Build Diversity
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I kind of view this issue as inevitable.
Either all builds perform relatively the same across all content. Or we allow difficulty to filter out builds with weaknesses. This causes builds to adapt and converge on solutions for fixing those weaknesses, creating a homogenous meta. "Beidat honored the pact, though Mancy wouldn't take off Doryani’s prototype."
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Stat stackers work like a template you should pretty much ignore them as a group, they are extremely strong but fundamentally it doesn't matter if they are using molten strike or infernal blow the fundamentals of the build are the same - as are they multipliers that represent why its so popular with the meta players.
That being said diversity is pretty solid atm as long as you aren't doing the very peak content, just ignore the popular builds pick what you want and make it work - it pretty much does. |
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unless you bake in diminishing returns or have caps then stacking one thing is almost always going to beat out hybrid/balanced setups.
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I have a Death's Oath Occultist in our small private league. I'm "stat stacking" chaos damage and it turns out adding more damage makes a build better. Grand reveal!
The difference is that you can find Attributes on every piece of equipment whereas raw chaos damage is harder to come by. That, and the fact that there's % scaling for Attributes, makes stacking Attributes so powerful. That's not a build diversity problem though. It's one of many archetypes that has been functional for the highest tier of endgame mapping. But don't be mistaken, there are many more builds and archetypes that are in the same bracket or even stronger. Besides, I find complaints about build diversity mistimed because frankly, this league probably has the best build diversity since idk how long. Even if you look at the most popular skills KB and KBoC, you see a good spread among Ascendancies. Maybe not the right time for that particular complaint The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge.
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i do think stacking builds are a problem ive posted about it many times. i dont think build diversity is rly a problem tho. the whole reflecting mist thing in theory is cool but its just added too much extra power to architypes that were already probably too powerful. i think they should just remove them.
" its not as bad as that. there are countless builds that can do T16 maps and probably even T17 if they are willing to roll them to avoid the mods that counter them. its only really extreme valdo maps, highest wave simus and unthinkably deep delving where stuff actually gets so hard that build diversity really starts to shrink, and hardly anyone cares about any of that content. i have characters that can do those things but i never really do them, i just play maps, sideways delve around 300-600, not interested at all in simus. that stuff is irrelevant, if you want to benchmark an extreme high end build its there, if you want a reason you are wearing 8 mirrors in gear you can go beat some of that content and feel like it was worth it i guess? a tiny tiny fraction of people farm valdos for profit with extreme builds. sure. a tiny fraction also make the same amount of money with a lvl81 character standing in their hideout flipping items. its irrelevant, its a game if you want to play the game and have fun for 99% of endgame people thats gonna be running maps, fighting pin bosses, doing a bit of delve, some blighted maps and theres endless builds that can do all that stuff. " its not rly everyone tho, its probably closer to 1% of endgame players at the top extreme playing stackers and as Draegnarrr says its not "every build is an attribute stacker" as much as its the stacker builds often have the most damage and are not tied to a skill so the same build can put in fireball or salvo or ice spear or freeze pulse or ball lightning or frost bolt and the build works but really thats just 1 overpowered build that can use all those skills. thw thing with leagues is a very small group of dedicated people want to get ahead in an economy so they will flock to proven meta trends, builds that use a lot of staple uniques and stack something simple like int are easy to follow and copy. its not that build diversity isnt there they just dont want it, they want a shortcut to making economic wealth and the more cookie cutter a setup is with items that have guaranteed availability in leagues like uniques the better is serves their purpose. they could be using tons of builds, they just dont know the other builds, dont care, zero interest in working out their own thing or searching far,taking risks. I love all you people on the forums, we can disagree but still be friends and respect each other :)
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" Those new rings are actually a really good attempt by GGG to address OP's concerns. It's a brand new thing you can stack to advance your character. New items like the overcapped lightning res --> mana amulet have entered the "official" meta this league as well. |
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" Yea, and it's double the fun for Death's Oath since it scales both with Chaos Damage as well as Aura Effect. It's almost like they made that ring with DO in mind specifically. :D One of the most fun mappers I have played in a long time actually The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge.
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stackers problem has more to do with being able to scale both offence and defence with a single stat than anything else for instance str can:
*stack flat attack damage from couple uniques and mods *stack increased damage from iron fortress + crown of eyes *stack attack speed from keystone *stack crit chance from accuracy with keystone + unique gloves *stack life, armor and aoe and probably a few more things that i dont remember right now, A posible solution to stackers is to rebalance them so one can only boost 1 stat. as an example
Spoiler
Brutus' Lead Sprinkler from Adds 4 to 7 Fire Damage to Attacks with this Weapon per 10 Strength to Adds 6 to 12 Fire Damage to Attacks with this Weapon per 10 Strength new mod that prevent strength from being used to buff any other stat for things like energy blade it could go from Energy Blades have min/max Lightning Damage equal to % of Energy Shield Two Handed Energy Blades have 70% more Lightning Damage Buff grants 50% less Maximum Energy Shield to Energy Blades have min/max Lightning Damage equal to % of reserved ES Two Handed Energy Blades have 70% more Lightning Damage reserves all your ES The point is it should not be posible to boost multiple things from a single stat, either one or the other. my take on build diversity is that there are a lot of viable builds but between the entry cost of many of them being a bit to expensive for the average player and GGG that for some reason keeps making content that is all about clearspeed a lot of builds feel horribly weak or useless. Last edited by Iamterribleatnames#6579 on Nov 20, 2025, 9:10:56 PM
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You can't make thousands of builds balanced both offensively, defensively, and speed.
If you want lots of builds, you need difficulty to be low. As long as difficulty is reasonably high, people must optimize to the few top builds. You cant have it both ways. |
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