So new patch, new power creep. The amount of new monster infrequents injected into the game is massive, kudos to Crate for doing this and refreshing a bit stale item meta. However, when all dust settled I found out that not all of the m.i. amulets were created equal. Here is some feedback on m.i. amulets that I found particulary op or particulary underwhelming, both categories could use some re-balancing.
It’s clear that amulet is insanely op. With just one rare affix and one magical affix it absolutely trumps any other option for cold Nightblade. Night’s Embrace looks like a child’s toy compare to this monster.
It doesn’t look like much on paper but it is absolutely massive for any AA Dervish. The conversion alone makes it insanely valuable. Moreover, this item just furthers the gap between double Misery AA Dervish and full Venomblade Dervish. Horn of Gandarr mod is completely useless tho because, well, it’s for an Acid version of the most useless skill out of Inquisitor’s arsenal which is mostly Elemental/Pierce mastery. And most importantly it blocks Radaggan’s gem - the only sensible way into Inquisitor’s Acid builds.
Suggestion: Reduce conversion to 15-25%, remove flat damage. Change Horn of Gandarr mod into anything else
Amulet offers a quite common and one of the less useful type of conversions (can be found on a ring, gloves and a belt), plus one of the mods is meant for a Fire Sabouter - a class that will never properly work outside of Main Campaign. Ring of Steel mod is useless without cooldown reduction and fire RR to NB’s mastery, Grenado mod - can’t say much, never played Fire Grenado builds but from what I know it’s the weakest offensive spell in Demolitionist’s arsenal.
Suggestion: Move Ring of Steel mod to a medal or gloves, it’s too small to occupy a slot on an amulet. Possible mods: -15% Fire RR to Veil of Shadows, 100% Physical converted to Fire to Flame Touched (can be adjusted to 50%).
This one is completely underwhelming. No +skills to mastery, blocks Bloodrager’s Gem, offers weak support to a mediocre (RoS) and a weak (Blitz) skill.
Suggestion: Add + to Nightblade or Soldier. Rework mods into -CD mods. Add a cdr roll and %Pierce damage roll.
Agree that Vilgazor’s heart is underperforming. Btw, I suggested addind -% fire RR to it even before the patch. Now I suggest it once again as current mods are rather weak and one of them doubles the Conduit.
I personally tried Ulraprax sting (seems a good amulet for CD and spam SJ builds) and Zaria’s Pendant, that is rather solid for Shaman pet builds.
I would say Ellena’s necklace is purple amulet stats wise and that’s prior to MI affixes.
OK amulet is looking great as well. Not sure if it’s OP but need saying.
Mogara and Zaria are fairly limited amulets for utility and are perfectly balanced for now.
Gulgazor is really good for acid Dervish but mind that if it’s nerfed it will face the serious competition of Plagues of Dreeg.
Vilgazor is kinda meh. Fire RoS conduit instead of aether one (which is the third Nightblade aether conduit???) and some different mod will be better. I can’t say if Grenado mod is fine but in general Canister bomb is better offensive skill. I tried once Grenado focused build but wasn’t worth mentioning…
If Ellena’s amulet was made to be stronger than the purple one with good rolls, it’s doing what is was meant for. If you reduce its rr bonus to below purple value, it would be less enticing to farm it. So smth else must be done here, including purple amulet rebalance.
Disagree about Gulgazor’s Heart. It’s an amulet without +1 to mastery made specifically for RF. It’s a common thing for amulets, like a purple with +1 shard to TSS. In my tests, results with Pestilence were similar and you know how much i am all about AA. The power of acid melee lies elsewhere.
Just move that meme mod somewhere else. It does not deserve to be an amulet mod. It’s a super weak mod (no flat CD to a 3 seconds skill that is a pretty mediocre nuke among nuke skills) to a super weak skill (Fire Ring of Steel) supporting an extremely weak archetype (Fire Sabo). It would look good on something like Gauntlets of Ignaffar.
the SP mod is appropriate for breakers. Too many times infiltrators step over breakers just cause RR…
which leads us to…rr on the amulet. Shouldn’t be so universally available for any NB build
Disagree with retal amulet. It’s very good in terms of mods, + skills, you can argue for reprisal/ gaze but even before testing feedback, acid retal had 0 issues making those unlike fire or lightning.
Nothing to add on the others
Actually the Nado amulet is really good on Retal nado hybrid with Hellborne
It’s better than the current mod, but the problem is that that mod means that you are supposed to play Fire Sabo of some sorts - and Fire Sabouter is probably the weakest and one of the most frustrating archetypes to build/play with. If Crate wants to force this archetype on players, fine. But you gotta do it with super powerful mods, and Fire RoS is not even close to being one of them.
EDIT: Giving Fire Sabouters Fire Ring of Steel mod on an amulet and expecting they are going to work is like putting a duct tape all over old Lada and expecting it to become a submarine.
I think it’s very good that Ellena’s Necklace support Spellbreakers but it also gives god mode to infiltrators, so -30% total damage for Aura of Censure would be nice block to prevent abuse, IMHO.
