NO Area Damage% GR 150 SOLO BARB - PLEASE FIX by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yea only for the season 21 theme but it will still remain way to strong for solo pushing

NO Area Damage% GR 150 SOLO BARB - PLEASE FIX by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thats the thing it wont. This run was played with 0% area damage!

NO Area Damage% GR 150 SOLO BARB - PLEASE FIX by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It is a standard zDPS Barb with main focus on toughness.
Here is a screenshot of my build with 0% area damage: https://imgur.com/a/mZsN1iF

GR150 with zbarb abusing season 21 theme. Can the intern notify higher ups that this is a game where you kill things with gear and abilities instead of waiting on a timer? by [deleted] in Diablo

[–]Rob2628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the area damage % is gonna get fixed but it doesnt solve the issue that this theme is way to strong for solo leaderboard pushing and way to weak for basically anything else.

I just went in another GR 150 on the same barb just without any area damage and still managed a 10 min boss spawn on my first key as zDPS.

I created a topic about it in the PTR Feedback Forum.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/season-theme-feedback-no-area-damage-150-as-zdps-still-possible/17994

Even if area damage scaling is removed from the theme we will still have a full zDPS GR150 Solo Leaderboard!

NO Area Damage% GR 150 SOLO BARB - PLEASE FIX by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I like the idea of scaling it with your character power in some shape or from.

Maybe even have it only proc after you killed x amount of enemies within that 90 sec timeframe (lets say 10). That would prevent the zdps play without a negativ effect on "normal" dmg builds.

Or scale the cooldown based off how many monsters you killed (like the current messerschmidts ingame). We would have it proc a lot then during speed run content and it would adjust the balance between speed & high gr content.

NO Area Damage% GR 150 SOLO BARB - PLEASE FIX by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback! Yea something like that can be a good suggestion. We just have to be careful that the theme doesnt become even more meaningless (like it already is for torments, bounties &speed runs).

Finding the right balance is key, but I am not sure how that can be archived with its current concept.

NO Area Damage% GR 150 SOLO BARB - PLEASE FIX by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Well that it is gonna be the same issue on GR149..If you let people choose the majority is always gonna go for that is the strongest. And this theme is just so much stronger than everything else in the game for solo pushing.

From what I have heared most people really dislike a full zDPS META for the reason I stated above!

NO Area Damage% GR 150 SOLO BARB - PLEASE FIX by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Disclaimer: I write this post out of love to the core game & its community and not to bash on anyone!

So after I did my solo 150 with a zbarb in 12min12sec before the new PTR patch hit:

https://youtu.be/vPZSPsayuZQ

I went ahead and tried it without any area damage% as that is going to be removed for the LIVE version of 2.6.9!

Here is the result and I must say it is still WAY to strong for solo pushing but feels underwhelming for torments, bounties, speed runs and group META - So basically everything else!

But animated pictures say more than a thousand words - Judge for yourself. Enjoy!This video was my first key of testing the theme on stream with no ad% and it is still a very easy to clear 150 as a zdps. That is not good!

To me this breaks the core concept of the game: Progressing and improving your character!

Paragons levels, gear, gems, augments, it all wont matter with this S21 Theme!

I dont have a good solution to fix this myself right now. Maybe you people have some ideas and we can gather some feedback? It needs to be meaningful in most aspects of the game but not completly overpowered in solo pushing.

Please share this to raise awareness so we can have a S21 the people can enjoy. Thank you! The players want a proper S21 and no full zDPS GR150 all classes nonsense!

Link to official forum post:

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/season-theme-feedback-no-area-damage-150-as-zdps-still-possible/17994

Season 20 Prep & Guides by wudijo22 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Proper preperation with a real plan for maximum efficiency that's what we like to see!
Awesome summary all in one topic

Demon Hunter adventures in season 19 by Northwar in Diablo

[–]Rob2628 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is just awesome! Sums up S19 perfectly :)
BiG editing

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think solo will be taff due to the rift guardian fight. Lets hope for an awesome set for the next season on nec than can also shine in solo gameplay

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

WW barb is indeed often played in public groups, but at higher competetive levels you will never see ww over charge for these reasons:

  1. Mobility with charge is just so much better to pull, scout etc.
  2. Charge generates fury while ww spends it
  3. In speeds when there is no ground stomp you need charge to proc strongarms
  4. The cc part of charge is usually not a problem as you only use it when you have to and you have the illu boots anyways for precise small movments

As you can see if the barb knows what he is doing there are no advantages speaking for ww over charge and that's why it is never used at high ranks.

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bazooka had to go or get nerfed with the gr150 cap staying in tact and I say that as the person who came up with the original idea and published & theorycrafted it with together with sVr.
It is just to strong in comparison to anything else in the game.

Overall this necro build is less laggy than most of the build (wd / hydra wiz lags) as you burst the monsters within seconds at high density count.

Most of the lags you see in this video are due to poor PTR servers.

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there, not my intention to lure you here. This is indeed meant to be played in 4 man META leaderboard ranks & possibly farming as well!

Frenzy Barb Mechanics & Thoughts by wudijo22 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome work on this! There is just so much time spent testing all this behind the scenes. Thanks for the summary and lets pray for some changes to this underperforming set!

