LOL, funny thing - your quotation from catboi is actually him quoting ME earlier. (6th post on the page)
And I still stand by that assertion. No, CE isn't 'broken', but it's incredibly unbalanced. It's indicative of the balance issues that remain. I wager that CE will become a huge crowdkiller even in 8 player hell if it is indeed fully restored and able to scale up to 8 player monster health. I like the skill, but it shouldn't be my only avenue for killing. Look at sorcs - Fireball, Meteor, Orb, Blizzard, Firewall, Static, Nova, Chain Lightning, Charged Bolt etc. Barbs - variety of weapons (which actually alter playing style), Frenzy, Berzerk, Whilrwind, Double Throw, etc. You get the idea. Personally I think there is a problem if 1 skill is super overpowered while the rest are relatively weak. Don't you think that an almost exclusively minion based character should have a minion that (with like 80 points invested) can deal more direct damage than 500 fire? Ignoring CE for the moment, I think if I want to play a zookeeper style character, I should at least be able to kill a monster or 2 to get the army started. There shouldn't be an unwritten law that without CE, you are going to kill ponderously slow, be that in 1, 4 or 8 player. I was hoping that it was these sorts of imbalances and limitations that Blizzard would address for 1.10.
One more thing. I think you give too much credit to blizzard assuming that they intentionally made CE balanced by making the rest of the necro's offensive capabilities incredibly weak. Do you honestly believe they intended for lvl 30 or so IM to be virtually ineffective in hell difficulty? By the same token, where is that sense of balance for other characters? I don't think it has ever existed. How else can you explain charged bolt becoming a tour de force?
And I still stand by that assertion. No, CE isn't 'broken', but it's incredibly unbalanced. It's indicative of the balance issues that remain. I wager that CE will become a huge crowdkiller even in 8 player hell if it is indeed fully restored and able to scale up to 8 player monster health. I like the skill, but it shouldn't be my only avenue for killing. Look at sorcs - Fireball, Meteor, Orb, Blizzard, Firewall, Static, Nova, Chain Lightning, Charged Bolt etc. Barbs - variety of weapons (which actually alter playing style), Frenzy, Berzerk, Whilrwind, Double Throw, etc. You get the idea. Personally I think there is a problem if 1 skill is super overpowered while the rest are relatively weak. Don't you think that an almost exclusively minion based character should have a minion that (with like 80 points invested) can deal more direct damage than 500 fire? Ignoring CE for the moment, I think if I want to play a zookeeper style character, I should at least be able to kill a monster or 2 to get the army started. There shouldn't be an unwritten law that without CE, you are going to kill ponderously slow, be that in 1, 4 or 8 player. I was hoping that it was these sorts of imbalances and limitations that Blizzard would address for 1.10.
One more thing. I think you give too much credit to blizzard assuming that they intentionally made CE balanced by making the rest of the necro's offensive capabilities incredibly weak. Do you honestly believe they intended for lvl 30 or so IM to be virtually ineffective in hell difficulty? By the same token, where is that sense of balance for other characters? I don't think it has ever existed. How else can you explain charged bolt becoming a tour de force?