I feel like in order for Phalanx to be at all relevant a few things would need to happen. I miss the old lord commander builds and would love to see some variations come back, especially since patch 2.6.1 will be buffing some old crusader builds. I know there are some LoN builds and some versions with Akahns, but I really feel like phalanx is a tweak or two away from being really cool and fun and viable compared to the other builds that are coming up.
I feel like Akahn's set should be the base for a pet build because of Baleful Remnant. Since you need akarat's champion up it makes sense to me that you'd want the perma champion set to be part of any pet build. So for me, a LoN petsader feels like a bandaid. It's great that we have the freedom in the set now to use the helmet for phalanx, and also taskers, since they added the amulet. However, with the pony flail and shield set, I feel like the extra damage from that outweighs the benefit of using the unrelenting phalanx shield and baleful remnant on my character. Ideally we'd be riding around on the horse, with extra damage from the flail and shield set bonus, with perma champion up, having our pets buffed from both the helmet and shield phalanx bonuses, but in order to do this, we then don't have a spot left for baleful remnant.
If the intention is that we can't use the flail and shield set along with all 3, baleful remnant plus unrelenting phalanx plus the helm, then that's ok, but the bonuses without it just don't add up to anything substantial compared to the other builds that are getting buffed.
I'm fine with having to use a ring slot for eternal union, although it hurts a little to make the sacrifice for it when there such great options in the jewelry department.
2 different ideas:
1. Put the bonuses from unrelenting phalanx shield in with the baleful remnant, all in orange text. This would allow us to cube the weapon and still use the flail and shield pony set. Then we could enjoy the benefits of the set, while also enjoying the benefits of baleful remnant and unrelenting phalanx. (This is kind of a big change because it's taking the affix of of the shield and giving to the other weapon, which I don't really see them doing. Would it still be balanced, yes. Would it give an unfair advantage, no. It might not even make the build good enough to compete with the other in T10-T13, idk)
2. Give the baleful remnant and the unrelenting phalanx shield a buff, enough of a buff to make them worth using, like the flail and shield set or other weapon and shield combos. We're seeing buffs to the captain america shield toss builds, holy shotgun, and condemn, this could just put phalanx u in that group. I don't need it to be a grift pushing build, but being able to use phalanx as my dps for a speed clearing build would be great.
Conclusion. We've got these great items in the game already. The play style is already there and established and fun. It would be great to see some synergy come together around the skill and existing gear so we have yet another great option. I love the class and I love all of the variety, especially with the upcoming buffs, it would just be great to see some more of our stuff put to use in the current meta.
If anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them. I'm still holding out hope for Phalanx eventually!
The Spider Queen from Arachyr DOES work with Zuni pet damage bonus. She does pretty good damage too, not as much as the gargs, but more than fetishes or dogs. What it does that I like is it also slows significantly. It's a fun way to proc Bane of the Trapped from a distance still.
It shreds on t8 for me right now and I have absolutely terrible gear this season so far. I have no idea if it's viable for anything else but it was a fun experiment. As I get better gear and optimize more for it I might try to keep it in the mix. We'll see.
I like this. My favorite part is getting an option to farm mats in story mode in addition bounties. I feel like the adventure mode in this game has gotten pretty great, and something along with the story to give it value again would be really fantastic. I'm sure it would be expensive for them to make this change and I by no means expect it, but if it did happen I would be a happy guy.
Has anyone tried a Zuni and Arachyr combo? I'm wondering if the 6 pc pet damage bonus from zuni works with the spider from 2 pc arachyr. If the two even work together at all or if the bonus would be significant at all. It would make for a cool hybrid if you could do a spider zuni build if the damage was at all worth it compared to what you'd have to give up to make it work. I've seen Hell Tooth Zuni hybrid builds but I was thinking the spider would be more interesting if the pet damage synergized.
I'm researching to see if Mask of Jeram effects the damage of mimics from Grin Reaper and am finding mixed results. Can anyone confirm if they get the 100% pet damage buff or no?
