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 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.
Yeah the hyperfast lazer beams distract your impale shots visually and aiming becomes troublesome because of the animation with S6. Other builds don't suffer this little issue since UE is cone attack, MR6 sentries auto aim, and N6 completely aoe, can't say much about LoN variations but most seem to be relying on aoe skills.
In other words S6 needs smt more suitable to its natural playstyle than the frantic vengeance skill as a survival bonus..
Shadow Set seems to have lost its edge against other sets atm.
It's a shame that with new buffs, Marauder and UE outperform the Shadow set with such ease.
Aquila Cuirass bonus is quite useless with the change, which bottlenecks the options for more survivability to Vengeance skill and having to reserve weapon slot to Dawn and armor slot to the new helm in cube. It was synergetic with Karlei's Point but now it seems impossible to maintain a high uptime with close to max resource requirement.
So in the end we won't have to strategize anything and just spam everything off cooldown and vengeance buffs will handle the rest, regardless of what build is selected..
It's my retardedness that I'd left that sentry behind that large column for a long time -a bad habit from using twin chakram too much..
Apparently impale can't pass through obstacles so be more picky while placing sentries
Here's a clumsy GR 68 clear with some good items, and a meh chakram sword mostly unoptimized rolls.
I'm not sure if the gems and cubed armor item are the right choice. I'm not also sure if I should neglect +% sentry damage increase on chest and shoulders or not with that much from the rucksack.
S2/MR4 is more or less the same damage output with a little bit edge from extra offset item(s), but benefit from S4 more than doubles the toughness and makes it possible to push everything further..
Anyway you can see the power of impale/impact on RG..
-With full shadow set, it's funny that I was frequently gimped by the crowd, while elites were falling like leaves.
This kind of makes sense that no matter how weak the mob is, you get overrun if you can't spill your damage around.
- I tried lightning element. Used an ancient Fulminator that I'd found + TgV belt; it looks really cool and crazy frying everything like a Sith lord, we still need to figure out the crowd handling issue though. One cannot say "I'm done" with so many options to try, but I ended up with a worse overall performance against the hybrid S2(or S4)+ MR4 with Chakram sword/quiver
- chakram/razor disc + impale/impact + Strongarm Bracers wins against twin chakram+chemical burn. I know everyone has been whining about CC nerfs overboard, but I'm telling you I was able to stunlock the RG and finish it off too fast by the help of the impact rune. A few lousy GR runs and I can see 70+ is very doable with proper items. I'm still running around with unoptimized placeholder gear btw. Lack of crafting items is also a pain in the ass
I see this combo becoming pretty popular.
I also REALLY hope that 6 pieces get to be stronger - using shadows only for a flatdmg increase because other bonuses are not on par with other sets really kills my hopes.
I'll always have Mara6 or UE to run for season, or even Natalya with the two xbows (200% strafe damage) but Shadows is really waht i'm looking for 2.4
MR6 unleashed with its full potential and synergy from all new complementary items could beat this combo, but a really difficult gr64 rift (one you would abort rightaway upon entering) completion with ease made me want to push this farther. After all I'm having fun and this is PTR
P4_ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_038: You take {c_magic}[{VALUE1}*100|1|]% less damage for every Companion you have active.
hmmm this might be most likely a new belt, less likely a bracer..
I wish they have added an extra useful affix like +AS, +rcr, etc. on all those defansive new items, because at some point we start to crave for evey little bit of dps increase we can gain without losing too much of the hard earned survivability features and stats..
Didn't know about the Chakram sword. Does anyone klnow if we can dual wield melee weapons or we're forced into 1h+quiver? Setup is getting more and more interesting.
I suppose the FoK dagger is not going to make it until it gets some reqork - damage stacks are really nice, but it takes 30 seconds to get full stacks while the skills has a relatively short cooldown. The Chakram sword (especially if we can use it as generator) provides a more reliable source of damage.
