the disparity between 2h and 1h weaponry is more glaring than its ever been, and cries to enable a second component for 2h weapons are more frequent than ever
the new balance between devotions and gear took a lot of getting used to for me as a returning player; finding 1h weapons with up to 300% damage to a specific type made me rethink the importance of offensive constellations on a lot of builds. as this affects almost all builds somewhat equally, it isn’t especially detrimental to balance, the exception being 2h builds
kraken used to be a powerhouse back when 120% all damage was a sizable chunk of your total damage%. now it’s an absolute pittance with the inflated values on the new items. this, in addition to the insane power creep of components, really leaves 2h playstyles in the dust (not that they were ever that powerful before)
the attack speed should be attack and cast speed, mostly for forcewave (which still needs its base cast animation increased btw, it’s too sluggish), but also to make 2h caster playstyles even remotely considerable (though i don’t imagine that being nearly enough, it’s at least a start). it should also have either some flat or %OA to compete with these ridiculous new components (no idea why some of them have 3%), and probably have its %damage values doubled. i still don’t think this would come close to bridging the gap, but it would really go a long way
i get that these changes would make kraken extremely strong while leveling since it’s so easy to reach, but a) it’s already great for leveling and b) so many twinking tools exist now that this would be a drop in the bucket
+1 to casting speed on Kraken. You can do a fair amount of 2-handed casting speed builds like Tremor Forcewave, Winter King’s Might, Obsidian Tremors, Callidor’s Tempest (with Temporal Arcblade or Vortex of Souls or other weapons).
On any 2-h casters that I do come up with, I take all of it’s nodes except the % attack speed / % physical damage ones as I’m getting little to no benefit from them.
I have mixed feelings about this, to be honest. While 2H melee is my favourite playstyle, Kraken for a very long time was, and still is, the absolutely necessary constellation in virtually every 2H build that relies on attack speed. It’s like a crutch to make 2H builds perform at least somewhat decently. I don’t want a better crutch, I want it to become unnecessary. So 120% is no longer a big deal? Good!
Cast speed doesn’t make sense - 2H only penaltizes attack speed. Otherwise why don’t throw in some 10-20% cdr as well? Soulrend builds need all the help they could get!
If %damage values being too low is ever getting adressed then I think it’s best done in a global pass on all constellations, not just Kraken. But I don’t see an abundance of builds that decide to drop their offensive constellations in favour of Ishtak + ToL here. Why? Do ppl just hadn’t realized it yet or defensive constellations suck just as much and even more?
If %damage values being too low is ever getting adressed then I think it’s best done in a global pass on all constellations, not just Kraken. But I don’t see an abundance of builds that decide to drop their offensive constellations in favour of Ishtak + ToL here. Why? Do ppl just hadn’t realized it yet or defensive constellations suck just as much and even more?
As long as ADCTH is in the game going ololo-all-offencive is the best option. And to be fair “defensive” conselation are crap mostly>_> Hound for example -5 % armor, lol, its painfull to drop point in it. Turtle, lol ? 25 health in first node is a nice joke. Ishtak? 300 HP, how sweet, my shoulders give me 1500 HP . Proc is good but its not 100% uptime unless you go crazy on CDR, and if you go crazy on CDR youd beter pick Aeon. And, to be fair, in main campagn you dont need defences at all.
These are my thoughts about Ishtak as well, even with CDR Aeon is a vastly superior choice for most builds (especially Demos and Arcanists). The constellation’s proc should be turned into a CB imo to make it worthwhile.
Imo ToL is not as bad as anyone thinks it’s actually a great T-3 constellation especially when compared to Ishtak. Th Healing Rain proc is much more reliable than Nature’s Guardians. And I’d like to point out that the heaviest hitters in the game can shred through 45% Damage absorption with relative ease, not saying it’s weak a number or anything but ToL is not only good for survival but it also helps with energy issues of builds.
As for the pet bonuses, DG seems to be the go to Pet constellation even if someone doesn’t pick DG they’re more likely to pick up Mogdrogen the Mutt
And Hound is by far the worst T-1 constellation that comes to mind, even retaliation builds won’t use it. They should add some %physical resist to it
As for the topic, Kraken getting CS isn’t enough imo. They could add 5% more crit damage and add 10 OA/DA to atleast two of the nodes
I suggested OA/DA cause of Oklaine’s Lantern. The damn thing’s bonuses look better than Kraken in many ways and the fact that those bonuses apply to daggers, scepters and off hands makes it much stronger than Kraken imo as non-2h playstyle is inherently superior in most cases
Indeed, as you can see, my CASTER build uses Kraken, even though it doesnt grant cast speed. Kraken is THE BEST devotion for physical 2-hander. Why buff it even more? 2-h builds are fine. Some of them are weak, but same could be said about some DW builds as well as builds with offhands.
