Like a lot of players, I was struggling with Crusader at 70, initially. You either build tank and do no damage, which is dull…or you go Blessed Hammer…which is also…dull as rocks.
Enter: MannerCookie. This guy really knows his Crusader shit. On a whim, I gave his starter (Justice/Crack) build a try, and went from pain to pleasure. I also sent it over to Selga last night and he saw immediate results. If you’re struggling with Crusader, give it a try.
I went with an extremely bursty build sorta like this one
What I changed was passives (just go with what you need) and went with answered prayer on the valor law, having 3 stacks of nephelem at all times is fucking amazing. With a bit of CD reduction gear + those 3 stacks your akarats should be very quick, and while its up you just explode everything around you.
I don’t have much dps-ish gear, I was playing crusader primarily just to try out a thorns based build. Its pretty fun, great for solo but in groups its just not as effective without more uniques to make it viable.
Barbs can have Spin to win where they have a 8% chance on hit to drop a health glob too, which could, in theory, help keep up Neph.
My preferred way to play Barb is with WW as the primary. I’ve yet to hit 70 though, so unsure how it handles at that point. When 2.0 launched I was tearin’ up the biz.
Yes, I just mean with WW I believe there’s a rune that gives you a % chance at health globes, which keep the neph buff rolling. This is assuming you’re in a party with a barb, ofc.
There is a stomp on barb too that makes globe’s drop.
http://www.diablofans.com/news/48018-diablo-3-reaper-of-souls-first-patch-2-0-4
Looks like crusaders getting a pretty bug buff across the board. Should help out a ton!
Haunt Now costs 50 mana (down from 200). Now deals 4000% weapon damage (up from 1465%). Now deals the damage over 12 seconds (up from 6).
Draining Spirit : Now returns 12 mana (Down from 25).
And Klocker’s WD goes to shit.
Noted to @Dalans earlier that I thought it was interesting that they are bringing everything up to meet the Wizard, rather than nerf the Wizard down to rest of 'em. That means their priority is definitely still to focus heavily on the fun. Same with the increased % chances of things to drop in greater Torments.
And that’s probably a wise strategy all around. They’ll be in “damage control” for quite some time after the travesty of D3 v1.0 launch. This is all good!
Actually quite the opposite, its going to get a ton better. I never used haunt for DPS since it was such a huge mana drain for shit dps, but now its much more spammable, and for the same mana cost I will have 3X the dps even without the damage upped, plus more mana returned overall.
Granted, for bosses or small packs you won’t have unlimited mana anymore, but it will still be a boost to my build.
tl;dr - Crusaders buffed, melee buffed, wizards nerfed.
GENERAL
Pets
Greatly increased the survivability of pets summoned by several items and skills, including:
Skycutter
Maximus
The Gidbinn
Genzaniku
Litany of the Undaunted
Call of the Ancients
Falling Sword - Rise Brothers
All Town hubs have had the placement of the Nephalem Rift Obelisk, Orek, and Kadala adjusted to help reduce the chance of accidental clicking
The Blacksmith’s Belongings box in Act I no longer has collision
CLASSES
Barbarian
Philosophy
Many skills that spend Fury feel great, but when it comes time to generate Fury the single-target options don’t feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of those single-target generators to be more competitive.
Active Skills
Bash
Increased base damage from 170% to 215% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Clobber
Increased chance to stun for 1.5 seconds from 30% to 35%
Skill Rune - Onslaught
Increased additional damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
Frenzy
Increased base damage from 120% to 155% weapon damage
War Cry
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the 5 seconds of paused Fury degeneration after casting War Cry from working.
Weapon Throw
Increased base damage from 150% to 185% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Mighty Throw
Increased damage from 210% to 270% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Throwing Hammer
Increased chance to stun from 30% to 40%
Crusader
Philosophy
Many of the Crusader’s Wrath spenders are below where we would like, while Heaven’s Fury - Fires of Heaven was over-performing. We are toning back Fires of Heaven while increasing the potency of most of the other Crusader spenders to encourage greater build exploration.
The single-target Wrath generator spells, Punish and Justice, don’t feel meaty compared to generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of Punish and Justice to be more competitive.
