Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[d1r]

fuck the expedition.

Rebalance seems like to be best thing that will happen to POE in fucking years.

1. Flask spam gone
2. Triggers finally will use mana and will give them a way to fix mana.
3. Movement skills hyge nerf
4. damage support gems nerfed hard + actual downsides to them
5. rebalance of part of poe monsters with further ones in next expansions

This is huge change.

It only lacks:

- monster pack size reduction
- rework of monster prefixes/affixes
- making run speed much harder to get

and we are talking about new golden age.

This sounds like pure incline. Let's see how they will fuck it up again.

 

[Tacgnol]

fuck the expedition.

Rebalance seems like to be best thing that will happen to POE in fucking years.

1. Flask spam gone
2. Triggers finally will use mana and will give them a way to fix mana.
3. Movement skills hyge nerf
4. damage support gems nerfed hard + actual downsides to them
5. rebalance of part of poe monsters with further ones in next expansions

This is huge change.

It only lacks:

- monster pack size reduction
- rework of monster prefixes/affixes
- making run speed much harder to get

and we are talking about new golden age.

This sounds like pure incline. Let's see how they will fuck it up again.

Slowing the gameplay is fine (and good in the long term), but it does need to be combined with other elements.

1. Buffing defences and character survivability. The increase in one shots and fragility was mostly a response to zoom zoom playstyles, which ironically never really affected the strongest meta builds anyway as they were killing everything from 2 screens away.

2. Increasing rewards. Slower gameplay means that drops need to be more rewarding, less drops but make them better.

3. To stop designing everything around the meta 1%. The game is already almost impenetrable for the average player who doesn't no life it.

Purely nerfing damage across the board, with no other changes, is not going to put the game in a very healthy state. I'm hoping this is the start of the changes to transition the playstyle for POE2.

 

[ArchAngel]

These changes at some point might be good but in next league it will be terrible. New atlas is way too grindy and item drops are terrible and enemies are way too deadly.
Until you also fix that nothing will change.

At least they brought back Royale. I will try that to see if it is fun, if not I will keep waiting for PoE 2

 

[tritosine2k]

Now instead of basalt flask all sorts of casters (except minion with kingmaker) add fortify from vigilant strike

once everyone runs fortify they nip it in the bud before POE2.

 

[Norfleet]

At the same time, nerfing player power level means to me that playing meta builds becomes so much more attractive.

This is a given, and the natural result of any generalized nerf that broadly reduces player power, yes: Assuming you need a given power threshold to succeed comfortably and without the experience becoming tedious, reducing the ease with which this level can be achieved will drive players towards meta builds as more non-meta builds become incapable of reaching this level, a problem made worse by the fact that players have become accustomed to a given level and will thus see underperformance to their previously set standards as deeply dissatisfying experiences. This will push them to chase meta to get it back, which will in turn drive up their standards.

I have directly seen this effect in a different shitty MMO, where a massive nerf to overall player effectiveness pushed an aggressive new DPS-chase that ultimately resulted in players shortly putting out even higher numbers than before. Except before, achieving tolerable performance was widely accessible to the masses, while after, it involved really expensive items, so the overall active playerbase rapidly declined.

 

[Jaedar]

Purely nerfing damage across the board with no other changes, is not going to put the game in a very healthy state. I'm hoping this is the start of the changes to transition the playstyle for POE2.

I agree. It's possible this is the beginning of moving the game to a better state, but I still suspect this league will be pretty bad, and I don't have huge confidence the devs will actually move it to a healthy state considering how they've moved the game before.

 

[Peachcurl]

If we all agree on this, surely the devs will see it that way as well ...

*self-rates fabulously optimistic*

 

[ArchAngel]

If we all agree on this, surely the devs will see it that way as well ...

*self-rates fabulously optimistic*

No way. 1% top players and streamers will not notice a big difference except earning more selling new wanted items to everyone desperate to only play most meta builds.
I almost never played meta builds, at worst I would try last league meta build after it was nerfed and items for it are no longer super costly. And each league it was harder and harder to get to red maps and not die all the time. Even with extra defensive builds I would not be able to clear packs fast enough and I would still die here and there.