The reason I'm interested is that I'm currently running the Acid Cloud build, but since I have found a near perfect SoJ and decent CoE, and have yet to get good rolls on both F&R in season, I've been just pushing the SoJ as far as I can for now. In doing so I've found something that may or may not be worth exploring (I'm not a high level player by any means so I'm interested to hear from anyone with expertise). Since I don't have a generator on my bar, and the only skills on my bar that the mimics can cast are firewall and acid cloud (I took pirranahs off the build too just to give the mimics even more focus on casting the damage dealers since the mimics were just randomly casting pirannahs anyway with no intent on placement), the mimics are just filling the screen with the more useful skills rather than spamming jars of spiders and poorly placed pirannahs. With F&R I found that the mimics are often sitting there chucking spiders, which aren't proccing my F&R, and putting pirranahs in random bad spots, so its basically like wasted time for the mimics.
So the second question becomes this, with only two skills on the bar that the mimics can cast, could that outweigh the benefit of F&R? If so, that opens up a ring spot to use RorG in the cube so you can wear a Grin Reaper and cube Mask of Jeram (Assuming Mask of Jeram benefits the mimics).
Feel free to call me an idiot lol, I just like testing all my options off of the best gear I have, even when the pros are doing otherwise for top builds. Top builds are top for a reason though, so if this stuff is completely not viable I'd love hearing about why that is.
Oh and just for reference, my highest Grift with this build right now is 51, finished in 6 minutes, and I know I can push a lot higher but I barely even have a completed set and am not even optimized at all, that's what made me think, maybe I'm on to something viable if I do get this optimized.
Hello DFans! I've been coming to this site for a long time but always lurking and never communicating (Thanks for all the great info over the years). I've always played Diablo alone, got to Paragon 670 that way, then this weekend I felt I had to get into groups to max the farming of the bounty bonus and I realized playing with other people will be a lot more fun moving forward in my D3 life.
I'd love to hang out with new people and farm stuff. I've spent the most time with Monk and Crusader, but have a decent Barb too, and recently picked up Witch Doctor (Which has quickly become my favorite class, with huge diversity in the way you can play).
I didn't start a seasonal character for season 4 because I wasn't having fun in seasons playing alone, but if I found people to play with I might jump in.
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I feel like in order for Phalanx to be at all relevant a few things would need to happen. I miss the old lord commander builds and would love to see some variations come back, especially since patch 2.6.1 will be buffing some old crusader builds. I know there are some LoN builds and some versions with Akahns, but I really feel like phalanx is a tweak or two away from being really cool and fun and viable compared to the other builds that are coming up.
I feel like Akahn's set should be the base for a pet build because of Baleful Remnant. Since you need akarat's champion up it makes sense to me that you'd want the perma champion set to be part of any pet build. So for me, a LoN petsader feels like a bandaid. It's great that we have the freedom in the set now to use the helmet for phalanx, and also taskers, since they added the amulet. However, with the pony flail and shield set, I feel like the extra damage from that outweighs the benefit of using the unrelenting phalanx shield and baleful remnant on my character. Ideally we'd be riding around on the horse, with extra damage from the flail and shield set bonus, with perma champion up, having our pets buffed from both the helmet and shield phalanx bonuses, but in order to do this, we then don't have a spot left for baleful remnant.
If the intention is that we can't use the flail and shield set along with all 3, baleful remnant plus unrelenting phalanx plus the helm, then that's ok, but the bonuses without it just don't add up to anything substantial compared to the other builds that are getting buffed.
I'm fine with having to use a ring slot for eternal union, although it hurts a little to make the sacrifice for it when there such great options in the jewelry department.
2 different ideas:
1. Put the bonuses from unrelenting phalanx shield in with the baleful remnant, all in orange text. This would allow us to cube the weapon and still use the flail and shield pony set. Then we could enjoy the benefits of the set, while also enjoying the benefits of baleful remnant and unrelenting phalanx. (This is kind of a big change because it's taking the affix of of the shield and giving to the other weapon, which I don't really see them doing. Would it still be balanced, yes. Would it give an unfair advantage, no. It might not even make the build good enough to compete with the other in T10-T13, idk)
2. Give the baleful remnant and the unrelenting phalanx shield a buff, enough of a buff to make them worth using, like the flail and shield set or other weapon and shield combos. We're seeing buffs to the captain america shield toss builds, holy shotgun, and condemn, this could just put phalanx u in that group. I don't need it to be a grift pushing build, but being able to use phalanx as my dps for a speed clearing build would be great.
