I think this 1.3 test patch is a great time to update some of the forgotten tier-3 devotions. I am talking about devotions that don’t offer any DoT damage.
1) Yugol
One of the lesser used tier-3s for Cold and it’s skipped on top20’s (Acid) Deathguard Reaper as well. Main reason: no %frostburn/poison. Imo, having 125-180% to both will make Yugol feature more on Cold/Acid casters (those need dots more than others) that can’t find damage reduction elsewhere.
2) Spear of the Heavens
You almost never see it on Lightning builds nowadays. It’s expensive and again, no dot damage despite its proc having a pretty hefty Electrocute. Also would be nice to have Electrocute with added duration - thing you can barely find anywhere.
3) Light of Empyrion
One of the most expensive devotions to reach (if not the most expensive). Took Crate literal years to fix its proc and increase %damage from 80% to 180%. And that buff was great. However, it still misses %dot. It especially hurts if you want a tanky Fire build and you go this direction in devos already losing a bunch of damage and when you arrive you get only 180% to Fire no %Burn. Yikes.
4) Seru
Elemental/Aether devotion. Couple of years ago Crate gave all items/affixes that had just %elemental damage dot damage as well. I think adding it to this still very niche and underused devotion wouldn’t hurt.
Bonus: Leviathan
A devotion with heavy dot on its proc has only 100% to Frostburn damage and it’s located on a point that noone takes (because often there aren’t any devotion points left when you go towards Leviathan). I think it deserves 80% Frostburn somewhere, ideally with added duration.
Defensive constellations like Light of Empyrion are good when your masteries / equipment provide so much offense that you don’t need to worry about it in the devotion screen. Crate didn’t realize that it’s much more optimal to go all glass cannon and then complain in the forums about how squishy the builds are until the gear / masteries get their respective buffs.
Once the difficulty reaches a point where every single point needs to be optimized, such imbalances like “going all offense on gear and all defense in devotions” simply doesn’t work at a conceptual level. If that’s the case, what’s the point in going through the effort of getting the Light devotion when the Gold + Blue devotion route gives practically nothing in terms of meaningful offense? The offensive gear needs to be REALLY worth it so that using that devotion route to patch up defenses is a worthwhile investment.
Otherwise, yeah, the whole right side of the devotion tree will continue to be abandoned for years on end because nobody knows how to buff them in a way that will actually matter.
a bit off topic,
but i’ve been noticing lately i had some issues keeping up LoE proc, (DR), despite the 2sec cd being lower than the 3sec duration of DR status and the on appearance generous 30% chance (specially on slower enemies ofc), made me slot and sweat spam Brutal Shield Slam for some semi reliable DR albeit noticably less
But, “all other blue/gold already accepted drawbacks aside”, it began making question my devo choice that bit extra(since i specifically took it for the DR)
nop Level 86 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
*the classless is just the latest where it stood out, couple weeks back did some various “empyrion” themed trials where the rule was they all must have Empy Bros and LoE devo, they all had regular DA/no specific fumble or impair/dodge
edit. only surviving meme example that ended up saving from not feeling totally lackluster Templar, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (unsure if just as basic as extra cdr, or AAR/overall build meant less noticeable impact or multitank capability so LoE uptime was fine on this)
edit edit. got one of those 1v1 examples on the classless https://youtu.be/qZnHoCXKZO0?t=28 proc at 30sec, next at 37, then next at 46
Obv argument would be to just multi tank/it’s the price you pay fighting slow hitters, but it does feel like it detract a bit from costly LoE,
specially if you’re trying to squeeze in compensation dmg elsewhere and don’t actually end up top20 tanky for it like on a Empyrion/judgment/sunspot LoE meme
