I am going to postpone judgement since I didn’t tested the patch yet, but as a player actually loving barrelsmith set before I am a bit worried about the changes to the set.
Don’t misunderstand, the new builds using it look very strong. But it suddenly became so much less versatile. Now you can:
-: Go full bomber (lightning)
-: Go one bomb and pistol shots (lightning)
But before that, the fact the barrelsmiths gave more than 20% global cd reduction opened up the whole line of builds based on:
-: Go one bomb and caster (fire, lightning, or both)
-: Go one bomb and pistol shots (fire, lightning or both)
Plus the obvious benefits of such a large amount of cdr.
So… my point is that while I still think I will appreciate the set now, I am quite sad that it went from more than 15 builds to 3-maybe-4. It’s a set of two item. Easier to find than most set. And it used to enable a ton of builds. It thus filled a very nice niche of gearing progression. Now I feel like it’s just a set for one or two playstyles.
Not to mention the fact that the interactions with Mask of Infernal Truth and Shard of the Eternal Flame became VERY awkward.
Well… I didn’t try everything, obviously.
But what I did try covered everything in main game quite comfortably with accessible gear. I am not really a crucible pusher though, but besides playing a sorcerer with massive cdr (before patch) I don’t see how you could complete the hardest gladiator levels.
So yeah. In a vacuum, I will take 15 “accessible, diverse and viable” builds over 1 or 2 “super-extra-strong-with-very-specific-set-ups” builds.
I am forcing the traits here. I still love canister and grenado spam with the guns (at least I anticipate I still will). But I am still a bit bamboozled.
I agree on the Thermite Mines part, they’re awful with their travel time, deploy time and then ridiculously short range compared to other similar skills you can just press a button an be done with.
On the other hand, I love the new Barrelsmith set and the lightning transmuter on Canister Bomb, as well as the removal of Phys->Fire conversion on Ulzuin’s Chosen. I’ve been trying to make a Grenado/Canister build that isn’t focused on fire for so long and thanks to the changes I’ve been having a (literal) blast with my lightning Purifier.
Now I’m actually considering dropping the Thermite Mines (edit: already did) for Flashbang or Inquisitor’s Seal because I realize I almost never use them against anything that isn’t a named since most things are dead before they’re even done deploying, and when they’re not, they already moved elsewhere.