First of all you not only put together an outstanding build, but an outstanding build guide. Thank you for all the effort you put into helping the community. I've referred your build to many people.
My pleasure and thank you!
- The devs are fixing a bug that caused enemies in level 34+ content to have a 20% higher "to hit" value. I am skeptical this will offset the loss of AC, but prior to level 34 content a 300ish AC was pretty solid. So depending on the curve after this change the loss of AC and changes to enemy could be partially or fully offset - I am guessing partially at best.
When I heard this bug I was 0% surprised, as there's very clearly been an incredibly steep increase in AC requirements. Even on hard, the Abyss wilderness marilith hits ~80% of the time. 400 AC isn't much compared to a true AC build, but it's still enough of an investment that ~80% on hard is headscratchingly high.
- The auto-consecrate was clearly not working as described and I never really relied on it, it just allowed me to be a bit lazy while also watching netflix. In fact since I was bladeforged it's safe to say it wasn't really a big deal to me at all. The fact that the AC change wasn't introduced until the 2nd update and the auto-consecrate wasn't introduced until the 3rd update seems to indicate someone that has the devs ear convinced them this was a major balance issue.
Maybe they saw my elite FOM post! Joking, but only half, since the devs don't play it's likely they keep an eye on such things. It's very much a niche thing because:
-You have to be reduced to 50% or lower HP (involves risk/tanking things)
-You have to stay within the circle or it's pointless (casters/ranged almost never use)
-It's a self heal so subject to reaper penalties (useless in high skulls)
So...in group quest play other people healing you is better, particularly in raids. Consecrate isn't why r10 groups have been crushing it. And in raids, it's not used either.
In high skull solo quests, temp HP is better because consecrate is going to hit you for very close to nothing. With 453% healing amp and ~600 pos spellpower, it hits me in r10 for a grand total of...drumroll please.....46hp. Every 3 seconds. Nerf it!
Which leaves it being really only truly useful for hard/elite (maaaybe low skull) hybrid tank/dps solo raiding...a niche within a niche. True tanks don't use it, nor do pure DPS. Only hybrids, which SSG really seems out to get at times.
Or just zoning out and not dying on easy content as you said, you can afk in the wilderness and not have squirrels bite your toes to death.
- I don't care about the mass party raise change. I only ever used that more than once when we had serious lag issues after the transfer.
Yea that's a good change, beckon is still viable but it raises the stakes a bit.
This and the dev's propensity to cut off the hand of my builds one finger at a time is making me wait until release day before I make my changes.
I don't bother with lam, they throw in stuff then take it out so you never know.
The downside is when your build depends on defender stance it kind of rules it out for public raiding unless it can tank the raid fine. I am hoping that will be possible with good defenses, high melee power combined with legendary strength of arms - at least for LH casual raiding.
Should be, yea. I can't think of any LH raids that might cause issues. Might have to be observant for whirlwinds in relentless. But by and large LH bosses hit for a small fraction of r1+ so whoever tanks is sort of a formality usually.
Anyhow I am not ready throw in the towel. I was always planning to return my character to Vanguard as I have another tank at cap. I am even more interested in trying it out now with all these changes to see what might work. I will keep following this thread and will be interested in what ideas you and others come up with, although I also understand when your well-documented build gets nerf-targeted that you might want to keep it a bit closer to the vest.
I'll probably still share whatever I come up with. Took a while for them to nerf things and it kind of lines up with the yearly racial PL reacquisition. Might try some fighter so I can reuse gear while doing mindcleaver or whatever it's called.
TR mate. I've never used your builds but have enjoyed tagging along with you in quests from time to time and would be sorry to see you go.
Thanks and I'll undoubtedly stick around in some form!
Not sure where you'll end up after the AC changes, but if you ever go back to 41/31 kotc van I would suggest using medium armor with a large shield and sapphire of armored defense.
Paladins aren't restricted to heavy armor like fighters are and the increased dodge generally seems more beneficial than the 15 prr and slight ac gain from heavy, especially when the AC difference gets mitigated by increased dex ac. Although t4 SaD would make the AC difference larger.
And you can scroll masters touch for tower shield proficiency although it gets annoying.
Yea I don't have the patience for that heh. I'm actually using a large at the moment (vengeance manifest) with 13% dodge. Sapphire is in it so great minds think alike! Could get up to 17% with medium armor but my heavy is a rare item (crownblade upgraded) with reaper 5% AC so I'll probably stick with that.
