block chance reduction gem nerfed by 10% across the board

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MrEnzyme wrote:

obvious effects of tree changes (for 28 pvp):

-sword ranger probably sucks now/duelist with RT and block-reduction is the only melee build
-casters buffed some amount (impossible to tell how much yet)
-EK shadow buffed hilariously hard
-puncture about the same(?) maybe bow changes will affect it
-curses: no hex master, have to wait and see new curse numbers to judge properly
-raging spirits probably better overall now despite loss of hex master, best as witch now
-all of this shit is irrelevant because pvp will be the same handful of people forever

did i miss anything guys

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mrmagikboy wrote:

I'm smiling cheek to cheek about this EK buff

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Bhaisabh wrote:

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Tommie_Sjukskriven wrote:

So Acrobatics isnt enough for sword users? Axe, mace and staff nodes are mainly on the left side of the tree so going at the right sight would be a very high dps loss, so imo swords have the best and only defense of the 2h. Sure axe has higher damage but with the lack of defense it's in a bad state(Source; I play it myself)

Tried acro on my duelist(main is marauder) and was dissapointed in the dps loss i got, it's not meant for axes.
Friend of mine and I made a tree for my marauder that would get acro but lose significant damage and hp, and would require minimum level 100

On a first hand look, it might seem like sword users have better access to the Acro cluster. But when you account for point efficiency and pathing, this isn't the case.

If you grab the Thick Skin cluster (as many 2H axe players do because it's just that good), you're just as far from the acro cluster as your average 2H Sword build. Even for 2H sword users, acro is minimally a ten (usually closer to 12 - 13) point investment that could go into more DPS nodes. Naturally, you're going to lose life and DPS by choosing acro. This problem exists for both sword and axe users. You give up possible points that could go into DPS nodes, and life/armour nodes become considerably less efficient. But that isn't a problem unique to axe-users; sword-users deal with the same exact thing.

TL/DR: The only right-hand sword cluster worth getting is just as far from Acro as the life-cluster most axe-users get. Therefore, acrobatics alone is not enough of an advantage (or an advantage at all) to pick swords over axe, especially in light of the 2H axe's ~60 flat DPS advantage.

EDIT:

Here is Tommy's (excellent) 2H Axe build and Scary's 2H Axe build. While both of these trees are totally optimized for mapping/pve, they still demonstrate the efficiency of grabbing the Thick Skins cluster for 2H axe builds (even though the trees are built totally differently).

EDIT 2:

Just so you know I'm not talking out of my ass, I have played:
- Armour-based 2H axe
- Acro 2H axe
- Armour-based 2H sword
- Acro 2H sword

on my L90 duelist.

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andkamen wrote:

isnt the huge physical dmg% of shadow also a buff to puncture? Also clever construction too now so you wont be able to destroy traps for a long time too.

This upcoming league is going to be all about who can hit first because it will all one shot anyway :/

if not one shot than close to.

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ddub3987 wrote:

Block chance reduction gem nerf+ increased attack speed from bow passives+ buff to lightning skills= death by tempest shield once again

One step forward. Two steps back.

Is it me or did crit builds just get shit on again?

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GreenDude wrote:

I like the changes overall. My only concerns:

-Puncture is unchanged.
-Life is scarce. Fights will be short and 1 shot heavy
-EK is just getting more and more benefits all the time. im scared how it will end up.