As promised, here’s my feedback for physical damage.
I’m going to take you through various builds as well as endgame gears. I’m looking purely at Faction Rares, Empowered Epics and Legendaries. I’m also going to do this through subsets, i.e Helmet, Shoulders, and so on.
Disclaimer - I am not focusing on Shield builds because they are insanely well itemized at the moment, actually they’re way too well itemized, which is one of the reasons I’m making this thread.
There’s also going to be some hyperbole, and maybe some ‘justified enrage’. Yes this is a game, but I don’t like it that some builds can just choose a set when I have nothing or partial sets which aren’t even remotely as good as other legendaries/empowered epics for other builds.
There was no offense meant at devs. I love this game and have spent many hours playing it. It’s just that some of the decisions seem so nonsensical I have trouble comprehending the logic behind it. I apologize for any vitriol.
Also, this is not all encompassing feedback as I understand that skills/devotions/items can be mixed and matched to create an efficient build, I’m merely focusing on gear itemization as I feel it’s lacking.
Finally, credit to Most for making me write this based on his incredible legendary feedback post.
Helmet
Elite Devil’s Headguard - This is actually pretty decent, Phys, Trauma, and %OA. I believe the bonuses also scale with level. The proc is MASSIVELY lackluster, 5% chance to attack on 2H weapons with multiplicative attack speed bonuses? Come on. Not to mention the proc isn’t great anyway even with DW physical builds.
Elite Chosen Headguard - This is a hybrid item, mostly aimed at Shamans - phys, light damage plus some OA and actually a reasonable proc compared to Devil’s Headguard. Why does this have so much more phys damage than Devil’s Headguard?
2 for Rares. Empowered Epics onwards.
Glory of the Silver Knight - I used this until I was 75. No kidding. There’s nothing among the legendaries or empowered epics that beats this because it’s so insanely defensively tailored that it beats everything. It’s the Helm version of Decorated Pauldrons. This is one of the few design flaws, where a level 50 helm won’t be replaced because it’s so much better than everything for the next TWENTY FIVE LEVELS.
Abolish Evil is fantastic because of Aetherial/Cthtonic enemies which are often the hardest.
Empowered Guardsman’s Helm - It’s sort of an offensive alternative to Glory of the Silver Knight, until you realize that cold and lightning resistance isn’t going to help you as much as 645 health because most of the damage you take is physical. Not to mention the rest of the bonuses are bad, and are tuned towards a shield build.
Empowered Wildcaller’s Cowl - This is kinda decent compared to Glory helm, but it’s tailored towards a Primal Strike build, which sucks. Earth Ward chance to proc could really be upped though, it isn’t as great as people think it is. To be honest, Golemborn Greaves is so much better, and it’s a FREAKING LEVEL 50 LEGENDARY.
Empowered Faceguard of Perdition - Again, not as good as Glory helm and it’s aimed more towards a retaliation build, which again is more efficient as a shield build than a DW/2H physical build.
I do like to stress one point here - why is retaliation damage pigeonholed towards a Soldier hybrid where you have to use Soldier because of its shield passives? Is that why there are so many shield build specific sets/legendaries? Come on.
Cowl of the Blind Assassin - This item, and by definition the set, is ironic(or poorly designed) as it focuses on pierce damage while providing unnecessary physical bonuses.
Cowl of Mogdrogen - This is a hybrid item, but it’s so much better than all of the preceding empowered epics that I’m thinking - did you purposely make this better, and worse, because everything before was shite for a pure physical build AND you wanted to make a hybrid empowered set? I don’t want to say more.
Myrmidon Visor - Another crappy helm, part of a shield set. There are already 2 shield empowered epic sets before this, what was the reason behind making this one? I really don’t get it.
Moving on to Legendaries.
Not gonna talk about Justicar Armor even though it’s a Soldier specific set because it offers ZERO physical damage boosts and looks like more of a tanking set than anything else.
