That would be a huge buff for physical EoR, as the tick dmg is flat and quite minor. Z boss can you add some ms bonus to stonewrought groundbreaker and its mythical version. And casting speed to barrelsmith set.
Bone Harvest on dw should use both hands damage, not just main. Tried in several ways to make a cdr bh reaper and oppressor and its simply terrible, like the damage is not there. Please consider this change in the hotfix Z!
3 Likes
I will try to provide the context to the best of my ability, but what @Serafim_94 said does apply. Itās a numbers nerf. The character doesnāt really play differently, the mechanics that made him strong in the first place mostly remain there, untouched, he just sucks less HP out of mobs and kills them slower.
Note that Iāve been playing Ritualist which I deem the best Wildblood build possible, Iād say a tier higher than Conjurer which @Serafim_94 is playing.
First of all, was Ritualist Wildblood overpowered? Yes! yes it was. It pains me to say it but if you actually compare ādudes with big sticks in their handsā ie. 2H Firestrike builds, 2H Cadence builds, and non-wildblood variants of the Shaman, you will notice that they all suck when it comes to AoE presence, something that wildblood fixes just with a 3-piece set (that leaves amulet/helm/medal slots free - those have the best skill modifiers so itās a massive advantage in build flexibility). Not just adding what is arguably one of the most powerful AOE dps to a 24point skill (12/12 vines), it would also elevate your survivability to another level because of how the 5-6 stacks of vines would leech ridiculous amounts of damage semi-passively (that is, unaffected by you being stunned, your attack speed lowered, etc) in a huge radius. That, and the vitality bias, which would add life steal to many skills and devotions, something elemental builds would kill for. Finally, you used to get up to around -150% vitality RR on the build, most of which was applied reliably (except the somewhat wanky Revenant, but I used Hourglass and Revanant both, so no problems there) and without the need for an enemy to stand in one spot of a fairly thin AoE (looking at you, Mite-mines and Rahvanās Crown). Granted, many enemies would have elevated Vitality resistances (Celestials have around 140% Vitality rez while only having 90-100% rez of everything else, physical included), but most trash mobs, bosses, ie. wouldnāt have much vit resistance, so that huge damage would be then mutiplied higher than elemental, poison or physical builds would be, and your damage would be pushed yet higher.
An overlooked aspect of Vines is that they (after stacking) mostly keep everything that is not Actboss/Celestial tier stuck, a combination of slow and entangle effect, which was invaluable for keeping the build alive deep in SR, where you could easily separate a Nemesis from a hoard because he would go through the vines but they would stop - removing the pain of facing Nemesis AND several arcane bosses at the same time, for instance,a luxury many builds (most, in fact) canāt afford.
Yet another thing would be that Ritualist comes with several +HP and +HP% nodes, making it easy to elevate your HP to sick levels, I believe that my Ritualist would come up to 450-500k HP when truly finished, and weāre talking about a build that pretty much regenerates all that HP instantly when damaged if enemies enter several stacks of vines, especially if it happens to more than one monster.
Finally, wildblood builds - when played as melee (which I liked to do) will not have to āstay meleeā the way i.e. Warder does. A group of nasty arcane mobs deep in SR? spam vines at the edge of your screen and just wait them out, the massive DPS and stopping effect will crush them with zero risk to yourself. Itās - again - something that most builds just cannot do, especially melee ones. This is why I consider the Warder - fun as he is, and buffed as he is - still a step below Wildblood builds, because he cannot do that stuff, he has to manually drag enemies and attempt to separate them āthe hard wayā, which takes time, is frustrating, and may not be possible if said group spawns right in front of a tight corridor early in a SR level. Some combinations, like monsters that can trap you can, be outright deadly, even with -80% Trap resistance, that second can be just enough to eat an Arcane blast from the boss. And you just die there. Happened to me with Warder deep in SR, sadly.
Now when you add all those things together and compare Ritualist Wildblood to other things - lol! they have a fraction of Lifesteal āfor freeā, they have pretty much no AoE presence (I mean, can anything compare to stacking vines? like, say, Blade arc, Wave of Force, Cannister Bomb even? Hell no. Not even in the same league, and thatās ignoring the fact that vines heal you up at ridiculous speeds and synergize with a -150% RR build).
So was the nerf justified? yes, in a way - or maybe not, perhaps itās the rest of the 2H crew that needs a buff to their AoE presence and viability instead? Iām not a fan of power creep (we all know what it did to Diablo 3, donāt we?), but most of pure ābeat him up with a stickā dudes are just blatantly underpowered and non-meta, so sure,when we compare then to Wildblood ritualist, they look like a joke. However, when you put Wildblood next to some other builds out there, like my #1, this guy doesnāt seem so hot anymore, because heās desperately clinging to a stack of vines healing him. And it comes with a problem. When youāre forced out of your neatly stacked Vine-field (because of, letās say, Rashalga spawned as boss, paired with Gravathul the buff removal dude), you suddenly happen to be terribly squishy and on deep SR there is often not enough time to comfortably accumulate vines for 6 seconds, especially against Rashalga on your heels. And that thing murders Ritualists. The shotgun spread of Rashalga does around 600k damage, so it will power through most Wildbloods, even when they use Mark of Torment. Just to put some perspective here. Iām not saying Rashalga is that hard on SR70+ for Wildblood, because you can just run in a circle and spam vines behind you and she will eventually kill herself never being able to catch you, but I picked the example to illustrate that Wildblood is deeply screwed when he cannot fight in a swarm of vines, and has to kite. His DPS and viability take a sharp drop, perhaps to levels where heās not overpowered anymore.
