The problem with pets not scaling with gear is simple: You gain max level while you are in hell.
If pets don't scale with gear, then they would be overpowered in hell (if you want them to be viable against inferno diablo). This is why pets need to scale with gear.
That's only a problem if they only scale with your level. If it's a combination of your level and the monsters level, it's not a problem. Basically, you set up pet to last a certain amount of time/deal a certain amount of damage, and then improve there stats to the area the WD is in (or, more likely, the highest cleared area, so that way pets don't get worse if you go back an act or something). If you want to make your pets better, you choose more skills or take passives. This gives people a pet build, and keeps pets as a decently viable CC option for those who just want that. I'm not saying it would be tricky to balance, I'm saying that it makes more sense then balancing it off vit/defensive stats, because then they become redundant (only good when you're already a tank) or OP'd (if they decent for glass cannon builds, their unstoppable for tank builds), depending on how they scale.
Firebomb - base damage increased to 100% (which is still the lowest damage of the WD's primaries). Additionally, all "repeat" runes such as Roll the Bones and Flash Fire can hit the same enemies repeatedly.
Locust Swarm - Base range tripled. The speed of the cloud reduced by 50% every original length (not sure what it was).
Fire Bats - Range doubled. Fire bats spreads out so that it does less damage the farther away the enemy is. Dire bats range not changed.
Hehe, you might wanna rethink that bouncing on the same target for Flash Fire. You are saying that you want it do do 100% + 85% + 70% + 65% + 50% + 35% = 405% dmg / cast ^^?
I have 0 problems hitting with Locust Swarm.
I wouldn't mind having the non-Dire bat runes reach a little further. That's the main reason everyone runs ONLY Dire bat runes in a VQ spec.
Okay, so my love of Firebomb got the better of me. But I think that either needs the 100% base, or to hit more than once (maybe not all six, but at least twice)
Also, I think it's a multiplicative reduction. Otherwise it'd be doing negative damage on the last hit (as it stands now, starting at 85%)
And the point with increasing range on LS and FB isn't because we have trouble hitting with it, but because we get hit when we do hit with it. Also, they have to compete with longer ranged skills (such as dire bats) that do just as much damage, and in the case of LS, they do it much faster.
I'll rephrase. I have no trouble hitting with LS without putting myself in any real danger (and yes, I play HC). There are some tricks to it, for example, it does have a small window of travel time which you can use to your advantage. Cast it 1 sec before the mobs chasing you are actually reaching the LS cloud and stuff like that. I also shoots through Waller walls.
I'll rephrase. I think that the low range on LS is not suitably compensanted for. Yes, it CAN do a lot of damage when you're facing a lot of monsters. BUT, because it takes so long, you'll still probably do more damage with a more traditional AoE. So unless you're just going to kite while LS slowly ticks, it's not so great (IMO). It is a fun skill though. I'm just trying to make it more worthwhile without completely changing the skill, or making it much more complicated (such as making the first attack be able to stack, but the spread won't).
Firebomb - base damage increased to 100% (which is still the lowest damage of the WD's primaries). Additionally, all "repeat" runes such as Roll the Bones and Flash Fire can hit the same enemies repeatedly.
Locust Swarm - Base range tripled. The speed of the cloud reduced by 50% every original length (not sure what it was).
Fire Bats - Range doubled. Fire bats spreads out so that it does less damage the farther away the enemy is. Dire bats range not changed.
Hehe, you might wanna rethink that bouncing on the same target for Flash Fire. You are saying that you want it do do 100% + 85% + 70% + 65% + 50% + 35% = 405% dmg / cast ^^?
I have 0 problems hitting with Locust Swarm.
I wouldn't mind having the non-Dire bat runes reach a little further. That's the main reason everyone runs ONLY Dire bat runes in a VQ spec.
Okay, so my love of Firebomb got the better of me. But I think that either needs the 100% base, or to hit more than once (maybe not all six, but at least twice)
Also, I think it's a multiplicative reduction. Otherwise it'd be doing negative damage on the last hit (as it stands now, starting at 85%)
And the point with increasing range on LS and FB isn't because we have trouble hitting with it, but because we get hit when we do hit with it. Also, they have to compete with longer ranged skills (such as dire bats) that do just as much damage, and in the case of LS, they do it much faster.
Spirit Barrage's mana cost has been reduced to 98 from 108.
Plague of Toads mana cost has been reduced to 17 from 34.
Pets will now receive 33% less damage from molten, plagued, arcane sentry and AoE skills.
I say leave SB where it is. The issue isn't mana, so unless you dropped it to like 60, it wouldn't be all that useful.
Plague of Toads - I have a similar issue. The issue is that you have to be so close to use it, and the spread is so random. I would say reduce the cost and add another toad (so it's a little less random up close).
I would also add that Corpse Spiders need to leap by default. Otherwise they just can't hit moving targets.
Runes:
Zombie Charger - Zombie Bears rune has been modified. Bears can only hit one target once (The same as DH's Nether tentacles).
I feel no one would ever use ZB then. It's basically a short range version of Dire Bats then. My suggestion would be that if this happens, they need to add a buff somehow. Maybe a little less mana, or just fix the cast rate so it matches attack rate.