2h builds are weak not because of Kraken being weak. It’s a strong devo, only thing I’d add is flat phys damage to be converted to target damage. All damage can use some buff, but it applies to all devos with %all dmg.
2h issue has to do mostly with components, skill bonuses and, to lesser extent, auguments.
Let us not provide a simplistic assessment of the Kraken devotion that looks at the constellation in vacuo . Nothing in the game should ever be analysed like that.
With these being said, let’s start with the facts:
2h builds are not weak. 2h rifle builds, for example, are better in almost every way compared to dw pistols. Actually, from the 5-6 ranged builds that can finish Gladiator Crucible solo in a reliable manner, 80% are rifle builds and all of them rely on shotguns and shrapnel or multiple procs from different sources.
Kraken gives you a boost to all damage which is linear, indeed, but it also gives you a +15% crit that adds up. Who are the biggest winners, here ? Ofc, P-Blades, Fire Strike (Brimstone), CD Stun Jacks and the Inquisitor ranged procs. All these skills have a broad spectrum of damage types and all of them have either the potential to shotgun or generate shrapnel that has shotgun effects. Kraken becomes very, very powerful once you have access to these type of abilities and you stack OA close to the 3.7k-4k threshold. After that point, the +15% crit on shotguns does more for you than simple linear bonuses.
Kraken is in line with Aeon, Dying God and Spear. I won’t discuss the Dying God and Spear, part, but do yourself a favour and make a triple shotgun P-Blades Infiltrator using the Valdun set. Take Aeon and enjoy…
2h melee are weaker than dw melee, that is true, but the same thing does not go for ranged builds and I explained why. Storm Spread, Brimstone, P-Blades - all these abilities are amplified by Kraken and made competitive. Most said it in the first paragraph: the biggest problem is 1h melee weapons rolling with astronomical +300% bonuses that are comparable to 2h. Before anybody says that such double rolled items are hacked, I assure you I have a couple of them and the bonuses are, IMO, too big.
My opinion is simple: Kraken is ok. It doesn’t need buffs or nerfs. 1h double rolled green items are not ok, though, because they create huge disparities that - for non-shotgun/shrapnel based builds - cannot be counterbalanced by the Kraken bonuses.
OBS: If you want to see Kraken competitive for 2h casters there are solutions around the problem that imply 0 changes to the devotion. All you have to do is put 5-10% WD to Panetti on the Mythical Temporal Arcblade instead of the proc or replace the Inquisitor skill modifier of Mythical Arcanor for -2s on Deadly Aim (I actually, never understood why this bonus is on that trash Amarastan Crusher item, which doesn’t even make sense).
If they nerf 1H affixes, then they might as well just delete shields of the game, because this would affect sword & board the most, while DW, the core of the problem, will still perform just as well, if not still stronger as ever.
The issue here is pretty clear: DW >>>>>>>>> everything, and this has been like that since the dawn of time, because due to a combination of factors (OA, Crit damage, attack speed, ADCtH, etc), plus the fact that DW has NO PENALTIES IN THIS GAME AT ALL, like reduced DA/Physical resistances, for example.
The only way I’d agree with your opinion, is if Shield Maiden constellation boosted some of your All Damage %, instead of just adding some random shitty flat trauma damage only.
I might have missed something but shotgun concept is open to all playstyles. If non-shotgun/non-DoT ranged isn’t excelling then that’s a big problem imo and they should consider adjusting those ridiculous deflect values of our enemies. I can see the higher base %WD 2h weapons provide but that alone doesn’t make 2h shotgun superior to 2h shotgun.
I have an Aeon PB Sabo. I didn’t want to pick either Purifier or Infiltrator as I feared I might end up going Hybrid Caster route. Please tell me you’re not going Hybrid caster
I concur with Kraken being fine but I suggested buffs because it was a 2h focused constellation and 2h even now isn’t fine imo.
I agree 2h rifles are in a decent place now thanks to the Inquisitor mastery and other buffs. I am unsure of your assessment of Rifles being superior to Pistols as in my own experience I have always found Pistols to be more fluidic.
But 2h melee still feels gimped and I figured boosting Kraken “slightly” might solve this as I personally believe such “buffs” should be done in such a way that it benefits even those who do not possess the necessary gears (hope that last line made sense outside my head :p)
Yeah, “No” I’d rather not have them remove literally the only legendary green lightning proc in the game.
