It all started with this guy/build.
Back then:
- SS % weapon dmg was way stronger at ultimate levels, 430% wp dmg or so (this hurt pierce SS…bad…it effectively killed thisbuild I posted too after the already existing nerfs below )
-You didn’t need flat dmg from deadly momentum or LA to kill up Fabius/Sharz in 9 secs or less in that 0.4 uberjaeger build. You didn’t even care about the conversion from Shard of Beronath. It replaced cadence line successfully (shard was also nerfed btw)
- Blego relic had 2 sec CDR over 3 seconds ! - same for MArkovian (flat dmg on it also nerfed), Big deal. for SS and…
- Blades of Wrath had 1 sec CD and could be procced by each Blade Spirit individually!
- Night’s chill gave -2% rr to Pierce, acid, cold after lvl 10
- Blind fury %dmg was 80%
- Assasin’s mark nerfed (this is kinda fixed in AoM)
All of the above are off the top of my head. Since then they have systematically nerfed pierce and whenever they gave something back, a buff, it was with the utmost prejudice. A tiny bit of flat dmg here and there like Blades of nadaan… Even after Jov’s full cunning DW cadence BM after patch 0.4, they kept the nerfs comming. They are are generally super reluctant to give it anything but are biased towards acid/ poison, cold/frostburn. Two damage types that are not just stronger but have very good afferent DoTs…