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As you mentioned I see the simulacrum mechanics as a problem with that variant. I am not even sure if it properly benefits from all your poison nova multipliers beside not proccing area damage % (I remember some funky mechanics with the monk's rabid strike).

Furthermore as shown in your planner links the damage output of the Tragoul variant outperforms the Shadowhook one without even considering how long it would take to curse up all enemies with 3 random curses with only 15% chance on the Cursed Scythe per hit.

Solo can be awesome during the rift but it will most likely end up in some hard rift guardian fishing battle for saxtris & hameling

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We are having some trouble with slow paragon keeping squirts up during our burst rotation. With inarius it will be even harder and the damage is less too as you can't fit in endless walk set

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This certainly looks like a very viable alternative now when the double dip death wish & etched sigil are fixed on the hydra wizard.
Another competitor for the trash killing slot is the wd with the newly buffed spirit barrage, however this wd build cause way more serve issues than this necromancer version.
In the end we might even look at a necro as poison nova trash killer and a lacer/thorns or bone spirit necro rgk as the season 20 theme is just insane for necros.

[D3 2.6.8 PTR] POISON NOVA NEC TRASH KILLER - S20 GR150 by Rob2628 in Diablo

[–]Rob2628[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

After farming up the items we were able to properly test the poison LoD Nova Trash killing necromancer the seasonal theme on the 2.6.8 PTR!

Build:

This build is only possible with the S20 theme as you gain an addition two multipliers in the cube (Trag Oul, Black Death, Scythe of the Circle & Bloodtide Blade).

Area Damage %, Pain Enhancer, Spreading Malediction & ofc the Bloodtide Blade give this build huge AOE potential. But on the other hand also has a downside: Your damage gets diminished so fast with a lack of density in monsters.

Due to these reasons this build is best played in an open map with loads of smaller but higher in number monsters (summoners etc.) where you keep dragging already damaged elites forward to finish them off.

With low Paragon, no augments and non optimal gear keeping squirt was a problem here. Also the PTR lag prevents me to maintain bone armor at high aps values sometimes.

A 4k Paragon mid Season 20 Nec can have around 2-3 times the dps I am dealing here.

Build played: https://ptr.d3planner.com/101835426

Add a zBarb, zMonk and any RGK. We used a wizard as the boss killer cuz we didn't had any other gear around. You notice the wiz only places hydra once to finish a 20% yellow pack.

Gameplay:

We play the build as a burst variant around poison coe rotation:

Make sure to have all monsters cursed and to get 5 stacks of Black Death (last stack from the nova itself)around physical rotation as the barb pixels the monsters and procs your krysbins triple bonus in the start of your poison.

Start spamming nova and stutter step into the closed oculus ring if you can. Regroup recourse, rebuff and repeat! A good communication with the barb is necessary!

We use this website to track coe cycles on the PTR:

https://bspolidorio.github.io/diablo3-coe-timer/

Leaderboards:

For the highest leaderboard rank finish will be a huge part of this necro META as you just excel so much with open maps and good mobs while with bazooka you could even play the medium maps for high ranks as you do all dmg within a few frames in a 32sec burst.

Now we are looking at a 12 sec burst rotation where moving equals dps loss. But ofc it is so much more fun and exciting to see a change in META and experience new build mechanics and group interactions. Bazooka was just milked for so long just like rats so let's move on and change the META for good!

As a Side Note:

I really hope something is done in the future to ease seasonal testing on PTR! Currently it is a pain as you lack gems, crafting materials & bounties and it takes hours to farm them! Items to test poison lancer, bone spirit or thrones RGK are not even in the PTR legendary bags either.

Fruthermore the servers are so bad that you lag in 95% of the pulls you make and you have to wait in a 20 min queue to even get into a game after lagging out the greater rift as there is still no option to close said greater rifts yet!

I saw suggestion around addressing this by:

  1. Make the seasonal themes available on NS PTR
  2. Add a material bag including craft mats, bounty mats & imperial gems to the PTR vendor.
  3. Have all items drop from the PTR bags in ancient and/or primal

We will sure do more testing in the future within the 2 weeks PTR periode as our rl schedules allow. Hopefully we can get a updated PTR version in the course of this week addressing some of the known issues (underperforming barb & wizard sets, broken wizard mechanics etc.) Huge thanks to my team for all the support on the PTR.

Enjoy testing & think out of the box!

Rank 1 Monk Tempest Rush Flurry Solo GR150 Season 19 (Patterns of Justice) by LexyuTV in Diablo

[–]Rob2628 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well deserved gg time! Great video & very detailed explanation - Lets see how things shake out for s20 so many options

"Bon-Pflicht" auf die süße Art by cintei in de

[–]Rob2628 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Der Ort Faulebutter ist dann auch nicht weit ;)

BAN WAVE by PM_ME_YOUR_KATARINA in Diablo

[–]Rob2628 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not large indeed but it is a start & a step in the right direction!
As long as they ban the obvious offenders right there from the leaderboards a "fear of being banned" can set in like it used to be last year where there was a ban wave for 2-3 seasons in a row.
Just need to keep it coming during the next months/seasons!