My view is a little bit different:
I think, Zantai/Crate wanted to cut the powercreep in damage. And one solution, for all masteries, was: Nerf Racial Damage. You are right, AoM got nerfed more than any other Racial Damage. The second place could be Mythical Guthook Belt with 50 % nerf (from 25 % to 12 %). I don´t think “passives have to be in line” generally because they aren´t; if you look only at them, Fabric of Reality or Steel Resolve are “better”, if you only look at them. But for some builds, the Cunning-raise is worth more, even more as the flat damage the other skills gain (it´s true for my Trickster e. g.).
I am with Norzan when it comes to unique ability/“spirit” of a mastery. For Nightblade, it´s the DW-line. Anatomy of Murder fits in nice thematically, but it´s not the core of the mastery. If you want another unique thing about Nightblade: No exclusive skill. Why is this something good? Because you can take all things you want without thinking about making a choice between 2 exclusive skills.
I am with you, that it is sometimes frustrating when nerfs cut your damage because for me it´s like “Get enough defense and then…DAMAGE”. You want to see numbers, you want to kill fast. Okay, we got a(nother) slap here, so it would be nice, if we can´t do high damage, we can longer do damage (a little bit more defense, even if it is only some Health).
Btw @Rhylthar you compared belt with passive skill, which required previously substantial investment in order to shine. I get why Zantai is reducing racial bonus, but skill like Anatomy which doesn’t even work fully on major Nightblade builds is strange. I think the minimum should be higher and then scales with 1% increase per level.
Anyway the two months ago Deathmarked chest had more racial then AOM now
I don´t know; does your Vitality Reaper even use it? You can argue that it now doesn´t work fully but on the other hand…you got a lot of bang for your bucks before. How much did you gain for a 6/12 or 3/12?
If (and that´s a big “IF”) Zantai would change Racial Damage here again he could make it the exactly the other way around: Small Racial Damage if you invest only a few points, more if you go beyond 12/12. Hey, I will be the 1st one who would enjoy it…but I don´t think this would happen.
And comparing skills with items: Well, Nightblade is still the only mastery (I think so…) which gets Racial damage against Humans. Still unique.
I think your joke is very childish. Vitality works only with Demonslayer and reason is the good set and massive racial damage. Vitality is the most resistant type and Nightblade don’t have vitality RR and basically no support outside of this passive skill. So skip it, yes
Nightblades do have cold and acid - RR. And these are the main damage types for DW and you can’t make them without Nightblade support. So the question is what you gain by taking more points in Anatomy now? Answer is, better invest the points in WPS and leave AoM at 1 point, no points more for sure. So this is the change. You still will max it on vitality, bleeding builds. Or you will skip it on your bleeding builds and take Stormcaller for exclusive?
No joke, I don´t know if it is used or not on your Reaper. And btw. Nightblade doesn´t have Bleed RR, either.
And to get it right:
You can invest points with Cold/Acid Nightblade in other skills because they are not maxed? I couldn´t do that (don´t have to) because all other relevant skills (WPS) are maxed (perhaps Execution but not strictly Bleeding).
As for your last question (though I don´t understand the reason for it):
Stormcaller´s Pact was the goto exclusive skill till Primal Bond was buffed. Played a long time with it because DoT + High Crit = Much fun! Therefore it will be Divine Mandate on my Dervish.
Because of…Bleeding. It´s a massive DoT Build, I don´t know any other Damage Type which is comparable. Sure, other Damage Types have DoTs, too, but most builds just take it as nice-to-have and go for the direct damage (long time since I have seen a pure IT-Build…). Yes, WPS helps because you have to stack up the sources. But only Whirling Death is maxed, Belgothians and Execution are for the Weapon Damage and/or the skill modfiers.
As for the posted build (I am no expert in Cold builds): What about Execution, AQC, Blade Spirits (for Damage)?
As for Stormcaller´s Pact:
Before Primal Bonds buff and Massacre Relic I used Stormcaller and Eye of the Storm. Hard times.
Edit:
After looking through several builds adding Health (somewhere between Primal Strike and Spectral Binding, not percentage) would be nice and won´t harm anyone. And if only that I don´t get pearls of sweat when I see this under 10k Health builds.
Now, this is “in line” with all the other arguments defending this nerf.
So there can be only one special thing? You’re making up arguments as you go.
Nightblade always had huge human racial. Now, for most nightblade builds it was nerfed close to zero. And for no good reason. If this happened before all the Deathmarked nerfs, VB nerfs, different oathkeeper nerfs: Ascension nerfs and Guardian nerfs, PB nerfs, Bloodrager nerfs, Guthook nerfs, Notched Bone nerfs, Ultos nerfs, Dying God nerfs, Rumor nerfs, different infiltrator nerfs: RoH nerfs, Steel Resolve nerfs and Censure nerfs, Lethal Assault nerfs, Chillwhisper nerfs, Harra nerfs, pierce Cadence nerfs and many many others - then it might have been understandable. But in the present situation it’s nothing but a nerf for the sake of nerf. It serves no practical purpose balance-wise.
That’s right. Playtester community got in such a momentum then now nerfs happen just for the sake of nerfs. They are running out of things to nerf! So they are looking for what else to nerf. Nerf what has not yet been nerfed!
No, it’s not that. Things like damage, achievements, clear times, record runs - they hardly matter anymore in GD. For example, there’s a new very strong build. But the guy asked me not to share. This is seriously what is happening. Anyway, the build is strong, got lots of damage, but what sense does it even make to make such a statement if this build might not exist after the next patch.
This is how it looks like from the outside. You didn’t give a single concrete reason for this change that’s based on concrete examples. Mostly you just ridicule criticism.
They give you feedback and suggestions, no? Superfluff said he did.
Since time immemorial, this has happened. People in GD have always felt like they’re being personally attacked when their build loses 0.5% damage output. It’s nothing new so don’t act like all of a sudden players are forced to keep things hidden.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to see it, who the fuck even cares? You can keep your strong builds to yourselves and 99.99999% of the playerbase will be none the wiser of your holding out on them. Or you can crawl out from under your rock, enjoy some time in the sun, and then enjoy needing to be creative again when next the nerf hammer falls.
Edit: Does the nerf hammer fall or the nerf bat swing? I really have no idea.
No, this is wrong. It has never happened as long as I’m here. All the people I know were always happy to share what they got with everyone. Well, they still are happy to share what they got with everyone. Just not with you, guys.
It happened in 2014 when I joined the forums, in 2018 when you joined the forums, and it’ll happen in 20XX when you rage quit the forums.
Someone will always have something they think they’re a genius for coming up with and will fight tooth and claw to defend their honor from the evil playtesters.
Edit: truth be told, though, people didn’t really blame the praets back in the day. That didnt seem to start until I joined the team. GUESS I’M DOING SOMETHING RIGHT
Edit 2: I’ll have a serious, actually constructive reply for you when I’m not on my phone. Alas, I can only do so much with a digital keyboard.
It’s an endless cycle. New “elites” join the forum and they either get butthurt or they try to be constructive. Some of them became Praetorians. Some moved on. Some are still here as regulars.
Players have been playing Grim Dawn for over 6 years, dude. You think we’re in some new era? Look through the old patch notes. I’ve lost track of how many times the game was dead and how many builds have “died”. And yet the game is more popular than ever.
