Demo used to be a bit better.
Nerfing Blast Shield affected how much reliable it is to a certain degree.
It might just be me, but since it went from 70 to 60% to your hp threshold I would rather build my character tankier and/or choose a second mastery that bring more defence. Something that can ‘‘counter’’ a second mastery choice is how defensive a set is for the end-game build.
Flash bang is nice but is a bit more clunky than using Ring of steel (which doesn’t have the impared aim part but has the fumble attacks)
Mines, oh lord mines. Seriouslly, add mines being thrown, more than 3. In a square/rounded shape, as long as it covert a bigger area more easily. I personnally prefer the Inquisitor most the time because the defense is better but also because the aura doesn’t need any casting. Zantai, the lord supreme, plz add more mines to the Thermite mine skill. I don’t really want to thrown multiple mines before using my skill(s) that do damage, that’s on top of using flash bang in most builds too (and maybe even BWC because it’s good to trigger proc from the devotion). With the inquisitor, it’s usualy only putting the Sceal of the Inquisitor and than doing damage.
Again, even bringing Blast shield proccing at 70% would make the mastery much more interesting defensivly. Just my opinion though.
My last response was indeed a little “vague” to say the least, so let me elaborate a bit.
/// insert “IMHO” everywhere you see fit ///
I’m not saying demo can’t use some rework (Mines, Ulzuins Chosen, maybe VF), i just don’t agree on most of the things you brought up.
I can’t argue with your opinion on Flashbang, Thermite Mines and Ulzuin’s Wrath.
Transmuted BWC is absolutely great, non-transmuted not so much, but thats a problem with pretty much all spammable skills without %WD right now, they didn’t scale too well since AoM release, but i think it’s more of a (slight) overall balance problem than BWC’s itself.
I only used Mortar Trap in one build, a kinda defensive physical Beronath, Reforged one not so long ago, clear times were mediocre but it could facetank pretty much everything so i would call it an okay build overall.
Mortars just need a bit better itemization couse right now you need some crazy MIs and gimick conversions to make it work.
Blast Shield is godlike. If you overcap it with at least a couple of points and you have at least average overall defenses the absorption alone makes you literally inpervious to damage for 1 second more than Mirror (in my experience).
Comparing Vindictive Flame to PB one on one is not the best way of determining a skill’s worth, i don’t think crate balanced skills/masteries in such a way.
And even if we agree that everything on VF (and UW) exept the total speed is useless, that still leaves VF an okay skill for most builds
Facetanking bosses as a caster is not that hard as you might think, high sustain (of %WD builds) is not the only way of facetanking, you can make your char not taking significant damage at all (high armor, phys. res, max. resists (with high overcap), DR, fumble, -%speed, etc.).
I once made a tactician with Word of Reneval and Menhir’s Will as literally all of my sustain. The first (and only) time MW was procced is against Lokkar, cause i only had like 20% fire an lightning overcap when i first faced him (popped 2 elixirs after that and he never procced it ever since).
The only thing i personally think Ulzuin’s set needs is changing the VF bonuses to something better like Flashbang or BS and add 10% phys. to fire conversion to the amulet. This would make it in line (or even better, looking at you Dreeg’s set) with the other class sets exept Warborn and Runebinder, but those are outliers because the main skill they support (Cadence, RoH) are (borderline) OP.
For people weren’t really interested in my bs: sorry for the wall.
I take it from your example caster = forcewave? It’s easy to make a crazy tough character if you are wearing heavy armor and have access to soldier’s ~30% armor + absorb in mastery along side inquisitor goodies. I suspect this is the combo that makes some feel Inquis Seal is crazy overpowered - it feels a lot different using Seal with 1600ish armor vs 2800… but that’s only available to tacticians (also the Light’s Guardian and Justicar sets)
Getting enough of your list to facetank w/o any life steal wearing other caster sets…not so much. Its one of the reasons FoI and Drain Essence perform so vastly much better than AAR - both of them have access to life steal. (I am aware there are also other reasons for AARs poor performance)
I think Spellbreakers are pretty great as far as skill synergy goes, just missing a dedicated set. Maybe adding some Nightblade skill bonuses to Trozan Set would be nice, or making a proper cold Shadow Strike set. Crate was so busy nerfing Spellbreakers into the ground because 3 people played OP SS builds with impossible to find tripple rares that they forgot that there is no actual gear support for a Spellbreaker, and even with a pretty impossible set of items such as Soulrend/Alkamos rings/sick double rare pants/boots Breaker is just an ok build.
Granting the mythical Trozan’s set a modifier that adds Lightning RR on Veil of Shadow/Night’s Chill would be so very nice. The Trozan set has no support for anything beyond Shaman, and I don’t like druids: healing up is such a chore.
(Inquisitor already works well with TSS, which is no surprise.)
For me caster = no %WD to adcth from so no, not forcewave (i thought i was pretty clear on the no %WD no adcth part)
I don’t get why you associate casters with “caster armor”, which are mostly useless since mana sustain is much cheaper to get by other means than armor rating.
