Median XL 1.13-1.14 VS Sigma... Is it really better?

[Fk65]

BETTER NERF BARB srsly !

[shnurr214]

Good stuff
-qol changes are amazing ctrl click, cube hotkey etc..
-performance is mostly fixed
-UI looks great
-Item Rework reducing su clutter
-Gold Good for the most part however potions should probably be cheaper as its kind of a struggle early on
-New Dunc map is so much nicer!

Bad stuff
-level lockout This really punishes a lot of builds and classes more than others maybe its just because im playing sin but at the correct progression doing ubers like bartuc and cov were far harder than they should have been since sin relies on sigs and block to not be absolute paper
-Balance its weird that tree and barb have been so dominant for so long while some classes like sin especially early ubering just feels really rough. I havent played tree this ladder but based on last ladders experience my tree with random crap gear and no sigs eaten was performing better than my sin this ladder with 300 sigs eaten and close to capped block
-Leveling far too grindy. Even with a p8 party in dunc it took forever to go from 120-125. basically forcing people to do the equivalent of dcows just is not fun from a gameplay standpoint. If i wanted a grindy game id play path of exile or d3 I play median xl for the fun uber bosses and being locked out of them because of a crazy grind is just not fun. The concept of the level progression is good I think its just that the experience needed is far far too much to level past like level 110. I would like to seem them halve or even quarter the experience curve because personally grinding in Median has always been extremely boring to me. This also kind of kills the idea of rolling a second build for a lot of us.
-Shrine crafting why was this needed to kill double mo bonus? Crafts were already mostly a stopgap for most characters before good su and it just unfairly punishes classes like assassin that relied on getting the stats from crafts for block. If we still had pierce mo i could understand but MO were basically mainly used for stats speeds and % spell damage on most builds.

sorry this is a bit of stream of consciousness. I am a bit conflicted about Sigma to be honest, I think in general it is a step in the right direction but with the new level lockout and some other balance changes on that front general damage spikiness and class balance still need to be looked at unless you just want a treewarden ladder in the future.

[Pub]

Good stuff
-qol changes are amazing ctrl click, cube hotkey etc..
-performance is mostly fixed
-UI looks great
-Item Rework reducing su clutter
-Gold Good for the most part however potions should probably be cheaper as its kind of a struggle early on
-New Dunc map is so much nicer!

Bad stuff
-level lockout This really punishes a lot of builds and classes more than others maybe its just because im playing sin but at the correct progression doing ubers like bartuc and cov were far harder than they should have been since sin relies on sigs and block to not be absolute paper
-Balance its weird that tree and barb have been so dominant for so long while some classes like sin especially early ubering just feels really rough. I havent played tree this ladder but based on last ladders experience my tree with random crap gear and no sigs eaten was performing better than my sin this ladder with 300 sigs eaten and close to capped block
-Leveling far too grindy. Even with a p8 party in dunc it took forever to go from 120-125. basically forcing people to do the equivalent of dcows just is not fun from a gameplay standpoint. If i wanted a grindy game id play path of exile or d3 I play median xl for the fun uber bosses and being locked out of them because of a crazy grind is just not fun. The concept of the level progression is good I think its just that the experience needed is far far too much to level past like level 110. I would like to seem them halve or even quarter the experience curve because personally grinding in Median has always been extremely boring to me. This also kind of kills the idea of rolling a second build for a lot of us.
-Shrine crafting why was this needed to kill double mo bonus? Crafts were already mostly a stopgap for most characters before good su and it just unfairly punishes classes like assassin that relied on getting the stats from crafts for block. If we still had pierce mo i could understand but MO were basically mainly used for stats speeds and % spell damage on most builds.

sorry this is a bit of stream of consciousness. I am a bit conflicted about Sigma to be honest, I think in general it is a step in the right direction but with the new level lockout and some other balance changes on that front general damage spikiness and class balance still need to be looked at unless you just want a treewarden ladder in the future.

Im personally a fan of the rate i slowly acquire my gear. Progression is my yumyum and now that i can constantly slowly upgrade my gear, a second fire has re ignited for me. Ofc my fascinating crafts are nerfed but i think its kind of mandatory cause mobs are fire sorb instead of just being flat out immune. Ill have to complete more stuff and catch up though before i like to finalize my assumption.

With that said, sin looks always so damn squishy, nothing has changed with that one.

[shnurr214]

Yeah my experience might be somewhat colored by the class I’m playing. I kind of want to reroll but the idea of leveling to 125 again is not fun.

[D24Ever]

I stopped playing when they removed the ability to respect chars. I would gladly go back to median 2 years ago than play this.

[SwineFlu]

I stopped playing when they removed the ability to respect chars.

Sorry, can't handle myself

► Show Spoiler

[HechtHeftig]

I actually rolled a new char.

My face when summon pala is actually faster and more fun than totemnec:

► Show Spoiler

[Ruubel]

Lack of gold is punishing more at the start than lets say at the endgame. Not only is merc resurrection expensive but now I really do not have room for experiments - various portions are sooo expensive for levleing chars, at the previous version I rerolled runewords happily til I got better results, now I'm stuck more or less with the same (crafted/magical/rw) item and its not fun

[KratosTheAxeman]

I actually rolled a new char.

My face when summon pala is actually faster and more fun than totemnec:

► Show Spoiler

What alignment? Also how does it compare to Spirit Barb?

[HechtHeftig]

I actually rolled a new char.

My face when summon pala is actually faster and more fun than totemnec:

► Show Spoiler

What alignment? Also how does it compare to Spirit Barb?

I go with scourge. Til level 24 I used a holy melee build, and kept using retaliation and plague in order to get further. And an act 1 merc. With colloseum I head right into the core of enemies, while poisoning 80% of the screen. Then my scourges use their skill. All act bosses dropped within 1 second so far, except diablo who took 3 seconds, and Andy, but I didn‘t have my summons at that point yet.
And of course the rest of the points are put into the defense buff. Maybe I‘ll make a guide about that build later.

As for spirit barb: I didn‘t play the new version yet, so I honestly can‘t say anything.