d3 Patch 2.6.1 PTR Hotfix: Demon Hunter Impale Buffs

[Stan 5,240]

Game Designer Don Vu posted a hotfix recently applied to 2.6.1 PTR that increases Impale's damage bonus on Karlei's Point and Impale's weapon damage bonus on the Shadow's Mantle 6-piece.

Many sets received buffs in the latest Patch 2.6.1 PTR build. Full patch notes can be found here.

Blizzard (Source)

Hey everyone,

We just applied a hotfix to the PTR servers that increased the Impale damage bonus on Karlei's Point to 375-500% and increased the Impale weapon damage bonus on the Shadow's Mantle 6-piece to 50,000%. You will have to remake game if you're currently in one to have these changes applied.

Because we hotfixed these changes, the values on the tooltips will not be updated on your PTR client, but you should be receiving the correct amount of increased damage. Please remember that these numbers, like all numbers on the PTR, are not final and may change before we release this patch to the live servers.

Thanks again for the discussion and have a great weekend!

[Kaelos 74]

Do we have a new proper game director?

[Yridaa 490]

29 minutes ago, Kaelos said:

Do we have a new proper game director?

I personally don't like the number inflation that happens every 3-6 months. Buffing sets to make them more in-line with the other sets is good for balance reasons, but they're buffing many (if not all) of the top tier sets as well.

 

I have nothing against more ways to get into higher grifts per-se when done well. Kanai cube for example, was a really great way to both add in a lot of content (By means of recipes; the longing to "gotta collect em all" and general power creep because of the "Cool, we get to use more legendary effects now!") and I would prefer to see more ways like that to increase power level rather than "ok all builds do 2-3x more damage now so you can push grifts 10-15 higher."

 

Some people don't mind any form of power creep, others loathe any form of power creep and other again (Like me) like something in between; power creep by means of more complexity and/or features.

[Kaelos 74]

I hate power creep too of course and with this patch probably in the future they gonna give more torment levels (I hope not) but atm it looks better than ever in D3, a lot more diversity and viable wizard builds that are not archon. And you can't deny this is quickest reply and hotfix ever in D3 history

[Yridaa 490]

1 hour ago, Kaelos said:

And you can't deny this is quickest reply and hotfix ever in D3 history

Actually, until you can prove this, I will deny it.

1 hour ago, Kaelos said:

but atm it looks better than ever in D3

I haven't tried the PTR yet (I'd rather find out in live after the changes settled, so I don't get disappointed (lol mortick's)) but if they managed to bring the sets more in line with each other then I'd agree with that statement. Still, I don't know if that is true, I'll find out once it goes live. More viable grift 120+ (already accounting for damage inflation in this ptr) sets are welcome.

[Valks 2,375]

8 hours ago, Yridaa said:

Actually, until you can prove this, I will deny it.

I haven't tried the PTR yet (I'd rather find out in live after the changes settled, so I don't get disappointed (lol mortick's)) but if they managed to bring the sets more in line with each other then I'd agree with that statement. Still, I don't know if that is true, I'll find out once it goes live. More viable grift 120+ (already accounting for damage inflation in this ptr) sets are welcome.

I'm hoping for every class to have a solo set above 100 comfortably. Necro is at 117 top clear, with Monk and DH being at 103. With Necro having a guaranteed spot in 4-mans, it'll be nice to give other classes chance at 110+.

[Yridaa 490]

24 minutes ago, Blainie said:

I'm hoping for every class to have a solo set above 100 comfortably. Necro is at 117 top clear, with Monk and DH being at 103.

I take it these numbers are Live and not PTR? I remember the devs mentioning something like 5 grifts requiring about 2x damage to beat it. I'm fairly certain it was mentioned during a blue post regarding LoN nerfs before it went live (At the same time the shadow set rework iirc... Nov 2015?) that nerfing the damage bonus by half only dropped LoN builds by ~5 grifts and that was their earmark at the time.

 

I'm saying that because most builds got about a 3x-4x damage boost (Talrasha meteor for example) while most "traditional" top-tier builds got ~2x dps. (Raekor for example). This means that the top builds should rise ~5 grifts and those other sets by ~10, maybe 15.

 

I'm sure some sets can't get 100+ grifts even after these buffs (Delsere for example, I think might have it tough because of the bubble being so positional, even though that build's damage got like... quintupled)

 

Some builds that were T13 builds at best can probably push 80-90 (Condemn build for example), but builds like invoker can clearly surpass 100. So there's still quite a disparity margin, but I'd argue not every build needs to be able to perform identical. Just need to have at the very least 2 sets per class have top-tier potential. And that's much easier said than done, but they're getting pretty close with this PTR I suppose?

[Valks 2,375]

6 hours ago, Yridaa said:

Just need to have at the very least 2 sets per class have top-tier potential. And that's much easier said than done, but they're getting pretty close with this PTR I suppose?

Yeah. I think that the issue that I mainly would want fixed is this. DH and Necro kind of have this, with Rathma only being 4-5 GRs behind Trag's and Impale only being the same behind UE Grenade. Witch Doctor, completely LoN on the leaderboards, Wizard, completely Archon on leaderboards, Crusader and Blessed Hammer. 

