"Lowering the max stack to 20, but having 63% MORE damage at level 20 gem."



Plenty of people out there might consider the patch as a nerf.

However, i personally think it is A SUPER BUFF!! WDF?



Okay, so let me explain in detail. I'll give two examples.



Firstly, with proper setup, one can reach 0.18~0.20 cast time. lets make it 0.20 to make life easier.

So that will make 5 cast per second, which means you need 10 second to reach 50 stack.

And all that 10 second you can NOT even move. Because as soon as you stopped channeling, the existing BV will start to degrade.

How many times in end game(T14~15) have you seen a 10 second window around a boss?



People are more likely to charge up the stacks before engaging the boss, so you can manually dodge and such. So now lets say our BV have 10 second duration, which not everyone has. When you reach 50 stack, and as soon as you stop casting, the stack count is going to drop DRASTICALLY. As fast as how you cast them that is.



So in reality, unless you are channeling right beside the boss, you are not going to get the full potential of 50 stacks. And we all know standing close to the boss going HAM doesn't end well everytime.



And even if you spent tuns of passive and a gem slot as well as a helmet enchant to reach 14 second duration. you still only have 4 second full stack up time,after you keep casting for 10 second!



Now lets talk about a more average up-time people would have.

We still assume 5 cast per second, but lowering the duration to 7.25 second (so no enchant nor extra gem slot, only 1 passive ring.)

We can reach 36 stacks if we keep standing still and cast for 7.25 second. But then we will suffer from the same issue mentioned in example one.

Thus in reality, we are more likely to have a lot less stack than 36 when fighting a boss, or clearing maps.



For my own build, when clearing map mobs, i usually need only 6~8 stacks to one-shot everything. Sometimes even less, depending on the mobs variety and life. And for bosses, unless its a sandbag, otherwise we normally have only about 2~5 second of safe time to cast. so we are more likely to have constant 15~20 stacks when fighting bosses.



So before the patch, i need 7 seconds to reach peak stack(36) and starts lossing stacks instantly.

But after patch, i need 4 second to reach peak stack but deals almost the same damage and last 3 seconds long!!



(stack * post-patch damage)

(20 * 1.63= 32.6)



Pre-patch i need 6.5 second to reach what i can do in 4 seconds post-patch. And the damage pre-patch last only 1 second while it last 3 seconds post-patch.



Less time needed that last even longer.



So for very hard end-game bosses, i can actually deal more damage for the small cast time they give me in-between attacks.

Not even mention the formula of physical reduction. Now we hit harder each hit, they can mitigate less damage. Last edited by NomuraSho on Aug 31, 2016, 12:04:10 AM Last bumped on Sep 1, 2016, 9:59:19 AM