Stonebinder’s Cuffs in every possible build flashbacks
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And look how many actually unique changes pet builds got to compensate…
Name one that doesn’t come from a pet related gear? What you are referring to is holding the player’s hand and pointing him or her to “uniqueness”. What I’m talking about is digging through every item (especially those not directly related to the build or class I’m working on) to come up with something that devs themselves didn’t consider possible. Obvious stuff doesn’t interest me, sorry. For that one could play other games.
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Every single possible build in the game is conceived by the developers. Every skill, every number, every stat, literally everything is conceived by the devs. You are not creating something the devs don’t know when you are slapping a super generic item like Cataclysm offhand onto a build.
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It’s not true, as the game complexity grows, the possibility of unforeseen synergies increases exponentially. It doesn’t matter how many testers and programmers you have in your team, there’s always room for surprise.
That explains why all these recent changes mostly strip away all non-standard item stats replacing them with the usual +% to this and that skill/res/damage bonus.
Want another example? Why on earth would you remove +1 to blade spirit limit and replaced it with fire damage on the conduit of night whispers? What was the point? What build did you please?
But that’s ok, I guess the change is always good?
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It is as the devs themselves have claimed.
And that complexity is created by who?
It doesn’t. These changes were made because some builds were getting overloaded with stats and not because it enabled weird builds. +1 to all skills is extremely useful and far too easy to splash on pretty much every build.
It made people pick these items over other focused items because that stat is far too good. It homoginized several builds.
That happened because pierce builds were pumping Blade Spirit and that increased summon limit allowed for a third BS, increasing the AoE and damage of several pierce builds. It was far too generic and used in builds that weren’t even focused on Blade Spirit. It had a noticeable effect on builds that weren’t even focused on that skill.
Cunning investment and large amounts of elemental to pierce didn’t helped matters either by allowing Blade Spirit to do noticeable damage with no skill mods.
This is the reason +1 to all skills was taken away from it. If an off hand that isn’t designed for pet users is actively dominating other off hands designed for pets because it has +1 to all skills, then something is wrong.
Yeah, but now you nerfed my pseudo pet build with that. How’s that for balance? It’s not like it was OP in any way. Now it’s even less powerful.
Anyhow, great job streamlining the process. A few more patches like that and GD might meet D3. Exaggeration but you get where I’m going with that.
But if I can only use items designed for pet users, if every class and build can only perform if it’s made only of items designed for it - then it’s a boring game with nothing new to discover. Beware of your wish, for you may be granted it…
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Is every build using the same items over and over really better? Because that’s what happens when you splash far too useful stats like +1 to all skills in several items.
The problem with D3 is that there’s barely multiple builds for each skill. That’s not an issue with Grim Dawn because i have made several builds for each skill.
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Your psudo-pet build was nightblade/Ok? Can’t you just dual wield (nightblade) another +1 item to both OK/NB like Misery?
Apart from the Magi Helm not lining up, wouldn’t the new Blade Spirits fit together with Guardians of Empyrion without the transmuter nicely? Global Piercing damage converted to Fire for Living Shadows and potentially Nemesis/Azrakaa’s Epoch shouldn’t be hard to fit on either having presence in the ring, gloves and belt slot off the top of my head.
Maybe I’m just taking a stab in the dark here but I could see a Fire player pets Dervish being interesting. Edit: Something like this with potential for more or less pets/conversion depending on what you want to prioritise.
Oh you might still find uses for non-pet items on pet builds, but ideally they should be niche options, not all encompassing as Cataclysm’s Eye was.
Giving some thought to it, I imagine the initial intent for items with +1 to all skills featured on sets items (e.g. the old Shattered Realm Amulet, Stronghold Defender, Cataclysm’s Eye) is that they are meant to bolster the builds that use these sets and they do. But because the item itself is so generically good, it sees use on builds it is not intended for and often which falls outside developer intent. Thus the reasoning why they’re taken off the item and moved further in to the final set bonus narrowing down which builds have access to it.
Is the pseudo pet build you’re talking about the Immortal Army build???
If that’s the case I am 110% in support of your argument. That’s the most fun build guide and build to rush and farm with man, mad respect for posting that, AND for beating the game on Ultimate going HC Classless.
