Some people on reddit have discussed the problem of dealing with the disparity between Barbarians and other classes that have less Aspects to work with. Namely, anyone else except Rogues. But for classes like the Necromancer, Druid and Sorcerer, you’re often hitting a limit on how many open Aspects you can work with and in some cases, you can’t even get the ones that seem logical for your build to work because you’ve run out of space. This post mostly is going to delve into several ideas I’ve had, especially after seeing one of the newer Aspects for the Necromancer.
With the itemization and Aspects seeing a major overhaul in the next Season, what I’m partly hoping for is the elimination of some Aspects. Stuff like +2 skeletons warriors/mages just feel like fluff. But given that the developers on the most recent stream indicated that getting that type of Aspect will max your Codex out off the bat, I’m lead to believe that there’s no near term fix for that situation. Yet if that’s going to be the case and if we end up seeing more Aspects introduced like the Priest one, then should be ways we can have more affixes on our gear and/or more gear slots.
So I did mention as an example, that the +2 skeletons/mages as something that either should be outright eliminated or given a much bigger range. Because right now, the limit on the number of extra minions in that case feels wasted. Something like that to me should probably be combined together and have a wider range to make the summoner Necromancer build feel more potent. With that particular example, I asked that it not only be eliminated, munged together or placed directly into the Necromancer’s Book. Like I see it being a generic minion Aspect that probably can be combined further yet with the Golem one that shortens the Golem cooldown. Then the variance would be on the Golem portion of the Aspect rather than the minion part. Or add a range that’s up-gradable in the Codex.
Yet there’s more problems just trying to fit in more Aspects that are not only interesting, but build defining and compliment an existing build. I am not a fan at all of the sacrifice mentality of trading one piece for something else. I like to not just mix and match but have access to a wide pool to experiment with. Take for instance the Vampire powers from season 2. You were able to have up to five. Now, you must sacrifice key Aspects to get any.
One very obvious solution (to me) is to duplicate the stat stick implementation that Rogues have with their dual weapons and range weapon for the other three classes. Here, only the Barbarian would have one extra stat stick. But Necromancer, Druids and Sorcerers would be able to make use of one handed weapons, focuses/offhands and shields as well. Considering that Barbarians (HotA) are currently the most OP builds/build of the game, there’s really no harm in expanding what the other three classes can carry. DPS might be calculated based on the spell/skill type but each class could just weapon swap or use those weapons/shields just in a stat stick type of position.
What this should allow is freeing up the offensive glove slot position and amulet position (mostly) for either more utilities or defensive Aspects. For instance, my Blizzard/Glacial sorcerer normally has to sacrifice everything except a helmet slot for defense and ends up being very squishy. Having the staff slot allows me to add another ability like Accursed Touch to help with the Vulnerability. It’s small but useful and makes the build a little more interesting. But where something like this would shine is when a build normally employs a 2-handed weapon and can gain two more Aspects. For instance, with a Lightning Storm high end druid, you can get back Overcharged and Edgemaster (doesn’t that sound kinky btw?).
Even then you’re still only getting back 1-2 Aspects. And they’re strictly offensive. So another way to increase the allowance of more Aspects is adding more gear slots to characters. I honestly don’t know why Diablo 4 took several steps back when it came to gearing. But the gear feels quite bland compared to Diablo 3 because you’re missing a few key slots. To start, I think the following should be added:
- Shoulders
- Bracers
- Belt
- Trinket
Obviously for the current version of the game, I imagine that it would be impossible to add more gear slots. But doing this would allow for more room when it came to things like Vampire powers as well as more miscellaneous powers that make their way into the game. One concern I have if they continue adding more Aspects and force players to make decisions in trading one for another is the deprecation of effects. For instance, Druid companions have become a must-have for many builds because they function as a multiplier with the Shepherd’s and Stampede Aspects. While it’s always nice to get the new shiny toy, the downside is that you end up with a mess of a system that ends up being like an arms race where you’re forced to revisit old items periodically (sometimes years later) to make key adjustments. I’d rather see these newer Aspects live alongside existing ones by simply allowing for more slots.
