Why did they decide to take out divergent boneshatter?

I don't understand GGG's logic in removing divergent and going with the other alt quality gems on boneshatter. I was planning on playing BS late in the end game and boss farming on it, but alakaizer and other people keep saying it's not worth it anymore.

Also, I was looking forward to Goratha's glacial hammer build again, but it looks like they nerfed some of the functionality in that one as well.

I love melee. I'm curious, where are people getting the "melee is only 10% of our player base" comments from? Does anyone have a source?

This is only my second league and I might just wait until these particular skills get buffed again to league start again.

"

AcidBath66 wrote:

I'm curious, where are people getting the "melee is only 10% of our player base" comments from? Does anyone have a source?

Chris Wilson said that himself during a Baeclast, i think it was the one for the crucible announcement but don't quote me on that. As for Boneshatter, just another nerf victim from this league, one among hundreds.

I wouldn't bother waiting for melee skills seeing buffs, the chance of it never happening is like 99,99% and the only reason it's not 100% is because another slipup like vengeant cascade might happen at some point that ends up benefitting some melee skills. But intended melee buffs are less likely than the sun freezing over.

Tons of people here on the forums, and even in this thread, are claiming that melee is more than fine, so a few indirect nerfs won't hurt, right? Right?

Personally, I'm having a blast with Boneshatter of Complex Trauma, as it "lets" you use Multistrike (which gives you close to the feeling of Divergent BS) - and with some tweaking, you should be able to more or less maintain 8-9 stacks, which is the perfect scenario. Kind of hard to do, but it's doable. That said, it has of course a lower ceiling than Divergent BS, but the same fun factor.

I still think melee falls short in the grand scheme of things, and I think buffed up league monsters are a good example of melee falling short. And before people come in here to tell me that melee is "fine"; I agree, a few melee builds are "fine", but what is "fine" compared to "excellent"? And what does it take to make them "fine" versus the toughest content?

"

Phrazz wrote:

Tons of people here on the forums, and even in this thread, are claiming that melee is more than fine, so a few indirect nerfs won't hurt, right? Right?

That is correct. Let me make this simple so you can understand. If we use numbers to measure build power then the build power needed to beat everything in the game including ubers and shit is a 10. There are plenty of melee builds that have a value of 20 for 30-40 divines (and that's a conservative estimate). The fact that you and so many others here are incapable of even getting a 5 out of their builds is a player issue, not a game issue. Even with some indirect nerfs there is still plenty of leeway. And yes, there are a FOTM builds every now and then that can be a 30 for the same budget but considering how it's already an overkill with 20 that hardly even matters in practise.

"

Phrazz wrote:

Tons of people here on the forums, and even in this thread, are claiming that melee is more than fine, so a few indirect nerfs won't hurt, right? Right?

Considering Boneshatter is the only melee build that can be called meta you shouldnt be suprised its first one from all melee skills to get any nerf. Direct or not.

"

AcidBath66 wrote:

I was planning on playing BS late in the end game and boss farming on it, but alakaizer and other people keep saying it's not worth it anymore.

Nothing stops you from doing so. Following up with favorite streamer xyz's words isn't always the best choice you can do in this game.

Not saying I couldn't, but there's far better builds that I can run that would handle that specific content better. Does that mean that boneshatter sucks? No. I'm just trying to make the point that we lost divergent boneshatter, which was much better for end game content.

"

AcidBath66 wrote:

Why did they decide to take out divergent boneshatter?

They didn't decide to do anything like that. They decided to make a new gem system, and hundreds of new gems, and had limited time to get the first batch out with self-imposed restrictions on initial variety. There will be more waves of transfigured gems. If any playstyles were missed they will probably return in a future wave along with other new options to try.

the goal is to remove melee from the game

"

openup001 wrote:

the goal is to remove melee from the game

Then they failed. Melee is better than it ever was.