patch note speculation

Targeting behaviour changes: Probably means Wither totem now works on kitava

Debuff separate line, active auras not on bar: less clutter, great

Intimidate: Nerfs damage for spell users, still pretty good for the reduced crit and res for leveling and such.  Doesn't really matter that much.

Minions don't do damage while dead: RIP suiciding to bosses and still killing them :^)
- Side note: This actually even benefitted HC players that had more than 1 character in a league, I got a blessing of chayula out of it LUL

Desecrate: Finding spectres will be way faster, also nice for Detonate Dead based skills
- Max corpse level better suits getting higher level spectres while leveling fast
- Needing level 20 desecrate for top level spectres doesn't matter, just craft a +1 chaos wand when you get a 19 desecrate and use that to find your 82+ spectres

Dark Pact nerf: It's fine, still good
- Minion Life multiplicative change makes skele Dark Pact crazy, might see some self cast + skele totem DP builds

Detonate Dead change: Interesting, not sure if Desecrate cooldown is low enough still, but scales from spell damage.  WAY more viable as a skill

SRS: Flat damage is now only 15% less instead of 30%, making things like Covenant even more attractive
- Baron only gives 50% of strength now.  It's still BIS endgame if you stack a decent amount of strength, and even moreso if you get an enchant (Flesh Offering, Spirit

Damage, etc).  It just takes more investment to be worth running (pls make more common again??)
- Taunt nerf: The mobs listed aren't supposed to be able to be targetted in the first place and require weird investment to make them taunt so this is w/e
- SRS looks PRETTY good

Summoned Skeletons: Actually have ok scaling from auras now, before that flat damage basically did nothing.  This makes skeleton builds actually look somewhat

attractive

Minion Life: Makes minions you only care about for defensive purposes so much better, amazing change.

Tendrils rework - I want to try this as an EE skill for summoners and not actually make a build around this is that bad

Ruthless - was abusable as Blade Flurry, cyclone wasn't that abusable but still a bit abusable.  No more tap tap -> 6 stack Blade Flurry for insane damage immediately

Earthquake radius: E Q J U G G B U F F

Vaal Power Siphon: 120 unit radius was offscreen except in the top left/right corners of the client in 16:9 ratio.  70 radius is a significant nerf and you'll want to be in the

middle of a lot of mobs for that, still covers most of the screen though.  Pretty significant nerf though, means you actually have to play the skill a bit differently but still

should be pretty alright with soul generation jewels

Life regen: yay better flat regen, actually kind of like this, 20 flat is a bit worse than a minor node on the tree generally but still kinda nice, might be even better for

leveling

Lycosidae: T1 unique now, kinda makes sense but really sucks for some builds.  Makes rare armour/jewellery with accuracy all the more attractive now though

Bisco's Collar: T1 unique, basically a chase item, still just as good.  It was certainly way too common but i still think the quant needs a nerf

Omen on the Winds: ? don't get why and it doesn't do much anyways

Dancing Dervish: Eh

Pandemonius: Insane amulet already, becomes even better

Reflect changes: I'm curious how this will look/work

Warband life/damage: please don't make this a buff to overgrown ruin bosses they have more than enough life as is seriously

Tukohama's Vanguards and Wicker Men
- Nerf to using Necro Aegis Totem shield (the shield wasn't necessary for good damage)
- 5 second totems instead of 10 (whatever, this makes them do more damage on clear if anything)
- the 1 totem wording is confusing.  Will test when I get to act 6 on 3.1.  If 2 spectres = 2 totems, they're still insane single target

- Wicker Man nerf needs to be tested, still could be decent on a 6l, we'll see at the start of the league when getting into maps
- They still hit really hard with melee and have a high damage molten strike, their tankiness is unchanged so probably still good support for SRS

- Overall, shaper kill speed should remain very similiar, the Dyadus interaction wasn't changed either.  Burn spectres reign supreme for spectre builds looking to kill the

hardest endgame bosses

- Solar guards are unchanged, they can kill endgame bosses but are much slower and fights can get very awkward

MoM Changes:
- Wow you actually need to have some sort of mana on gear or more mana nodes instead of just taking 4 nodes and boom you have 43% more life xd
- Pretty big deal for leveling but still good for leveling

Zana mods:
- Kind of confused about Essence being 5c?  That seems a bit high especially for a level 7 mod
- Nemesis is replaced with Domination and is now level 6.  Domination gives The Gull which is still REALLY good, we'll see a lot of gull usage this league more than

likely.  Enjoy clicking the tiny shrines though
- Fortune Favours the Brave is interesting to say the least, generally will be worth the value for 3c.  Pretty cool stuff
- No Perandus mod but Perandus Manor is in the list of unique map clear challenges.  This should mean Perandus Manor can drop now as there's no other way to get it (other than time-lost relic which is stupid rare)

Death's Oath:
- Was going to be the ggez HoGM farmer, now no longer.  Back to EA and arc mines and such

Sunder:
- Bug fix, but this DOES nerf the skill
- Single target nerf, pretty significant to not have every shockwave hit the target.  The clear is still insane and it's still one of the best leveling skills in the game.
- if we see 6l warchief 4l sunder for the sunder meta i'm going to lol so fucking hard
- we might even see 4l sunder and a 6l skill that's better damage single target??