Markovian’s Visor - This is the headpiece I’m using right now for my Blade Arc Warder. It’s not great, but unfortunately, when you look at the alternatives, it offers a 2pc bonus of 28% Aether/Chaos resist which is pretty valuable. Not to mention what the fuck is up with the physique requirement? Not that people aren’t stacking physique right now but why do I have to spend so much physique to wear this?
And ofc, again, yet another shield set. For now, I’d leave it be because it’s the first legendary shield set, for the order of this post anyway.
If anyone have better alternatives, hit me up, with explanation as to why.
Valdun’s Hat - I’m annoyed to add this, considering that it’s for a Ranged set. Still it offers decent damage, and bonuses to Flashbang for a Blade Arc build(which I like, and is better as a Commando than as a Warder, but that’s for a separate topic). However, it ain’t great, because it’s for a ranged set.
We have TWO LEGENDARIES for physical damage, one of which is for a ranged set and the other for a block set. Lovely.
Don’t tell me to choose other non-physical variants because they offer OA, or energy cost reduction, or CDR, that would be betraying the idea that there should be pure physical legendaries for Soldier builds, among others.
Shoulders
Legion Pauldrons - Not bad. Phys resist is great, but nothing else is really awesome.
Elite Legion Pauldrons - Merely an improved version of Legion Pauldrons. Sorry, not worth the effort that went into making it. I mean it’s the exact same item, just bonuses improved. You could at least add some other affixes like you do for Empowered Epics?
Elite Death’s Pauldrons - Am I mistaken, or is there no Death Pauldron’s/level 50 equivalent of these shoulders for Order of Death’s Vigil? Also not great really.
On to empowered epics, let’s see if they are as disappointing as the ones above.
Decorated Pauldrons - The alltime favorite. Nothing to say here except - Take a look at some of the builds that use this item, at least half of them say “Don’t replace it!”. Make some better alternatives at endgame, thanks.
Empowered Shoulderguards of Perdition - A retaliation set item. Not great.
Amarastan Pauldrons - This is actually decent for offense, but again it’s aimed at Cadence(lol skillsucksballs).
Let’s look at legendaries.
Titan Pauldrons - Somewhat of a replacement for Decorated Pauldrons, solely because of the physical resistance for 2H. What about DW? Lol get rekt or go Deathmarked.
I’m using this for my Blade Arc Warder, but only because the rest of the choices are terribad.
Markovian’s Vanguard - If I were to go pure physical, I would not take this as Titan Pauldrons are so much better. Also again what’s with this physique requirement? Did you think that shield builds would invest in this much physique being as tanky as they already are? Why, when you could go Cunning? Owait, not like it really matters since you nerfed stats so bad already, that they are now nothing more than just used to fulfil stat requirements, where Physique is the only real stat outlier because it provides HP, which is by far the best defensive stat in the game right now.
Not going to use this over the chest to get the 2pc bonus because the chest is pretty much better than everything except Empowered Fanatic’s Overcoat, and even that is debatable.
Ultos’ Spaulders - The offensive answer to Titan Pauldrons although it ain’t really that much better.
Firstly, I’d never pick up any other of this set’s pieces because none of the set bonuses provide any sort of benefit.
Secondly, it’s not that much better, it only provides some more OA with lesser Phys resist and MUCH LESSER armor.
Chest
Legion Chestguard - An extremely decent mid level alternative, if only Black Legion rep wasn’t twice as hard to obtain as others.
Elite Legion Chestguard - Better than it’s level 50 equivalent, but I’m hard pressed to understand why, with the 20 level requirement gap, it’s not at least 50% better than the level 50 version?
Aaaaand…nothing else? No other faction offers anything? Major disappointment.
Moving on to epics.
Empowered Chestguard of Perdition - After Zolhan’s Battle Plate(which btw requires an exorbitant amount of physique to wear, and afterwards adds an insane amount of physique just to troll you :rolleyes:), you have to wait 25 levels to get something that boosts physical damage.