Conclusion. We've got these great items in the game already. The play style is already there and established and fun. It would be great to see some synergy come together around the skill and existing gear so we have yet another great option. I love the class and I love all of the variety, especially with the upcoming buffs, it would just be great to see some more of our stuff put to use in the current meta.
If anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them. I'm still holding out hope for Phalanx eventually!
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Update:
The Spider Queen from Arachyr DOES work with Zuni pet damage bonus. She does pretty good damage too, not as much as the gargs, but more than fetishes or dogs. What it does that I like is it also slows significantly. It's a fun way to proc Bane of the Trapped from a distance still.
It shreds on t8 for me right now and I have absolutely terrible gear this season so far. I have no idea if it's viable for anything else but it was a fun experiment. As I get better gear and optimize more for it I might try to keep it in the mix. We'll see.
1
I just want to say thanks for this thread and the work that went into it. Quality post right here! Thank you!
1
I like this. My favorite part is getting an option to farm mats in story mode in addition bounties. I feel like the adventure mode in this game has gotten pretty great, and something along with the story to give it value again would be really fantastic. I'm sure it would be expensive for them to make this change and I by no means expect it, but if it did happen I would be a happy guy.
0
Has anyone tried a Zuni and Arachyr combo? I'm wondering if the 6 pc pet damage bonus from zuni works with the spider from 2 pc arachyr. If the two even work together at all or if the bonus would be significant at all. It would make for a cool hybrid if you could do a spider zuni build if the damage was at all worth it compared to what you'd have to give up to make it work. I've seen Hell Tooth Zuni hybrid builds but I was thinking the spider would be more interesting if the pet damage synergized.
0
Thanks! I got the 51 grift down to 5 minutes with mask of jeram in the cube, but that could just be because of rift density, idk.
1
I'm researching to see if Mask of Jeram effects the damage of mimics from Grin Reaper and am finding mixed results. Can anyone confirm if they get the 100% pet damage buff or no?
The reason I'm interested is that I'm currently running the Acid Cloud build, but since I have found a near perfect SoJ and decent CoE, and have yet to get good rolls on both F&R in season, I've been just pushing the SoJ as far as I can for now. In doing so I've found something that may or may not be worth exploring (I'm not a high level player by any means so I'm interested to hear from anyone with expertise). Since I don't have a generator on my bar, and the only skills on my bar that the mimics can cast are firewall and acid cloud (I took pirranahs off the build too just to give the mimics even more focus on casting the damage dealers since the mimics were just randomly casting pirannahs anyway with no intent on placement), the mimics are just filling the screen with the more useful skills rather than spamming jars of spiders and poorly placed pirannahs. With F&R I found that the mimics are often sitting there chucking spiders, which aren't proccing my F&R, and putting pirranahs in random bad spots, so its basically like wasted time for the mimics.
So the second question becomes this, with only two skills on the bar that the mimics can cast, could that outweigh the benefit of F&R? If so, that opens up a ring spot to use RorG in the cube so you can wear a Grin Reaper and cube Mask of Jeram (Assuming Mask of Jeram benefits the mimics).
Feel free to call me an idiot lol, I just like testing all my options off of the best gear I have, even when the pros are doing otherwise for top builds. Top builds are top for a reason though, so if this stuff is completely not viable I'd love hearing about why that is.
Oh and just for reference, my highest Grift with this build right now is 51, finished in 6 minutes, and I know I can push a lot higher but I barely even have a completed set and am not even optimized at all, that's what made me think, maybe I'm on to something viable if I do get this optimized.
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Hello DFans! I've been coming to this site for a long time but always lurking and never communicating (Thanks for all the great info over the years). I've always played Diablo alone, got to Paragon 670 that way, then this weekend I felt I had to get into groups to max the farming of the bounty bonus and I realized playing with other people will be a lot more fun moving forward in my D3 life.
I'd love to hang out with new people and farm stuff. I've spent the most time with Monk and Crusader, but have a decent Barb too, and recently picked up Witch Doctor (Which has quickly become my favorite class, with huge diversity in the way you can play).
I didn't start a seasonal character for season 4 because I wasn't having fun in seasons playing alone, but if I found people to play with I might jump in.
My tag is: Johnny2D#1528
NA Server