And for Panetti 2h I’d say Vortex of Souls with Magelord+Diviner Chest should be superior as VoS would still have the valuable Racial Damage. The only thing missing would be the CDR. Agreed on the Arcanor suggestion.
I am not sure if adding cast speed will “break” the constellation in any way. We already have Oklaine’s Lantern giving 1h playstyle OA/DA, % All damage and Attack/Cast Speed. So asking the same for Kraken isn’t outrageous imo
“Everything” doesn’t include Hybrid Casters, DoT build, CDR Casters and S&B Builds
Please stop this
You guys are ruining my efforts to incorporate more Green Lightning into the game :mad:
I specifically said “shotgun” + “shrapnel” skills. Brimstone for example, is a shrapnel skill that doesn’t work with melee. It procs more often with pistols, ofc, due to higher AS, but the point is “shrapnel” skills are not open to all things.
Sure, you can take P-Blades and Stun Jacks on every build if you want, but some shotgun skills are exclusive for ranged. Valdun’s Rifle ability, for example, is a shotgun skill that has no 2h melee equivalent and it compliments nicely both Tacticians and Infiltrators.
CD Stun Jacks will work, ofc, for Elementalist, Sorceror and (probably) even Defiler. The reason why you usually don’t take P-Blades, however, on a 2h melee build has to do with the fact that: 1) there are only 3 2h melee weapons that have CDR and all of them require conversion to work with P-Blades; Yes, ofc, you can make them work if you want, but you will probably have to sacrifice some slots for it and/or abilities in your mastery. 2) P-Blades requires so many points into it that you will be point starved; 3) P-Blades bonuses are all found on caster/ranged gear; 4) You have nothing to do during cooldown because you are point starved. From all these, I concur that CD P-Blades work better for a kite/run-and-gun character than a 100% face-tanker even if 2h melee base damage > 2h ranged. The only true possibilities I see here are 2h Spellbreaker with Soulrend, 2h Witch Hunter with NightShade’s Reach and an unorthodox Tickster that focuses on vit/bleed with the Wildblood set. Could work, yes, but there are probably better ways to make use of those weapons.
Yes, Hybrid Caster !
Vortex of Souls idea is a nice suggestion. Maybe the Mythical Arcblade is not a good suggestion because I like green lightning also, but if Crate wanted to support 2h casters besides forcewave, the only way to do that is either buff PRM (shrapnel) or decrease base time on Deadly Aim (2h FoI with Arcblade or Arcanor).
@Ptirodaktill: yes, those values are enormously small, but the way I know Crate/Zantai, they won’t put more than 15-20% WD on shrapnel skills. The values are compensated, though, by the fact that you can life-leech on a fairly large area because the PRM shrapnels are not like Brimstone, viz. they are identical copies of the first projectile.
Am i missing something here? Wasn’t DW nerfed quite heavily to the point some builds got neutered to hell? And DW is better than everything since when?
I guess DoT, hybrid casters and S&B builds don’t exist anymore, which in my opinion are much stronger than DW.
How was dw nerfed as a class? I remember there were some aspd changes, but apart from that - i think only specific builds and nb mastery got nerfed. The core reasons of dw supremacy (flat damage bonuses doubled, one more component and aug to play with, more skillpoints) are still there.
the component, augment and skillpoint are there for anyone but 2H, so not sure how that makes dw >>>> everything, at most it makes everything >>>> 2H and even there I have my doubts
DW was never the best and the life steal nerf a long time ago certainly affected it the most, as it lacks defense and tries to compensate with leech
yes, this is the point i was making, though i guess i could have phrased it better
there is nothing inherently wrong with kraken, but there is a noticeable disparity between 1h and 2h playstyles. zantai has stated multiple times that they aren’t going to allow a second component for 2h, nor make ‘empowered’ components for 2h, and it doesn’t seem like they even want to buff empowered augments again.
buffing kraken is an elegant and simple way to help bridge the gap, independent of the current strength of the constellation.
Yes, basically the mentioned advantages are to prove anything >>> 2h, but dw benefit a little mord than, say, 1h+offhand because of flat damage bonuses.
Everything lacks defence now in AoM, and there’s no sustain methods that scale good enough apart from adcth. I’m laughing every time I see that “great” +3 health per sec bonuses here and there, while even yellow mobs can do 1k+ per second to someone w/o flat damage absorb…
But with non-2h you don’t need to choose between haunted steel and something else (blessed steel, seal of might, you name it). Most of the builds that have no doublerare miracles have defensive gaps, and it’s much easier to fix them when you’re 1h.