Yeah, I get it. There’s Magnison’s Trench Coat which is great because of the insane OA boost, and Fanatic’s Overcoat which is still awesome because of the total speed, health and OA proc which are awesome, but why do I have to wait so long between levels to get something good?
Myrmidon Chestguard - Another example of a phys item that requires exorbitant amounts of physique to wear just so you can play a shield build that doesn’t require that much physique. Starting to sound like a broken record over here.
Empowered Fanatic’s Overcoat - probably the best empowered epic ever. Insane health, Chaos resist(along with Aether the hardest to get resist for), total speed(whose minimum level somehow didn’t increase even though this is supposed to be an “empowered epic”), and a pretty good proc. Needs buffs, or nerfs with buffs of others.
Legendaries - atleast here we have more alternatives except they are not pure builds.
Devil’s Cage Hauberk - A pretty good item although I can’t really see a chaos themed soldier build anywhere. Is there one? The proc is lackluster because one enemy can trigger it just by doing an attack first before 2 dozen other enemies. Not fun. Also what’s with the insane amount of fire resist I can see on some of the legendaries. Fire Resist isn’t even that hard to achieve cap for.
Dread Armor of Azragor - Aimed at a retaliation build. Again aimed at a shield build.
Valdun’s Jacket - Surprisingly, a pretty decent physical chest, although it’s part of a ranged set. Again, not great. Where is my melee physical legendary set :furious:
Markovian’s Chestguard - Using this with Markovian’s helm to get the 2pc bonus. It’s pretty good in it’s own way, again exorbitant physique requirement. Honestly, if you want people to wear with such exorbitant stat requirements which you can’t respec, you better make them much more powerful offensively too.
Ultos’ Cuirass - Just putting it here because it has phys damage. Honestly this is one of the best itemized sets, which makes me angry because they spent so much effort, or so little, to make this set so awesome for a build that sucks in ultimate because it has so little single target potential. Still, that’s a topic for another thread. I believe Most has already stated in his legendary feedback thread how good this set is, and somehow no other set was changed to be even remotely as good as this one.
Hands
I don’t want to even write this subset topic because of Grasp of Unchained Might which literally beats everything else. NOTHING ELSE IS EVEN CLOSE, and it has a level 50 req? Lol. But for completeness sake, here we go.
Elite Rhowari Grips - Has attack speed going for it, but nothing else really.
Elite Harvest Grips - Pierce Resist, Attribute bonuses, insane OA - why would anyone choose Rhowari grips over these?
Obsidian Grasp - Insanely good if you went Commando. Goddamn I should reroll my BA guy to Commando.
Empowered Zealot’s Gauntlets - only reason I put this here is because of the resist and the AS. Otherwise it hasn’t got much going for it.
Empowered Bladedancer’s Handguards - Pretty horrible even with it’s decent bonuses. Proc is bad. Add an AOE boost perhaps.
Empowered Brawler’s Gloves - The non empowered version was BiS for a savagery themed Warder before Elite/Ultimate came out. This version isn’t even remotely buffed properly enough.
Rule for empowered epics - They should be at the very least - 50% better than the base version.
Empowered Thundertouch Bracers - somehow better than Brawler’s Gloves, mostly because of Brute Force and difference in damage types. I’m thinking this was a pretty good idea back then when Shaman was introduced, but not empowered enough in it’s current version.
On to Legendaries.
Grasp of Unchained Might - Why, being as good as it is, is it a level 50 req is beyond me. Phys damage, AS, skill bonuses, insane proc(with insane uptime) - this is a beyond godlike item.
Colossal Grasp - Mentioned for the sake of completion - this is for a shield build funnily enough it’s the only offensive legendary hands for a shield build. The passive is pretty awesome though.
Legs
Empowered Hermit’s Legguards - Beats everything until you reach legendary level. Probably one of the best itemized items in the game. Have no clue whatsoever why it has a Possession bonus.
Bladeguard Leggings - Noted for completion sake, although it’s bloody terrible.
