This is taken from a discussion with Slappynuts. I agree with quite a bit of it, but let's hear what you have to say. I just copy and pasted and then I put a few notes marked with an *
I'm standing my ground on the psn issue.... lemme log Kasia's and tell you... ok nvm he killed his lvl 97 lol, but it was completely finished (temps, griffs, shards, facets) and I swear he wasn't even at 200k. And he built his way more damage than I would (hence, he died lol)
"Normal was changed to get people used to the flavor by Terry. If the only complaint left is that totally twinked out you can pwn norm, then it is where it should be"
100% agree.
*Note I read Frank's thread. It does give me some concern if people are actually soloing things like LoS, but that is also not the issue that was raised. I would like other's input. Is this really solo, or are you using life buffs from a barb or a druid in and saying your are soloing it.*
I haven't made a phys char yet, but have talked a lot with some that have and played with them in hell. As you said norm is easy mode, NM as long as you can tank its ok, then hell things get slower. They clear trash bad and need amp to hurt the big bosses. However, with a decent amp from a necro they are probably one of the best DPS around right now (especially if supplemented with some CB). If the trade-off is: have great damage, but cant use it against bosses solo (due to no amp), I think thats fine. Also the players who run an amp weapon swap can be rewarded for very tedious work lol. I think with the low level amp we have on ctcs that soloing big bosses is still hard, would have to double check with someone on that. All-and-all I think melee got put in a nice place this patch, and the buffs to all the melee gear helped with that immensely.
tl;dr I think poison and melee got in a great place this patch. I think we are better off looking at the builds that need some love now. One of the biggest recurring complaints I hear is that everyone is playing the same builds.
Druids-
Honestly I think they're in the best shape right now. Really only shockwave needs some love. I honestly don't see why more people don't play fstorm druids anymore after it got removed from bear form... I think after I finish mine people will start playing it again
. I feel like every other druid build is useful and in a good spot.
*Read Frank's thread on 'geddon. I do agree that it is better than other fire skills. Maybe some nerf, but 1/2 is too big imo*
Necros-
Also in a good spot. Bone wall/prison I have seen a couple people try to make a weird one but they always fail. Not sure what could be done here to make it more useful of a build.
Zons-
Bowzons need some love. I have literally never seen one in hell. Maybe its cuz they all die and they suck, but right now javs>bows. Not sure if the way to tackle this is via items or skills, I never actually got around to making a bowzon so don't have any first hand experience.
Sins-
I don't know shit about sins to comment. I made my first sin this ladder (fire traps) and she owns hella hard
Dins-
I think if we could figure out a fix for the zeal bug where if it misses the first attack it will miss all 5 we'd see a lot more melee dins.
*I don't know how to fix this. It would take someone with coding experience at minimum, and I simply don't know enough to guess if it is fixable*
Barbs-
actually I guess all the barb builds are decent right now too
Sorcs-
Frost nova, a really cool build, but dmg is abysmal compared to any other sorc build. If the point of a f.nova sorc is for it to be the tanky cold build as it synergizes with all the armors, give her a 20% dr (one per hard point) in chilling armor. If people think that might make that 20%dr too easily accessible to any sorc build, then make it 1 every 2 points on chilling armor and shiver armor so you get 10 from each. The 20% dr will be able to maybe allow some cold sorcs to run staffs (since 99% of the sorcs I see on HC default to wand+shield) and maybe actually make them a viable off-tank dps
just some of my thoughts