Things I would Add:
Toad Of Hugeness now applies one hit damage and knockback to champ packs, dealing 80% of the damage it would normally do over time to a white. Additionally, damage is buffed to 40% per second for up to 5 seconds against whites. It uses it's tongue attack at 75% of your APS when it doesn't have something in your stomach.
Splinters - splinters now spread out a bit randomly, meaning that at long ranges there is a chance that at least one splinter will miss.
Firebomb - base damage increased to 100% (which is still the lowest damage of the WD's primaries). Additionally, all "repeat" runes such as Roll the Bones and Flash Fire can hit the same enemies repeatedly.
Locust Swarm - Base range tripled. The speed of the cloud reduced by 50% every original length (not sure what it was).
Fire Bats - Range doubled. Fire bats spreads out so that it does less damage the farther away the enemy is. Dire bats range not not changed.
Sacrifice - Able to sacrifice dogs one at a time. Remove Cooldown. Having both Sacrifice and ZD skills on your skill bar decreases the cooldown for ZD by 15%
Big Bad Voodoo - The fetish teleports to your side after 10 seconds.
I also feel that Blood Ritual needs to be changed to be more of a risk reward thing (as 15% of mana at level 60 is nothing compared to your life). I just can't figure out how to make it not overly complicated to explain.
Some interesting ideas, but there is something I disagree with - pets scaling with defensive stats.
I get the idea that you don't want to give glass cannons super awesome defensive pets. But, when they heavily scale with defensive stats (vit, armor, hp, etc), then they become somewhat redundant - if I'm building a tank, why would I need the tankiest pets? Wouldn't I want damage pets? Or, if the only way to make them viable is to be a tank already, then again, what's the point?
Pets should, IMO, scale nominally based on player advancement - no matter what your gear is, with no skill buffs, they should be okay (not great), on the act you are trying to progress on. I'm thinking 50-75% of the cool down. Basically, they should be balanced so that if you don't spend at least a portion of your build on them, they so-so. However, if you want to use pets, you can choose passives and skills that would benefit them. That way, you're making a trade off - less damage/survivability through passives and CC, but more survivability through pets. I feel this would have worked with the original idea of having active skills interact with pets, like being able to set fire to, or add locust to, pets. If you want to use pets, you build your build around them.
I only have three other major wishes.
The smallest, but maybe the largest impact, is faster animations. It makes it incredibly difficult to kite well when you have stop for so long to cast something.
Second, I think they need to revamp the spirit based attack spells - haunt and SB. Haunt would be decent if we had unlimited spell slots, as it's very situational (45% dps is too low for a main attack spell, especially one that is as mana happy as haunt). Maybe halve the damage but make it a debuff (extra damage from spirit attacks, slow, reduce damage, a small improvement to all spirit skills for every enemy with haunt on them, something). For Spirit Barrage, well, it's just got a terrible damage/mana ratio. Sure, you can use up a passive and a rune and reduce it to 40ish mana, but it still only does 10% more than splinters (does less if you happen to be rocking PtV instead of the Rush of Essence to get the reduced mana). Also, even if it only "costs" 40 mana, it still takes the full 108 to cast as you only get the rest back over time (as opposed to nearly every other classes cost reduction runes which are a straight up reduction in cost, frequently for a better reduction as well).
Finally, mana. Now, my personal wish is that it gets completely replaced, like with some form of Blood Ritual (that'd make a truly unique class if we cast out of hp). However, that's a bit much for a patch. I think the best they could do is rework the costs and cooldowns. I'm not sure how they could make the class more unique, but I think the first thing is reduce or eliminate the cost for the primary skills. We're the only class that has no way of attacking when we oom. Maybe reduce APS when using primaries below a certain mana %, or cast primaries out of HP, or just do what the Wizard does and make them free. Also, splinters needs a reduction in damage. It's just too good right now. That, or make the other primaries better. For all the limits on firebombs AoE vs other classes primary AoE's, it doesn't do much damage (can't hit anything more than once, it's slow so it misses a lot...I guess only two limits. But they're big!).
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That's only a problem if they only scale with your level. If it's a combination of your level and the monsters level, it's not a problem. Basically, you set up pet to last a certain amount of time/deal a certain amount of damage, and then improve there stats to the area the WD is in (or, more likely, the highest cleared area, so that way pets don't get worse if you go back an act or something). If you want to make your pets better, you choose more skills or take passives. This gives people a pet build, and keeps pets as a decently viable CC option for those who just want that. I'm not saying it would be tricky to balance, I'm saying that it makes more sense then balancing it off vit/defensive stats, because then they become redundant (only good when you're already a tank) or OP'd (if they decent for glass cannon builds, their unstoppable for tank builds), depending on how they scale.
I'll rephrase. I think that the low range on LS is not suitably compensanted for. Yes, it CAN do a lot of damage when you're facing a lot of monsters. BUT, because it takes so long, you'll still probably do more damage with a more traditional AoE. So unless you're just going to kite while LS slowly ticks, it's not so great (IMO). It is a fun skill though. I'm just trying to make it more worthwhile without completely changing the skill, or making it much more complicated (such as making the first attack be able to stack, but the spread won't).