On to legendaries.
Demonbone Legplates - utterly lackluster. This needs major buffs for whatever spec that was aimed at.
Hellforged Legplates - Pretty good for a retaliation build, not good enough for the purposes of this post though.
Chausses of Barbaros - This one is pretty awesome if not for the exorbitant physique cost. Like really, tell me does any item in the game have as much of a spirit/cunning cost as any item that requires 980 phys(not these legs) cost?
The main problem with legs is that there are a lot of legs that offer Spirit, and massive CC procs that greatly help in ultimate, while simultaneously offering either resist/OA/Health, so that you can aim at other offensive items that are easier to obtain AND equip.
Feet
Not sure if gracefuldusk is wrong or what, but is there only one rare boots at level 50? Not like it matters lol, as there’s nothing but defensive boots for phys builds for faction rares.
Dreadnought Footpads and it’s empowered version are the only real alternatives. Disappointing.
Desecrator Treads - This was so good before(BIS), now it’s just really bad.
On to legendaries.
Golemborn Greaves - I put this here because it’s insanely awesome for commando based physical builds, but still really bloody good for any other melee build because of the passive benefits and the OP proc.
And it has a level 50 phys req. Lol ok.
Boneshatter Treads - I suppose this item was made for a bleed shaman build where you didn’t go melee. Huh?
Windshear Greaves - Pretty bad for a melee build, the proc could really have more uptime though. Did you design it to have low uptime cos the proc avoid bonus was so good? Bad choice. I honestly don’t even notice it going off sometimes.
Earthshatter Treads - At first I thought it was a viable offensive alternative to Golemborn Greaves, sadly it’s not, the cast skill is pretty terrible and the bonuses aren’t great.
The feet disappointed me the most.
Weapons
My post is themed at 2H builds, so forgive me DW classes and players, but you have so many alternatives that it isn’t a problem at all.
One thing that I loved about weapons, is that almost every class has a good weapon, and many choices.
Rares - there are plenty of Faction rares, choose one at will.
Epics - Can’t go wrong choosing anything really there are so many choices.
Legendaries - Same as above, except there are less choices.
Stonefist Rebuke and Leviathan if you don’t care about specifics. Leviathan’s cold damage bonuses and proc can be mostly ignored(which is stupid, why would anyone spend 225 energy as a soldier on Leviathan’s skill).
Else there are other choices, most importantly Obsidian Juggernaut for Chaos Cadence builds(which don’t exist, lel), Infernal Brimstone which has builds that are pretty powerful. Everything else is non-physical specific.
Amulets
There are no rare faction rare amulets. What a pity.
Rhowari Guardstone and Lapis Lupus are pretty good go-to Phys amulets in the beginning, especially the latter.
In empowered epics, everything is mostly useless until you reach level 75. There’s no way you’ll replace Lapis Lupus before then.
Empowered Bladeward’s Courage - Phys damage, nice OA, and Markovian’s Advantage. Not bad. Too bad it’s for shield builds(AGAIN).
Empowered Essence of Beronath - deserves a mention for the AS(and casting speed for Forcewave) as well as +skills. Remember Avarice of Androneus? Yeah, just better. Not to mention Avarice was BiS back when the level cap was 50(or even 60 really).
There are only two others, but they deserve special mention because they’re literally better than every other legendary except Peerless Eye of Beronath.
Righteous Flame - What the hell are these bonuses doing on an empowered epic? They’re amazing. Not as good as the next though.
Lapis Mantichora - This should be a legendary. I don’t know what the hell Feral Hunger is doing there(anybody going to argue that a non-Blade Arc melee savagery Feral Hunger build is as good as Blade Arc with respect to Bleed damage is out of touch with reality).
Legendaries - the problem with legendary amulets is that most of them are defensive. I understand the necessity of defensive items in ultimate, and there were many end game builds that swore towards these items in ultimate in B30, but they simply aren’t required in B31.
