First of all this is my own opinion with 1.1.5.0 update and I am creating this topic for discussion, before going on about it I want everyone who would comment under this topic to be civil and value others opinions as well as keeping a civil discussion down below. I would like to thank people who are taking their time to read this because this is going to be a long post.
As we know 1.1.5.0 was super hyped with 6000 blue items changes new dungeon and couple of new items.
I would like to start off by saying that new dungeon, quests, mobs are very well done. I love rogue like dungeons in this game because if gives a chance to get items outside of cruci and SR. Kudos to Create team for making another dungeon and a well done one.
Now on to the rant
Blue items are still not as powerfull as purple items still:
Maybe its just me but when they said they would be taking blue items and changing them to be as good as purples I was thinking that it would open us more build diversity and maybe move away from purples a bit. Right now builds are the same there is nothing changed, 6000 blue item rewamp and maybe 10 of them can acutally be viable. Blues that were used in builds are the same just a tiny bit buffed. Couple items maybe could replace purples like Conduit is an amazing elemental AA sword than Arcanor if we disregard the devastation on it due to attack speed on Conduit, which brings me to my second point
Lack of Attack speed, Cast speed and Cooldown Reduction on weapons:
Most weapons limits the build viability because they are lacking one of the above. I am going to give the example based on Nightbringer the new weapon. It is a such an amazing weapon. Fact that it only has CDR on it limits the weapon for AA use or even spam Caster. Weapon is obviously designed for ShadowStrike or CDR builds like darkone totems. Althought I tried to make it into an AA weapon I only got to SR 77 thats with a lot of kiting for an AA build. This limits entire theorycrafting. I would love to go Full elemental 2H Arcanor AA build but guess what its lacking AS. This problem could be solved quickly if weapons were to be changed from Cast/Attack speed to Total Speed. This is also not on weapons only rings are also suffering from this problem
Conversions:
Oh boy how awesome conversions are, last patch made vitality viable due to night bringers conversion and the conversion from the rings. Now we can build around elemental to Vit and its amazing so many new builds emerged due to this fact. More conversions opens up for more freedom of builds. and alot I do mean alot of conversions are not supported what so ever. Skip to next point if you dont want to read all the conversion supports
Fire>Lightning %100: You either need 2X stormheart or not even reach %100 with dawnshard, Cinder touch and stormseer
Lightning>Cold %100: Morgo set gives %50 support but once again last %50 is not supported unless going chillheart
Cold>Lightning: Not a single jewelry that supports this (Rings, Belt, Neck), Spark of ultos is good but once again see point 2 for lacking speed.
Lightning>Aether: We have magelord and diviner sets to get this conversion to %100 but once again putting these to get to %100 conversion means we are disregarding imporant pieces of helmet and chest.
Cold>Aether: Holy jesus Arcanist is the one with Aether damage and cold damage why is this not supported at all only %50 conversion with magelord and another %50 with alagast scepted to limit our options
Elemental> Chaos: Only has been supported with twilight veil and its not even %100 conversion.
Most of these can be solved with more green MI belts like we have that provides %50 conversions.
without sacrificing imporant pieces of sets.
Aether EoR When?
Underused sets are still underused:
My examples are going to be, Rotgheist nothing changed, ragadaans is same. Buffs alone will not make these sets viable to theorycraft, they are lacking the unique umpf. When we take a look at rotgheist first thing that comes to mind is primal strike, well might as well go ultos set and play primal strike that was which is %100 better. Ragadaans is in a wierd spot where there isnt much to do with it other than going vitality stormbox and guess what if you want to play stormbox might as well go allagast or light’s defender with is once again waaay better.
Nerfs to some skills doesnt even makes sense:
why buff FoI just to nerf it when AAR just recks the entire game. it goes back to my 4th point if you wana play FoI might as well play AAR instead which is X10 better. Damage of FoI is not even up there to begin with even with huge Weapon damage added from neck and Dualwielding weapons just to boost it to hell. I agree with Stormbox nerf but it was nerfed to hell, just the base damage nerf would have been alone.
Well once again these are my 5 points that dissapointed me in the update maybe it was the build up hype, I simply dont know. I would like to remind you that this is just a feedback and my personal opinion about the game.
I never thought Blue items would be made as powerful as Purple ones. I hoped more for “sidegrades” so that you sometimes consider to skip a Purple for Blue because it fits a little bit better. For me (though I have a very narrow view because of my preferences) there wasn´t many new things I would consider.
Old problem especially for 2H. Can´t say more about it only that CDR is a really strong feature which should be adressed carefully imho.
Well, it’s particular Problem(if you want to call it problem at all) which Grim Dawn / Crate face because they introduced two Tiers of “Uniques”. You can’t make Blue Items as Powerfull as Purple Items, because than Purple would lose it’s value and we could scrap the Item-Tier / Rarity alltogether.
That’s why atleast i never thought for Blue / Epics to be proper Endgame-Gear. Maybe some Niche-Items which fill Niche Rolls, but never to be on the same level or better than Legendary. Because if they would do that, the “Legendary” in Purple Items wouldn’t make any sense anymore. I thought for Blue’s since the beginning that this Items are “Journey-Items” which follows your side until you achieved a certain level where you slowly progress to swap them out for Legendary. Similiar how Magic/Yellow works with Greens / Rare’s. That’s kinda a more “Natural Progression” to me.
For me it also never sounded that Crate wanted to update Epics to be on the same Level as Purples, but rather to polish and overhaul them so the Journey / Leveling (playing Campaign) feels better / more varied, and to have a smoother transition between blue and purple.