Text vibration is gone finally thank you based god



Build changes

Sunder - still insane leveling skill, lost single target endgame
- Shockwaves were also hitting the target you hit with the wave, giving it more damage on the target you hit making the single target do something like 270% base

damage instead of 180%
- AoE clear is 99% unaffected by this change
- people will adapt to this and come up with something to make it still work just as well, just need new single target setups
- the single target for pure mapping wasn't as bad as everyone seems to talk about, honestly.  it's just bad for uber atziri/shaper, but for general mapping it was fine

SRS - flat damage scales better, buffing it slightly.
- Covenant looks all the more attractive now for SRS
- Baron is still BiS especially with a helmet enchant, just not immediately better than a bone helmet anymore.
- Due to the map changes and the buff to indoor maps, which SRS is actually really good in due to difference in AI, SRS looks amazing
- Wicker man support spectres still need testing, but look kinda alright
- Minion Life helps using an animate guardian which is awesome
- Lycosidae rarity increase actually really sucks for non-staff variants especially for the highest tier maps, but SRS is still great without it (wtb minion accuracy on

minion damage nodes on tree)

Spectres - Not much changed here
- Really good in open maps, but may not be as good for race to 100 due to SRS being better in indoor maps
- Accuracy is neat, actually makes wicker man attacks even better as well as other spectres better, need to see how much accuracy it is
- Solar guards still #1 for clear
- Vanguards still top tier single target it seems? Needs testing, but by notes seems still amazing -- guardian survives more easily now too
--- You did NOT need the totem shield and now theres no point in using it.
- Wicker Man needs testing
- Desecrate changes are better for leveling, endgame just hold onto a +2 chaos weapon if you're fast into super high tiers.  +1 chaos works as well and is craftable.  Still

max level corpses at level 20 desecrate
- MoM nerf hurts using Essence Worm because rings are actually a really good source of getting mana.
- Convocation is still 8 seconds whhhhhhhhhy
--- this might seriously hurt spectres power based on how good indoor maps are

Essence Drain
- WAY better leveling if wither totem works on Kitava now
- Single target is down a bit because of wither stacks being less damage, not because of 20 stack being lowered - most builds didn't hit 20 stack wither
- New curse is great for ED
- MoM nerf means you need more mana investment on gear - kind of a slight nerf to survival but it's fine

Dark Pact - a LOT of interesting changes here, yes it's nerfed, but it's still very viable and there's even more interesting things

Self-Cast Dark Pact
- Probably the most affected by the changes, radius hurts this the most.
- Damage is fine
- Possibility of using Skeleton totems for this is bigger due to minion life changes
- DESPAIR CURSE IS A VERY BIG DEAL, also enables witchfire usage
--- Cospri's Will could potentially be insane on Self Cast now, -chaos res + dot damage on the curse.  Yes poison doesn't do a lot of damage, but it's extra damage

Totem Dark Pact
- Less affected as you are getting multiple dark pacts at once, so you don't need the radius bonus as badly.
- Still a pretty damn good build which may have been buffed by Despair curse

Necro Dark Pact might be a thing with skele stuff

Glacial Cascade
- GC miner got AoE buffed, the jewels actually nerf your single target if you had a helmet enchant though
--- Jewels are replacing damage jewels (notably crit multi) which actually hits the single target a bit, but that doesn't really matter
- Overall buffed, won't be MUCH better for single target but will still be amazing for unlocking atlas especially
- Should be a great build for trying to get elder/shaped items
- This is a squishy build and was ABSOLUTELY affected by MoM nerfs though - you will want more mana investment now, GC is SUPER expensive

RF builds
- Harder to start but still should be fine with RoTP
- Lost intimidate from belt but not that big of a deal
- Zerker RF is gonna have a harder time, should still be able to manage (side note - i'm not a fan of this build so there's a bit of bias here)
- MoM changes are pretty brutal for inquis, need to switch some mana investment into life, but should be alright
--- Inquis RF SR should still be pretty good but will require a decent bit more
- This will probably scare people away from RF until someone makes a youtube video day 2 killing shaper with RF SR again I WONDER WHO THIS IS

Wanders
- Insane AoE clearer in VPS for low maps is nerfed pretty significantly. Still works on skinnier linear maps like Vault - just got nerfed hard on maps like Dunes
- Barrage nerf did nothing, KB is unchanged
- Lycosidae makes it a bit harder to get accuracy
- "Fortune Favours the Brave" makes esh shield more common
- Queen of the Forest kind of hurts but will still be used.  All this means is that Pathfinder is no longer as amazing for wander and other options, such as Raider, are

more attractive.
- With buffs to indoor maps KB single target with Vaal Lightning Warp might actually own lol

