Diablo 4 Pals

[Evia]

New patch is harsh...lots of nerfs...My siphoning blades, which I use to heal me/keep me up, is now reliant on lucky chance. They also nerfed crit strike dmg, vulnerable dmg, and cc dmg. All three stats I built my char around. Not to mention the nerfs to armor....and I was already squishy enough.

I ran some nmd after the patch and my kill speed is quite a bit slower. Idk if it's a coincidence, but it does feel like it's easier to do my evade stun dance moves now. Couple that with the new aspect that stuns all close enemies for 2-4 seconds and I might have a pretty OP stunlock build.

We will see!

[Toxigen]

Originally Posted by Evia [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

New patch is harsh...lots of nerfs...My siphoning blades, which I use to heal me/keep me up, is now reliant on lucky chance. They also nerfed crit strike dmg, vulnerable dmg, and cc dmg. All three stats I built my char around. Not to mention the nerfs to armor....and I was already squishy enough.

I ran some nmd after the patch and my kill speed is quite a bit slower. Idk if it's a coincidence, but it does feel like it's easier to do my evade stun dance moves now. Couple that with the new aspect that stuns all close enemies for 2-4 seconds and I might have a pretty OP stunlock build.

We will see!

Everyone built around crit / vuln / CC. The nerfs are intended intended to slow everything down which isn't a bad thing. I'll probably never log on my sorc again haha, just too much committed to the old formulas.

I made a necro to mess around on tonight and get a feel for the minion mechanics. Looks like its going to be a hoot to level. Bonespear is nerfed so other builds will actually be relevant. Hoping for a good blood or shadow build to get developed for WT4!

[Evia]

Originally Posted by Toxigen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Everyone built around crit / vuln / CC. The nerfs are intended intended to slow everything down which isn't a bad thing. I'll probably never log on my sorc again haha, just too much committed to the old formulas.

I made a necro to mess around on tonight and get a feel for the minion mechanics. Looks like its going to be a hoot to level. Bonespear is nerfed so other builds will actually be relevant. Hoping for a good blood or shadow build to get developed for WT4!

Yeah I agree slowing the pace of the game down a bit isn't necessarily bad. We will see how it all shakes out. I saw a video of a bone necro still wrecking Uber Lilith even after the patch..so they're still strong but perhaps not the only viable build.

I didn't realize everyone focused on the same stats I was. It makes the nerf hammer even more profound since it's clearly changed up all builds.

I'm skipping season 1 but i may join you guys for season 2.

[Lune]

Originally Posted by Toxigen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Everyone built around crit / vuln / CC. The nerfs are intended intended to slow everything down which isn't a bad thing. I'll probably never log on my sorc again haha, just too much committed to the old formulas.

I made a necro to mess around on tonight and get a feel for the minion mechanics. Looks like its going to be a hoot to level. Bonespear is nerfed so other builds will actually be relevant. Hoping for a good blood or shadow build to get developed for WT4!

Slowing everything down may be a bad thing when you look at their motivation-- monetization.

S1 is dropping in days. They want to sell battlepasses. They've just gutted basically every character; all the optimized gear, specs, paragons, and aspects people built for both popular and unpopular, strong and weak specs alike. They want to sell tier skips. They've just slowed the game down massively and enhanced the grind. Those few, or perhaps many, who planned to stay on eternal now decide whether to rebuild their broken chars or just play S1.

This is design by monetization. The nerds in their c-suite have crunched some model that ordains some target speed with which they want players to progress through the game to optimize microtransactions. It's clear that's what this patch is, because there is little to no care for actual class balance; sorcs still garbage, underperforming abilities still underperform across the board, Helltides nerfed to oblivion, etc. Rather, anything that cleared content too quickly was dismantled. This was meta-design packaged as class balance.

If this were design by fun, underperforming classes, builds, and abilities would have been brought up to being competitive and only the most broken and egregious builds or abilities nerfed. Your character would still basically be intact, but it may no longer be optimal. If they felt the game was trivial at this point, they could have increased mob strength. I think people got through their content offerings too quickly, and this is somewhat an attempt to stretch the content. Should have been done before release, though, before people got a taste for it.

That being said, if I'm still having fun, I'll still play. Been moving the last couple weeks and haven't been able to play.

[Toxigen]

Originally Posted by Lune [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Slowing everything down may be a bad thing when you look at their motivation-- monetization.