/Edit: I’ve to add, Green / Rares (MI’s) are on a different spot, because they aren’t uniques but Randomized Items with Affixes. It does make sense for them to have the potential, if you are lucky with the rolls, to get items which are as strong or better than Purples. And even than it’s a trade off for having better stats instead of some unique boni which Purples have.
Incorrect. Blues have some of the best standalone items for the slots. Some blues are still trash for no reason tho.
Agreed about Rotgeist. But its problems, melee side of it, are awkwardness of PS spam with low AS and unconverted Torrent, the set itself has nothing to do with it.
Blue items were never ever meant to be as powerful as the purples. Some of them may have great stats for your current character level and can be a cool placeholder until you find a better item.
The same argument applies to why yellows are not as powerful as greens (and yet, some are amazing at lower levels) etc.
The boost to the blue items though, I enjoy as I am one of those players that experiment with different playstyles. For example I have characters that I only allow yellow items. Ditto for white, green and blue etc. (Hell, even CLASSLESS)
The community that play their own defined challenges appreciate the new blue item stats, especially if they are running a character that they limit to blue items only!
Not every character and item have to be god-like in the game. If that was so, then what would be the point of build experimentation and progression?
If you need that sort of simplified play style then you don’t have to look much further than the unspeakable horror of the well known dumbed down disaster of D…3 !
I agree with your points, but is there a reason as to why you’re replying to me?
I think what makes blues great are the stats they offer. Eastern set comes to mind, for example.
Another advantage is the conversion they bring.
However, they fall short of purps because of a lack of skill mods. So where they shine is if you can fit a 2 piece epic set to benefit from the set bonus stats, or use a stand-alone item for conversion.
LOL - not sure who to reply to on this site sometimes. It was just that your comments were correct for the topic and I just clicked on the reply. Maybe I should have clicked the reply on the top topic?
Apologies, but your comments were right on target.
This is part of what I was looking out for on the blues change as well - for them to support or open up the possibility of niche builds that currently aren’t supported by Legendaries (even some random skill bonuses in places would go a long way).
The other thing I’ve noticed in the blues re-evaluation is that parts of them that were literally never used or touched before have been rightfully removed, e.g. that Aether Spellbinder off hand that for some reason also has pet damage on it? The pet damage is gone now.
I recall Zantai saying that the intention wasn’t to make blue items as powerful as purple. Mostly they wanted to make the epic tire a good option for leveling and for budget endgame builds. Most early-game epics particularly were so underwhelming that you would rather use a yellow item. I think that this patch indeed improved most of them. I’m seeing myself equipping more blue items than before. So, honestly, I think that the main point of your rant is kind of moot.
And for me, any build that can go beyond SR70 is is on a healthy spot.
At no point did we say that was the plan, so if that was your expectations, you’ve misinterpreted the previews.
Epics were always intended as entry-level items that serve as a stepping stone to build-defining Legendaries or exceptional Monster Infrequents. What we did do though is update Epics to better serve that role and give players still progressing a leg up into the endgame (and a more enjoyable leveling experience through better drops).
Cooldown Reduction and Attack/Cast Speed are incredibly potent attributes that are given out with great care.
With Conversions availability, there are limits to how much gear exists and how it interacts with masteries/other gear. We can’t just throw Conversion on every item and hope for the best. Conversion can make or break builds and can stifle how certain items are used if placed carelessly.
Rotgheist and Radaggan are doing what they were made to do. That said, Rotgheist is getting some Energy Regeneration soon.
FoI literally got big buffs in v1.1.5.0, so only thing I can think of is a nerf to a very specific Inquisitor conduit necklace, which was warranted.
I think that perhaps lowering some of the epic lvl requirements might be something to look at, though.
Are the 50/75/94 barriers arbitrary in GD? What if you made epics 5 levels lower?
Balance - I suppose. But they often seem like they would be more exciting as a 5-10 level gap-filler. I know there are various tiers of epics, but so many seem to be “over-priced” in terms of level restrictions and effective use by the time a character qualifies. Compared to the alternative gear, that is.
An example off the top of my head:
The 3-pc Eastern Robes set is available at lvl 58 and it’s pretty strong for that lvl with a lot of bonuses for that level (can allow for full overcapped TSS base node with other stuff). This is good.
Something like the 72 tier 5-pc Unholy Covenant set is very underwhelming (even individually) for lvl 72 and 5 piece is probably just as hard as some of the 4-piece legendary sets to find. This is bad for this higher level. But at level 60, it might be interesting and not so bad.
thanks for the reply Z. I appriciate the idea behind of what you guys decision making is.
when it comes to conversions I feel like adding more conversion types would allow unorthodox class combos to merge from the shadows like apostate. You can see that in the build compendium there is bigillion warlords, shieldbreakers, infiltrators but not that many apostates etc… maybe you guys want to do what you did with morgo set and reaper to those under performing class combos.
You still need to consider natural class synergies. Defiler got blightlord and you still don’t see defilers here cause the synergy just sucks. That’s the same with stuff like Apostate where binder is just better for most aether and ritualist/cabalist is better for most vit. Bonemonger apostate is quite good tho, there’s just not much updated builds.
Morgo set had to stuff in a lot of stuff just to make reaper look good. And even then trickster is a better fit for it imo.
Idea of blue items often is to act as temporarily replacement of legendary gear or to be used for leveling. Very often proper blade can be better than inappropriate purple.
As for conversion most of the unique builds that rely on it are dependent on weapons for conversion. You said no elemental to chaos? Well Blood Orb have 100%.