Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

Ho, also no mention of any new trading system in the patch notes. I'm think i'll probably end up vendoring most of my crap. No way i'm going to spam the trade chat for an entire day just to clear my stash tabs.

 

yes somehow I read your comments about "Cast on Damage Taken" as "Cast on Melee Kill". As to the adjustments being made that is how I read the balance change descriptions; since I'm not familiar with the degree of damage required I'm not sure how much of an impact the coming changes will have. If these changes do undermine current designs I think it might mark a change in skill gem combinations where players could shift their Enduring Cry and Molten Shell abilities to "Cast on Melee Kill". Just as I use Sweep or Leap Slam to generate these supported skills other players could alternate between their primary skills and their crowd control abilities. The effect would mostly be the same whilst requiring a little more player effort, however compared to manually casting these defensive abilities this remains a very convenient method for maintaining multiple defensive wards.

if you have a few items of general worth then you could always make a trade post and list them in there so that the item search website (which was linked on the last page or so) will list them if they meet search parameters. That is how I begin narrowing down trade selections and if you want you can also store these items on characters to help with inventory space.

 

Fuck Dominus and his stupid posse.

 

Its upwards to 2000hp, and that's after mitigation. Basically, at level 17 its only going to pop when you are getting one shooted or close to it. Chris said that they are going to fiddle with the damage necessary for the skill to trigger, so we'll see what happens.

This hurts my build in particular because i focused entirely on strength and blood magic (which i spected out recently but i might spec back into it as well). There are a lot of skills which requite too much int or dex for me to use, so Cast on Damage Taken was pretty much my only defensive ability. But in a way i'm glad they took it out. I tried to see what its like without it (i never played the beta so i started the game for the first time with the gem in mind) and the game is a lot more "gamey" now. Harder perhaps, but more strategic. But this reflects negatively on them because it really seems like they introduced the gem without bothering to test it. Maybe they forgot it wasn't beta anymore.

 

They were really good about nerfing during some phases of the Closed Beta.

The problem is Qarl is highly reactive to beta feedback. He's not afraid to nerf something into the ground and buff it back up next patch. I don't really agree with this approach to balancing and wish there were a school of thought developers could subscribe to that is more sane. It's too bad LoL is so popular or I'd use it as an example on how not to balance games.

 

What do you think will happen if they don't nerf/buff skills?In the end all people will start copy the OP build and groups will be 6 sparkers or 6 lightning arrow.They feel strongly that if one skill becomes mandatory for everybody it's broken,like the phase run or some auras before.

 

The way LoL is being balanced is wholly intentional. It's called "Perfect Imbalance". Basically the constant shift in champion and item strengths keeps meta constantly shifting. The game will never be Starcraft or chess, nor it wants to be. Here's a great video explaining the concept.




Yeah, the only problem I see with the new CoDT gem is that the trigger damage is little too high on higher levels. But to be fair, unless you want to use spells like Molten Shell offensively, there is little reason to max it. The armor increase isn't all that great past lvl 17. And as people already noted, curses and Enduring Cry are still useful at low levels.

 

But i don't want to keep my skills at low level. This was precisely the reason why the skill gem was flawed, that leveling it made it worse. Now you have to keep a bunch of other skills on low level too (and for most of us that means buying them anew, btw). Its even messier then before.

 

You don't HAVE to keep bunch of skills at low level. If you want to level all gems, you can do so. It's a decision between having a low level skill that triggers constantly or high level one that does so less often. How is this worse than previously when, unless you were using offensive skills, there was no reason whatsoever to level the support gem?

Lvl 1 CoDT will work with lvl 7 Molten Shell, lvl 5 Enfeeble and Enduring Cry, which I think is fair.

Oh, and holy shit, I didn't notice they reduced mana reservation % of Vitality. My life regen build will benefit from this as a third aura immensely. 500 life per second incoming!

 

Yeah, for all intended purposes, i don't HAVE to do anything in this game. I can even run up to Dominus naked flailing my dick. That's not much of an argument.

The point is that there if the is no reason to level the skill, the design is flawed. When GGG showcased CoDT in their "build of the week" promo, the gem was set at level 1. So they knew it was flawed, and they still released it, which raises some questions, at the very least.

Again, the entire concept of having to prevent your gems from leveling is flawed. I also think there's just something wrong about the idea that i have to buy those gems again. Like i said, its a very messy way to handle a nerf.

 

If you want the skills at their max efficiency, cast them manually then. CoDT already gives you automatic, uninterrupted casting of several skills at once for no resource costs. It's crazy to complain that you can't use the highest level gems with the skill as well. It is still a very strong skill that especially benefits melee characters who take the most damage.

What skill gems do you need? I have a bunch I don't need.

 

But that is the entire raison d'etre of a "trigger" gem. You might as well argue that its unfair that people can get Life Leech on a fully leveled Heavy Strike, which does a shit ton of damage. Its crazy!

If they want to limit the number of skills triggered, or the number of times a skill can be triggered, fine. But they cannot limit the effectiveness of the skills you want to link to the gem on pain of making the gem useless. I didn't level my Molten Shell to 20 or whatever just to replace it with a lower level version (and thank God none of my gems are of superior quality). Skills should get more powerful as you level them, and there should be plenty of incentives to level them. Period.

Its usefulness is not in question (though at this point it seems rather relative). Its design is what is in question.

 

I think you're just angry that you over-leveled your gems. But balance happens, changes are inevitable. Imagine all the 90+ lvl builds that got raped my balance changes. It's the nature of the game. Why do you cling on your gems so much? You'll die sooner or later and lose way more valuable shit than that anyway.

