Build Constructions are crapped after 0.2

I’ve tried to create off-meta builds this season, but none of them work. The only viable option is to shut off your brain and play with Spears or Huntress, abusing bugged interactions with Frenzy and Barrel.

This is my conclusion of my tests using respective weapons.

Tactician and Crossbows: Issues and Improvements
Currently, crossbows are underperforming despite receiving buffs. Using buffs on crossbows requires sacrificing a valuable slot that could otherwise be used for a rare item or increasing DPS with rare crossbows, making this weapon ineffective. Additionally, totems are practically useless at the moment.
Solutions to Improve Tactician and Crossbows:
- Make Totems More Useful and Customizable – Improving craft options and allowing better synergy with mercenary skills would enhance the viability of crossbows in combat.
- Ballistas Should Be Weapons, Not Totems – Right now, ballistas are treated as totems, forcing players into unfair trade-offs. You either buff a weak weapon while losing defensive layers or sacrifice critical skills for an ineffective weapon.
- Lack of Crowd Control and Area-of-Effect Damage – Pins don’t efficiently stun-lock enemies, and ranged weapons should have better AoE impact, similar to bows and spears.
- Poor Synergy Between Skills and Buffs – Players are forced into very specific build paths, limiting creativity in theorycrafting.


Titan and Thorns: Issues and Improvements
The Titan build with Thorns can be effective, but it suffers from strange skill limitations. Spears have full compatibility, but maces only support two skills, which feels arbitrary and unnecessarily restrictive.
Solutions to Improve Titan and Thorns:
- Expand Compatibility for Mace Skills – More mace skills should be allowed in Thorns-based builds to provide greater flexibility.
- Better Integration with Defensive Skills – Thorns-based builds should allow synergy with defensive abilities without heavily sacrificing damage output.
- Avoid Arbitrary Class and Weapon Limitations – Currently, Charm Builds only work for Witch, preventing other classes from exploring enchantment-based playstyles.
- Provide More Tools for Theorycrafting – The lack of build diversity forces players into a fixed meta, reducing seasonal flexibility and creativity.


Conclusion
The lack of skill interaction and class diversity could eventually push players away, similar to what happened in Diablo 4 with the Spiritborn issue. When players feel their favorite class is neglected, they lose interest. If build diversity isn't improved, players may turn to other games like Last Epoch, which offer more freedom. The game needs better tools for build experimentation and theorycrafting, rather than forcing a fixed meta

All very thoughtful and well said.

I disagree cause im playing a off-meta build but I hope GGG listens to people like you and does something that will make ya Happy

Cheers mate!

"

Hyperspacing#5593 wrote:

All very thoughtful and well said.

I disagree cause im playing a off-meta build but I hope GGG listens to people like you and does something that will make ya Happy

Cheers mate!

Well you see i played really with off off off meta , no a simple off meta , i try to put barbs on aoe but to GGG thorns dont exist in Wall or in a jagged ground , but exist eletrical thorns.... tsc2

"

Kotolino#2642 wrote:

Well you see i played really with off off off meta

I mean, guy after the second "off" I think you're just talking about poorly designed and optimized builds. You do need to make builds that, like, make sense and utilize abilities in the way they were designed. GGG isn't going to be able to balance the game so you can just "do whatever" and end up with a viable build.

"

Tactician and Crossbows: Issues and Improvements

I'm curious and concerned about when I'll start running into these issues. I'm only in T10 at the moment and don't feel like I've run into most of the issues you're describing quite yet. I've managed to keep my deaths to single digits (only just):



And as for AoE and crowd control it feels like those are both pretty strong points for me right now. If anything I would say I'm concerned that my single target damage is falling behind. I find my Ballistae to be very effective and powerful; far from useless.

https://youtu.be/3PxkEqEQGgI

Fully willing to accept that I might feel differently in T15s or once I start making attempts at pinnacle bosses... but I'm going to stick with it for now because this is exactly what happened to me in 0.1. I played an "off-off-meta" build that ran 0 ES, stacked Crit, and did most of my damage with Impending Doom -- people told me I wouldn't make it out of campaign and I had no problem clearing all content on all difficulties (and my gear felt like it was always on sale because nobody else was looking for my stats).

"

Kotolino#2642 wrote:

Tactician and Crossbows...making this weapon ineffective...totems are practically useless at the moment...Pins don’t efficiently stun-lock enemies...Players are forced into very specific build paths

So I got my last Ascendancy points and I'll say I'm really not feeling any of this yet. Thanks to some pretty rotten RNG, I haven't upgraded much of my gear since campaign, but I was able to kill Zarokh in 46s which is faster than I think I ever managed in 0.1. I'm still using my own build and just tweaking as I go, so I can't say I've felt forced into any specific paths.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying the Ascendancy is in great shape compared to others at the moment, but I definitely wouldn't use words like useless, ineffective, or poorly-synergized to describe it either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9FFWGPRObo

Ok GGG this is the time to another chance to play with Tatician , just me let me know The new Cannon Granades NEED to trigger explosion skills with crossbows , or this new Cannon is just a big bait