[Updated: 21 March 2015] (Bold text is new)
Hi everyone,
during the past weekend I spent a lot of time on the PTR, streaming and toying around with the new items. We already have a few differnet topics on individual stuff like the new UE and Nat's sets, however with this post I aim to give a quick overview of what I think about the changes and what the possiblities are for certain item combinations for people who can't or don't want to play on the PTR, and which will be helpful for further theorycrafting. This thread assumes that you have read the 2.2 patch notes, the undocumented changes, the first and the last update of the PTR and that you know about all the new items. Let's jump right in:
[Unhallowed Essence Set]
PTR Build 1 + 2
- 6pc bonus is fully multiplicative
- Dead Man's Legacy just creates a second independent damage roll for every damage number that shows up when using Multishot (including rockets / aoe burst) with a ~0.25seconds delay
- Really strong for T6 farming, its speed is probaby unmatched by any other class once fully optimized
- Hungering Arrow with Buriza and the quiver is still crap, Bola Shot shows some potential, but probably not viable for high end builds
- Hungering Arrow only is strong and can be pushed probably up to tier 50+, Joking101 has made a topic dedicated to this. It's based on stacking area damage and the HA quiver along with Bastions of Will (procced by Sentry / occassional CA)
- 6pc works with Kridershot (and Chakram quiver). I have a feeling that this is unintenional because of two reasons: 1) Kridershot doesn't interact like that with anything else in the game right now, and 2) It seems severely overpowered and will effectively shift an excessive amount of character progression to one item that will be near impossible to get right, even worse than what other classes currently experience with the Furnace. (Kridershot always rolls a socket which has to be rerolled, so it has to come naturally with +max disc, a good damage roll as well as one out of %dmg, IAS or area damage, on top of being ancient)
- Chakram quiver is crap
- The strongest setup I have found is Bastions of Will + Kridershot + Meticulous Bolts + UE6, I was getting up to 600m Ball Lightning ticks in a 3p party with a WD and another DH. Fire could work well with Immolation Arrow + Mortal Enemy as well
- Kridershot + UE won't work - Still works, most likely John Yang's tweet was referring to the change to the Bastions of Will set
- Perma Smoke Screen is no longer an option
PTR Build 3 + 4
- UE's 6pc bonus was buffed by 50%, a 20% additive damage bonus was added to 4pc. Overall it should outperform any DH sets, no GR testing yet
- Bastions of Will will be more difficult to keep up in a Ball Lightning build, but it's still possible
- Sentry cannot be used to proc Restraint unless you use the Chains of Torment rune
[Revamped Natalya Set]
PTR Build 1 + 2
- 6pc bonus is fully multiplicative
- It feels a little bit disappointing overall
- Gloves of the Rain from 2.2 preview were changed to a defensive bonus instead of the ~100% damage boost to RoV at the last minute, which would have been a good addition to what we currently have on PTR
- Best combination I came up with was Broken Promises + full Nat6 + Calamity, spamming Dark Cloud via Evasive Fire + FoK
- I tried Anathema in a GR with a WD but it's crap. AoE is too small, and damage can't keep up even on big targets like RG. It might clear up to mid 40s GRs
- It's difficult to find a good spot to fit Nat's in, because for speedfarming you will want to use the new set, and for GRs probably the same or M6. It has some potential for fun-and-still-close-to-good builds, but that's about it
- Nat's is getting a 7th piece - confirmed: a belt - there might still be hope and also some options to push the CD reduction to its limits (~1sec per RoV cast)
PTR Build 3
- Gloves of the Rain are the 7th set piece, they added a belt to "go along with the set" but it seems crappy
- Generator reduces CD by 1, spender by 2 sec - RoV damage is considerably weaker now
- Nat's has become a very strong and flexible set that works with any damage source (including gems, item procs, spells, conduit)
- Nat's won't increase your sentries' damage
- I've tried Wohjanni Rapid Fire + RoV... It might have potential, however the weapon's stacking mechanics make it unlikely to happen
- For T6, the best combination I have found is Strafe, Vengeance, RoV, SS - Displacement, Prep - Focused Mind, stacking lots of movespeed and using Wreath of Lightning / Pain Enhancer / Bane of the Powerful. It's fun to play
PTR Build 4
- Nat 2 piece changed, will now reduce by 2 seconds no matter what as long as you hit an enemy
- Strafe just got a huge buff because of this. The CD is getting reduced a lot quicker than before
- Shuriken Cloud doesn't reduce the CD anymore, and FoK probably is out too if you don't want to melee
- Buriza + Bola doesn't work to get more than one proc, same for Ball Lightning
- CD reduce works on Danetta's now
[Rings]
- Bastion of Will (Focus & Restraint) is a very poweful set right now, and works extraordinarily well with Kridershot + UE6, for both fire and lightning. Seems like this is the strongest option right now. - Bastions of Will has become a little more difficult to use, as they have changed to provide two seperate 50% multipliers that proc on using a generator and a spender, respectively
- Broken Promises is very strong and procs like crazy. With 12% CC and only passively proccing it via M2 pets it never took more than 0.5 seconds to proc, same for UE6 spamming Multishot at 13% CC. Fully optimized you can expect ~0.25sec downtime at max - Seems like they added a ~3sec internal cooldown to the ring. Still an option to be considered.
- BlizzCon ring is a fun toy for Kridershot and has some potential for people who like demanding gameplay, probably not endgame though. Haven't verified it, but I think it should just act like any other % Elemental Damage on items, however it does not show as such in the extended sheet tab
- Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is fun to play with and has some potential for out-of-the-ordinary builds in T6 - Works well with Strafe + RoV
[Other stuff]
- M6 sentry indicator works fine Bugged when entering a new floor, but likely to be fixed
- I tried to make a build based on In Geom but it doesn't interact with any DH spell whatsoever - Seems to be a bug and the item is not working for any class right now - In-Geom seems to work now, best synergy with FoK + SS. No testing yet. RIP In-Geom dreams
- Strafe can be a good option for T6 farming with Obsidian Ring
- Caltrops Belt is a fun toy but I can't see it being useful for anything
- Iceblink is a really cool gem to use in different builds, especially M6 Maelstrom. The slow effect is amazing and it lets you make better use of Zei's to offset the dps loss for not using Taeguk
- Bane of the Stricken seems severely op on many levels and is not dropping yet will not be included in 2.2
All in all I can say that I'm really excited for 2.2 and that I think it will be a great patch. I can't wait to see how the changes will affect group leaderboards, everything seems to be shifting right now.
In case I forgot anything, I will edit this post as needed.
Further reading: My feedback on the official forums
1
:D!
This is really good. Every season should be 2 months, no more.
2
now you can reroll 10000 times your jewelry if you want/need. i think that this fact is a huge improvement tbh
1
i'm pretty well geared and i think this patch is great. now we will be able to upgrade our currents sets by gambling which is great.