The other idea is simply not to push older seasonal abilities into the Aspects pool. Like with Season 3’s Construct, I can’t see the current implementation becoming Aspects. I would like to see the Construct in Season 4 in some fashion but many people are saying that the Construct was a thought experiment by the developers to use in the future (the expansion?) for mercenaries/followers. I still think the Vampire Aspects should be reverted into the season 2 format because it was pretty decent as an implementation. With level 200 Uber Bosses, I would like to see more supplementary power rather than more trade offs. And while most people didn’t care for Season 3, I think the Construct was decent enough to become a midpoint addition in season 4. But I certainly do not want it to become another Aspect.
With that all said, I’m going to change the subject slightly from the Aspect issues to my latest journey in Season 3. So today I decided to play my Necromancer early on. I’ve been trying to push her Glyphs to level 21. Eventually, I got to the point where I felt her power was quite sufficient to try and tackle Duriel. I farmed out some mats to do the Duriel fight and ended up finding a bunch of Tibault’s Wills, a few 925 Banished Lord’s Talismans and a Doombringer. I really wasn’t expecting a Doombringer but decided to equip that on my Barbarian.
From there, I switched to my Barbarian to farm Duriel and got the berserker helmet among other things. At the moment, my Barbarian just feels amazing. Also, in getting the 925 Banished Lord’s Talisman, I was able to give one to my Barbarian. And the spare Tibaults went to my Rogue and Sorcerer. I also found a pair of Godslayer Crowns so I’ll probably swap those on my Necromancer since she’s using a lower item level one. But right now, my characters for season 3 are sitting a very good spot. The only things I’d love to find are a Grandfather, at least one Shako and a Ring of Starless Skies. The ring would go really well with my Blizzard/Glacial sorcerer, although my Druid could use it too. And the Grandfather would just boost my Barbarian’s damage and life massively.
However, I am at an impasse. I might play my Rogue a little more since I have the Tibaults. I did end up switching her spec to Barrage. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan so far. I prefer Twisting Blade far more but the nerf stinks and it feels like trudging through molasses playing that build currently. I think if Blizzard hadn’t fucked up in the implementation of the Vampiric powers as Aspects and kept them as farmable additions (maybe just allowing us to use 3 instead of 5 for instance), then Twisting Blade with the nerfs might actually be more fun. Right now, Rogue just is too squishy as is and there’s not a lot to correct it.
So my only other option is to continue pushing glyphs on say my Barbarian (yawn) in the hopes that along the way a Shako or Grandfather randomly drops (it won’t) or I roll one last character. Right now, the only thing that semi-interest me is trying Firewall/Meteor again. The problem with that build is that Meteor flat out sucks. I’ve seen people do some odd things to try and make it work but the real story is that Firewall just isn’t great because you really need that X’fals ring (which I have plenty) and leveling with it blows. I did see a Fireball build for which I have all the gear. But you can’t really start using it until you get to WT3. I did see that Ball Lightning had made a major comeback as an S-tier skill/build. Yet I’ve done that to death the previous season.
It’s a huge shame that the Fireball build isn’t better. If you could combine it with the new meteor helmet or make the meteor helmet/build complimentary to any fire based build similar to how Companions now are must-haves for most Druid builds, then I’d feel far more motivated to try it out. Effectively, the Meteor base build should feel like Tal Rasha’s from Diablo 3. But the meteors are too slow and many bosses teleport around too much to make meteors effective. I read the only solution is to make the meteor helmet’s internal cooldown as low as it can go to be effective. But that sounds like something the Diablo 4 developers need to work on to ensure that this build is more effective in the future.
And Fireball would’ve gone really well with the Meteor build too. Part of the problem in that case is that your Fireball skill requires both gloves and a staff to be operational. So you’d lose at least one Aspect in that process. And you require X’Fal’s which means you can’t use Ring of the Starless Skies without sacrificing Tal Rasha’s.
That’s where I kept thinking at the bare minimal a build like Fireball should be able to use a one hander + offhand as stat sticks to get other pieces and help level the playing field a bit. Like I want to use the meteor helmet and auto trigger meteors while I mostly blast with a Fireball. And I wish that Hydra could be the thing that gives me mana as an ultimate rather than snake. There’s just too many things where I’m narrowly working with a Rubic’s Cube as opposed to having a broader set of options to make what I’m doing fun.