Variance! We need it!

[Lopimank 0]

Well the Sweeper Crusader build is getting a buff and it is in top 50 on the leaderboards,if that matters,but the rest are Hammerdins,the top player in Europe on DH runs a hybrid Shadow Mantle and Natalya's Vengance build and he has done GR 108.And yet nobody has ever mentioned the 6p NV+ 2p SM on DH with fan of knives and lord greenstone's dagger. The answer is the lack of imagination of some players and the incompatability to merge different builds since the DH is one of the few to have 7 pieces in a single build and 2 of them not being a piece of armor,imo something along those lines should be done to more builds.Most 7 pieces builds have 6 Armor piece and 1 jewelery or weapon slot.Some builds have to use a belt or wrists to complete a build,these builds should have another piece get added in like for the Invoker a shield would be good since there isn't exactly a concrete shield to use.Of course some build don't need this much variation.But more hybrid builds should be able to be made,and of course come to light.

[Valks 2,375]

3 hours ago, Lopimank said:

Most 7 pieces builds have 6 Armor piece and 1 jewelery or weapon slot.Some builds have to use a belt or wrists to complete a build,these builds should have another piece get added in like for the Invoker a shield would be good since there isn't exactly a concrete shield to use.Of course some build don't need this much variation.But more hybrid builds should be able to be made,and of course come to light.

I think you need to be crazy careful with this - essentially, when there is the potential for set interaction, you create the possibility for absolutely insanely large gaps between sets. Look at Firebird's Archon vs. Tal/Vyr Archon for Wizard. Firebird's is just nowhere near, despite also being able to combo with Tal's. The combo works far too well on the latter and it means that what was once a gap between Tal's vs. Firebird's has just been hideously amplified by Vyr's. 

They'd need to spend a long time ensuring in development that things are properly matched, with multiple combinations, otherwise one will work "too" well.

[SangFroidy 3]

15 hours ago, Lopimank said:

 top player in Europe on DH runs a hybrid Shadow Mantle and Natalya's Vengance build and he has done GR 108.

That's a hack build, try it, you cannot equip hand xbow and dagger

[Lopimank 0]

12 hours ago, SangFroidy said:

That's a hack build, try it, you cannot equip hand xbow and dagger

I actually didn't know it,haven't played DH since season 5 or something like that.But shouldn't he be removed from the leaderboards and have his acc banned? 

 

On 9/17/2017 at 8:00 PM, Blainie said:

They'd need to spend a long time ensuring in development that things are properly matched, with multiple combinations, otherwise one will work "too" well.

Well an easy way to make combined sets viable and not too overpowered is to make you remove 1 or 2 essential legendaries from the setup which will make you too strong if you have them equipped and another legendary cubed,of course not in all cases this is possible.I can speak for the crusader since it's the class I've played since the start of the seasons so I am more knowledgeable about it's strenght and weaknesses and capabilities and I can come up with different ideas which will make some builds more viable,hybrid builds more unique but not overthrowing staple builds from the leaderboards.

I suppose a team of professional players could come up with new ideas and they should be voted separetly for each different class,this could be another idea to remove the power creep and actually make you want to come up with innovative builds which could compete with other builds.Or maybe create more legendaries for the LoN builds and make them a viable option.For the crusader they ignore Shield Bash,Fist of the Heavens,Smite,Justice,Phalanx.For others most builds that require Mantle of Chanelling(except Barb) are disregarded completely,there are many ways to make builds more viable but they ignore the fact that there aren't enough sets or legendaries that actually do something.

[Valks 2,375]

19 hours ago, Lopimank said:

I actually didn't know it,haven't played DH since season 5 or something like that.But shouldn't he be removed from the leaderboards and have his acc banned? 

I doubt Blizzard are even paying attention to it, since it's non-seasonal. That's likely why he is still up there.

19 hours ago, Lopimank said:

For others most builds that require Mantle of Chanelling(except Barb) are disregarded completely,there are many ways to make builds more viable but they ignore the fact that there aren't enough sets or legendaries that actually do something.

For any kind of general-legendary, I imagine they might come to a point where they balance it different for each class, possibly buffing/nerfing it for different ones.

[Lopimank 0]

Well now we can only wait to see what happens in the future.Maybe more people will be hired to work on Diablo 3,maybe the staff will simply be changed or even a new character or expansion will be added.In my opinion as long as the Crusader can compete with the others I will be happy, and as long new controversial builds will come to light more people will be drawn back to this game or even some new people.

[Valks 2,375]

On 9/20/2017 at 4:22 PM, Lopimank said:

Well now we can only wait to see what happens in the future.Maybe more people will be hired to work on Diablo 3,maybe the staff will simply be changed or even a new character or expansion will be added.In my opinion as long as the Crusader can compete with the others I will be happy, and as long new controversial builds will come to light more people will be drawn back to this game or even some new people.

There are people speculating (pretty widely, IMO) that Druid might come to D3 soon. Not sure if I'd particularly care about it, since I generally like playing things like Necro/Wizard.