GGG is giving up on PvP balance efforts ? ( Recent announcement )
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No offense to anyone from the GGG pvp team (i have the outmost respect for you guyz for even giving pvp a night in the spotlight), but GGG team actually gave up on PVP balance effort this season, and the reason behind it while not clear, i still believe its the fact that you are afraid that any kind of balance change might drive away more people than it will actually encourage to play pvp.
They have already stated their reasoning behind not doing changes mid season this time.
While true that there are a few caster builds that are right now on top almost all other caster builds are not performing nearly as well. There seems to be quite a decent build variety in the top of the swiss events and this to me is a sign of at least somewhat good balance.
While there are some outliers, Im hopefully that GGG will do some changes in the right direction after the season has ended.
Solution: Make nearly top tier gear available to all players and simultaneously reduce damage by at least 25% across the board. Everyone likes having good gear, but we need to tune down the damage a lot. Like a lot...
PvP has completely devolved into who 1/2 shots the other guy first. We NEED to move away from that. GGG loves this whole Blitz concept but it's hurtful to PvP at best.
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In short people actually supporting 1-shot mechanics and GGG by neglecting those issues actually contribute to pvp imbalance and continuing degeneration.
The thing is if we reduce the damage much further there will be nothing else besides puncture bow characters and viper strikers. Literally nothing else. If we reduce the damage so much people can pot it away with ample life flasks the shit will get super boring. Even if puncture was nerfed by 50% it would still be the best skill in that meta.
I wouldn't want to see that kind of meta instead of the one we have now, where we have lots of all kinds of viable builds.
Id also like to say Im not defending any of my builds. I can just as easily make a puncture bower or viper striker and compete but it just sounds so painfully boring. Have you ever played a tanky bow char with puncture as your only skill? I suggest you try one out and comment again.
Fun fact, there are only a few very specific scenarios where truly one-shotting with a single cast of a skill is actually possible, given that the characters are fully decked. Usually its just the opponent being foolish and running into 2-3 stacked traps.
Lol if we're going to pass off the current damage as being fine, then I'm afraid it's always going to be a complaint. No one likes being obliterated in an instant by many builds. It doesn't technically have to be a single shot to be considered a 1 shot, but if you die in <1 second without any ability to survive, I consider that the same thing. Molten Strike, Cyclone, traps, traps, traps, Flicker Strike into shotgun spell, CWS, Discharge, etc. Hell, even Ice Shot 2 shots me without even trying (btw this skill is broken in these goddamn obstacle course maps). If we don't nerf all damage, then we gotta start nerfing damage of specific skills. Too many things hit too hard, which gets even more boring than playing Puncture and Viper Strike.
^ Completely agree with this, i asked a cyclone facebreaker about his damage yesterday and the fact that you can literally kill a 1.6k hp character in about a second if he doesnt move, to me that is considered a 1 shot even if it's multiple hits. A one shot is killing the opponent without letting him the chance to have any reaction time to survive. It really doesnt have to be 1 shot to be considered a 1 shot, i then asked him if he thinks the damage he does is OP and he responded with '' it already got nerfed, you woulda died in .02 second in standard against it and now you die in 1 second after nerf, it's balanced '' This has to be the most retarded answer i have ever seen.
ummmmm playing the game isnt that hard tbh. If they wanted to learn they could spectate the players from the top skill level of events and public queue. Take the builds and attempt to play them against eachother as well as ask the players to describe the gear swaps. It would take a bit of time but not so much that its impossible. Hardest part of the game is getting competitive level gear. Once you have the build and a general understanding of how to play it, it takes practice. I dont wanna hear this shit like it takes the best of the best to balance pvp because thats wrong. They can definitely gather a general idea of balance through the methods I just spoke of. Once they have it down, they can test the builds vs players and see the difference of their abilities. Spectate the players playing against eachother and then play against the players, record it, and check the differences. If you guys think its too hard for them, then pvp is too hard for the general populous.
i agree. To me and you, but wake up and smell the coffee. We ARE the minority.
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If they wanted to learn they could spectate the players from the top skill level of events and public queue.
This is such a small sample size and without hundreds of games under your belt its hard to decipher what actually is OP and what isn't.
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Take the builds and attempt to play them against eachother as well as ask the players to describe the gear swaps. It would take a bit of time but not so much that its impossible.
Time and money they can't justify. Not going to happen. This is an insane amount of internal testing.
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Hardest part of the game is getting competitive level gear.
Yes. But its just as hard to understand the meta and making build decisions. Big investment risks are made all the time only to find out it sucks when you play enough match ups.
