As someone who actually plays Twister builds since 0.2 and always level at least one twister character per league (this league I leveled two actually), Twister is fun, feels good and it's kinda strong.

That being said, I've decided to make some tests as twister leaguestart and I really don't know where all the "twister must be nerfed" discourse is coming from. Let's talk pros and cons

Pros:

• It comes online really early, you only need two level 1 gems and everything else is just extra, builds like this feels really good to play
• Mapping is really smooth, you'll never have any problems just smashing through trash mobs
• Twisters can shotgun and melt bosses if properly positioned
• Works with almost any class and ascendancy

Cons:

• Extremely gear dependant after act 4
• Bossing after interludes suck ASS if you can't properly position the boss to get shotgunned by all twisters
• Very squishy at low attack speed (you'll get lots of hits trying to set up 3 whirling slashes)
• You can't reliably get elemental ground without uniques or lots of setups

That does not make the build OP, it makes the build viable, but I still want to address some arguments made by the community about this build

"It trivializes the campaign!"

First of all, there are LOTS of builds that will trivialize the campaign, even on leaguestart, you probably just saw GuyThatDies beating his WR on twister and made the assumption that the build was busted for campaign, but if you actually saw the video you'd seen that his run was basically perfect RNG wise. If you want to trivialize the campaign, you will find lots of builds for that.

"It comes online too easily!"

So? There are builds and builds, some will come online at level 1 and work for the entire campaign and some will come online at interludes and you'll only experience them on maps.

"Look at Prada's Abyssal Lich, it's way too op!"

I saw this one yesterday and I was baffled. This is an uber endgame build that costs thousands of divines to even come online and most definitely should feel powerful for the sheer amount of time and dedication you have to put on it.

What about after the campaign?

This is where this build really starts to fall off and you need some good gear to get it going.

Starting on interludes, bosses and trash mobs get more tanky, and this translates to maps as well, and I'm 100% sure of what I'm talking, start a twister build right now on SSF and compare your clear speed in acts 1-3 and then in acts 4-maps, it's day and night without proper gear.

Conclusion:

It's a good build, I'm not going to sit here telling you twister is trash, no, twister is great and a very reliable build to leaguestart, but it's not all of that people are saying, I hope twister discourse gets settled!

All these new shiny uniques and almost none will be used because you lose +levels.

Sceptre wasn't nerfed, and +minions wasn't nerfed, so Ravens flock is pretty much dead in the water. The damage lost just equipping that staff is insane. The new companion sceptre, same deal.

This applies to so many uniques. For melee and bow perhaps this nerf was enough, but for caster or minion builds (which ironically GGG added the most cool uniques for this league) the consequence in equipping these items is too much.

I just think +levels really hinders build creativity and variety.

With no jokes or rants, without any toxicity, i genuinely want someone from GGG balance team to come up in that thread and tell the reasoning behind current change for Shield Wall.

Why is Shield Wall nerfed to the ground and Twisters still can shotgun? Was SW some kind of meta that everybody played (like LA, LS, Ice shot) that deserve that nerf nuke? I dont even mind ~15% damage loss on SW tho.

I played mace every league from 0.1.

My 0.4 feedback

My 0.3 feedback

Non of that was even remotely addressed (to be clear feedback not about "damage bad" its about how clunky mace skills to use).

The only pure buff we have in that balance update is Earthquake with ~13% damage increase. But the problem with Earthquake not the damage. It is 4 second base delay for erruption. You need 2 additional supports and around 30 point investment (where 17-20 points only for travel nodes) to decrease that delay to 0.3 seconds. You cannot balance this skill just with damage twicks.

Supercharged Slam still unusable with 4 seconds "stay still and charge" for moderate damage. Instead of removing fixed attack time and add channel scale we have "description update".

Rolling Slam is good chage but again why not completely remove TAT and apply Sunder treatment here?

I get it that mace fantasy is not about "attacking fast" but TAT is not fun at all. It is some bandaid that solves animation breaking when reaching insane AS. But why that logic do not apply to spears and quaterstaffs then?

Animation canceling still not addressed.

• Leap Slam needs dodge rolling just after landing
• Shield Charge needs dodge rolling
• Boneshatter needs dodge rolling

It is not optional. You NEED to do that otherwise you will stack with animation wind-down for some time. And it is not only critical not to stand still in that game but it just feels weird and unpleasant.

I genuinely want that conversation open because 1.5 year we have that clunkiness with mace skills. And now that state will be frozen until 1.0 (so another 6 month) and at this point i am afraid that those problems won't be addressed in 1.0 either.

Especially the Essence buff is one of my most anticipated changes, especially as a SSF player!. That and the base type stuff will be really nice for campaign crafting!

 

• Martial Weapons and Flasks found in the campaign are now more likely to be of the highest base type available at that level.

• The overall number of Essences found in the campaign has been increased, though the proportion of these being Essences of the Infinite has been significantly decreased. This will lead to finding more useful essences as you progress.

• The amount of Armour granted by items and modifiers has been increased as you get to higher levels. At level 65, you should have approximately 33% more Armour, tapering down to 15% at level 80+.

• The amount of Evasion granted by items and modifiers has been increased as you get to higher levels. At level 65, you should have approximately 33% more evasion, tapering down to 15% at level 80+.