Also, where do you get this notion that all gems should be leveled and useful at all times? Doing so with many of them is actually a really bad idea. Most people don't level curses, auras and attack skills past a certain point because the returns don't justify the increased costs and attribute requirements. In the same manner not all quality gems are useful. Skills like Empower and Enhance do absolutely nothing at lvl 1, Arctic Armor is completely unusable with bloodmagic etc etc. There are plenty of skills and mechanics in PoE efficiency of which is limited under different circumstances.

 

I didn't "over" level my gems. I leveled them as intended.

Its called good game design. Broken design choices are not "features". Leveling and deleving gems according to the whims of the developers is not a proper game mechanic.

BTW, when is this fucking patch going live? I want to test the changes first hand.

 

well I just logged in and an official anouncement was made on chat the servers are about to go down.

regarding the discussion, GGG do tend to oscillate on their balance changes by firstly introducing what is evidently on the overpowered side and then goes about balance much to the chagrin of not a few players. That said I think we all basically agree the automaticity of Cast on Damage Taken was too convenient for the combined effects it could produce. And as you note Lyric Suite the passive casting of the gem had an excessive streamlining effect on actions which players can manually (i.e. 'micro) perform to effectively maintain powerful defensive skills.

edit: I strongly suggest starting with caution when playing after the patch, I don't recall GGG specifying any changes to the damage or damage types of certain creatures but I'm reasonably sure some have been significantly altered. What would have been a mostly risk free run through a lower level area to complete a quest objective almost caught me completely unawares.

 

What i'm going to do now is level CoDT and just link Immortal Call to it. I'm now casting Endurance Cry and Warlord Curse manually. Molten Shell on manual is pretty much worthless and i simply stashed it for the moment. What is really making the game difficult for me is the lack of automatic totem casting. I build my character for stun, and basically my biggest asset on bosses was putting them on a stun luck while totems (whether the Decoy or the Vitality one) aggroed minions. Now that strategy is pretty much out of the window. Well, at least for now. I have a feeling that once i hit 71+ maps the damage necessary to trigger the spell might be more common. I have 4200hp now. I imagine i'll probably hit 5000 at that point.

 

Use Summon Skeletons + Casting Totem for bosses, that way they won't kill the totems too fast. Also, use Faster Casting. There is a support gem that increases totem resistances. You can invest some passive skill points into totem life.

 

Well, it seems i found a way to pick up the rhythm again. Just murdered piety three times in a row. I don't know if i like spending passives for totems, i have a concept for this build and i want to try to stick to it. I'll reserve totem passives for other builds.

Eitherway, i'm heading for Dominus on merciless. Wish me luck.

 

Heh, that didn't go well. He one shotted me the moment i got close to him. I have 4500 hp btw. I'm going to level so i don't lose more xp then i'll try again.

 

Glad to see you're not just bumrushing him death after death, as most softcorefags do.

I'm currently in merciless act2 in nemesis. Found another CoDT gem, now I'm a walking proc. Will keep this at low level for easy endurance charges and frost wall spam.

 

Don't be so glad. I had to bumrush him to death. Softcorefag? You don't even know the half of it. He basically one shotted me with every single attack. There was not even an instant where i kinda made it. Sometimes i would die the moment i zoned back in due to the rain (thank God i had the foresight to open my portals outside the area).

To be frank, i am at a loss here. There is no strategy i could have used, he is simply not doable for my level/gear/life whatever. What i found puzzling is that there was no indication to how challenging the fight was going to be. I cleared Scepter of God with my eyes closed and i dispatched his minion-bosses with ease. Also, another odd thing is that he is not very resilient. I basically ripped him to shreds any time i had the opportunity.

Anyway, nice touch with the crappy 66 map reward. But then, i suppose his drops are reward enough (though he didn't drop anything interesting for me).

 

I finally parted with my Exalted Orb which had been kept for over 80 odd levels between two or more characters. Although aware that it's prudent to trade for quality items to keep one's character in good form I could for the most part rely on an assortment of orbs to meet most of the trades sought for. However on this occasion the armour I intended to trade for although not as costly as expected would not be exchanged for anything but Chaos Orbs. So I was in a bit a predicament since the armour would serve me well (and has probably ensured my character enduring a few subsequent encounters) yet I had no remaining Chaos Orbs for trade purposes. That is most likely the third or fourth Exalted Orb I have ever found (outside of past league or race rewards) and thought to save it for an especially rare item where its particular value would assist with trading.

as to my former warning about caution after the recent patch, well it turns out the particular creature I came across was bugged and resulted in 738 hardcore or Nemesis characters being lost, all of which were restored due to the heightened damage the creature had after patch related issues.

also just went past Dominus on Cruel and found the battle significantly harder than any previous experiences with my evasion characters. I have never actually been poisoned or had the Corrupting Blood effect applied whilst inside the protective zone since my character typically evades attacks that apply status effects. As such was not expecting this sudden concentration of damage over time and almost lost multiple times. In fact it was not much of a victory given the over reliance on town portal scrolls (and just how close I still almost lost on each return). I don't intend to try Dominus until closer to level 70 on my Ranger and as to my Templar that remains to be seen since I cannot bring myself to focus on defensive skills for much longer.

 

Does Dominus use poison in the last phase - or, indeed, status effects other than the bleed?

My Nemesis Scion just got murdered by Dominus on Cruel a few days ago - the annoying part is I don't even know what dealt so much damage while I was inside the bubble. I didn't notice any status effects so I figured it was the adds which he kept summoning almost as fast as I could dispatch 'em.

 

Get a bleed potion for Dominus fight.

 

Yeah, that pretty much goes without saying. Granite flasks also help.