 

[Tacgnol]

If we all agree on this, surely the devs will see it that way as well ...

*self-rates fabulously optimistic*

No way. 1% top players and streamers will not notice a big difference except earning more selling new wanted items to everyone desperate to only play most meta builds.
I almost never played meta builds, at worst I would try last league meta build after it was nerfed and items for it are no longer super costly. And each league it was harder and harder to get to red maps and not die all the time. Even with extra defensive builds I would not be able to clear packs fast enough and I would still die here and there.

I've always been happy to play a decent build off meta. The problem with the way GGG nerfs things is it always hits off meta builds much worse than the flavour of the week.

The 1%'ers don't really care as they'll just play whatever is super powerful at the time. A build based off less used skills and gear tends to get hit much harder.

GGG claims it's about reducing the power of top builds, and whilst it does achieve that, it also fucks over the mid tier players and builds much harder.

 

[Reever]

Not exactly excited about the balance changes. I'm all for making the game slower but I think they completely missed the mark. The league mechanic is also pretty underwhelming but we'll see.
Some of the new skills look fun so I'll probably give them a try, find out they're shit alongside the fact that I'm trash at making builds and quit the league.

 

[PapaPetro]

Crashing the game, with no survivors.

 

[Saark]

Well, it has frozen orb, so I guess I'll have to play it. Well played Chris, well played.

League looks fine, my main gripe from previous leagues has been the rampant spam of rare mobs that dont threaten you individually, but have them aura-buff each other and suddenly you get onetapped through multiple defensive layers. Being able to see where you will unearth them and potentially avoid them means my main gripe with previous league is actually addressed in a certain way, so I'll be somewhat looking forward to it.

New skills look fine, I'm particularly intrigued by the flask-consuming concoction. The basedmg at lv1 is pretty massive, so if it scales well you might be able to run some weird pathfinder stuff with it. Interesting indeed (although probably not very useful on bosses).

 

[Jaedar]

League looks fine, my main gripe from previous leagues has been the rampant spam of rare mobs that dont threaten you individually, but have them aura-buff each other and suddenly you get onetapped through multiple defensive layers. Being able to see where you will unearth them and potentially avoid them means my main gripe with previous league is actually addressed in a certain way, so I'll be somewhat looking forward to it.

Fabulously optimistic of you to think they won't spawn randomly amongst chaff, as chest guards, or other invisible things.

I am marginally intrigued by the Reaper minion and spell cry, but scaling spell and physical attack at the same time seems hard, and minion builds are something I've done before. Chaos rain seems cool, but the self damage looks too steep for a budget build.

 

[Absinthe]

Hm, with that new Basalt Flask I guess we're going to see 2x Replica Dreamfeather + Iron Reflexes + Willowgift build using Alchemist's Jade Flask of Reflexes, Alchemist's Granite Flask of Iron Skin, and an Alchemist's Basalt Flask. The only question is whether it's better to do Determination + Grace or just Supreme Ego style Determination. Probably Supreme Ego is better if you pack enough evasion.

For CI Reflexes builds you're probably going to see the less crazy Experimenter's Granite Flask of Iron Skin + Experimenter's Jade Flask of Reflexes + Experimenter's Basalt Flask with Determination and Grace and then a bunch of endurance charges on top.

 

[Norfleet]

Has anyone else ever noticed how much the design of that mask resembles Goatse?

 

[ArchAngel]

Hm, with that new Basalt Flask I guess we're going to see 2x Replica Dreamfeather + Iron Reflexes + Willowgift build using Alchemist's Jade Flask of Reflexes, Alchemist's Granite Flask of Iron Skin, and an Alchemist's Basalt Flask. The only question is whether it's better to do Determination + Grace or just Supreme Ego style Determination. Probably Supreme Ego is better if you pack enough evasion.

For CI Reflexes builds you're probably going to see the less crazy Experimenter's Granite Flask of Iron Skin + Experimenter's Jade Flask of Reflexes + Experimenter's Basalt Flask with Determination and Grace and then a bunch of endurance charges on top.

Sounds boring, I will rather play some other game.

