Discussion about Dreamfeather
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Hello
My life
I've seen that new unique (Dreamfeather) and I felt like doing a build around it.
I came to some theorycrafting and noticed that if the mod "1% increased Attack Damage per 450 Evasion Rating" actually provided x% increased Physical Damage to the weapon it could be in line with acceptable 1h rare swords when having around 30-45k evasion. That would make my build revolve around evasion (as the item suggests). But I bought the item ingame and came to the conclusion that the increased weapon damage was similar to the strength bonus, or any % increased weapon damage passive (besides the fact it works with ele-dmg). Not what I expected.
Physical damage ?
Any sword passive cluster provides around 50% increased damage, so it would take 22500 evasion to match that bonus, assuming that you want to use this 150 base dps weapon. I guess that discards Dreamfeather as a primary physical weapon.
Used as an offhand, it could be paired with a high physical dmg main hand weapon and double strike as a primary skill. So I would spend most of my passives and gear trying to reach that 45k evasion, just to get what 10 points in the sword passive clusters could provide me (not to mention prismatic eclipse does it for free).
Elemental damage?
So I guess the only way to go is the elemental attacks way.
First, I would say that the elemental attacks are not exactly the theme of the evasion area of the passive tree (ranger / duelist). Any cluster in the templar area provides ~ +40% elemental damage (19k evasion). Also, the weapon theme suggests physical damage, as there are no elemental mods. What would be the idea behind that flat physical bonus ? Life/mana leech ? Finally, I dont see how it could not be used in dual wielding. Since the bonus is global, once you stacked all that evasion you can only want to use two of these. Or one plus a relevant elemental damage weapon (Hyaon's fury, Dyadus, or a cool rare).
Conclusions
In the end the only way to use this unique is to create an off-theme character, dual wielding, using elemental reave/ST/cleave. The main source of damage would be coming from auras (wait, I already used all my passive points in evasion nodes and the clusters are in the other end of the tree) or gear (expensive ele damage) and support gems (5/6L). Just to have the same result as any cheap cookie-cutter build (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xud0Xf3UaVY).
That's not what I expected from a cool and original unique, that suggests to explore unusual game mechanisms :( I wish it was as I first stated : a local x% increased Physical Damage
tl;dr
The unique mod on this weapon is irrelevant. The global bonus to damage requires a lot of investment for little results. Also, it forces into an elemental dual wield evasion character that ends up off-theme, and with very little options. Not what you would expect from a weapon that is meant to be played off-meta in a smart and original build.
Let me know your reactions, or if I missed something important please :) Last edited by ChannelMerge on Jan 13, 2015, 12:08:56 AM
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" I came to a similar conclusion, except that calling the result the same as "any cheap cookie-cutter build" is just not true. Using an aura-boosted dual wield Dreamfeather elemental Cleave build (which is WAY better than ST and better than Reave) specifically with Queen of the Forest as your chest is really fun (evasion gives damage, defense, and tons of speed), good bang for the buck (over 20k dps in a 4L), and quite unique. Here's the build I designed around Dreamfeather. I haven't seen another Dreamfeather build with as much damage potential: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616 " Mostly agreed, although I don't think the global bonus is as insignificant as people make it out to be. Yes, it could use a buff, but only a small one. I don't think Dreamfeather is ever going to be viable in a sword and shield build, but when you dual wield there's already some potential, even if min-maxing leads people to similar builds. There's actually been some discussion of these things. Have you checked out Lyralei's Dreamfeather post? Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616 Last edited by Tempada on Jan 13, 2015, 7:39:51 AM
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Hey thanks for the links !
I had read the "post mortem" stuff already but not the comments, I'll check that out :) Also, I actually suspected that there could be at least 1 build out there able to use this unique. And 1 build at most ;) There could be so much variety, I was dreaming about a reaver with 140% movement speed (which rlly helps keeping those stacks), or some crazy cyclone build, or PvP viper strike madness :( Bah ... |
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" There are a few attempts in the Lyralei thread, and maybe three total forum builds with a dedicated thread, haha, but mine's the only one updated for 1.3. Yeah, there could be so much variety! This unique kills me. It's actually brilliantly crafted, it just needs a bit more power to make it appealing for physical-based/shield builds. Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616 Last edited by Tempada on Jan 13, 2015, 1:57:33 PM
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Well, just make the unique mode a local mod that would affect the base damage of the sword (as on any rare) and the elemental dmg on your attack (rebalance if needed). This way people can play either physical / elemental and single weapon / dual wield.
As far as I know there are quite a few elemental 1H uniques and litteraly not a single worthy physical unique axe/sword/mace so it could aswell be only physical ! |
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