Okay, so my love of Firebomb got the better of me. But I think that either needs the 100% base, or to hit more than once (maybe not all six, but at least twice)
Also, I think it's a multiplicative reduction. Otherwise it'd be doing negative damage on the last hit (as it stands now, starting at 85%)
And the point with increasing range on LS and FB isn't because we have trouble hitting with it, but because we get hit when we do hit with it. Also, they have to compete with longer ranged skills (such as dire bats) that do just as much damage, and in the case of LS, they do it much faster.
Plague of Toads - I have a similar issue. The issue is that you have to be so close to use it, and the spread is so random. I would say reduce the cost and add another toad (so it's a little less random up close).
I would also add that Corpse Spiders need to leap by default. Otherwise they just can't hit moving targets.
I feel no one would ever use ZB then. It's basically a short range version of Dire Bats then. My suggestion would be that if this happens, they need to add a buff somehow. Maybe a little less mana, or just fix the cast rate so it matches attack rate.
Things I would Add:
Toad Of Hugeness now applies one hit damage and knockback to champ packs, dealing 80% of the damage it would normally do over time to a white. Additionally, damage is buffed to 40% per second for up to 5 seconds against whites. It uses it's tongue attack at 75% of your APS when it doesn't have something in your stomach.
Splinters - splinters now spread out a bit randomly, meaning that at long ranges there is a chance that at least one splinter will miss.
Firebomb - base damage increased to 100% (which is still the lowest damage of the WD's primaries). Additionally, all "repeat" runes such as Roll the Bones and Flash Fire can hit the same enemies repeatedly.
Locust Swarm - Base range tripled. The speed of the cloud reduced by 50% every original length (not sure what it was).
Fire Bats - Range doubled. Fire bats spreads out so that it does less damage the farther away the enemy is. Dire bats range not not changed.
Sacrifice - Able to sacrifice dogs one at a time. Remove Cooldown. Having both Sacrifice and ZD skills on your skill bar decreases the cooldown for ZD by 15%
Big Bad Voodoo - The fetish teleports to your side after 10 seconds.
I also feel that Blood Ritual needs to be changed to be more of a risk reward thing (as 15% of mana at level 60 is nothing compared to your life). I just can't figure out how to make it not overly complicated to explain.
I get the idea that you don't want to give glass cannons super awesome defensive pets. But, when they heavily scale with defensive stats (vit, armor, hp, etc), then they become somewhat redundant - if I'm building a tank, why would I need the tankiest pets? Wouldn't I want damage pets? Or, if the only way to make them viable is to be a tank already, then again, what's the point?
Pets should, IMO, scale nominally based on player advancement - no matter what your gear is, with no skill buffs, they should be okay (not great), on the act you are trying to progress on. I'm thinking 50-75% of the cool down. Basically, they should be balanced so that if you don't spend at least a portion of your build on them, they so-so. However, if you want to use pets, you can choose passives and skills that would benefit them. That way, you're making a trade off - less damage/survivability through passives and CC, but more survivability through pets. I feel this would have worked with the original idea of having active skills interact with pets, like being able to set fire to, or add locust to, pets. If you want to use pets, you build your build around them.
I only have three other major wishes.
The smallest, but maybe the largest impact, is faster animations. It makes it incredibly difficult to kite well when you have stop for so long to cast something.
Second, I think they need to revamp the spirit based attack spells - haunt and SB. Haunt would be decent if we had unlimited spell slots, as it's very situational (45% dps is too low for a main attack spell, especially one that is as mana happy as haunt). Maybe halve the damage but make it a debuff (extra damage from spirit attacks, slow, reduce damage, a small improvement to all spirit skills for every enemy with haunt on them, something). For Spirit Barrage, well, it's just got a terrible damage/mana ratio. Sure, you can use up a passive and a rune and reduce it to 40ish mana, but it still only does 10% more than splinters (does less if you happen to be rocking PtV instead of the Rush of Essence to get the reduced mana). Also, even if it only "costs" 40 mana, it still takes the full 108 to cast as you only get the rest back over time (as opposed to nearly every other classes cost reduction runes which are a straight up reduction in cost, frequently for a better reduction as well).
Finally, mana. Now, my personal wish is that it gets completely replaced, like with some form of Blood Ritual (that'd make a truly unique class if we cast out of hp). However, that's a bit much for a patch. I think the best they could do is rework the costs and cooldowns. I'm not sure how they could make the class more unique, but I think the first thing is reduce or eliminate the cost for the primary skills. We're the only class that has no way of attacking when we oom. Maybe reduce APS when using primaries below a certain mana %, or cast primaries out of HP, or just do what the Wizard does and make them free. Also, splinters needs a reduction in damage. It's just too good right now. That, or make the other primaries better. For all the limits on firebombs AoE vs other classes primary AoE's, it doesn't do much damage (can't hit anything more than once, it's slow so it misses a lot...I guess only two limits. But they're big!).