Demolitionist has one of the only sources of this debuff in GD. It also exists on the Blightshard amulets, the new Chaos set in FG and on the Slugger pistol, but that’s it. This is something that I think was left over from the Alpha when Transmuter’s were first put in the game in B20. At the time it probably made sense as there were few sources of reduced damage, but with Reduced target’s Damage being quite prevalent nowadays, perhaps High Potency should be changed to this debuff instead?
Demolitionist is certainly in need of some extra love and this may give the class some extra defenses.
Absolutely not. Reduced damage and reduced physical damage will not stack with the same bonus but will stack with each other. That the skill reduces physical damage is an advantage not a disadvantage in a number of cases. Changing it to reduced damage would be a nerf to many builds as it would turn the bonus near useless if you have already a source of reduced damage(that are as you said far more prevalent) from a other skill like for purifiers or from items (FG even adds movements augment with reduced damage) and devotions.
I disagree. How many demo builds have enough skill points left over to soft cap Demon Fire if you are not going for a BWC build? Not many in my experience(a darkblaze pyromancer or some of the new defiler builds would be the only ones I can think right now). Currently you can access the debuff for 2 skill points. This change would make demo builds even more skill point starved then they already are.
There’s the buff that grants OA and Vindictive flame if you need some total speed (which you need like in two builds btw). I’ve never had an issue where my demolitionist was out of skill points. It’s one of the only masteries that need like 20 skillpoints investment. The other is Occultist, but in comparison to Demolitionist, Occultist provides only useful stuff, while demo has only okay-ish stuff.
If you are only investing points in Blast shield and Flashbang what is the point of using a Demolitionist…
Mortar, Fire strike and Grenado builds are quite expensive in terms of skill points and with the Demolitionist mastery providing so little stats you need heavy investment in the other mastery to make up for it.
Also I still have some hope in that Termite Mines will eventually become good.
Well, actually, you’re right. But the “issue” with Flashbang is it has to be pressed in order to take effect, which might sometimes be far away on the keyboard. Other than that, yes, it’s better.
True, but for that to change the mastery would need a massive rework. Even with this change I would see no reason take take Demolitionist over masteries such as Inquisitor, Shaman or Occultist if you are only using the mastery for support skills.
On the other hand if you use Ravenous Earth as a guiding line you would gain an advantage of around 2(soft cap) to ~6%(small over cap) resist reduction at cost of around 6-9 skill points. Not worth it IMO.
I think the stacking discussion was about the % physical damage reduction, which will not stack with other % physical reduction, including that physical part inherent to general % reduction.
+1 this OP and also increasing radius via high potency is good idea.
And another bump/reminder to Crate to make thermite mines into something useful.
A compromise solution is to leave the debuff on High Potency as-is and add Reduced target’s Vitality Damage and Reduced target’s Chaos Damage to Demon Fire. More damage types can be added if necessary as long it fits with the Demon theme. The scaling could be 2% per point, 1% for ultimate levels.