DiabloFans

Well done!

But what is there to actually fix? Lets really break down the complaining.

1. PARAGON IS UNFAIR!!!! Um...no. You do not NEED to grind to Paragon 2000. You only "need" to if you want to be a leaderboard player, but that requires dedication. If you do not want to (as I do not) that is fine, but do not demand that a hard cap limit others that do. Paragon and its incremental improvements are important. Would I rather that there be something more interesting than just primary stat buffing after 800? Yes. Would I rather that, generally, stacking primary stat (while avoiding it on your amulet in exchange for elemental damage) not be the final frontier? Sure. But not optimal and broken are different.

2. TOO MANY ITEMS DROP!!!! Again, inaccurate. High drops allow players to easily build the big 3-5 builds per class, but the ancient item sub-class than adds a perfect extra tier. This way, decent players can have nice things (unlike Runewords in D2, where a casual was stuck using Ethereal Edge while a pro was dancing around with a Breath of the Dying ethereal Thunder Maul), but high-end players can perfect those items and hit another few levels.

3. SETS ARE CONSTRICTING: Do you remember when sets were just more primary stats as a bonus? Sets allow you to have a variety of builds. Lets say instead of sets, there were clear sets of items usable for each skill combination. So instead of Unhallowed Set + Yang's Recurve + Dead Man's Legacy, you would have YR + DML + 6 other Multishot items. Same result.

I am sorry to bring politics into this, but you sound like a Bernie type of guy. "THEY PLAY AT A HIGHER LEVEL AND I JUST WANT TO BE CASUAL, SO MAKE EVERYONE BE AS CASUAL AS ME!!!!" I call BS. If you do not want to play the set that gets you GR100, but only the one that does GR80, that does not mean that GR80 should be the cap to protect your feelings. Part of having choice is accepting the consequences and responsibilities of that choice. The game you want would exist if Calvin and Hobbes (the theologian and political scientist, not the kid and tiger) made a game.

And I consider this sort of DCL as a borderline expansion.

This is just a horrendous set of ideas. You want the game's scalability removed, and it returned to the D3 vanilla slog fest. Almost reminiscent of someone who wants New York City "dirty and original" like it was in the 1980's again. No thanks, and lets dial back on the "MUST HAVE CHANGES." Its your opinion, and its not a panic. We are getting an expansion, things are looking good.

Skorn is the best example of this, by far, but there a few items that are iconic, either from the Vanilla D3 (Echoing Fury, Sun Keeper) or as references from D2 (Stone of Jordan, obviously). The sad part is that these old weapons often also happen to have the best-looking graphics. I understand that we now have transmogs, but nonetheless, would be swell to have the classics back.

I demand a Barbarian passive allowing you to dual-wield 2-handed weapons, ala Heavenly Strength.

Lets cut to the chase: Skorn is a classic icon of this game. It was the first 2-handed weapon to see play in Vanilla, and it, at the very end, became THE weapon for THE class (WW/HOTA Barbarians). It rolled with all 5 of the required stats, and two extra ones. And bleed! Alright, forget the last one.

As seen by Skorn being the weapon of Kanai, the last great war chief of Sescherone, the Blizzard team embrace this weapon and its history too. It has the best name, and probably the best graphics of any item in the game, and should have its popularity revitalized.

How? Beats me. Two sockets? A buff to overall damages triggered by something? My sense is it should involve either elites or increasing the effect of critical hits, but I don't develop the games, only the mindless declarations.

Here is a crazy twist, plot wise: Imperius decides to take on the mantle of Archangel of Wrath and destroy the Burning Hells. The balance of the world would be destroyed, and angels, finished with the Eternal Conflict, would become a dictatorial force. The Nephalem, left with no choice, join forces with the withered spirits of the Three to defend Hell. Epic Tyrael v. Imperius 2.0 confrontation incoming. Maybe the death of Tyrael?

The people who talk about how lovely D3 Vanilla was or how they demand certain options are disabled because "its not fair" remind me of casual Communists in 2016 talking about how we need to harken back to awesome the USSR was. One, it was NOT awesome, and you are either forgetting, ignoring your memories, or seriously twisted. Two, play your way! Why would you make us play with so few options and so brutally dismal a hope for character buildup? Because you are OFFENDED that people rank higher than? Get over it, people need not conform to the lowest common denominator because it offends you. Go play Diablo 2, and stop trying to warp my experience with your "heckler's veto" arguments. Its annoying and you sound like a fool.

Hello friends,

What, if anything, is the preferable SS build? Would it still be with IK? Raekor's? MOTE? Thanks! I can't help but feel like the one Ancient I will never find is IK weapon, so I need other options.

Friends,

With the improvements to Akkhan's set (which is not skill-specific), there is a lot of mention about Condemn returning, but I always preferred Stampede. Its stronger against bosses, and works really well with Obsidian Ring in the Cube. You actually barely need any other CDR beyond Akkhans. Furthermore, we now have a new helm that appears to add 60% Phalanx damage.

With all that said, any thoughts on Phalanx in 2.4?

I think the real point is that the Furnace's legendary affix is not creative; its just an absurdly high roll of a rare and powerful affix (which usually rolls at 15% at most) as a SECONDARY effect. Its brutal and utterly simplistic power is almost unmatchable.

Misha: Do you think the Hota/SS builds will use Raekor and IK to generate fury via charge (and clear mobs) or just straight IK, and do you expect the weapons geared towards SS/Hota to be used too?

I guess my vision triggers on the absurd amount of fury that Raekor's generates incidentally. But I do have to wonder if the 2500% dust devils from Wastes is still more damage to a single target than the big spenders this idea revolves around. The two questions are:

1. Is Raekors comparable in mob damage to 5WW/3IK?

2. Is HotA/SS comparable in single target damage to 5WW/3IK?

Or perhaps my idea sucks...

Friends,

I grudgingly played Raekor's in 2.1 and 2.2. I hated the horrible single target damage, and felt I was wasting so very much fury generation. One thought I always contemplated is using 4 Raekor with 3 IK and then a single-target spender based on either Fury of the Vanished Peak (Seismic Slam) or Gavel of Judgment (HotA). The problem was that there was no way to fit Vile Ward into the equation.

But now, one can extract the Vile Ward passive on the Cube, along with RoRG and, of course, the Furnace. The idea would be Raekor shoulders, IK belt, and 5 items (3R/2IK) between chest, head, gloves, boots and pants. Then, you would plug in the legendary two-hander, and have something that would both assail single-target and put the fury to use.

The continued fury expenditure would also fuel 4IK to keep WOTB active, as well as having constant ancients. And, you still get the massive trash-mob smashing power of Vile Wards. Thoughts?