We are making a few adjustments to improve Steed Charge. The cooldown and duration of the skill have both been reduced. Overall, this makes the total uptime for the skill slightly higher and, more importantly, you’ll be able to hit the button more often. We’re removing the ability for Steed Charge to break stuns, which allows us to focus on Steed Charge being primarily a mobility skill that can still get you out of root effects, such as Jailer. We still want Steed Charge to be useful in combat, so we’re also increasing the damage on damage-focused runes.
General
Crusaders now take 15% less damage from all sources
Active Skills
Akarat’s Champion
Skill Rune - Rally
Fixed an issue where Rally would not reduce the cooldown of Condemn
Blessed Hammer
Skill Rune - Burning Wrath
Increased radius from 5 to 8 yards
Increased pool damage from 95% to 150% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Icebound Hammer
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Icebound Hammer wasn’t chilling enemies
Icebound Hammer no longer goes away when exploding
Blessed Shield
Increased base skill damage from 280% to 340% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Combust
Increased damage from 105% to 270% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Shattering Throw
Increased damage from 50% to 333% weapon damage
Known Issue: The tooltip for this skill rune does not reflect this change
Fist of the Heavens
Increased base skill’s impact damage from 250% to 340% weapon damage
Increased base skill’s bolt damage from 210% to 340% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Divine Well
Increased damage from 14% to 80% weapon damage
Increased bolt zap search radius from 12 to 18 yards
Skill Rune - Fissure
Increased area of effect damage from 80% to 400% weapon damage over 5 seconds
Increased Arc capsule damage radius from 3 to 6 yards
Skill Rune - Heaven’s Tempest
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Heaven’s Tempest was not moving around in its intended pattern
Heaven’s Fury
Skill Rune - Fires of Heaven
Reduced damage from 950% to 735% weapon damage
Justice
Increased base skill damage from 175% to 240% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Burst
Increased damage from 25% to 30% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Hammer of Pursuit
Hammer of Pursuit now seeks targets more quickly after cast
Increased damage from 200% to 300% weapon damage
Phalanx
Increased base skill damage from 295% to 380% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Bowmen
Increased damage from 85% to 160% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Bodyguard
Increased damage from 200% to 285% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Shield Charge
Increased damage from 75% to 180% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Stampede
Increased Stun chance from 25% to 30%
Punish
Increased base skill damage from 200% to 270% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Retaliate
Increased damage from 70% to 94% weapon damage
Shield Bash
Increased base skill damage from 325% to 370% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Crumble
Increased on death proc damage from 550% to 660% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Pound
Increased damage from 550% to 740% weapon damage
Increased bonus damage from shield Block Chance from 150% to 500%
Steed Charge
Reduced base skill cooldown from 25 to 16 seconds
Reduced base skill duration from 2 to 1.5 seconds
No longer breaks Stun
Skill Rune - Endurance
Reduced duration from 3 to 2 seconds
Skill Rune - Ramming Speed
Increased damage from 475% to 515% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Nightmare
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Fire pools were not lasting their full intended duration
Skill Rune - Draw and Quarter
Increased damage from 125% to 185% weapon damage
Sweep Attack
Increased base damage from 400% to 440% weapon damage
Passive Skills
Lord Commander
Now reduces the cooldown of Steed Charge by 25% and Bombardment by 35%
Demon Hunter
Philosophy
Many skills that spend Hatred feel great, but when it comes time to generate Hatred the single-target options don’t feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of a few single-target generators to be more competitive.
Active Skills
Evasive Fire
Increased base middle shot damage from 160% to 200% weapon damage
Increased base side shot damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Covering Fire
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug causing the side shot damage to be lower than the amount listed
Increased the damage of the side shots from 160% to 200% weapon damage
Increased the range of the side shots from 50% to 80% to match the range of the middle shot
Hungering Arrow
Increased base damage from 125% to 155% weapon damage
Sentry
Skill Rune - Guardian Turret
The damage reduction from this rune will now be reflected in the Toughness display
Monk
Philosophy
Monks are working as intended and Dashing Strike is perfectly balanced.
There are no Monk changes at this time. Monks are currently in a fairly comfortable place, but as with all aspects of the game, we will continue to monitor them and make changes as needed.
Witch Doctor
Philosophy
The Witch Doctor was lacking good options for when they were low on Mana. A lack of attractive Signature spells results in builds primarily focused on sustaining Mana for long periods of time. We are increasing the potency of a few single-target Signature spells to be more competitive so that there are still aggressive options while waiting for Mana to regenerate.
