Space for ideas on how to survive the Inferno nerfhammer

12

I'd like to create this space to let you fellow inquisitors post ideas on how to make up for the recent nerfs on Diversive Tactics (DT) perk/Debuff skill tree and Augmented Body II (AB2).

I will share mine, considering that for now most of them are just "on paper" and haven't tried them yet.

Damage

Obviously damage has been very heavily hit from the nerf: now the final Debuff passive considers stacked vulnerabilities as a single debuff, so that DT would seems quite useless from this point of view; however, maybe not all hope is lost: among the new Ancient Relic enchants that have been datamined, there is this one:

Shattering: "5.0% Damage Bonus for every Vulnerability stack on the target" (Item types: eye_implant)

From this statement, it seems that every single stack of vulnerability still counts separately: if this is the case, then with a good eye implant of shattering maybe the DT/Debuff combo could still be viable. Has someone already managed to find an eye implant such this and tested it? If one favours another perk over DT, maybe a "Random vulnerability on hit" relic enchant could be used instead.

Investing in the Debuff tree at this point would be a matter of choice, considering that to get the final passive one has to spend something like 16 points for a return of approximately +50% to damage if the build manage to apply many debuffs at once.

Critical strength nerf is obviously another huge factor to consider: before the nerf, I was at +101 unbuffed, so considering passives and "+% crit chance and +crit strength against debuffed" secondary enchants I had no problems; now, I tried to remove a not-so-useful 3-psalm doctrine and added another +30 crit strength with shards and although I'm not mathematically sure to reach 400% crit damage every time, I've smoothed out the issue.

Survivability 

At the moment, I'm keeping the new version of AB2: the +50% suppression damage reduction is quite good, and with some investments in the Health tree, particularly on Neural Rewiring, Shock Stimulus and Pain Suppression, the situation is quite manageable (except for psyker powers at high difficulty, they hurt like hell). Ideally, I'd like to reach the cap of +75% rolling it on gear, then I admit I have no idea on how to improve further, so every suggestion is welcome.

Apart from Suppression, i noticed that I'm also taking now much more damage than before; I was quite startled in the beginning, because the only other thing heavily nerfed was the Damage Reduction on Crusader armors, but a 10% loss in mitigation could not explain the situation, until I remembered of a very nice Debuff passive:

Demoralize: -3% damage inflicted by enemies for every stack of vulnerability on them

I removed it when I reset the Debuff skill tree, so I think that this could be the factor I was missing; as soon as possible I'll try to set it up again and do some tests to check if the difference using both this and DT is noticeable.


So, any ideas/criticism/suggestions? Feel free to politely share them here :)

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Space for ideas on how to survive the Inferno nerfhammer
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4 years 72 days ago
CaTThulhu
It does, I was playing a heavy bolter crusader with the triple shot weapon doctrine (which was changed well).

I haven't played in the season but the difference is startling in regular play - the moment you drop out of protected state you struggle big time. The entire suppression skill tree becomes pointless. Wasting gear passives on protected state buffs is also silly. And with 50% more suppression, recovery seems slower to me as well.
I'm not sure how to fix it, and not sure I care to. I have a strong suspicion my toons entire build would need to be changed.
I'm ired of watching my psyker friends clear maps while I run along behind, and they've essentially made that worse.
Diablo 3 season 21 it is then lol.

4 years 94 days ago
Been having a lot of luck with Bolt Pistol and Suppression Shield currently. All the benefits of ranged, but with max deflect as well. 
4 years 94 days ago
-2
This comment was deleted 4 years 91 days ago by Marcopolocs
4 years 96 days ago
Yesterday night I was so lucky to find an Eye Implant of Shattering: unfortunately, 2 enchants out of 5 are for inflicting Heat and Warp vulnerabilities on corresponding hit (I mean, I understand the logic but are wasted for my melee toon) but another is crit chance and the last is still hidden behind 22 commanders to kill.

The relic enchant is actually saying  "+5% damage for every vulnerability stack", so I really hope that it is working similarly to the old Dirty Fighting passive: as soon as possible I'll test it in a at least +10 mission.

4 years 96 days ago
+1
Borogove
Yeah I noticed I was still taking suppression damage. Massive fail. Also Crisis Management is a bit scary to use.
4 years 96 days ago
+1
Posted by Giamantis 4 years 96 days ago
Crisis Management can boost DR up to 80% when HP below 50%.  10k+ HP.  AB II + suppression resist on items can reach 100%.  I require more damage.

Be aware that there is a 75% hard cap on suppression resistance reduction (AB2 adheres to this). The UI currently does not show this, but the behavior is consistent (I've tested 109%, suppression bounces around with +500-100% damage received) and the patch notes mention it: "Added Suppression damage reduce affixes, and a 75% hard cap for its maximum value."

4 years 96 days ago
Crisis Management can boost DR up to 80% when HP below 50%.  10k+ HP.  AB II + suppression resist on items can reach 100%.  I require more damage.
4 years 96 days ago
+2
stugis88
I meant better compared to ranged crusader. Previously, ranged crusader could rely on the same high damage reduction and Augmented Body II for defense, stay mobile, etc. I feel like deflect has gone up in value as a defensive stat, due to the nerf of the aforementioned perk, and lower damage reduction on crusader armor. Ergo, since melee can easily get 60% deflect with little investment compared to a ranged build, it may be a stronger option than it was before. Possibly edging out the often seen grav-gun, grenade launcher, heavy flamer crusader meta. Like I said, I haven't played my melee crusader in the new season, so just theorizing at this point. 
4 years 96 days ago
+1
CaTThulhu

I'm not sure what you mean, better now than before the nerf? Unfortunately not: my melee crusader is still capped at 67% deflect (thanks to Holy power armor) but situation is overall worse, I suppose mainly for the fact that the Debuff tree helped immensely both for offense (Dirty Fighting) and defense (Demoralize); DR reduction hasn't been so significant to justify the result I got post-patch.

4 years 96 days ago
+1
I'm guessing that melee might be better now... Since even with a 2H Eviscerator, it's quite easy to get 60% Deflect. The DR and Augmented Body II nerfs would affect ranged builds more, since they are less likely to be able to rely on Deflect as much.


That's just a guess though. I haven't been playing a melee crusader for this season.

4 years 97 days ago
Posted by treecargarage 4 years 97 days ago

Strange how Dirty Fighting passive (Debuff tree) still says that stacked vulnerabilities count as multiple effects.
If this applies to the damage debuff passive, then 3 points would net a nice "30%" DR pretty easily vs most enemies, even without diversive tactics.

As for the ancient eye implant, if true, it would be like a second Dirty Fighting (an additional ~150% damage bonus w/Diversive Tactics).
The real nerf was to % dam/debuff, though. 24% * 30(+) used to be around 800% free damage. That enchant now gives only ~70%.

I think the text of Dirty Fighting is only a leftover, anyway considering that Demoralize specifically refers to vulnerability stack it should work as before (at least I hope).

4 years 97 days ago

Strange how Dirty Fighting passive (Debuff tree) still says that stacked vulnerabilities count as multiple effects.
If this applies to the damage debuff passive, then 3 points would net a nice "30%" DR pretty easily vs most enemies, even without diversive tactics.

As for the ancient eye implant, if true, it would be like a second Dirty Fighting (an additional ~150% damage bonus w/Diversive Tactics).
The real nerf was to % dam/debuff, though. 24% * 30(+) used to be around 800% free damage. That enchant now gives only ~70%.

This comment was edited 4 years 97 days ago by treecargarage