Three60Mafia: They are so afraid to make uniques really powerful, and in doing so, they made most of them absolutely worthless, un-fun vendor trash. If they can't give us tempering on them (with increased ranges over legendaries) - then they need to double the strength of the unique's power at the very least. Between being balanced and fun, i think they should choose fun.
All of rogue Bow's are hot trash, not to mention they couldn't cook up a single unique xbow, after for some reason making Buriza just a regular wep.
Pharmacopium: Bowazon in the heyday of WF in D2LOD revolved around two kinds of gameplay:
1. Multishot spam killing monsters off screen, and knock back keeping them off screen. Genuinely OP against melee only monsters, and at the high end was also good against ranged monsters although not nearly as OP.
2. Guided arrow used to pierce and return to the original target it hit to hit it again, pierce again, and keep going. On top of that, the knock backs would shove the target around in a really satisfying and disabling way. Reaching 100% chance to pierce was possible, and did exactly what you think it would. Every arrow would continue piercing and returning to the boss until the boss died. This caused balance and supposedly game performance issues.
To recreate these playstyles in D4 in the current balance patch of season 4:
1. WF should be used with penetrating shot to mimic multishot. This is the clear skill. To accomplish this, the bow should turn Penetrating shot into a Basic skill which deals X% less damage and fires two additional primary penetrating shot projectiles on either side of the original.
2. WF should be used with Heartseeker to re create the guided arrow single target. WF should have a modifier on it which allows heartseeker projectiles to pierce and return to their original target. This should be a lucky hit proc, which goes well with Heartseeker and can be tuned to be cool and noticeable with an ordinary amount of lucky hit investment, but good enough with lucky hit investment that investing in lucky hit and ramping up this effect is the most effective way to scale single target damage while wielding the bow. 100% chance to return to hit the target again shouldn’t be obtainable so that the individual hit damage of each projectile can be balanced around a non infinite ramp.
These changes would justify changing WF to an Uber unique, which would solve the issue of everyone wanting to play PenShot or Heartseeker needing the item to feel optimal or to have the gameplay they are imagining. It would make WF an aspirational item, as it was in D2LOD, but would also make it deterministically accessible, which I think would be a good change relative to it’s random and unobtainable feeling stature in D2LOD.
goranbogner8943: Windforce was great in D1 and D2. D3 and D4 windforce is a salvage material
Pharmacopium: Bowazon in the heyday of WF in D2LOD revolved around two kinds of gameplay:
1. Multishot spam killing monsters off screen, and knock back keeping them off screen. Genuinely OP against melee only monsters, and at the high end was also good against ranged monsters although not nearly as OP.
2. Guided arrow used to pierce and return to the original target it hit to hit it again, pierce again, and keep going. On top of that, the knock backs would shove the target around in a really satisfying and disabling way.
To recreate these playstyles in D4 in the current balance patch of season 4:
1. WF should be used with penetrating shot to mimic multishot. This is the clear skill. To accomplish this, the bow should turn Penetrating shot into a Basic skill which deals X% less damage and fires two additional primary penetrating shot projectiles on either side of the original.
2. WF should be used with Heartseeker to re create the guided arrow single target. WF should have a modifier on it which allows heartseeker projectiles to pierce and return to their original target. This should be a lucky hit proc, which goes well with Heartseeker and can be tuned to be cool and noticeable with an ordinary amount of lucky hit investment, but good enough with lucky hit investment that investing in lucky hit and ramping up this effect is the most effective way to scale single target damage while wielding the bow.
ernomakkonen5200: Ditch the core dmg for 50% chance to cast twice remove the knocback and make it do 2x every shot. Make it apply to core skills. Also make it a mythic unique. Boom
msing6741: Damage over barrage and always knockback....boom fixed lol
MyN0N4M3: PSA letting us temper uniques doesnt make them any more or less unique, it makes them simply useful
JadeSelket: As a fan of barrage, I think it would be far more interesting for Windforce to change the way barrage behaves, similar to the rapid fire ring.
wolverys: What if the knockback was "reverse knockback" as such that it pulls enemies instead. That would still fit with the existing theme and synergize with the skill.
Co7Vc3: Barrage should have been what rapid fire looks like with the scoundrel ring. A ranged skill that drops barrage of arrows, not shoot forward.
txhookey5608: Tempering and aspects have significantly watered down the value of uniques. Uniques don't need to be super overpowered but they do need to be on par with well tempered and aspect gear or provide a "unique" function that takes a build to be competitive. One possible solution is allow uniques to be tempered. Let the uniques powers be slightly better or more functional than aspects..
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