Haunt has received some changes to provide a low-Mana option as well as to emphasize options for a damage-over-time (DOT) play style.
Active Skills
Poison Dart
Increased base skill damage from 155% + 40% to 185% + 40% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Splinters
Increased damage from 65% to 105% weapon damage per dart
Skill Rune - Spined Dart
Increased amount of Mana returned from 25 to 50
Skill Rune - Flaming Dart
Increased damage from 275% to 425% weapon damage over 4 seconds
Damage over time from Flaming Dart can now stack with itself
Skill Rune - Snake to the Face
Stun chance increased from 25% to 33%-35%
Corpse Spiders
Increased base skill damage from 216% to 324% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Leaping Spiders
Increased damage from 238% to 383% weapon damage
Skill Rune - Blazing Spiders
Increased damage from 259% to 400% weapon damage
Firebomb
Skill Rune - Pyrogeist
Increased damage from 560% to 880% weapon damage
Haunt
Reduced Mana cost from 200 to 50
Increased base skill damage from 1465% over 6 seconds to 4000% over 12 seconds
Wizard
Philosophy
Two skills on the Wizard, Arcane Orb - Frozen Orb and Electrocute, have bugs with their implementation. Unfortunately, these bug fixes do have the side effect of weakening these skills. Ultimately, this brings these skills back in line with other Wizard skills, which is why we chose to implement these fixes.
Teleport is receiving some changes to allow it to work in more situations. The range is being increased overall for each cast of Teleport. As a result, the Wormhole rune is receiving a reduction in the number of successive casts that can be completed. Previously, you could cover 140 yards in 4 casts and now you can cover 150 yards in 3 casts. Overall, this is a buff.
Active Skills
Arcane Orb
Frozen Orb
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Frozen Orb was chilling for longer than intended
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Frozen Orb bonus damage radius was hitting a larger area than intended
Electrocute
Skill Rune - Surge of Power
Reduced proc scalar from 0.25 to 0.166
Teleport
Increased range from 35 to 50 yards
Skill Rune - Wormhole
Reduced maximum allowed teleports from 4 to 3
Passive Skills
Arcane Dynamo
Bug Fix: Arcane Dynamo now properly grants bonus damage to channeled spells
Prodigy
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Electrocute was granting double the intended amount of Arcane Power when used with Prodigy
ADVENTURE MODE
Nephalem Rifts
Nephalem Obelisks now have a short cast time before they activate
Adjusted the potential layouts for Sewer and Aqueduct style dungeons to include more randomized options
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CRAFTING
Level 70 crafted sets no longer require Flawless Royal gems and instead now require Marquise gems
The drop rate of unique Legendary crafting materials has been significantly increased
This matches the drop rate of Death’s Breaths
Death’s Breaths are no longer required for level 61-70 Rare crafting recipes
Bug Fixes
Legendary crafted shields now provide the correct amount of Block Value for their level
ITEMS
The treasure from Resplendent Chests has been improved to feel more resplendent
Malthael is now much more afraid, and will more consistently drop the Reaper’s Fear Legendary crafting material
Bug Fixes
Legendary Follower relics will no longer roll incorrect Primary stats
Gloves of Worship no longer grant 60 minute buffs for Empowered or Fleeting Shrines
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MONSTERS
Damage from ghosts with the Soul Siphon ability has been reduced
Poison Enchanted:
Duration of each Poison Enchanted globule reduced from 8 to 6 seconds.
Maximum number of Poison Enchanted globules has been reduced from 4 to 3 per cast
Poison Enchanted is now triggered with more variation in timing from Champion packs
The “Kill Malthael” quest is now required to be completed before Malthael will drop loot
QUESTS
The Crazy Climber event now requires players to kill the monsters spawned during the event to complete
The Jar of Souls event now spawns additional monsters in Torment I and higher
The Matriarch’s Bones event now spawns additional monsters in Torment I and higher
In Campaign Mode, Manglemaw now only drops loot and gives XP before the player progresses to the Chancellor’s Tomb quest
USER INTERFACE
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where game objects were prioritized over chat links in the chat window
Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to click on chat links at the bottom of the chat window
I thought it appropriate to mention, what with the news of today’s 100,000+ user ban in WoW, that MannerCookie was banned from Diablo for shard farming exploits.
Hardcore gamers: representin’ the entitled elite LIKE A BOSS.