John Yang posted some info in the PTR forum about bugs and tweaks to some Barbarian bracers and sets.
Not for you…
Bracers of Destruction
We think the general design of this item is fine but the damage bonus needs to affect a few more enemies to be effective in more situations. In the next patch the damage bonus will apply to the first 5 enemies hit by Seismic Slam instead of the first 2.
Additionally, the bug where the Immortal King’s 6pc bonus currently does not work on the PTR will be fixed with the next PTR patch.
As I’ve said before, we do want Hammer of the Ancients and Seismic Slam builds to be high-end builds and your continued testing, theorycrafting, and feedback is helping. Thanks all in this thread, other threads in this forum, and in class forums.
The grim shadow of Mortick’s Brace continues to loom over the Barbarian’s forearms community. NEVER FORGET!!1!
Seriously though, is anyone playing a Barb on the PTR this time? Barb and DH had the fewest new items or changes, but at least Barbs got these items that are intended to enable new builds. I don’t know if they are; it’s hard to see stationary skills like HotA and Seismic Slam competing with the super fast movement of Spin2Win, but at least Blizzard’s making the effort?
The damage output may be fine in one spot, standing still. You’re right on with the movement speed issues. No way the slam barb can produce the combo of both damage and speed. One exception would be a leap-slam-WW, with leap and WW basically used to escape and/or some cc. when needed.
When you hear “change” and automatically think about “nerf”, then there is definetely some underlaying Developer to Player communication issue.
Given that not everyone thinks that way I think you should at least consider that the issue isn't with the devs communication.
It's good that they fixed the AS bonus from buffing WW, which is all anybody would have used it for. But I think the general consensus is that the damage buff is not quite sufficient to make a HotA build viable. It's possible that a SS or HotA build might work, but unlikely. As you point out, standing still often leads to not having a good time.
I really want Slam to be viable. Slam was my favorite build in Vanilla, and I’d love to actually be able to use it again. I still think they need to buff the IK 6pc. 100% just doesn’t cut it in a game where 750% Hammerdin damage and 800% WD damage is acceptable.
You can't compare the sets like that. In the case of the IK set the 100% damage buff triggers when you active another huge damage multiplier and powerful "pets", which is also extra damage and you can maintain the buff even while on the move. The Crusader and WD sets don't work like that at all. Bigger numbers don't mean better set.
I can, and will, compare the sets like that when HotA crits for maybe 800m with IK6 and Hammers crit for 3b with the Hammer set while being more mobile and with higher damage reduction. Every competitive set has a monstrous 6pc damage bonus. There’s no excuse for IK’s to be so weak. And no, CotA with TNT cubed and a fire build doesn’t really help matters. They peak at around 1b dps contributed. CotA’s main purpose in the set is to generate fury and body block lightning affixes. And die, since they nerfed Swords to Ploughshares.
The pigeonhole police strike again. Remember kids, if you think outside the box, don't post those thoughts on the ptr forums.
no barb for me next season! i promise! i think …ya so i got the kanai's cube from the ptr at the beginning. haven't tried it.then i went on the s4 ptr and started a wd, but soon stopped, about lvl 8 because = useless.my agenda for season 4 is the with doctor only because all i want is:KITTEN ON A STICK!
I'm not sure these affixes are going to make these two skills "viable." They need full sets to back them up.