, M6 + SM6 builds can reach 10 stacks after ~5-7 sec, UE + N6 builds even as a fast as 3-3.5 sec. It will be interesting to see if Fortress Ballista will make any top end build choices, perhaps for some very aggressive support / group builds. My guess it won't, but I still think it's a great addition to our arsenal. I wish the legendary affix was on a quiver to make it viable for Shadow's Mantle (as I consider this set the weakest toughness wise right now, and we can only choose between Spines + Holy Point Shot, both of which are not really compelling choices).
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I like Alka's propositions and especially the first one - making a synergy between Impale and FoK usage.
As for the Ballista. as i said i didn't even test it. It's great to see that i was wrong and it's actually a good defensive choice, but perma Vengeance (given the fact it now makes you also immune to CC like similar effects) with Dark Heart and a damage increase seems to mee a too much good deal for high GR pushing.
@wudjo: glad to see you back. I'm waiting for new theorycrafting posts
Also when you cube both Dawn and Visage of Gunes you can double dip on runes and seethe rune removes the need for Karlei's Point.
-Ballista was a viable choice for dual wielding builds, but after nerf, it might not be as good but not the worst either..
I am still thinking about why Vengeance related bonuses have been set in both M6 and UE sets.
Given how the mechanics worked, i am fine with Vengeance in M6 builds (rucksack/manticore setup is basically a must, leaving cube spaces for Dawn/Gunes).
However with UE and how fast the Ballista shield stacks, i would rather have the damage bonus baked directly in the set for balancing it and leave the space for Ballista in the cube (again given that Yang/DML is the bust have equipped combo).
More variety and usage of different items across the board. Vengeance as a must have ability for every spec kinda sucks.
Why should you need 2 items at all to make vengeance viable just buff vengeance, and let us choose what to cube rather then forcing it.
Unhallowed must be broken atm on PTR having insane amount of lag unplayable right now.
I'm still playing around with the shadow mantle build and finally just got the ancient Karlei's last night before I went to bed. So far I've managed GR 66 before I got the ancient dagger.
Instead of using obsidian ring of the zodiac I've been using broken promises and using gogok gem. It's working quite well and today I hope to test further now that I have the ancient dagger.
Currently debating on changing bane of stricken gem with another, bane of the powerful maybe. Not sure.
Anyways, this is another idea I don't think I've seen others mention. Going to test more now. The servers are trash today. :/
I am playing M6 on the PTR currently. Visage of Gunes in the cube as armor. It's nice damage and good toughness too. Over 100 mil toughness with Vengeance up. I still can't decide on F&R or Endless Walk though. Not got a decent Endless Walk set yet however. 60 was so easy. 65 felt hard trying to move so Endless Walk might help there. Not got an ancient Manticore yet either but mine has 97% CA damage. Playing with Maelstrom btw.