The problem is that while many classes have skills I really enjoy using, they don’t have specific sets and legendaries tailored to that skill. I would love to play a frozen orb wizard, for example. When’s the last time you used frozen orb? It’s awesome. Same with frost arrow, or hellbats. So many awesome skills that nobody uses.
The impale/fan of knives build? I tried it. It’s certainly more damage than UE, but it’s slow as balls. It can’t clear entire rooms.
After they buffed the set I was able to get higher grift faster than my UE set and I started to enjoy the playstyle quite a bit.
DH Impale last season was easily the most OP build I have played across all the classes, so much damn damage. But you are right, it is not a room clearer - it is a single target assassin. Which is fine, since everything between yellows and bosses is not worth your time anyway! ;)
+1. One of D3’s itemisation problems. I know we could get back to that ‘play however you want’ methodology, but the fact remains, the best skills are the ones the developers have build complimentary sets and items around. Sure, there are quite a few of those across the 28 sets, but there are plenty that are hung out to dry.
I really wish that they’d generate the set stats based on the build of the class, not just the class itself. That way any chosen skill (provided you are using it) has the chance to appear on an item. I don’t build my characters to fit items, but use items to fit my chosen skills. Probably why I hit walls at GR27 and/or T7. But I don’t intend to change my play style just to make a build like everyone else. I hate optimizing and go with what I enjoy.
Example: Annoyed that I got this Pestilence Mask for my necro only to notice it’s all about the Bone Spear, which I don’t use.
Another vote for something to open up different skill combos. One of my problems is that I’ve been very slow to grok the meta and realize that the sets determine what skills I use, not the other way around. One of the reasons my wizards are stuck in mid Torment levels I think. Need to totally rethink stuff.
The reason I tend to avoid the meta (and hence never get past like 30-50 GR) is because sometimes the meta just isn’t fucking fun (i.e. why I don’t ever play barb)
Yeah. While I have HC 70s in every class, that’s more out of completionism than anything else. I love WDs, Wizards, and I’m sort of digging the Necro, but the rest are sort of meh. Though I did pick up a Barbarian for the first time in a while recently and enjoyed whacking things with it. The one class I thought, at launch, would be my hands-down fave was Demon Hunter, as I love archers (Bowazon!) but it’s never gelled with me.
Nihm
5913
I agree with the complaints about sets. Worth noting- the Legacy of Nightmares set was introduced to address this, but of course it takes a long time to get that going. Another reason I’ll probably switch to softcore. If I ever were to lose a decent LoN get-up, I’d probably never recover it.
Gendal
5914
I really didn’t want to play this build but I hit a wall with multishot/grenades that impale just punched right through. Turns out it’s a lot of fun skating around at high speed and popping elites & bosses like so many explosive loot pinatas. Speed wise it’s easily the fastest build I have encountered.
LoN was tuned so it can’t compete with real 6 piece sets. It’s garbage, just use it to twink new 70s.
Basically, either you enjoy a playstyle embodied by a 6p set and its specific support legendaries, or you play another class. These sets and the required support items are so specific that you’re largely SOL.
For example, the necro Inarius set. Initially I thought this was a great _counter-_example. After all, it only mandates using a single skill, bone armor, right? And yes technically that’s true but the bone armor tornado effect is melee-range only, which forces a melee build, and the necromancer only has a couple melee or point-blank AE skills and you basically have to use those because everything else won’t get the damage bonus from the set and thus sucks.
Nihm
5916
LoN was tuned so it can’t compete with real 6 piece sets. It’s garbage, just use it to twink new 70s.
A game like this will always have optimal gear. My point was that LoN lets you play reasonably high rifts/grifts with any build (as opposed to being stuck in T6 if you want to use unusual skills/legendaries).
I didn’t say it had to be optimal. If it came reasonably close to competing with 6p sets and their supporting legendaries, that would be fine. It doesn’t.
It would be neat if,say, you could customize the specific bonuses of sets to the skill lineup you had. So the bonuses would all be in the same range for whatever skill (ranged, melee, defense, whatever) but the specific skill could be changed to suit your style. Dunno how that would be balanced, etc. but it would be cool.
Nihm
5919
D3 has never really been about this mindset though- one of many ways that PoE and D3 don’t overlap.
I have a sneaking suspicion I am not going to finish Diablo 3 at level 70. 52 now and I just finished the Uzreael fight.
Do you mean the linear single player campaign? If so, I’ve got no idea what level most people end that on. But no, at that rate you won’t be hitting 70.
Personally though, I don’t even think Diablo 3 starts until 70. Or at least the part that is actually fun.
The game is so radically different now than it was at launch, it really is two different titles. The campaign/story is just a way to learn mechanics and have a structured introduction into game systems like crafting and enchanting, mostly. Hell, originally, you beat big D and then, voila! Act V comes out and you have another big bad guy to defeat–even the story has been totally mutable.
At least evil has been rebuked. A lot, though it seems not to do much good.
Lost a 70 Necro last night. He was under-geared even for the GR25 I was in, and I got sloppy and trapped by a pack of blues, really large melee beasts (Savage Beasts) that charge, on a map with lots of trees and rocks. Only thing I lost that I regret though were seven flawless royal gems (a lot of millions in gold) and most of my Necro set armor. But as the season starts tomorrow, I won’t be back with this crew of regulars for a while, and I have a spare 70 necro anyhow!
I think I’m going to run a Necromancer in Season 11, since I didn’t level my non-season guy to 70 yet. Also, since it seems the season set for Necros (Bones of Rathma) supports the type of build I am interested in (the Rathma Singularity - something like this I think).
I was running something similar, though I didn’t have the full set. I found the gameplay boring as hell, though. It’s effective (well as long as you don’t overextend like I did!) enough but all you end up doing is cursing, summoning a skeletal mage, wait for arcane power to regen, summon another, wash, rinse, repeat. Devour runs as an aura, and you use command skeletons for single-target focus. For me, there was very little sense of action-reaction or cause and effect; what I was doing was herding a bunch of automatons.
Weirdly, I enjoy the pet build on my Witch Doctor, with dogs, fetishes, and the permanent fetish army; I can have up to 20+ minions that way, but I can still cast toads and piranhas and zombie wall so it feels a lot more interactive.
I’m not sure what else is a good build for a Necro given the current game meta, though. I too want to try another one in the season, but I’m not sure if the results will be any better…
