So,
PTR with season 25 theme and some new reworks. What are your thoughts?
The theme seems...Well, very Ethereal-like, obviously. The exact power and how interesting it is will depend on how nuts they go with the powers. If the powers are similar in scope to the Ethereal items, this could really change things up.
As for the reworks, I've barely ever played a DH so I can't comment on those.
The Barb change is a pretty straightforward one: HotA will be a more viable play style, especially with the IK set.
Wizard, nerfing Firebirds is always good
The Necro buff... Well, too little too late. And I personally still think a pet build should have its damage come from, I dunno, its
pets. More than tripling the damage of a nuke won't make the build play better, it'll just make it viable a few GRs higher.
Onto the one that I will care about most, and others in this thread too I think...the WD rework.
First, Shukrani's lasting until you attack *three times* or come close to Elites really makes it incredibly strong. Increasing damage done while in the Spirit Realm is only icing on the cake. A speed build with the Chicken set and this in the Cube would be ridiculously fast.
Second, Lakumba's Ornament is changed from 10% DR per Soul Harvest stack, to 60% base and 2% extra for each stack over 3. Seems like a good change to me. It also makes the Sacred Harvester a bit less obviously-always-BIS for builds that don't particularly use SH for anything but armor.
Third, Spider Queen's Grasp and Brood of Araneae (weapon nobody used and a new item, I guess?), both to further improve the damage done by Corpse Spiders. Totally useless, except in combination with the reworked Arachyr. The Brood has a 1%-increase-per-bite sort of thing going on, Bane of the Stricken-light.
Lastly, then, the Arachyr rework. No change to the 6-pc bonus (straightforward increased damage to "creature skills"). 2-pc is a bit weird - Corpse Spiders now spawn
"with health" and attack faster. Does this mean the spiders will count as pets? Does it mean they'll tank a bit but otherwise they're still useless? We'll find out! If they DO count as pets, that opens up a whole different play style and a whole bunch of modifiers (Jeram's, T&T, Enforcer,...). If not, I doubt even adding thosde two items up there will boost CS damage enough to make it worthwhile. 4-pc rework: no more toad, instead you get the Spider Queen (from the previous 2-pc bonus), but now its webs will grant you 75% damage reduction. High DR, but...you're forced to stay in the webs. This seems to indicate it'll be a slow, plodding gameplay, as you're always lagging behind your spider. Or players will (ab)use speed to make the Spider teleport to player location? I dunno. The Brood thing mentioned higher may turn this into a RG killer....But with a low-damage skill like CS that has to ramp up. I dunno. I'm mixed on it.
I like the changes to the other items allowing more variety and futer improving the WD for speed. I like that the rework aims at changing up playstyles while still being somewhat balanced. But i'm very sceptical as to how fun "stay in your lane" gameplay will turn out to be.
