Heh I was about to add that caveat in an edit under my post. Just like my hybrid vit/acid spammer Dee build leaned heavy on racial, so too does this one. Taking a 8% total damage loss against the most resistant enemies to the build, and even larger ones against others by racial loss. I know my build went from feeling strong/consistent to barely able to clear 170 without dieing. (My build lost 20% undead racial, 13% cthonic, 5% aetherial)
It is worth noting that the same build is probably almost a minute slower and lost some reliability due to less leech again resistant mobs.
Justicar suffers most from skills it supports. Forcewave isn’t doing enough damage and Blitz have too big of a CD. Justicar don’t have CDR mods to Blitz or Judgment.
But as fire generic set is good idea. Nice armor, some health and stats. Also supports three masteries. But skill bonus/mods might need slight touch, nothing more. About physical resistance, caster set with high armor is also Light Defender and it have 0. So physical resistance on heavy armor set is normal.
Oh and yes, some sets are still missing % damage, that’s right.
Just some ideas, man. I don’t think that melee Fire Strike Commando is really radical. I think it could be cool and add another working archetype to game’s vast library of diverse builds. Besides it could give Commando some identity besides Fire Forcewave.
I just find that it’s a real shame that special set bonus to Oathkeeper is so underwhelming and weaker than a bonus from one medal and special set bonus to Demo is just non-existant.
Disagree that set lacks identity. It has clear identity - a crutch for every offbeat fire build in the game.
On a serious note, the main problem is the skills it supports. FW is absurdly weak after the nerf, Blitz was always weak as a dmg source and mods to it are useless.
Also the full set bonus is just hilarious. Say, you have demo among your classes. A build with 3 piece Justicar and IK helm will be stronger than full Justicar.
I think it’s better to fix the skills the set supports. Also full set bonus must be smth meaningful. And i’d trade the huge DA bonus on chest for some phys res. No DA will shield you from a meteor, especially in SR.
I hardly ever use this as the whole set. It just doesn’t seem worth it. A quick idea I had was:
Take the 4 piece bonus and make it the 3 piece bonus. Adjust dmg numbers as necessary.
Take the 3 piece bonus and bake the stats across all 4 pieces. Adjust stats as necessary.
New 4 piece set bonus of…don’t know. I am just kinda bored of damage procs and such. I prefer more unique alternatives like 4p Pyran.
Regardless of performance I just would like to see more uniqueness among items. As time goes on I find myself caring more about what’s fun for the time I have as opposed to what’s “balanced”.
As for the examples given being only in CR and “not everything has to be fast”. Look at it this way. I wouldn’t take this set into deep SR…that leaves one type of end game, MC farming. So is it okay to perform “ok” in only MC? Don’t know, it’s not for me to say.
Now if the problem is with the skills, then perhaps a pass over FW and Blitz is necessary. You can drive down the cool down on Judgement with gear choices and it can become quite potent. This was already mentioned above.
I give credit to those who stated or suggested anything I repeated.
This forum is hardly representative of the player population. Shields exist, shield wps exist, why not support them. How do we know who plays any build?
Not all sets need to be capable of pulling off top-tier performance. The spectrum of balance can be broad, and it is.
As for the set. I agree with OP. +1. It does lack identity and is underwhelming for FG, however the set was always a classic option for melee demo.
Blitz is a very weak skill because it desperately needs CD reduction to perform well. It would have to be similar to what vanquisher does to VM for Blitz to do well.
I think the only thing the set lacks is phys resist. I have a brimstone shieldbreaker which has fine dps and great DA but lacks phys resist and CC resist. I use Fire Strike and Judgment. Good health, good resists. I tried to fix it with devotions a bit and managed to cap the CC resist but phys resist still lower than %20 and it is frustrating.
If we’re going to see phys res get tacked on I’d prefer to see it as a skill modifier that helps Commando more than the grab bag of general use cases. Perhaps stick it on Field Command? This way FW tactician also benefits but we don’t get a broad sweeping boost to other archetypes that are just using the armor because it’s a bundle of stats.
this argument has already been spoken and I still highly doubt that it’s valid when we’re talking not about sth like epic 82 lvl set but a legendary 94 lvl set which is the only set for melee/ranged fire builds in the whole game.
@spikenik brought up the bomb-ass idea that the set could somehow make Ulzuin’s Chosen work with blitz and CD forcewave, but I doubt that’s mechanically possible.
I’d take that missing % damage on the set pieces tho, that’s probably just a shoe-in I’m hoping
Inherently I have an issue with physical resistance but that is due to my lack of knowledge of how much the game is balanced around that stat.
Typically, most of my builds sit between 10-20%. I have 2 builds currently that sit at 38% and the other at 64% and on typical play throughs hardly notice a difference.
In the context of how I play, trying to boost phys res while maintaining all the cc res and over capping resistances, it usually leads to way too much compromise in one form or another.
Because I am playing in 65+ SR, the fight against non-balance can only be controlled by capping and/or over capping everything which typically leaves no space for phys res outside of certain builds such as 2h vit Conjurers who can start at 20%.
This is just my feelings pf course because I don’t have a great deal of builds. I have roughly 12 as I can’t finish them all due to lacking certain drops.
Back to topic:
Without watching the videos, my assumption would be that the set is both not putting out enough damage while maintaining survivability in the “CR environment”
With that in mind how is the performance in balanced SR, unbalanced SR levels, and MC?
Any numbers or data there?
MC - fine.
SR - hard to go past 65/66 as there’s not enough sustain and damage.
It’s about FW and melee fs defiler/elementalist. (these lack mostly sustain).
Desolator purufier goes up to 75/76 and it’s an overall strong build, provably one of the strongest on this set.
Ranged purifier is likely being carried by FS. I would then say I agree with @mad_lee in the fact that I don’t want to see FS nerfed and secondly, that it seems melee skills are suffering…and not so much the set.
So, maybe investigate the skills first then the set. For that, no ideas how to go forward from me.
I’ve played Physical Fire Strike Commando with Justicar set. https://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlGeLl2
Dont have any problem with the tankiness/physical resistance even in Gladiator. I think because physical build already got a huge armor/DA both in items and devotion route. And Empyryon 25% dam reduction proc got buffed to “chance on hit” long ago. One of the least key-using build i’ve played. (1 RR, 1 mobidity skill and keep holding left mouse). But the build lack so much AOE so clear time is too slow (i even changed to Annihilation relic to get a physical meteor for AOE beside Empyryon proc). So i really love the idea of getting buff to Physical/IT and make the set support mod for FS. Or even make the set proc is a skill for more AOE it will be so freaking good
it will be so freaking good