When I said Iām going to drop my Wildblood Ritualist, it wasnāt a dramatic āOMG THE CHAR IS DEADā - more like āokay, Iāve put like, maybe 600-800 hours into this guy and heās not the same anymore, time to move onā, because thatās what it is. When people say ādonāt exagerrate, itās just a -10%damage nerf, itās not that muchā, they donāt really realize that the character that got nerfed doesnāt FEEL the same anymore. People who played that chars to their limits now notice that they can no longer pull out things that they sort-of could earlier and that makes them slightly discouraged. Itās like picking up a muscle car just to notice the engine has been neutered. Sure itās mostly the same, but it feels different to a point where you might want to try something else.
For instance, Wildblood could face-tank the Ravager of Minds (the Aether one, the hardest one I think, hopefully I didnāt mix him up with another Ravager) on Ultimate. However it was always āon the edgeā because Ravagerās left-right - if both critted - would do around 200k damage to you in his enraged state, and depending on your current HP and your build this could potentially one shot you even in the field of vines. In a prolongued fight, it was essentially bound to happen if you werenāt stacking HP like I did on my build, double crit would remove you from the fight, period. And now, there are additional factors that are a nerf, ie. Tenactity of the Boar no longer gives you +100 DA, for instance, meaning youāre going to be critted more often. Add the fact that you leech less and do less damage (so the HP recovery is slowed significantly) and Iām pretty sure youāre not going to be able to face tank Ravager anymore, simply because the numbers no longer match. Those small things can discourage a long time player, even if they are small in the long run.
Finally, when I say āIām not saying what my build isā many times, to a point where I pissed off @Zantai a bit, itās not to underline that Iām this god-tier theorycrafter which is ten miles above the peasants around me, but to encourage people to think about their builds on their own rather than going āmetaā and risking getting burned by a nerf a patch later. The understanding one gets from truly getting there yourself - rather than copying someone - is not only satisfying, but you can also play nerf-proof builds that are strong and - well - YOURS, created by you and played by you. The second they get viral, they will get nerfed, lose their identity or at the very best not FEEL the same,which - as explained above - is a huge deal for GD veterans.
Now to shortly (because this post is a mile long already) elaborate on Warder, while he was strong before and he is way stronger now, heās committing the sin of being slow , something that the Crucible junkies absolutely detest, and that warranted him being buffed, I guess. Because no matter how tough he is (and now heās perhaps twice as tough as wildblood, subjectively), heās limited to swinging his stick,sword, halaberd or whatever, without any extra damage/leech sources. And that automatically puts him in two tiers below Wildblood, in a nerfed state. Plus, he cannot do ranged damage well, so the second you run into the typical killing mob (letās say, the Rashalga I already mentioned, plus some stun/trap dudes, plus Grava for the added joy of dispelling your regen and removing your main advantage in the heat of combat) - you cannot do CRAP. Whereas the Wildblood can spam and kite, and come out on top.
Also, when I jokingly said in my thread that Crate seems not aware of some builds, it was not to mock them (because they are doing a fantastic job) but kinda joke around the fact that Wildblood Ritualist was running rampant & unnerfed while characters a tier lower in my opinion (like, Archon Cyclone EOR for instance?) got nerfed in like 3-4 consecutive patches. IDK if Wildblood was under the radar that long, or was the meta just so focused on Cyclone for so long that Crate didnāt pay attention, but it was slightly funny. No longer though because the reality caught up with Wildblood in the end. Either way, to me it was among the very top of the builds the second Forgotten Gods launched. Or maybe when Ashes of Malmouth launched? would have to check which patch added Mythical Wildblood set.
Hopefully that helps. Cheers.
3 Likes
wooops that happens if you skip the class ādamage calculation 101ā
Thank you for the clarification
You mean the -1 second of duration to Vines?
I personally think this is āmerelyā 1 stack of vines less on the ground over a period of several seconds, so effectively something of a -20% nerf to the overall DPS of the skill - from that nerf alone.
Unless I misread the notes, or forgot that thereās something else, of course.
You]re right, -1 second duration is already a 20% dps nerf as soon as you can have only 4 stacks now
This + other set nerfs + overall vitality nerfs + RR rebalance make Wildblood very poor now.
I presented my ritualist guide as a strong endgame build. But
- It couldnāt facetank Calla like Darkone+Nightbringer (where are Nightbringer nerfs?)
