 | [Review] - New datamined notes / 2h changes(1) | Category: MonkJuly-17-2014 3:40 PM PDT (10 years ago)  |
| Finally! There is news on upcoming changes that we can discuss. Source for datamined notes -- http://www.diablofans.com/ Source for 2h changes -- http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13510080878 Â Â Â Â 2h Weapons now have 23-26% more raw damageLet's talk first about the 2h changes. Yay! The math works out such that 2h weapons needed either a second socket or ~23-26% increased raw damage to compete (dps wise) with 1h weapons. The concept being that you give up all the stats / legendary effects / APS of dual-1h weapon for increased resource -> damage conversion rates and potentially powerful legendary effects on 2h weapons. This was NEVER true because 2h weapons also reduced your total damage by so much. This change should fix that to some extent. I believe this will make 2h weapons viable for use now. They will still be underused I believe because of the lack of stats, but at least those of us who prefer 2h weapons can probably make it work. This is extremely good news for SWK 2pc as well which now suddenly becomes usable with FoE or Inna's Reach ... neat! This is also the saving hand that a dying TR-IF build needed. Maximus now scales with fire damage and will have the DPS to actually carry a build. I imagine TR-IF with Max (which to be fair was always the dream) will become fairly standard. Â Â Â Â New ChangesExalted Soul is now 50max spirit + 4spir/sec This is a mixed bag of good and bad. The max spirit on ES was valuable but spir/sec is more important to monks these days with the significantly lower use of Strong spirit. Chant of Res now gives 4 spir/sec Strict buff that will likely still not see play as reducing the cost of mantra spam is not meaningful in today's meta. STI now buffs IAS by 30% when hitting mobs at 75% or above (up from 15% / 80%) Now THAT is an offensive passive. I was already toying around with new STI in my shatter-palm build and now it has a permanent home. 30% IAS is a lot and the requirement has some interesting quirks. The buffs are real! Fist of Thunder now generates 22 spirit per hit That is a pretty big buff from 14 but FoT still suffers from so many problems that I doubt it will make enough of a difference to get it used. We will have to see! Note: The notes for Quickening do not indicate just how much spirit it will be giving so that might tip the scales. BoH - Infused with Light now generates an additional 14 spirit/hit (up from 4) This is a MASSIVE improvement and should make this rune quite viable for some setups. Getting to infinite IwL is easy these days so I could see SWK builds running this. (if you are counting that is 3 very solid SWK build buffs so far) Crippling Wave - Rising Tide now generates 3.5 spirit per monster hit rather than 6 per monster crit If zDPS is still going to exist, this is just what the doctor ordered. This separates CW-RT from the already over-supported stat of CHC. All in all, it's a buff unless you were running outrageous levels of CHC and it makes the skill more reliable as well. Fun fact -- I recommended this vary change over a year ago in my comprehensive review for spirit generators! Better late than never guys! :D Sweeping Winds - Inner Storm grats 8 spir/sec (up from 4) Double it? Yes please. 8 spir/sec is a LOT and holy builds already wanted to soak up spirit to fuel SWK 4pc ... I consider this to be a very welcome buff to the lackluster SW. (4 buffs for SWK) Exploding Palm - Strong Spirit generates 15 spirit per hit (up from 10) A much needed buff as Strong Spirit finds itself hard-pressed to compete with the double-damage runes in Shocking Grasp and Impending Doom. With the nerf to max spir on ES, I don't see Strong Spirit making a comeback even with this buff but you never know. It did have it's ~1 year in the spotlight so I am not all that concerned. Wave of Light damage increased to 960% / 125% (up from 605/79) Will this be enough to make WoL viable? Probably not. But, assuming this 1.5x buff applies to all its runes, there is an outside chance! I believe a 1.5x buff puts Pillar into "efficient" range from a spirit->damage consideration ... so maybe that will happen. Tempest Rush We already know about the spirit cost increase (nerf) but now there are actual buffs too! Bluster now lasts 4 seconds which means it actually does something. It's not a lot ... but it's something. Flurry's explosion hits a little bit harder which might be nice if anyone can find a good Flurry build. The biggest change is that now there is a lightning rune that pulses damage every second as lighting while you TR. This is a buff mostly because running double-lightning-proc weapons with TR is absolutely fantastic and now there is a rune to support that build. Additionally, pulsing damage has a chance to come with a Proc C which would be lovely for the proc-happy lightning spec. I will test this and report back when I have results. Mystic Ally damage per hit increased to 130 (from 40) Not relevant but okay! Water Ally's active now freezes but is also not relevant. Air Ally now generates 4 spir/sec (up from 2) which is a wonderful and much appreciated buff! Enduring ally has some change that we don't quite understand but will still be completely useless. Blinding Flash - Replenishing Light now restores 10 spir per monster hit (up from 7) This is the only one of the spirit generation buffs that I feel was obviously too little. This rune never sees play because no matter how good it sounds, it ends up being way too little spirit. I think it should give 10 spir per mob hit then 5 spir/sec for 10 seconds (or something like this). That way you get around the new lower-ceiling with ES at 50 instead of 100 but still get more spir/sec out of this rune. And that does it ... actual buffs!!! Will the be enough? We shall see. ________________________________________________ "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all" ~ HK Home -- BannedOfGamers.com Druin, the happy monk | ||
 | [Review] - New datamined notes / 2h changes(100) | July-18-2014 4:12 PM PDT (10 years ago) |
| @Druin, thank you again for your great posts. As I was recently saying in the DH forums, we are continuing to compile the feedback that we’re receiving here and in the PTR forums as well. Posts like this go an especially long way to helping us understand your experience and better evaluate the impact of the class changes we’re experimenting with. As an aside, to those of you who have not yet experimented with the PTR we encourage you to give it a shot and to let us know your feedback. As ever, big thanks to all our testers and especially to those of you who contribute the thorough and thoughtful responses. Our Devs appreciate it, the CMs appreciate it, and most of all our community appreciates it! | ||