And how about Ungolia’s amulet? It seems that Spellbinders lack another vitality support. Diviner set is for aether reep spirit, vitality drain essence items have zero arcanist skills and there are no items for vitality AAR, PRM or Callidor.
Agree and disagree. In conjunction with other MIs, I don’t think a -Cooldown mod is very likely. Further, the crit damage does matter because Blindside’s IT/CoS’s bleed benefit from it enormously. If it needs it, I’d rather see a flat IT/Bleed mod to the relevant skills in addition to the crit damage.
As to the general state of things, yes. A MI amulet will more or less never compete with Legendary variants without +skills or -resists…or both. Competition with Legendary sets and/or procs is something MI amulets, rings, helmets, headpieces, shoulders, and chestpieces still struggle with.
E: to this end, I see no problem with Ellena’s, only a success.
The only good way to run physical Blitz also takes up the amulet slot. I don’t see a situation where I’d break Markovian’s set to take the thorn. Maybe on a fire Blitz build with Justiciar, but that sounds like a complete meme build.
I think you make some good points @mad_lee, though I do have a question
You point out that in some builds that these items are too strong, what about other builds? Do these items make those skills strong? Or are they completly useless? Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying anything you point is wrong, I just think that for an item to be OP I would be able to use it in ANY build and I will beat all super bosses with it! Making a already good build stronger or easier to use I hardly think it needs to be changed, of course I am not saying all these items are fine. Case and point
Zaria’s pet amulet is disgustingly OP for Lightning Beastcaller’s Conjurers (for the Briarthorn side) and underwhelming on the Hellhound’s side. Beastcaller’s Set is miles better in terms of pet stats and usability than Lost Souls - heck, the Call of the Beast on the Helm alone is better than the whole set of Lost Souls. Hilariously enough, Lost Souls set blocks the amulet while the Beastcaller’s Set does not, so you can get 1.65 Total Damage to 2 Briarthorns, but 2 Hellhounds do not get that luxury. Besides, for a Hellhound focused build, Sovereign Ruby beats this amulet any day as it has the full conversion to Fire, the sweet proc, and 6% CDR.
In conclusion, Zaria’s amulet is a combination of both a really good modifier for Briarthorns and an underwhelming modifier for Hellhounds due to double Briarthorns having access to it, but double Hellhounds do not. I can’t say I know how you can improve it on the Hellhound’s side, as the amulet has heavy competition between completing Lost Souls and Sovereign Ruby.
I want to give Crate special thanks for improving the Death-Watcher Pendant. Having permanent Call of the Grave uptime is sweet, and I love taking advantage of that, especially Bargoll’s Core with 15% Physical Resistance + 100% Health Regeneration when Call of the Grave is active.
The problem I have with pet stuff is there is so little! Now before people jump on my back and place however many links to pet items let me explain a little. Not including sets, if you look at all the pet items bar a few blue, the amount of bonuses for pets are either 1 or 2… sometimes 3! Like I said the few blue that have many stats eg 4 or 5 bonuses, they generally rival a set item and so you are left with little to no option for your pet build. The greens I have seen and have/found over all my play time have 2 maybe and very rare 3 bonuses to pets, and when it’s a 3rd it’s usally a conversion. Tho conversions are ok, in the green market they dominate, 100% conversion, + conversion damage and a resistant of some sort. None of which you would use unless you building around that. I just want to see more options for pets.
I do disagree somewhat with the OP. I don’t see all of these amulet as endgame options, as quite a few come from very accessible Bosses and are great levelling/beginner options. Amulets which are harder for new players to access like Vilgazor and Elena are more likely to be endgame worthy, so I agree for those instances.
If they were to become endgame option, then sure fitting in +1 All skill to a mastery would make sense (and reduce respective skill bonus as payment).
I think Vilgazor could use +bonus to Ulzuin’s chosen for Grenado, and something more for RoS, total damage modified or -CD.
Elena Necklace - Just an idea but why not remove the RR to VoS and put flat reduced res on Star Pact (~32?). Inquisitor excluded and liberates devotion point for Spellbreakers.
I like the amulet and it’s mod, physical builds benefit greatly from crit. Sure it could use +1 all to a mastery to be more end game comparable, but it’s strong for levelling/beginners.
I am not sure about Blitz being weak anymore. Imo, it is now better than Forcewave for levelling and I think it has potential at endgame too, I just have not got around to testing it. Have you?
I can’t see a problem with it, outside useless mod for HoG. It’s niche amulet for acid RF, that somehow has found +to skills, and can afford this amulet. About 2x Misery>Full Venomblade - it’s a problem of Venomblade and skill distibution there.
Mostly agree with the OP. I haven’t played a lot with “new” MI amulets, however, there is one little thing:
Cold is already spoiled on flat damage. In a similar vein to the recent Spellbreaker waistguard change why does Ellena’s have flat cold among all the other things?