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Once you have the build and a general understanding of how to play it, it takes practice. I dont wanna hear this shit like it takes the best of the best to balance pvp because thats wrong.
Its actually right. With enough participation, the swiss events over a polished league should reveal a lot of data (excluding s2 HLD of course). Should balance builds based off of the most competitive format. Blitz/CTF/FFA are made to be fun ways to play other builds or optimize for a particular setting. But in swiss you're going to min max to be well rounded to be able to handle 1 opponent over 7 rounds. There will be a mid tier ability that may seem dominant, and imo the best solution is to just educate people how to deal with such dominant mid tier abilities. (ie flask choices, defensive choices, itemization or helpful leo mods).
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They can definitely gather a general idea of balance through the methods I just spoke of. Once they have it down, they can test the builds vs players and see the difference of their abilities. Spectate the players playing against eachother and then play against the players, record it, and check the differences.
This is just wishful thinking. Hypothetically, yes. But GGG has to run a business, and the participation levels of PvP are just not enough to justify limited resources to do such things. It is too hard for them, they have admitted time and time again they don't know what they're looking at. Why is that so hard to believe? Watching isolated matches is not enough to draw conclusions based on balance.
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If you guys think its too hard for them, then pvp is too hard for the general populous.
QFT. Playing vs players can be very hard vs predictable AI. PvP is generally too hard for the general populous. The general populous even to this day find it hard to make an exalt. The majority of players are broke. The majority of players that Q into pvp find they our way out of their league. The majority of players that Q for pvp find themselves not Qing anymore because dying over and over again is not fun.
There has been a vast history of unbiased feedback. It sticks out a lot. I played season1 with 2H PotCG and I was constantly saying nerf cyclone, and I was also saying nerf a lot of other things. Nearly everything did too much damage. Monstacookie played the most abusable build and reported it to GGG. that sounds pretty unbiased to me. It doesn't take a genius to figure out whats good feedback and whats not.
ummmmm playing the game isnt that hard tbh. If they wanted to learn they could spectate the players from the top skill level of events and public queue. Take the builds and attempt to play them against eachother as well as ask the players to describe the gear swaps. It would take a bit of time but not so much that its impossible. Hardest part of the game is getting competitive level gear. Once you have the build and a general understanding of how to play it, it takes practice. I dont wanna hear this shit like it takes the best of the best to balance pvp because thats wrong. They can definitely gather a general idea of balance through the methods I just spoke of. Once they have it down, they can test the builds vs players and see the difference of their abilities. Spectate the players playing against eachother and then play against the players, record it, and check the differences. If you guys think its too hard for them, then pvp is too hard for the general populous.
i agree. To me and you, but wake up and smell the coffee. We ARE the minority.
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If they wanted to learn they could spectate the players from the top skill level of events and public queue.
This is such a small sample size and without hundreds of games under your belt its hard to decipher what actually is OP and what isn't.
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Take the builds and attempt to play them against eachother as well as ask the players to describe the gear swaps. It would take a bit of time but not so much that its impossible.
Time and money they can't justify. Not going to happen. This is an insane amount of internal testing.
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Hardest part of the game is getting competitive level gear.
Yes. But its just as hard to understand the meta and making build decisions. Big investment risks are made all the time only to find out it sucks when you play enough match ups.
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Once you have the build and a general understanding of how to play it, it takes practice. I dont wanna hear this shit like it takes the best of the best to balance pvp because thats wrong.
Its actually right. With enough participation, the swiss events over a polished league should reveal a lot of data (excluding s2 HLD of course). Should balance builds based off of the most competitive format. Blitz/CTF/FFA are made to be fun ways to play other builds or optimize for a particular setting. But in swiss you're going to min max to be well rounded to be able to handle 1 opponent over 7 rounds. There will be a mid tier ability that may seem dominant, and imo the best solution is to just educate people how to deal with such dominant mid tier abilities. (ie flask choices, defensive choices, itemization or helpful leo mods).
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They can definitely gather a general idea of balance through the methods I just spoke of. Once they have it down, they can test the builds vs players and see the difference of their abilities. Spectate the players playing against eachother and then play against the players, record it, and check the differences.
This is just wishful thinking. Hypothetically, yes. But GGG has to run a business, and the participation levels of PvP are just not enough to justify limited resources to do such things. It is too hard for them, they have admitted time and time again they don't know what they're looking at. Why is that so hard to believe? Watching isolated matches is not enough to draw conclusions based on balance.
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If you guys think its too hard for them, then pvp is too hard for the general populous.
