Coven’s Bloodied Ash: I don’t know how many people use the health regeneration bonus from this, but I’d love a pierce + bleed augment. The armor augments for bleeding resistance could use some variety, as only bleed and bleed + vitality are currently available.
(Yes, you can get a lot from components, but not always enough.)
Trozan's Skybreach
Offensively, TSS Skybreach is now a powerhouse. Warlock especially has great gameplay, it’s the kind of resilient glass cannon that doesn’t crack until it shatters. Like the sky shards themselves, I guess. :P
Two notes, quoting from elsewhere:
- The Slow modifier on TSS doesn’t stack with native Slow from Frozen Core (as far as I know). Slow is also applied by wind devils. I’d just remove it, seeing as Skybreach TSS is already the strongest TSS by a significant margin; no additional modifier needed. If you want to add something… movement speed, which Druid is short on.
- There’s no bleed resistance anywhere in Skybreach and supporting items. Starfury Emerald is excellent now (it was good already), but it “only” has thematic resistances. Would some bleed resistance fit, say 15%? It would be in line with things like Aetherbolt Pendant and Stormseer Sapphire, not to mention e.g. Iskandra’s or Invoker’s. I think the 22 DA can go if it comes to it. Alternatively, it could be added to the 2-piece bonus for Eastern set, perhaps?
In terms of balance, I think these two setups (reference thread) are the best attainable, or nearly so:
- Lightning Skybreach Warlock: ~6:20 Crucible average with 3b + vb, medium to good reliability.
- Lightning Skybreach Druid: ~6:15 Crucible average with 3b + vb, medium to good reliability.
(They’re not Crucible farmers unless you cheat, they die too easily to win the tribute game.)
Other, sturdier setups aren’t quite as powerful: Cataclysm Skybreach Warlock (reference thread), 6:40 Crucible (don’t know whether it’s an average run or a fast/slow one.)
If nerfing, I’d start by considering some of the following changes before looking for something heavier-handed:
- Decrease % OA from 2-piece Eastern to 4-5%. It’s more reasonable now that Arcanist has native OA, and besides… 7% from a 2-piece epic? (Confident about this one.)
- Skybreach: reduce DA shred from Fallen Comet to 120 or so. Again, native OA. (Fairly confident.)
- Starfury Emerald: the extra cold is not strictly needed. It mostly serves to equalize cold/lightning a bit in the flat damage component of TSS. (Fairly confident.)
- Skybreach: the radius bonus is not strictly needed. It was added to base TSS as of 1.1.3. (Hesitant about this one as it would impact Allagast as well.)
- Skybreach: slightly decrease Sigil damage. (Hesitant. I don’t know how it would impact Conjurers.)
TSS damage is very crit-dependant, so decreasing OA shouldn’t be that feeble a nerf. Whatever else, don’t touch the CDR of Skybreach and Rolderathis, which is not just about raw power: it’s what makes Skybreach gameplay.
I don’t know how Skybreach conjurers fare, so please keep that in mind.