So yeah, my casters mostly use normal or heavy armor (final rating anywhere between 2.5k and 3.5k including components, angrim bonuses, etc.) and unless a caster set provides phenomenal mods or defensive stats like Radaggan’s or Iskandra’s (respectively), i rather not use them for a build that needs to facetank to deal damage. But even whit those i mentioned i usually manage to get my armor above 2k.
Of course this is most likely a matter of personal preference since i tend to build my chars tanky.
So if someone is willing to make sacrifices to get tankier on a build without %WD or means to deal good damage while kiting, they can get by fine.
If they wouldn’t, i don’t think the game should take the blame for that.
You admit caster armor are mostly useless but then ultimately say the game shouldn’t be blamed if a person chooses to use them? That is absurd; if caster armor are underpowered in armor rating then why shouldn’t players be able to complain?
Armor rating mechanics are a significant weakness of this game I think; the game difficulty varies way too much between low armor and high armor. Even with life-steal abuse or other survival tricks the risk of death is too much greater. I don’t like PoE but at least in that game you can’t reduce physical damage taken to/close to 0 from most of the game’s monsters permanently.
I still find it weird until now that MI dagger cdr was removed. Only GDstashers had access to that.
Edit: what’s all this talk about caster armor being bad? This isn’t 1.0.2.0 lol. You don’t see much caster armor cause you don’t see much offhand casters nowadays. Weapon dmg builds are the meta right now in terms of cruci clears and your traditional caster doesn’t have that. Doesn’t mean caster armor or casters in general are bad. Also another reason caster armor isn’t seen often is the spirit requirement. It’s not normal to reach 600 spirit unless you’re arcanist. And outside of binder, Arcanist isn’t hot right now.
Edit: what’s all this talk about caster armor being bad? This isn’t 1.0.2.0 lol. You don’t see much caster armor cause you don’t see much offhand casters nowadays. Weapon dmg builds are the meta right now in terms of cruci clears and your traditional caster doesn’t have that. Doesn’t mean caster armor or casters in general are bad. Also another reason caster armor isn’t seen often is the spirit requirement. It’s not normal to reach 600 spirit unless you’re arcanist. And outside of binder, Arcanist isn’t hot right now.
you don’t see much caster armor builds cause most casters were posted before. And the reason why they were posted before is obious - most autoatackers couldn’t compete in high level crucible w/o DA stacking or some dirty tricks, like perma MoT :p.
Then again - there are two kinds of casters - those that have to facetank and those that can kite freely without dps loss. The latter don’t really need more than 2k armor. It sucks for the former though.
If a person chooses something that’s not working for their build, they’re to blame, not the game, yes.
And i didn’t say that caster armor are generally useless, just if you want to facetank things (and i even mentioned some exeptions too).
Caster armor ar perfectly fine for dot builds, pet builds, rotational/cd casters, anyone who can deal damage without facetanking stuff (as Stupid Dragon kinda just said).
[spoiler]Eye of Reckoning
”When the first Oathkeepers looked upon the celestial vale and witnessed the astounding power of Empyrion’s light, they sought to replicate its brilliance and might. The culmination of their prayers and training was the Eye of Reckoning, a devastating display of martial combat that rapidly cleaves through all nearby foes in a whirlwind of fire and light for as long as the Oathkeeper channels their focus into the attack.”
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Vire’s Might
”First recorded in Arkovian texts when Agavold the Stalwart of the Temple of Vire selflessly charged through an entire legion of enemy forces, scattering their ranks and exposing them to an onslaught of arrows, all without taking a scratch. Vire’s Might has since become a prime display of an Oathkeeper’s strength, both physical and spiritual, in the face of seemingly impossible odds.”
Nightblade, Needs 2 Exclusive skills(Toggle-buffs or some thing like a toggle AoE damage Cold based DoT Toggle, around a 10 to 15 range) and Phantasmal Blades needs to be an AoE Knife throw, (lower damage by around 50% and change to 360 Throwing range and Add +15 to 20 Knives) those are my thoughts.
Its not perfect, but it’s my 1st attempt at modding this skill, so ya. Damage may need to be lowered because the way is is right now, it can shot-gun, and that can be over powered if not tweeked.
And this is kinda what i would do for an Exclusive skill, for this video i simply edited Veil of Shadow as an example.
I think i would call the AoE Damage Aura Exclusive skill, Nightfall maybe give it a chance to sleep enemies :?
I never got it that high, i was only able to get it to 100k with my builds, i never go that hard tho, i only get to wave 170 in the Crucible. i just feel like you can die too easy if you cant 360, because you get over run by mobs. where as my soldier nightblade cant die, ever.
Phantasmal Blades is a tricky beast to tame, but once you balance your build around it makes you almost immortal (I am talking about vitality spam variant). The only thing that I would suggest (and I already mentioned it) is reducing its cost slightly or adding cost reduction components like Focusing Prism to medal slot.
[/spoiler]