QFT. Playing vs players can be very hard vs predictable AI. PvP is generally too hard for the general populous. The general populous even to this day find it hard to make an exalt. The majority of players are broke. The majority of players that Q into pvp find they our way out of their league. The majority of players that Q for pvp find themselves not Qing anymore because dying over and over again is not fun.
There has been a vast history of unbiased feedback. It sticks out a lot. I played season1 with 2H PotCG and I was constantly saying nerf cyclone, and I was also saying nerf a lot of other things. Nearly everything did too much damage. Monstacookie played the most abusable build and reported it to GGG. that sounds pretty unbiased to me. It doesn't take a genius to figure out whats good feedback and whats not.
All I am hearing is, not enough money, they arent experienced enough, theres not enough time, its too hard and too many variables. Cypher through all the feedback and find the unbiased feedback. Bro its needle in a haystack. They could look all day and if they are so "inexperienced" how do you expect them to know what they are looking at through feedback? Us, the minority know quite a bit about how to fix it but why would they listen to the minority when listening to the majority is more appealing since it makes money? Basically you just took apart my post to only prove my last line correct. PvP is too hard and will never prosper.
I Stream PvP Twitch.tv/GrindcoreTHRALL
THE STORY OF MY Descent into the Abysmal Afterlife( HC to SC, too Stronk!)
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/346754
PK massacre, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldz09uBZ-ug
Cypher through all the feedback and find the unbiased feedback
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1211679/page/1 - This whole thread, more than 15different people send their feedback about the same thing ( 15 people is like 1/6 of the season 2 core player base)
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209402/page/1 - look at some posts there too, (kuan, A222, hege, sacr0 made some really good posts, telling the things as they are)
5. PvP Town for pvp chars. PvP is anti-social and needs a better method for trading/grouping for pvp events rather than through guilds solely. Cross league friendly would be preferable, segregation between leagues is a problem.
I've seen you post many non bias posts since I started playing this game. We all have, some people are totally bias while others see the big picture. There's a handful of people that if you really read their posts you can tell they want an overall better balance even if it neuters their build for it. I know people misconstrue many of my posts for being bias and wanting 2h buffed to god tier status but that's not the case. We need to sit back, pin point whats really really abused and why. Fuck my build, fuck your build, just weigh the pros/cons/options of these given things and why they should or shouldn't be how they are now.
I could sit here and type a wall of examples but I'll only post 1. It really isn't as busted as it seems because its hard countered but it perfectly outlines the idea that somethings do not need to be this powerful because they are almost always paired with a slew of other powerful options.
Example Molten shell's multiple uses in lld and hld. It's great that it provides a meta game where you have to adjust your physical damage to handle it. That sort of thing is great for PvP. The part where it does 1/2 to 100% of your life if you can't properly do this is not. The part where it can be tossed on you as such a powerful melee deterrent while you can still freely move, freely attack with spells (that do top tier damage) plus also be a tank (literally never seen a game where casters are so tanky, its pretty odd). Is a few too many pros and 0 cons. Even if recasting and the duration was considered a con, it does damage instantly on recast...again netting potential 1hit kills to any melee that wanted to seal the deal and kill you when you're down on es/hp. Overall its just a very low maintenance very powerful tool that is a bit overkill given the other options a caster has i.e Cwdt spells,traps,self cast,lightning warp (that can do 1/4-1/2 your life on a crit warping away)+++++.
In lld its used even more widely. By melee,caster,bow users...basically everyone. Its just a great "stay away from me or I'll fuck your ass" skill. Physical to lightning really helped change the game though and honestly Molten shell versus experienced players is pretty much a non issue anymore. So I don't know why I went on about it for so many sentences because stuff like EA and Cwdt in high level are the real problem skills not Molten shell. Molten just struck me as the best example of a skill that is overkill when paired with so many other options ppl would have at the same time. Why it's been left un nerfed this long is beyond me and many others. I know you lld pretty exclusively so you can at least relate to its utility and damage output. The rest is pretty much hld crap that doesn't apply to you but amplifies its utility that much more.
Like in most competitive (esports) games, the Top level of competitive play is key to the success of the scene as a whole. If top level balance is not fine tuned because the priority was balancing mid tier, then the top guys will stop playing and as the mid tier players reach a higher skill level, they will encounter a contradicting balance to what they were experiencing in mid tier play. Furthermore, mid level players often ask "experts" for help by asking competitive players for tips, watching videos of tournaments or even reading build threads. This means that if the top level scene is not there, the mid scene will not follow through as it has no one to look at above them, nor a goal to reach (be as good as "them"). In essence, the competitive minority fuels the excitement and determination of the mid level and therefore should be prioritized for any balance decision. I am not against decisions that help mid level without affecting top level, but realistically I don't think that is ever the case.