I'm sure someone will come up with a sweet spot on how many stacks to collect before using FoK to squeeze the most out it, otherwise, 30sec is a bit impractical and prone to forget in most cases - even if it has an indicator of some sort..
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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 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
Yeah the hyperfast lazer beams distract your impale shots visually and aiming becomes troublesome because of the animation with S6. Other builds don't suffer this little issue since UE is cone attack, MR6 sentries auto aim, and N6 completely aoe, can't say much about LoN variations but most seem to be relying on aoe skills.
In other words S6 needs smt more suitable to its natural playstyle than the frantic vengeance skill as a survival bonus..
Shadow Set seems to have lost its edge against other sets atm.
It's a shame that with new buffs, Marauder and UE outperform the Shadow set with such ease.
Aquila Cuirass bonus is quite useless with the change, which bottlenecks the options for more survivability to Vengeance skill and having to reserve weapon slot to Dawn and armor slot to the new helm in cube. It was synergetic with Karlei's Point but now it seems impossible to maintain a high uptime with close to max resource requirement.
So in the end we won't have to strategize anything and just spam everything off cooldown and vengeance buffs will handle the rest, regardless of what build is selected..
Talking about the Shadow set playstyle, here's a sword & shield build I'm trying atm, which pushes the survivability to the extreme.
Anyway see for yourselves
https://youtu.be/o9yDEZPHlfI
It's my retardedness that I'd left that sentry behind that large column for a long time -a bad habit from using twin chakram too much..
Apparently impale can't pass through obstacles so be more picky while placing sentries
Here's a clumsy GR 68 clear with some good items, and a meh chakram sword mostly unoptimized rolls.
I'm not sure if the gems and cubed armor item are the right choice. I'm not also sure if I should neglect +% sentry damage increase on chest and shoulders or not with that much from the rucksack.
S2/MR4 is more or less the same damage output with a little bit edge from extra offset item(s), but benefit from S4 more than doubles the toughness and makes it possible to push everything further..
Anyway you can see the power of impale/impact on RG..
Sorry for the video quality and lack of audio.
I'm skimming over the gear at the end part..
https://youtu.be/oJTNpft6M-k
-With full shadow set, it's funny that I was frequently gimped by the crowd, while elites were falling like leaves.
This kind of makes sense that no matter how weak the mob is, you get overrun if you can't spill your damage around.
- I tried lightning element. Used an ancient Fulminator that I'd found + TgV belt; it looks really cool and crazy frying everything like a Sith lord, we still need to figure out the crowd handling issue though. One cannot say "I'm done" with so many options to try, but I ended up with a worse overall performance against the hybrid S2(or S4)+ MR4 with Chakram sword/quiver
- chakram/razor disc + impale/impact + Strongarm Bracers wins against twin chakram+chemical burn. I know everyone has been whining about CC nerfs overboard, but I'm telling you I was able to stunlock the RG and finish it off too fast by the help of the impact rune. A few lousy GR runs and I can see 70+ is very doable with proper items. I'm still running around with unoptimized placeholder gear btw. Lack of crafting items is also a pain in the ass
2pc shadow bonus
4pc MR bonus
chakram sword
rucksack
garwulf cloak--> MagefistStrongarm Bracers
in cube:
chakram quiver
T&T-->Wraps of ClarityRoRG
Impale/
chemical burn-->impact & twin chakramGR64 full of Act V monsters/elites and Choker done with little care ,a normal weapon and "meh" optimization
I agree that the impale dagger design is extremely uninteresting and unuseful..
So perma SS with S4+ this hand crossbow?!.. (cubed)
btw this affix is awkward on a weapon
I wish they have added an extra useful affix like +AS, +rcr, etc. on all those defansive new items, because at some point we start to crave for evey little bit of dps increase we can gain without losing too much of the hard earned survivability features and stats..
The new mr6 increasing damage of each companion active by 400% means;
time to dust the enforcer gem, T&T, even Garwulf's cloak!