This guy is a living legend, man. Heed his words, he brings great perspective on alternative playstyles that keep this game super refreshing and original!
Immortal pet army is already something that existed for a long while now. Chillwhisper and Blightlord.
Pseudo pets builds are cool, I agree. Remember the builder legend Belzzz and his build that have like 20 pseudo pets 
About conduit, Blade Spirits were added in some monster builds to increase AoE further and abuse them in non relevant setups like Belgo, Spite, etc. But at same time if you’re after pseudo pets build you need the summons limit increase.
About Stronghold and Cataclysm, it’s good that +skills bonus is on full set now. So that means if you don’t intend to use it, you don’t get +skills. It was cheap way of getting extra skill points. Cataclysm could’ve been used in many elemental caster builds. I actually refrained from using it on purpose.
Pets are skill hungry though and some pet builds lack +skill points. Gate of many worlds for example could add +1 Shaman or Occultist instead of Arcanist.
Yeah, it looks like nobody except for us wants anything unique to be left in GD. Standardize everything and bring all setups to the middle line. Neuter the game. One of the greatest GD builders recently told me that the moment he can’t come up with a unique build that has NOT been provisioned by the devs, he would quit and uninstall the game. I definitely feel the same way. I remember the time when Mempo of Twilight was all the rage in D3 and people were farming it day and night for the unique stat. Then Blizz gutted all special stats from all cool items and rendered everything 100% standard. People praised the devs for a couple days, then everyone got bored, and only bots remained playing.
I think removing +1 all skills from Cataclysm was a good change from a balance perspective.
But I agree with Contragor. Part of the fun of this game is finding “off-label” uses for items.
Using the obvious items for builds should work, and almost always does. But a large part of what keeps the game interesting at end game is finding builds that work with non obvious set ups. I think there is even a loading screen message about making a build around a specific legendary item, which I think is in the spirit of this point.
Contragor has posted a build that comes to mind - his HC Warlord. It uses Targo helm, but no other Targo pieces. The “off-label” use of Targo helm is part of what makes the build interesting.
I personally find set items that are used only in builds with most, or all, of the corresponding set, to be somewhat boring. Cataclysm’s Eye is no longer a unique item; it is now just caster offhand with the typical stats, unless used in the full set. Granted, +1 all skills wasn’t that unique; but it was something that set it apart when not used in set.
I prefer set items that offer unique abilities that fit in with other builds as well. For example, I’ve always wanted to do a build that uses Gem of Dreeg amulet, that doesn’t use the Deception of Dreeg set. The reason being the cool proc on the amulet (Gaze of Dreeg).
A rough analogy - pet builds that take constellations that give no pet bonuses, but have a good proc - like Torch or Leviathan. That seems like another “off-label” use. If I couldn’t bind whirlpool to pets, it would make the game less interesting.
It should also be considered that the complaint wasn’t about balance. It was about creativity. I think this is the kind of feedback you want. Ideally, you want a game that is both balanced, and that encourages creativity in builds. A tall order to be sure. But something I’ve come to expect from this game and its developers.
One thing I loved about 1.5 (I think it was 1.5) was all the interesting bonuses added to green items. Difficult to balance? Yes. Makes game interesting? You better believe it!
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That’s because those procs scaled off of pet damage when attached to pet scaled pets.
And again, there is not a single build the devs don’t know. I’m gonna put a link to the evidence:
Sure, i’m all for that. The specific problem is that +1 to all skills in a single item is far too good and far too easy to splash anywhere. Is it really being creative when you can just splash the super generic item into a build?
I actually agree to move the +1 all skills from stronghold shield and cataclysm offhand to full set bonus. Especially cataclysm offhand that is overloaded with stats. Fortunately we still have tome of arcane waste for a beautiful generic items…
Now I am still waiting for the buff to cataclysm set.
Yeah, I feel that all of pet items should give at least +1 to two masteries.
LoL
OP secret builds don’t exist if the devs don’t know they exist. Doesn’t mean the devs aren’t aware of all synergies in the game. 
But seriously, I agree with contragor here.
There is no worse feeling than making an obvious build.
The game is already centered so much in set, making building kinda obvious. However, fortunately we can still approach one set in multiple angle.
I remember making elemental bonemonger where everyone think that aether is the only thing to go with that set. Now bonemonger is used in so many elemental builds. 
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