 

[tritosine2k]

Hm, with that new Basalt Flask I guess we're going to see 2x Replica Dreamfeather + Iron Reflexes + Willowgift build using Alchemist's Jade Flask of Reflexes, Alchemist's Granite Flask of Iron Skin, and an Alchemist's Basalt Flask. The only question is whether it's better to do Determination + Grace or just Supreme Ego style Determination. Probably Supreme Ego is better if you pack enough evasion.

For CI Reflexes builds you're probably going to see the less crazy Experimenter's Granite Flask of Iron Skin + Experimenter's Jade Flask of Reflexes + Experimenter's Basalt Flask with Determination and Grace and then a bunch of endurance charges on top.

Sounds boring, I will rather play some other game.

Apparently not everyone got the memo about reduced flask charge gained? (negated with chemist prefix) And reworked ailment immunity? (not only basalt is next to useless and now MoM is OP because "essence extraction" ?)

 

[lukaszek]

you guyz were using flasks?

 

[Reever]

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3147157

Manifesto is up

 

[Saark]

Lots of good nerfs. Ctrl+F, type impale, 0 results. What the fuck?

 

[Absinthe]

ArchAngel, PoE is a pretty boring game. It's a repetitive clickfest of a grind. The interesting aspect is making builds. And once you've finished building your god skill, you just mash it to destroy all life.

tritosine2k, that's going to get overcome easily. There are more than enough ways to get increased flask charges gained, flask charges from crits, increased flask duration, and reduced flask charges consumed. The laziest way to fix your flask charge generation problem is to get an Overflowing Chalice flask and use the new Enkindling Orb to give it something like +90% duration in exchange for the flask being unable to gain flask charges while active (which means nothing because Overflowing Chalice already does that) and then you just keep Overflowing Chalice active whenever you need other flasks to recharge faster.

On a side note, it seems Doryani's Fist + Manastorm + Rigwald's Curse + Mind of the Council + Brutal Restraint (Nasima) has potential to do massive damage.

 

[Lone Wolf]

It's not a question of whether the impacts of any nerf can be mitigated. It's the opportunity cost of doing so. Raider losing 50% Elemental Immunity doesn't mean a Raider can't reach 100% EI, it's that more item/passive investment is necessary to do so.

Overall, I'm okay with the nerfs.

Lots of good nerfs. Ctrl+F, type impale, 0 results. What the fuck?

There's a whole section on the general nerfing of damage supports that impale will probably get hit by. Very few were mentioned by name, but all will be affected.

 

[Jaedar]

I don't know about these nerfs, but I find it very interesting that the specifically name "6 link setups with 5 awakened gems" in them as problematic. 5 awakened gems (at max level) is so ridiculously high end, at that point you should just let people stomp everything. Same with how they mention that "some people may struggle to craft 5 or 6 links in the campaign, especially in early league". Am I the only one who almost always does the entire campaign on a 4link? And how alt quality and alt uniques strongly impact the balance decisions. Really makes me more and more convinced that the feature creep is the real issue here.

Some of the nerfs are good though. Narrowing the difference between support gems is good, it's really weird when the pure damage gems give like 50% more and the cool gems (like chain) give 30% less. Still, I tend to struggle with red maps (have made it to sirus twice, used up all 6 portals without killing him both times) and I suspect these changes will likely stop me from progressing past yellow maps in SSF. There's some highly significant nerfs here to both damage and survivability.

 

[Jason Liang]

Honestly I find the difference between one support gem setup or another to be insignificant. POE is entirely about learning not to stand at the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Tacgnol]

Manifesto is exactly what I feared, nerfs again aimed at disrupting the 1% but are going to impact everyone else much harder.

Worst thing is I thought this might be the start of an actual overall look at slowing the game down and generally improving gameplay, but GGG again shows zero understanding of the current reality of the game.

If they're heavily nerfing DPS they should be improving survivability at the same time but considering they're nerfing fortify, increasing poison damage (of both mobs and players) and making ailments more dangerous they seem to be just generally making the game much more painful to play.

They constantly make characters more fragile, which makes people come up with higher dps/clear speed builds to avoid having to deal with all the annoying one shot and on death mechanics. If they want to nerf DPS heavily they need to also make characters easier to keep alive.