S1 is dropping in days. They want to sell battlepasses. They've just gutted basically every character; all the optimized gear, specs, paragons, and aspects people built for both popular and unpopular, strong and weak specs alike. They want to sell tier skips. They've just slowed the game down massively and enhanced the grind. Those few, or perhaps many, who planned to stay on eternal now decide whether to rebuild their broken chars or just play S1.

This is design by monetization. The nerds in their c-suite have crunched some model that ordains some target speed with which they want players to progress through the game to optimize microtransactions. It's clear that's what this patch is, because there is little to no care for actual class balance; sorcs still garbage, underperforming abilities still underperform across the board, Helltides nerfed to oblivion, etc. Rather, anything that cleared content too quickly was dismantled. This was meta-design packaged as class balance.

If this were design by fun, underperforming classes, builds, and abilities would have been brought up to being competitive and only the most broken and egregious builds or abilities nerfed. Your character would still basically be intact, but it may no longer be optimal. If they felt the game was trivial at this point, they could have increased mob strength. I think people got through their content offerings too quickly, and this is somewhat an attempt to stretch the content. Should have been done before release, though, before people got a taste for it.

That being said, if I'm still having fun, I'll still play. Been moving the last couple weeks and haven't been able to play.

Agree with pretty much the whole bit. Sorc needed buffs so badly and didn't get anything...so strange.

Amen to still having fun, as am I. I'm not doing any microtransactions (I paid $70 for a game they aren't getting another dime) as I'm in no rush and don't care to be at the front of the herd. If anything it makes it more enjoyable for me to see how things play out and be able to decide on a build in due time and not waste a bunch of time/resources making "mistakes."

Add us to friends if ya want, Lune. Are you on PS5 or PC?

[Lune]

For sure, I'm on PC. Still getting settled so probably won't be able to play a ton for a few more days. Was planning on staying eternal but at this point I'll probably just roll s1, druid or rogue

[Evia]

Originally Posted by Lune [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Slowing everything down may be a bad thing when you look at their motivation-- monetization.

S1 is dropping in days. They want to sell battlepasses. They've just gutted basically every character; all the optimized gear, specs, paragons, and aspects people built for both popular and unpopular, strong and weak specs alike. They want to sell tier skips. They've just slowed the game down massively and enhanced the grind. Those few, or perhaps many, who planned to stay on eternal now decide whether to rebuild their broken chars or just play S1.

This is design by monetization. The nerds in their c-suite have crunched some model that ordains some target speed with which they want players to progress through the game to optimize microtransactions. It's clear that's what this patch is, because there is little to no care for actual class balance; sorcs still garbage, underperforming abilities still underperform across the board, Helltides nerfed to oblivion, etc. Rather, anything that cleared content too quickly was dismantled. This was meta-design packaged as class balance.

If this were design by fun, underperforming classes, builds, and abilities would have been brought up to being competitive and only the most broken and egregious builds or abilities nerfed. Your character would still basically be intact, but it may no longer be optimal. If they felt the game was trivial at this point, they could have increased mob strength. I think people got through their content offerings too quickly, and this is somewhat an attempt to stretch the content. Should have been done before release, though, before people got a taste for it.

That being said, if I'm still having fun, I'll still play. Been moving the last couple weeks and haven't been able to play.

This is keen observation here. Most likely the truth in why they ultimately did this.

I was never planning on spending any money in the cash shop, but I wasn't necessarily against it.

Now I have a chip on my shoulder tho lol and am going to make it a point to not pay them another dime. If they truly are trying to angle the game to encourage me to pay money ill resist because of principle or I'll quit entirely.

Rn I'm having fun though as you said so I'll play until that isn't the case.

[Toxigen]

awwwww yisssss my guesses on the patch notes are a hit

https://app.mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/b...amping-minions

my build for S1

[Toxigen]

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/com...&utm_content=1

lmao

[Evia]

Originally Posted by Toxigen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/com...&utm_content=1

lmao

Haha that was hilarious!

I broke down and joined season 1 after all. Going rogue again but bow this time. I tried the meta Twisting Blades for the first 15 levels but couldn't get into the play style.

Build so far...
Puncture/Rapid Fire/Dash/Concealment/Poison Trap/Poison Imbue

So far its been a lot of fun. Plays similar to my Flurry Rogue except I'm ranged and Poison and not melee shadow. I also swapped shadow step for Concealment for cc break. It's a longer cooldown but much less awkward for a ranged build since I dont have to teleport to melee range. Hopefully I can ride this build until the end.