The Peerless Eye of Beronath - Any end game build worth it’s salt will go with this, despite the nerfs. The skill is kinda lackluster for offense though, no idea what that’s doing there.
Doombringer - the main problem with this item is that the banner is thrown on the ground. Nobody’s going to stand around killing monsters in an area. They’d want to move on to the next area in 5s AT THE MOST. Otherwise the item is pretty decent, but could be better. Make it so that it’s a character buff, not a ground targeted buff. Or a party wide buff.
Avenger of Cairn - only including this item because of Soldier +skills. Everything else is defensive or retaliation(again?!).
Rings
Pretty disappointed in rings to be honest, even with the nerfs, Lifegiver’s Signet is so much BiS for melee builds because of the lifesteal. There are so many choices, so I’m not going to list them all, because most of them are lackluster. Anyway, onwards.
Goliath Signet - This was BiS, not just when Shaman was introduced, but also for DW Cadence when it was OP. With changes in builds though, even the empowered version is lackluster. You have skill bonuses to Upheaval but no OA? Lol. Upheaval is still really bad because it’s a WPS. Make it a buff instead.
Empowered Blackwatch Seal - Decent, no complaints except I don’t know why it has more Phys% wrt Pierce% damage bonuses considering the design of the ring
On to legendaries.
Lifegiver Signet - The single best ring for melee, purely because of the lifesteal. It’s funny because, when you removed the OA and AS, it was still too good because of LS, HP and DA. You should have just nerfed all of the bonuses if you wanted to balance it.
Funnily enough I use it on my 2H Ranged Commando because nothing else is better, not even Belgothian’s Sigil.
Almost literally nothing else I will use because nothing boosts phys damage at all. Very very bad design for rings. Honest to god you can see so many people advocating use of Incorruptible Rings of Attack(a yellow ring) over legendary rings?
Medals
Empowered Enchanter’s Insignia - Funnily enough, best starter version because of the OA, Flame Touched and Temper bonuses.
Empowered Beastslayer’s Mark - I’m still using this at level 85 on my Blade Arc Warder because there literally is nothing better than a Badge of Mastery, which I don’t want because I don’t care about the skill bonuses that I can get on it, except maybe War Cry.
On to legendaries.
Badge of Mastery - Was OP before, is still pretty awesome, just not great.
I do not understand the necessity of stat requirement reduction bonuses. It especially makes zero sense for physique at the moment.
Sigil of the Bear King - I like that you’re trying to promote Forcewave, but considering that Forcewave builds are almost non-existent(because either Forcewave sucks, or casting speed isn’t present in enough quantity with items that boost phys damage also(which btw are rare, lol, hence the point of this post)), and as a result the low proc chance doesn’t really help.
Thematically, Bears swipe. They don’t do overhead moves. This item is better aimed at Blade Arc than Forcewave.
Waist
Not bothering with rares, after I saw Solar Girdle vs Chosen Girdle. So Solar has a phys damage boost with a lightning damage proc, whereas Chosen Girdle has Fire damage passive fire damage with a fire damage proc. Warder is not the only phys damage spec. Fix please, thanks.
Chains of Anguish vs Warpath Girdle - No one in their right mind would pick the former over the latter. You really need to change Chains, it was good when 50 was the max level, but no longer. Also Warpath is pretty much BiS until later levels.
Empowered Warchief’s Glory - Not bad. Not as good as Warpath though.
Legionnaire’s Triumph - Would be really awesome if the proc wasn’t on block.
Legendaries - there are only two real choices here.
Guthook Belt vs Reforged Chains of Oleron
Difference here is that Guthook belt is aimed towards bleed damage(which btw makes little sense for melee builds) and Oleron is aimed towards instantaneous damage, which it does extremely well.
There’s also the very much overlooked Tinker’s Ingenuity which is not just a very defensively oriented belt, but also offensively w.r.t it’s granted skill.
TL;DR and conclusion in next post because I’m an essay writing fanatic.