Doomfletch
- Shadow crit jewel makes up a bit for lost crit
- Phys damage on jewels are making this still look incredible

Skeletons
- Still not a good starter build due to rarity of the jewels
- Added damage effectiveness changes are HUGE - Flat damage from the auras basically did nothing before and there was basically no reason to run flat auras.  Now it

will actually buff skeleton damage by more than 10%.
--- Haste was literally giving more damage than Anger was, this will change substantially - flat damage is getting a 114% buff



Starting build tiers --

NOTE THAT THESE ARE STARTER BUILDS -- NOT OVERALL BUILDS.  Builds that are harder to start with no gear/currency will not be in this list
Some of these builds will go down in tier later in the league.
This is probably going to be biased a bit towards SSF

Tier 1:
- SRS Necro (if indoor maps are good, likely to be first level 100 SSF)
- Spectres Necro (SRS to start before you go pure, these are basically same tree)
- ED Trickster Life MoM (got buffed for progression as wither totem works on big bosses, has ability to go Low Life later as well)
- Sunder Glad/Slayer (kinda tier 1.5ish? still the best leveling melee skill, bug fix nerfed single target which hurts red map bossing a bit)
- Dark Pact Totems? (this is speculation.  Looks really nice at the moment even with nerfs.  Despair may make it overall buffed.  Great boss killer, okayish clear speed.  You won't level as this build but you can transition to it pretty early)

Tier 2:
- GC Miner (kinda eh clear but one of the best boss killers potentially.  Squishy & not a good clearspeed build)
- Warchief totems (higher tier if you plan on farming uber lab/bosses) bad clear
- EK Nova/BV (great clear speed but you need a BV swap for single target unless you hate yourself that much)
- FP/Frostbolt Totems (untouched, amazing clearspeed, a bit higher tiered in non-SSF)
- Self Cast Storm Call (speculation.  pretty good speed level skill, kinda feels shitty without helmet enchant.  interesting skill with Spell Cascade.  single target is eh)
- RF SR Inquis (This takes gear to get running and you'll need a transitional build.  Great lab runner, gear might be cheap in trade league)

Tier 3:
- Self cast dark pact (could use skele totem better, but clear went down and not a good boss killer)

===========================================

Later game tiers (access to trading/more gear)

Note that these are guesses on how this will be.  Some of this is probably wrong and there may be other builds that pop out because of shaped/elder items or uniques.  Or new skills.

- SRS Necro (Hard to get the best gear, but lycosidae necro aegis SRS with covenant looks great.  Baron nerf doesn't hurt the build much)
--- Clear speed linear: 7/10
--- Clear speed open: 10/10
--- Clear speed indoors: 10/10
--- Boss killing: 9/10
--- Survivability: 9/10

- Spectres Necro (solar guards are amazing, high survivability, high damage, can kill shaper depending on what the burn spectres nerf is)
--- Clear speed linear: 10/10
--- Clear speed open: 9/10
--- Clear speed indoors: 5/10
--- Boss killing: 9/10 with cannibal fire eaters, 7.5/10 with solar guards (10/10 if 3 vanguards = 3 totems)
--- Survivability: 10/10

- Frost Blades (damage is there, only the survivability is a question)
--- Clear speeds pretty good...
--- Boss killing and survivability kind of affect each other.  The better single target, the lower survivability you probably have

- RF/SR (takes a bit more investment but no damage nerfs happened and also easier access to essences this league)
--- Clear speed: good in linear pretty meh indoor
--- Boss killing: 9/10

- Low Life ED (Despair looks amazing for it, overall buffed)
--- Clear speed is good but hard to judge, this heavily depends on density

- HoWA spec throw raider (ES can use VP again, actually buffs hybrid howa that uses soul tether as well)
--- Clear Speed: 10/10 (6/10 in indoor)
--- Boss killing: 9/10
--- Survivability: 8/10

- Doomfletch (If we can get phys on jewels this is certainly t1)
--- I honestly have no idea about bow builds these days i just know its good and the damage won't get hurt that badly

- GC Miner (T1 only for end game bossing, not really for clear)
--- Clear Speed: 6/10
--- Boss killing: 10/10
--- Survivability: 7/10

Tier 2:
- Skele Mages (Flat damage scaling is insane, helps the build.  Life on skeles is lacking & still struggles on bosses)
- Wander (shield easy to get but VPS nerf prevents it from being absurd clear.  Damage still good, but clear speed got hit due to MS nerfed)
- 2h Cyclone (Honestly don't know about this)

Tier 3:
- Cleave (great aoe, will probably be better single target than sunder now, requires 2 weapons though.  Not a good endgame boss killer imo)
- Basic Phys Sunder (good for clearing maps, single target really hurts it.  Again, it's mostly a starter build.  You'll still be able to kill red map bosses with it, it'll just take longer)