Finally got around to reading the 1.0.5 path notes. Meh. More nerfs to DH, especially that shit Trail of Cinders nerf. Now they nerf Shadow Power and Gloom.
I'm pretty excited about the patch. Even though some defensive skills from pretty much every class have been nerfed it's intended to be a net buff (by way of lowering Inferno enemy damage and health) while facilitating a wider range of builds being viable (defensive skills not being a total necessity, basically). Taken in concert with the Monster Power system and only iLVL 58+ drops in inferno, it seems like the patch will go far in balancing the game.
One aspect of the patch notes that seems fairly important to me is (paraphrasing because I'm on mobile): "affixes roll based on monster level, no longer item level". What does this really mean for drops? Sounds like it could be a significant change to itemization, especially when considering the buffed Inferno loot table and the (essentially speaking) increased MF granted by the Monster Power system.
The core gameplay of...well, I'm going to say Monks, because I don't have significant experience with any other class, is very satisfying and they've gone a long way in balancing it the last few patches (not the monk class but the game itself). It's starting to remind me of Kid Icarus in that it's this web of different gameplay systems that form a unique and satisfying whole and give it real identity within its genre. They'll never fix the drop rate because it's in their monetary interest to keep God-tier items scarce, but it's also just as much in their interest to keep the players they have and attract new ones, so they're going to have to do something to make playing the game worth your while and we've seen that with the Paragon system and the serious nerfing of Inferno. It's not a perfect game but I think it's approaching something pretty good.
Gloom is a net nerf, which is what he's talking about.
I didn't explain this in my unedited post but since I'm on mobile I wasn't able to check every single nerf/buff, my point was just that Blizzard has indicated that even though many individual defensive skills have been nerfed, every class should experience a net buff because of the heavily nerfed inferno difficulty, I can only speak knowledgeably about Monk class, so if that's not the case for any other class that's outside of my wheelhouse.
