People often post gameplay from modded realm difficulties and discuss builds they use there. There was discussion about what difficulty should be a template for balance purposes and there is a very important reason for that. Right now we have pretty good balance between weapons/classes and there are some stronger and some weaker but Cataclysm feels hard for a random group of people. Now lets increase difficulty and you don’t even need a modded realm for that, just use twich mode and deeds on Cataclysm and the game becomes much harder. We now see a much wider gap between classes because damage now becomes paramount and if you don’t take meta classes/weapons you become a liability for the team. The second issue of increasing difficulty is “bullet sponge” effect. I played many games that are guilty of it (Warframe, Division, Bethesda games).
What I am trying to say is that veterans should not give advice on bases of moded realm difficulty. The game is not balanced for it and in my opinion the game should be balanced for the highest difficulty available (Cataclysm should be free). I know that there are people that always chase higher difficulty (me included to a degree) but if we do it without care for balance and enjoyment of the game itself it will become stale. Do you really want people only to play BW, Shade and WHC because they are capable of insane damage on DWON3.?
When I am creating a build the first priority is that I will enjoy it. There is nothing wrong in playing optimal builds but don’t try to convince other people that something is worthless only because it is less optimal. I like to challenge myself but if I play too long as one class it becomes boring. There is also downside to it, playing too long as one carrier can make you less proficient in other classes. You will use your special ability in wrong situations under pressure (I do it sometimes when playing too long as one carrier). Enemies are also a resource of THP and for example BW can do insane damage but most of it will not give you THP.
Most veterans are aware of the fact that Fatshark uses a (vastly) different baseline for balancing and difficulty adjustment, and they are aware of it when they provide feedback. Also, Fatshark are quite independent in their decision-making when it comes to these issues. That’s why we have those community-made difficulty mods in the first place.
Also, I’m not sure if you have played C3 and the like yourself. Enemy health values (this spreadsheet should still be up to date) are increased, yes, but not by an inconsiderate amount. Of course, you’ll lose some breakpoint effectiveness with certain weapons and/or attacks but DPS isn’t key for high difficulty builds. Safety, utility and survivability are. The biggest challenge in DWONS is not related to damage, neither regarding output nor intake, but to enemies’ increased stagger resistances.
Stagger is related to damage because of lvl 10 talents and both WHC and BW have spammable ults. Damage also is related to cooldown/THP so it is important. I don’t play DWON3 (tried some but it is hard to find people) but played high weaves, hypertwich + deeds often. I know most veterans know better but when I see for the 100 time that people argue that some build is bad (on Cataclysm) because it will not work on DWON3 it annoys me.
I also think people shouldn’t refer modded difficulty. Modder isn’t dev. They may can do cool work though, then how about make their own balance mod again? Like rebalance mod. If FS is interested, they will adobt.
Right now, anything can work on cataclysm QP because many builds are known and people’s skill have grown up. So i think proper baseline would be cata+ things on official realm.
Personally, I don’t know why elitists like DWONS that much. I have played most of custom difficulties. Also participated ons tournaments. I couldn’t find any fun in DWONS. You need more dedicated group than higer weave because no one wants to play it. Hit feedback is gone. Enemy doesn’t stagger at all. Clutch is impossible on ons+. Also, mic is needed. Not much my local play use mic even though they can, also sometimes use different language.
Just my personal thought though, point is official should be standard. And hope free cataclysm difficulty release for at least balance problem.
In my experience most all modded players are aware that the modded realm is not a good template for balancing purposes since it’s not official content. However, when it comes to discussing builds it stands to reason that things that are effective in 200% hypertwitch deeds or DWONC3SQLGTX3070++Vanguard would also be effective builds for content that is easier.
So when people ask for a good build then people will often refer to stuff that is most effective rather than fun. Obviously there’s no point in playing the game if you don’t have fun with it but what everyone finds enjoyable is very subjective; I find it pretty hard to enjoy shields but I know a few people who live and breathe 'em.
You can clutch on Onslaught+, it’s just career/build dependent (just look at Vanish Shade). Stealth makes it easier, but WHC, Merc and such can still do it. Depends on the definition of what a clutch is I suppose, but if it’s saving a run on your own then it’s doable. Can’t get out of every bad situation but there’s still room for clutching.
My group frequently plays dwonsc3 and we rarely if ever use voice chat at all. I can’t speak for Onslaught+ but I don’t think it would be that much different, considering the difficulty increase from Onslaught to + is more about team composition and builds (like having tools to deal with the increased number of shields in Skaven hordes) than communication. In fact, one of players I play with and I find it easier without mic.