kramuti wrote:
It isn't simple. It will take a good, thorough, and well thought out plan to 'properly' balance this issue...so again...what specifically do people argue to change? str. absorb/DR/res, CB/DS, etc?
Strength Changes: It's been stated before that the strength changes effect melee much harder than they do casters. This is obvious, because the majority of casters need a strength of 108 at the most. On the other hand, melee builds (especially two-handed), need an upward of ~150-250 strength. (Tmaul setting the cap at 253 strength required).
If you compare the items from last patch, you'll notice a trend in +Strength gear. The majority of gear that gave lots of +strength was melee gear. If you further compare the changes, you'll see that a ton of them went from a strong chunk of strength to absolutely zero. It's sad when level 40 items provide more stats than a level 90 item.
EX: Windhammer used to have 100 Strength, it now provides 0. War Travelers 20 > 0. Worldstone Granite 20 > 0.
Suggested change: At least meet melee gear half-way with this. Considering they need upwards of 150% more strength than a caster, their gear should compensate some for that (which it did in the previous patch). If Worldstone gave 10 strength, would that be so bad? Even 50 strength on Windhammer wouldn't be anything close to unbalanced, it would already take 200+ strength to wield it.
Basically what I suggest is a middle ground instead of X Str > 0 Str. It would let later melee gear compare to crafts, because as it is now, crafts for the stat boosts alone are normally the better option.
Something like 50% Strength would be much more reasonable than 0%.
Absorb Changes:These I can't really complain about too much, outside of they half-way took the absorb mechanic out of the game. It's rarely worth it to gimp your gear by stacking 3-4 absorb items to hit 20%+ absorbs.
Absorbs are the definition of a luxury stat and aren't required for any non-post game boss fight. I'd like to see them higher (10% on Dscale, 10% on Dwarf/Raven/Shock) just so it's actually worth it to equip them, but it's not a huge issue that's breaking melee's balls.
Suggested change: Either a slight increase (10% is still a whopping half of their original values) or none at all. Like I said, it's primarily a luxury stat that won't make or break your character or given boss fight.
Also increase Uber Gems to 8% Absorb (66% of original value) to increase incentive to actually gear for absorbs.
%Damage Reduction Changes: Damage Reduction is now harder to obtain, but I believe this was a goal in mind for the patch. These are again, nerfs you can live with, but still hurt the build overall. I'd like to see them increased slightly, but mainly for the socketable options. It was nice to have the ability to socket for DR, but with Ber giving 5% DR (expensive) and Skulls giving 5% (41% of what they used to) it's hardly worth it.
Suggested change:Increase Uber Skulls to 8% Damage Reduction (66% of what they were last patch)
Increase Ber runes to 7% Damage Reduction (70% of what they were last patch)
Increase Shaftstop to 20% (or 25%) Damage Reduction (66-83% of what it was last patch. Note this armor also offers NO resistance and I can hardly see why it would be unbalanced to give it strong DR values in comparison)
Increase Executioner's Justice to at least 5%, if not restore the full 10%.
A possible 1-2% increase on some of the end-game items (CoA, Rends, Dancers, WG) just to increase the incentive of stacking them and also have them comparable to Blood Helm/Glove craft.
Resist Changes: This really hurt two-handed builds, especially those who don't get free resists like the Barbarian or Assassin. There are a plethora of items that got hit by it, but in my suggested changes I'll cover the main ones that make me rage.
Otherwise, any Shield bearing melee class wasn't hit too hard by the resist changes. The biggest gripe is that it's very annoying to have to focus your sockets and charms to res until 95+.
Suggested Changes:Um Rune - Increase to +15/20 Resist All from +6/12 (Armor/Shield). 6/12 is a pathetic number that doesn't even outclass bad Resist All jewels. At least with these values they're comparable to resist all jewels while still not being as strong as they formerly were.
Glass Glare - Increase the Resists to 30% (it used to be 50%). This has always been primarily a defensive armor, and should reflect that. It also creates an in-between as most armors before that will offer 20% Res all, then later will pop up to 40%-50% resist all.
Level 90 2h Uniques - Fully restore the resist values on these items (50% on Exec Justice, Windhammer, Tomb, 30% on Steelpillar). You need these resists as a 2h build. This has also been discussed more than once, so I'll leave it at that.
Uber Diamond - Increase to 20 if not 25. 15% Resist all is pathetic from an Uber Diamond and is outclassed by a resist all jewel. I'm wasting a socket that could go to more block, absorbs, stats, pierce, or DR, so at least compensate for that.
Deadly Strike Changes: These definitely hurt the pure physical portion of melee damage, and lowered their damage overall. This is another place you see huge values torn entirely to 0. An example are the level 90 unique weapons, where you see 50% Deadly Strike completely slashed to 0%.
