Suggestions for upcoming patch

Heathen wrote:Thundercrack just plain isn't good enough to use. It's as simple as that. And being melee with a Zon is risky enough as it is. It sucks, because I like Thundercrack so much more than that orbital blessed hammer knockoff.

Ditto. And requiring some crappy sceptre doesn't help.

Heathen wrote:Hammer of Zerae on Amazon renders Thundercrack pretty useless comparatively. Not only is the hammer ranged, but the damage is just so so much higher.

Thundercrack just plain isn't good enough to use. It's as simple as that. And being melee with a Zon is risky enough as it is. It sucks, because I like Thundercrack so much more than that orbital blessed hammer knockoff.

I'd say at the very least, it needs 150% wdm. With the ND on it, the tics are pretty slow and low damage.

What's wrong with Melee range zon? Stormzons can easily pick up 400k defense and Max block with the set and that's not even high defense pieces besides the shield.

L H wrote:What's wrong with Melee range zon? Stormzons can easily pick up 400k defense and Max block with the set and that's not even high defense pieces besides the shield.

True, mid/late game she will be pretty ridiculous, especially if you stack slow attacker and use Paragon. Early on, she's much less durable, but that's not a huge deal in the long run. My biggest issue lies in the Storm skill imbalances, notably Thundercrack. I really just can't imagine an important scenario where it doesn't get entirely outshined by Hammer.

I believe thunder rack is meant to be used with spreading Curare through mobs while picking up life on striking and leech more quickly and reliably than hammer

L H wrote:I believe thunder rack is meant to be used with spreading Curare through mobs while picking up life on striking and leech more quickly and reliably than hammer

I'd argue that with the wdm being so high, and the projectile orbital mechanics, leech would be every bit as effective. Not only that, but raw damage with medium range is in itself a form of durability. Dead enemies don't do damage. You give the enemies a few hits while using the very low damage Thundercrack has, so if anything the leech just compensates for it.

In the end, i'm not asking for it to be overpowered, just that it's in the same league as the other Stormzon skills. I would bet there isn't a single person this league who would make a build around it. if there is somebody, please prove me wrong. But it's not going to be used until it's buffed into realism.

I've spent the past week playing Realm, and have a good feel for the changes, along with many playthroughs of many different builds and skills, and my one very broad suggestion;

The class skills really need to be comparatively rebalanced. Take Iron Spiral for example, that skill is so far ahead of Blood Hatred and Earthquake you'd have to be a complete idiot to use either over Iron Spiral. Theorycrafting feels dead, when one skill can do everything another can but better.

For example, Blood Hatred could probably stack procs, and gain a moderate amount of survivability with its Life on Hit, but why bother? Iron Spiral will just outshine it regardless. It seems like a lot of skills are meant for very specific reasons, but the result is I don't ever feel unique whatsoever. Call me a Hipster if I don't like meta builds, but the point of MXL originally was to theorycraft. Now the skill imbalances have killed it.

Why is earthquake 70% WDM? It hit's twice sometimes, but Iron Spiral at 50% WDM will just blast a target so many times with a nice 360* coverage, whilst Earthquake has 180* coverage. Why should I use Earthquake? The sad magic damage bonus? A 4% base magic damage increase per strength is really low.

Point being, I really want you Devs to take a look at this balance, and ask yourself why anyone should even use certain skills over others. I really want theorycrafting to be worth while.

Things were intentionally buffed to bring attention to them, same as summon barb has been, along with holy melee this season. Iron spiral was buffed up to bring attention to barb having the ability for a good aoe farming skill. I'm sure this was the intent, and as normal, will be slowly nerfed down til its balanced with the rest. That is how they explained summon barb and holy melee initially at least.

I'm not terribly sure how anyone could miss a barrage melee attack. I know i personally didn't use the skill myself because i'm just not a fan of it's mechanics. But I felt it was still a great skill objectively. I can think of a wide number of skills that needed more attention than those two builds did.

tbh iron spiral is fine, it's the others that need to be improved

also it has a weapon requirement now, so it's just fair that it's somewhat better than skills you can use with any melee weapon

I would posit that Iron Spiral is too much of the total package. great single target, multi target, and 360* coverage. I feel skills should be effective, but not trivialize the gameplay playstyle. I would rather a skill be great one way, but force me to fill in the gaps with other gear/ procs or strategies.

This is all subjective though, i'm sure many people like it how it is. But keeping it on the OP side doesn't mean you can't put the other skills on a realistic level. Anyway, just wanted to get that out. I'm still having a good time with the mod, even though it seems like i'm bashing it.