BOWRAUDERS SCREWED? Iron Grip is now for Scions?

"

Haklangr wrote:

Man, I really hope that's not true. My entire Marauder build is based around Vaal Pact; not only is it working well (in Cruel so far, anyway), but I think it's very characterful for a berserker-ish build. It's hard enough to use as it is -- I could make a better build without it -- and if it's made any more difficult, then I'm out of luck.

Lol, vaalpact with life build? You will get wrecked in maps my friend. It's better i tell you now, then you die repeatedly later.

Vaalpact is only good with CI, so it belongs near it.

"

Edzilla wrote:

Lol, vaalpact with life build? You will get wrecked in maps my friend. It's better i tell you now, then you die repeatedly later.

Vaalpact is only good with CI, so it belongs near it.

I'm aware, heh, but thanks for the heads-up. I figure the best use of it would be Vaal Pact + CI + Ghost Reaver. Still, I thought I'd give it a go and see if I could make it work... I really just wanted to play a Marauder with VP. I think it's fun/characterful. As of now I use Dominating Blow to make sure I'm not taking all the hits, and Immortal Call also gets a fair amount of use (always have a ton of charges up thanks to Warlord's Mark and Enduring Cry).

No idea if it will work with endgame content, though. It's already getting a bit precarious if I encounter a bunch of ranged blue mobs, although the build's not done. On the plus side, in close combat my life almost always stays at 100%!

I think it's a bad decision to balance it so that one keystone is only any good if combined with another, making certain choices compulsory; but maybe that's the intention, who knows.

(And if the build turns out to be total shit, I'm hoping we all get a respec with 1.0...)

Iron Grip is going to be closer to Marauders now. Bowrauder is not getting nerfed, at least not by this particular change.

I'm more curious to see if Grace becomes %, because that is like the only defensive aura a blood magic keystone user can take at the moment.

"

Edzilla wrote:

"

Haklangr wrote:

Man, I really hope that's not true. My entire Marauder build is based around Vaal Pact; not only is it working well (in Cruel so far, anyway), but I think it's very characterful for a berserker-ish build. It's hard enough to use as it is -- I could make a better build without it -- and if it's made any more difficult, then I'm out of luck.

Lol, vaalpact with life build? You will get wrecked in maps my friend. It's better i tell you now, then you die repeatedly later.

Vaalpact is only good with CI, so it belongs near it.

That's totally why there are working life builds with VP. It's better with CI, but it has its use if you want to go life with huge crit mult and can't abuse evasion. (EK, want to use IR badly for crit bow) Vaal pact is so good with CI that having to spend so many points for it is a great drawback. Still OP though.

Check out this skill tree. (not yet final)
Iron Grip replaced current Blood Magic keystone location.

http://i.imgur.com/eYMxcli.jpg

"

Freeslana wrote:

"

Edzilla wrote:

"

Haklangr wrote:

Man, I really hope that's not true. My entire Marauder build is based around Vaal Pact; not only is it working well (in Cruel so far, anyway), but I think it's very characterful for a berserker-ish build. It's hard enough to use as it is -- I could make a better build without it -- and if it's made any more difficult, then I'm out of luck.

Lol, vaalpact with life build? You will get wrecked in maps my friend. It's better i tell you now, then you die repeatedly later.

Vaalpact is only good with CI, so it belongs near it.

That's totally why there are working life builds with VP. It's better with CI, but it has its use if you want to go life with huge crit mult and can't abuse evasion. (EK, want to use IR badly for crit bow) Vaal pact is so good with CI that having to spend so many points for it is a great drawback. Still OP though.

Nah, life is bad with Vaalpact. Show me one person that successfully uses Vaalpact+life on HC. Sure, if you're talking about scrubcore, I really don't care.

If they move Vaalpact away from CI, it will never get used - making it a dead keystone, which I think they would want less then people abusing keystones.

I think with the incoming life buff CI is gonna be pretty niche again.
It already sucks unless you have insane gear (try getting above 4-4,5k ES without many exalts worth of gear, forget to ever play selffound).
Of course the ceiling is much higher with CI, but with +2 life/level my EA mara is gonna be at 7k+ life (no koams) and I already feel pretty invincible.

Saying that I highly doubt they would move VP closer to the witch tree.

"

pennyyy wrote:

I think with the incoming life buff CI is gonna be pretty niche again.
It already sucks unless you have insane gear (try getting above 4-4,5k ES without many exalts worth of gear, forget to ever play selffound).
Of course the ceiling is much higher with CI, but with +2 life/level my EA mara is gonna be at 7k+ life (no koams) and I already feel pretty invincible.

Saying that I highly doubt they would move VP closer to the witch tree.

How is it going to be that much of a life buff? +2 life/level with +200%health is +240life at level 80. A nice amount but you probably won't notice the difference. Plus to say CI requires insane gear, then turn around and say you have 7k+ life without koams is a bit disingenuous. 7k life requires insane gear.

However all CI players would get Vaal if it didn't require too many points, because there is no drawback to getting Vaal if you already have CI. Just like US and IR. If you get one you might as well get the other.

If they want to buff life they should do what they have done with ES. Make some high level rolls possible to have a lot more life. Like an additional line of +x% of life, instead of +x% of ES.

"

MartinDeShade wrote:

How is it going to be that much of a life buff? +2 life/level with +200%health is +240life at level 80. A nice amount but you probably won't notice the difference.

Sorry, maybe my math is not good enough but how can you get +240life with those data ?

+2 life/lvl [level 80] = 160
+200% health [160health] = 160*3 = 480

Better amount :D

What Gamalux says, your calculation is a little bit off. Of course I´m referring to my highest level char (87) who has very good life and str on all equipment.
Right now I have 6,55k life with "only" 264% life over the skill tree (could still spec into the 30 str + 3x6% nodes to the left of thick skin but would rather have endurance charges).
The life buff will take me to almost 7200 life which could still be buffed to almost 7,5k by level 89.

I don´t know if I can get that amount of life nodes with the new skill tree and EA requires only few points to get dps.
Even though I currently run with probably one of the highest life pools in hc, the overall cost of my gear is a joke compared to good ES gear, for most of my items I didnt pay more than 10 chaos/piece.


e:
Sorry, didnt want to go that offtopic.