Hellscourge: I will just copy my response on the one-hander thread:
I love sigil and can’t help seeing that fire sigil is really lack on support, especially on item skill modifier and +skills. Rarely see that fire equipmennts have any plus skills to sigil. With proper support, I think it will make elemental occultist caster viable, which can make warlock and deceiver (this class is already decent) more interesting.
This offhand clearly need to give more damage bump to sigil, maybe also flat cdr, and more damaging proc. I’ve never seen someone use this offhand.
Codex of Eternal Storms: This is a good place to give some skill modifier for Cold/Lightning sigil of consumption
Codex of Truths: Horn of gandarr need a skill reform, not the item supporting it. The skill just makes no sense.
Fiend’s resolve: Chaos RE just doesn’t make any sense. Acid RE is not even working, why adding even more problem? There is no item support aside from that little chaos modifier from soulbearer amulet. Just redesigned the offhand to support something else.
Adding one more:
Diviner’s codex: Diviner set has established itself as a successful pet set due to reap spirit reform. However, no one using it for non pet spellbinder or let alone the hybrid one. I don’t know how much better arcanist will be at 1.0.4.0, but I think it’s time to omit that useless devastation mod.
Shield:
Shield in GD is really underperforming. Only soldier can really use it, others just basically treat it as offhand like username said. Most builds just better of not using shield at all because it basically gives no offensive and defensive properties. Most of them gives very little stats like maw of the damned, meat shield, watcher of erulan, and others.
The only good shield is the physical one, (and will of the living due to how good krieg set is). Others just used as “offhand” like voidsoul bulwark, stronghold defender, bramblevine, and gravetouch. Other mastery just cannot utilize shield to even half extend, yes even oathkeeper. I don’t know how to fix this though. I think it’s actually one of the biggest problem in GD currently.
This is a bit off topic, but I somewhat disagree with this. The best thing Diviner’s has going for it is that it can be used at the same time as Bysmiel’s Trinkets, but Bysmiel’s Trinkets can be just as good without Diviner’s, and Diviner’s is a lot worse without Trinkets. The TL;DR is that Diviner’s is really awkward/difficult to pair with other pets. It blocks Circlet of the Great Serpent for Blight Fiends, WH/GoDG/Necrolord’s Shroud for Skeletons, it blocks almost everything that boosts Primal Spirit duration, and solo Hellhound/Briarthorn aren’t very good. It’s usable, but not competitive IMO (or maybe I’m just not creative enough).
I see. Frankly I don’t even know how you guys can mix that with bysmiel’s set. diviner set makes reap spirit’s pet inflict vitality+aether damage, but how can elemental pet set can be mixed nicely with diviner I have no idea, lol.
So what are you saying is, the bysmiel’s trinket set carry diviner, not the other way around. Now I even more confuse with the set. I can only give suggestion from non pet side. Been trying to make so many working pet build to no avail.
@sigatrev thank you for the feedback. Removed fiendgaze from list.
Busy today. Will respond to ideas with my stance on them at another date. Thanks for pitching in everyone. Don’t be afraid to suggest skill mods you think might work. The goal isn’t to create new 6 or even 7 minute builds necessarily. 8 minutes is fine. 9 minutes even is fine if tanky and safe. Nothing wrong with lower of course but I don’t think the game is actually better when all builds fit in the same range.
Or to flesh out parts of items that aren’t working. Etc. I like the conversations I’m seeing. If people can post efforts with items with crucible times or SR experience that’s fantastic. Fun factor matters too. And don’t be discouraged if they don’t all make it into a patch.
It’s an iterative process. The more we try stuff out and get solid examples, the more we will see results. Past experiences with items are valuable too. You’re all the best. Love ya
With Bysmiel Medal half of Vitality is converted to Elemental.
Also Arcane Bomb has both Lightning and Aether RR.
And both Bysmiel’s and Diviner’s can solo Carry a build just fine.
I don’t see how Diviner’s is weak when it can even work on a single mastery build tbh: The Spoopy - Pet Necromancer
(That was before the buffs btw, it only got stronger now)
There are few skills in GD that actually work with shields so offensively only soldier and oathkeeper can extract decent damage from a shield. I think more wps should include shield attacks, and shields which naturally support non-soldier/OK combinatons should be more offensive and have item mod to reflect that.
Defensively shields are usually useful in MC but at end game it’s soldier and OK which are the only ones which can get good yield.
Hey, if you can convince Zantai that Pets need more buffs, I am with you.
But if a set can allow a single class to do Crucible 2x under one round of blessings, do SR 75+ and kill Ravager, I fail to see how you can call it weak.
Also, have you done a Single mastery Necromancer with Lost Souls? I am curious to the results if you have.
Maybe we can just buff all shields with more stats and then nerf soldier shield skills so that soldier shield is basically the same and other classes with shield are better.
I wrote clearly for Codex of Lies that it was best in slot if you don’t include MI’s. It probably doesn’t need to be on the list but it’s more of a footnote I’m keeping to check later to see just how much it’s outcompeted by the MI. Probably just lifesteal AAR offhand is too good to pass up.
As for mythical wretched tome of Nar’Adin, How does that build perform?
Actually nevermind I think Codex of lies is fine. Removing from list
It’s already been done (except the part about improving shields). Shield Training and Overguard are bad now. Last time I took them was when I tried to revive Octavius. But putting these points anywhere else (Safeguard, Ascension, Consecration) actually improves tankiness. Shields became glorified off-hands that enable certain skills and devos. These stats are too expensive. Just like health regen.
So, back to the topic, improve shields, yeah, but there’s no need to re-balance anything. The culprits of warlord oupiedness have all been pacified.
I actually only added that nerf part in case warlord haters come in again. But yeah whatever does the best balance then good. But I agree that shields in general need a buff.
I actually think that nerfs to Shield Training and Overguard (except the retal on Overguard transmuter) should be reverted besides buffing certain shields. It’s not the tankiness that was the problems with warlords. It was the damage. And DRASTICALLY less damage now results in slower kills and less adcth which already affects survivability.
Shield stat nerfs (except the retal) were not needed imo. I used to love me some 100% recovery. Now it’s wasted money beyond 1p
In relation to my point earlier about shield wps. TQ had higher wps potential in defence mastery and it was really awesome. Would be cool to see more wps having shield support.
The idea of a vitality Oppressor with shattering smash (phys to vit) with necrotic edge support would be cool. More shield auto-attack options could open up.
I actually wanted shield to become a strictly defensive choices. For patching hole in defense, really to block incoming damage. In the current end game, unless you are soldier, using shield will just gimp your build.
My opinion on Hellscourge is that it’s not the best at anything it does. It’s outclassed. I want to like the Sigil of Consumption modifier, but for a Pyromancer, it doesn’t stack with Blackwater Cocktail, and for a Deceiver,… you would just use Orb of the Black Flame instead. I’m not sure if the Sigil of Consumption modifier can be changed to something that stacks with Blackwater Cocktail, but if not, it needs to be something more interesting. I’m not sure how you could fix the Deceiver side of things. Perhaps target a niche build that isn’t the chaos version of Flames of Ignaffar.
100% Agree. Every off-hand that has specific elemental damage (Fire, Lightning, Cold) should have an obvious or even OP niche mod, not to be outclassed by the generic elemental off-hands with +1 to all skills, I mean the 2 culprits: Mythical Tome of Arcane Wastes and Cataclysm off-hand.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don’t call for the nerf of those 2 off-hands but for the buffs of all under-used off-hands.
