Good day to everyone. I was glad to see some Uroboruuk’s relic rework, thanks to @Zantai and devs. Recently I saw a thread, where several players agreed upon nerfing the Reaping Arc. Actively began to building and test this skill, I will say that the results for the existing types of damage, were very different, but about this a little later. I would like to note that I am familiar and have repeatedly communicated with these players, the results of which are presented here, they are some of the fastest players of the crucible, especially banana_peel, who does many runs, then chooses the most lucky one, but sometimes, can’t even repeat it in the same builds. Also, I’m very glad that Zantai noticed the fantasy and fabulousness of the assembly presented here on penetrating damage, consisting of a lot of double green, which should not be considered in the context of the nerf Reaping Arc, because legally, the average player would need so much time, which is difficult to describe in numbers and it’s more theory than practice. My point is, one shouldn’t rely on deciding nerfs, based on purely lucky run with a green build, since your casual player wouldn’t be able to repeat the process. I also want to point out that many such builds have at least 3 or 4 double green items within them, vastly improving the output. The number of deaths during these runs were not announced too. I can believe that Spellbinder’s pretty sturdy, but others. Not so much.
Now that the first part is done, let’s move on to the next part, namely my tests and the tests of another builder from the ru-community, Mikhail Knyazhitsyn. I would like to note right away that we aren’t fast crucible pilots, so please compare our results with ordinary players who decided to test this revork. I would like to formulate a question that I was wondering about. Would Reaping Arc be imbalanced in the hands of average, rank-and-file Grim Dawn players who have 3-4 years+ experience, on different damage types? (The answer is below).
Aether was the first to test. Pretty straightforward Spellbinder in Krieg Set with Lucius sword. I was impressed with the results, so I made two versions - with the sword and without it. Turned out, it was pretty fast, with the result of 4:46 and good survivability too. This is good towards the time limit Zantai mentioned earlier. So, no OP here - just good build. (95% success, 5% death)
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YZeEMKvZ
Next, my friend Michael did a physical variation of RA. It’s strong, but not that fast. 150-170 with 4:56 and 6:29 without buffs. (95% success, 5% death)
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/gZwaqLj2
I then took upon the chaos variant. Classic, with Ra’hzin and Harbinger, got result 5:13 on Deceiver. Again, not something that powerful, survivability is okay. Anything else is significantly worse in survivablility, as well as damage. (85% success, 15% death)
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pPW6y2
Things were worse from there. Since the survivability of builds on other types of damage was many times lower, similarly they had slightly less damage.
Vitality one got 150-170 in 5:38 (70% success rate).
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqMb39Z
Lightning is 5:30, with only 50% success rate.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26rkqb2
Pierce one, unlike the build above, without a ton of greens, has gigantic timer, as you can see - 6:42, with amazing 30% success only.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/mN49B3m2
Acid is 5:57 with 80% death rate, incredibly low survivability.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m239039Z
RA on fire, cold and elemental damage types simply didn’t make it due non-existent sustain.
So, above demonstrated almost all types of damage, except fire, elemental and cold (Bleed excluded), tests of ordinary players, not speedrunners of the crucible, on the new Reaping Arc. Now, answering myself to the question posed above, “Will the Reaping Arc be imba in the hands of ordinary, ordinary Grim Dawn players who have 3-4 years+ experience playing different types of damage?”, I can safely say that no, there is no super imba, based on the tests above. Going back to the videos provided by the author of feedback, we can see that almost all the results were tested in the crucible one of the best pilots crucible banana_peel, if you go to his youtube channel, you get the feeling that in this game, 90% of everything needs to nerfs, but it is not. Such fast and handy pilots in the game can be counted on the fingers, but do not put their results, with the agenda to nerf, while having a huge boost from a large number of double green. Leave these builds to me or my friend, I’m 100% likely not even close to repeat these results, if at all close 150-170. What I’m saying is that when evaluating a skill’s nerf, you should think about some sort of average result and parameter, rather than one lucky run in the hands of a super fast game pilot who put on a fantastic doublerare piece of gear. Frankly, it looked like some kind of joke and mockery towards the game devs.
I really urge the developers and @Zantai to analyze the whole situation in its entirety. Do not make hasty decisions based on the results of one of the fastest pilots of the crucible, characters, hung with doublerare gear, because as practice has shown, the average pilot, it is far from imba and any miscalculation on the part of the devs and the game tester team, in all and was not necessary at all some nerf?
If the development team has already decided that the nerf will be in any case, I ask to listen to one of the testers @Strannik, which expressed a very good idea here above, namely: “I would say if it will be decided to low %WD on RA I would suggest to keep it 220-225% since BA with gloves can reach 225% WD.” Thank you for your attention.
P.S from Alk0zAuruS (Russian translator). Perfect length, perfect thickness, hardness and elasticity. What is this? It’s a male substitute from a sex shop. Doesn’t it remind you of the double rarity stuff drawn in a stasher? Maybe we shouldn’t have a demonstration with the dildo waving over our heads?
Special thanks for the translation @Alk0zAuruS and @Autentist
Special thanks for your help with these tests Michael