- It couldnāt kill Calla in less than 1 min like some retal still does
- And now it even couldnāt tank and killed Ravager, there just isnāt enough lifesteal, lol.
Maybe I missed smth? Where are proofs, examples, vids, threads or smth? I would look like a toxic, but It has to be said everything I saw was only complains like āAaaw, Wildblood is sooo OP, Crate please nerf it!ā
Now to the point
This is the run before all the nerfs. This is the GT
- The damage is OP for the such tanky build, Iām agree.
- Life steal should be that high, otherwise, you die in the first chain CC or trap.
- Wildblood doesnāt have an offhand slot, so it canāt for Seal of Might + Seal of Resonance + Lantern devotion, every CC res the Wildblood builds has is from green gear and a bit from devos (18 freeze + 15 stun)
In conclusion, the whole set nerfs except %WD and flat was unnecessary. The general vitality nerfs and RR rebalance would be enough for the first.
2 Likes
From the looks of it, Vines got their DPS reduced by roughly 30-35% when you add all the nerfs together.
AND
its leech % has been nuked, which means you roughly only heal half as fast as you used to.
I can confirm that it can no longer face tank Ultimate Ravager because it will not regenerate your HP fast enough to prevent the double melee crit that Ravager will eventually land on you. You need over 70% of a typical buildās HP (which should be around 250-300k) to survive double crit and constantly staying at 70% max HP with the ~50% nerf to your HP restoration method is no longer possible.
so thats why my sabo was hitting like a wet noodle.
^ I Think so. More top-tier builds are casters now than I can remember. Oh for the days when S&B Cadence builds conquered the earth!
Hmm. Interesting patch but Iāve experienced some issues and have some thoughts.
- Ulzuinās Wrath now has DR which is nice but imo, it would be better if it worked on all hits, not only melee. Also itās strange but I havenāt felt the effect of it, lol.
- Did enemies got buffed somehow? Crucible mobs tend to hit far harder and I died even with super-durable and consistent builds. Same for SR.
- New MIs. Except those for cold sabo and maybe aether pistol, theyāre unfortunately crap.
- Vitality nerfs seem too harsh for me as both devis and gear was hit multiple times.
- Bearās proc is okay now but phys builds still have issues with proccers. And the devo itself is kinda weak. Also, procās radius sucks huge balls.
- some weak sets like Spellscourge and Deathguard didnāt receive the proper love.
1 Like
Very much enjoying the new areas, especially the Arkovian Docks.
Youāre right, it works like retal and doesnāt proc on ranged attacks. Is it also the case for Counter Strike ?
Though Iāve felt the difference, since I tested it on a very squishy caster with low sustain.
Yes, both only works on melee attack.
These MI except the medal are for meme builds, sad. The greatsword has cool design, but thats all. Compare to Sharzul mace, its a child toy. Come on boss, a little OP wont hurt the game so much.
Well, that Grasping Vines/Wildblood Set nerfs destroyed one of my 2 most beloved builds. Sorry, I love this game, but thatās it for me then, never gonna play GD again. These nerfs years after release suck big time! Had thousands of hours fun with this great game, but enough is enough. Waiting for GD2 now, and not gonna buy it on Steam so I can decide for myself if I want patches/nerfs or not. CU all then, all the best wishes for an amazing community, bye-bye 
2 Likes
What does a destroyed build look like? Could beat Callagadra/Morgoneth/Kyzogg and now itās impossible? Cruci takes 7 minutes instead of 5? Could stand on aetherfire indefinitely but now has to step off?
6 Likes
I feel like some people would be better off not reading patch notes altogether.
using different apostrophes / single quotes in i.e. Baldirās Regalia (making it impossible find in Grim Tools without a correction) or expressions like ādealt asā instead of āconverted toā (just change it to be ādealt asā in-game 
) confuses me every patch 
the muscle memory after typing āconverted toā dozens if not hundreds of times is just too strong.
4 Likes
I guess it went from ācan beat ubers on Ultimateā to āstruggles heavily against ubers and is downright uncomfortable to play against themā.
Because repeating a cast ever 1.2 seconds during the whole fight with an uber isnāt really that great in all honesty and itās not even good to assign a macro to because of the frequency and it coming in collision with your movement with the macro on, thus a no-no.
This is one particular reason I wonāt miss Wildblood Ritualist - Not a fan of cyclic button pressing, at least against bosses - especially after hundreds of hours spent on that particular build.
But itās not so bad. Iād say itās still an upper tier build, lost the spot among the very top though, -50% healing is too much I guess.
Letās be real though, there are dozens of builds that canāt even scratch Calla or Ravager.
I just noticed that the Bloodrager amulet changes the Ring of Steel effect to a sexy red one now :
Itās not mentioned in the patch notes but itās a really nice addition 
12 Likes
Just depends on the persons build , for melee (Especially DKās) Nothing will replace scales as long as it keeps its energy regen, the extra it does is just a bonus.