The lack of Deadly Strike is especially apparent on classes who have no innate Critical Strike (Druid, Paladin) and in some cases can lower their damage to half of what they would be doing last patch.
Again, I'd love to see some actual middle ground in these changes, even though I don't agree with ANY Deadly Strike nerf at all. Going from 50 > 0 is ridiculous, but 50% > 25% isn't the worse thing in the world.
Suggested Changes:Change the values at least half of what they were last patch, if not 2/3 in some cases. Some examples (not all) would be:
Gore Riders - Increase Deadly Strike from 5% to 15%-20% (50%-66% of last patch's values respectively)
Tomb Reaver - 25%-35%, whichever value is deemed appropriate.
Steelrend - These I would love to see at 20% if not their original 25% value. They're the highest level gloves in the game FFS, they should be treated as such.
This would still make high Deadly Strike harder to obtain and still gives the edge to those who have innate Critical Strike. At the same time though, it doesn't severely gimp their damage versus a build that has innate Critical Strike. It also allows you to gear for critical strike without piecing together gimped gear by gimped gear.
Crushing Blow Changes: This is where we start talking about melee
viability instead of melee
effectiveness. And this point of crushing blow hasn't been covered nearly as much as it should be.
Iron Maiden destroys any melee character it touches. It's pretty much their kryponite if you will. Before, against bosses who cast Moncurse,
every melee had the option to use low damage and Crushing Blow to overcome this challenge.
Now you are left with one option, Curse Immunity. However, Curse Immunity is available to ONE class throughout levels 1-90, which is the Assassin. No other melee build has any way to effectively deal with Iron Maiden through out the game. This is obviously a terrible problem, and
if only physical resists are fixed will become incredibly prevalent.I'm not asking to return 30% Crushing Blow values, but I am asking to give melee enough to have means of countering Moncurse bosses (read: The majority of harder bosses in the game).
This is one of the two major things that will hold melee back from being more than a gimmick build, and it absolutely has to be remedied.
Suggested Changes: Allow melee (1h or 2h) to obtain
~10-15% Crushing Blow. There are a plethora of ways to do this, but what is suggest is to take the items that previously gave 5% CB (Rends, Gob Toe, Gores, Guillaumme's) and give them 3% CB.
This would allow any melee build to piece together CB 3% at a time resulting in around 6-9% late game (12% if you gimp yourself with Rattlecage or Duress) from off-weapon gear.
If you retain the current values of CB on weapons and Ber, the highest CB you could obtain is 17%. (3% Gores, 3% Rends, 3% Guillaumme's, 5% 5Ber Gris Caddy, 3% Duress). This is obviously gimping both your helm & armor slot, so it's more reasonable to assume an 11% range.
This is obviously a far cry from the 30% CB you could rock last patch. It doesn't even compare to the 20% you could EASILY obtain. But what it does is give melee an effective way to deal with Iron Maiden instead of just sitting out 1/2 of the boss fights in the game.
I can't stress enough how important it is that CB is restored to a noticeable value, unless for some reason you want to make Curse Immunity incredibly easy to obtain. Otherwise, melee
viability WILL suffer tremendously.
Amplify Damage Changes: This has obviously been discussed the most. I'm still in favor of returning Amplify Damage values to their original state, as it will solve the problem much easier than re-balancing EVERY boss's physical resistance.
But then again, I also stand firm on the belief that hard-point curses are a terrible idea and only limit the Necro's usefulness and make partying for a
team mod more frustrating.
Suggested Changes: Either return Amplify Damage to it's original state (doubtful) or change the progression. Such as:
1 pointed (on a Necro w/ +skills): ~50% physical pierce
CTC Amplify Items: ~40-45% physical pierce (whatever ctc 5 amp was last patch)
Maxed Amplify Damage: ~75% physical pierce
Again, this is a nice middle ground from the ~90% you could obtain last patch and the horrendous 55% you have now. It would fix all physical resist issues, as well as bringing their reliance on a maxed Amplify Damage necromancer down tremendously. I don't see why physical resists should be tweaked so heavily when there is such an easy fix based upon last patch's Amp values.
TL;DR:Anyway, that's my two cents that will be subsequently ignored. If you actually read my post, you'll see that although I disagree with most of the melee nerfs, I'm willing to swallow my pride and try to come to a middle ground.
Most of the suggestions I've made are approximately in the middle of the values from this patch to last patch. In my opinion and knowledge, this would bring melee from completely obliterated to simply toned down (even though... they weren't this super hero people seem to think).
Also, if anyone wants to dispute what I've said, feel free. I have no problem defending my suggested changes against anyone's criticism or differing opinion.