Balance Issues
A few notable issues include Firestorm, Elemental Equilibrium and Kinectic Blast. I am 100% in favor of builds that dominant one mode of play but are sub-par in others. However Firestorm is currently winning 1v1 Blitz, Team Blitz and No-Party Blitz quite easily. This is because adding the Stun gem to firestorm gives perma-stun to anyone without stun immunity. Usually Stunning someone rhymes with dealing a big hit but Firestorm can manage to stun a player long enough for another ball to mini stun once again, creating an infinite chain that is hard to get out of. Add to this the Temp Chains on hit effect and you are creating a wormhole that covers a fullscreen and will not allow anything to get out of it. The solution seems obvious: Wear a Chayula. Unfortunately Chayula's dont solve everything. I'd like to remind everyone that the firestorm's damage is high too and the temp chains can still be annoying. Furthermore, the cast speed achieveable combined with the large AoE of the skill allows for quickly covering large portions of the map, forcing a player to enter the storm in order to damage the caster within it. This means the attacker has reduced life and damage due to Chayula, is taking heavy damage as he travels within the storm and is forced to use a curse immunity flask at least if not also a Health flask to approach the player. These are exceptionally high costs that the Caster will gladly trade with as he can then take you down, smokemine away or run with a quicksilver. This can be and has been done in 1v1. But in 3v3, the havoc it causes it unprecendented. Speaking of 3v3 unbalance, Kinetic blast is currently able to one shot players by getting a hit off a wall (similar to EA builds). They usually only have 500 hp but their kinectic blast allows them to one shot while maintaining high attack speed too. I have personally experienced an instant kill of me and my entire team at the start of a round in a small map where kinectic can fire across the full length. I was extremely pleased to see a brand new build immerge, that was exclusively intended for 3v3s, but considering more things that 1 shot have been removed in LLD, this feels quite broken.
Elemental Equilibrium
The keystone needs to be nerfed in pvp. This can be done without affecting pve by mentioning that it's effects are 50% less effective against Players. The reason for this is because it is extremely hard to overcap certain builds for curses, let alone EE which cannot be dispelled. In High Level PVP, in order to stay at 75% resists from a Dual Curse + EE combo (with high gems and quality), you need 232% for all three resistances. Please note that applying EE and the curses can all be done offscreen using a bow for example.
Knockback
One of my goals when visiting NZ to help out with PVP was make Knockback immunity more accessible. This was because Heavy Strike was not only a hard hitting skill that can stun very well, but it also has 100% knockback and causes what is known as Knockback Lock. Knockback Lock happens when a player knocks you back, sending you in the knockback animation. But before the player can end the animation, the player gets knockedback again. Combining 100% knockback with fast enough attackspeed creates an infinite loop that locks you into this form of "stun". To avoid knockback, a player needs to craft 50% knockback avoidance on gloves or corrupt boots for 100% knockback. During my visit, I suggested making a unique, similar to Chayula, whose purpose is to allow players to swap on a Cannot Be Knockedback unique when facing a heavy striker. This is a useful tool to have until you acquire the boots and liberate the slot. Chayula uses the same purpose for stuns.
Other Issues
Stunning should be made possible through using Stun Gem + Stun belt/gear or even passives. Currently stunning is a bit too easy without much cost (only requires a gem that has no mana multiplier).
The nerf to Clever Construction to 2.5 seconds was done because of Traps. However that change affects Remote Mine in HLD which is weird because Remote Mine was already quite easy to counter whereas now with 2.5 seconds it is almost too easy.
I'll gladly update my post or make a new one after Swiss. Currently the only events we have are Blitz (which is fun but gets boring when the meta is exclusively about rushing). Swiss will help create different metas and playstyles but it only happens once a week.
Disclaimer: This is simply my opinion base on personal experience. This is not a nerf request list, simply a list of things that potentially needs looked into.
LLD
Traps -
-Traps should have half duration in PvP. This will fix a lot of "trap opness" in my opinion. If you're able to get the traps onto someone that takes a bit of finesse. However the imbalance I notice (I also play a trap build) is from rogue traps that are on the battleground for 25 seconds or so (in a 1.5 minute event).
Molten Shell -
-The damage output of molten shell is pretty insane.
LLD:
- Again stun need to be nerfad badly by at least 50%.
- Skills like firestorm, cyclone, molten strike, kinetic blast, barrage imo are too strong right now, especially first 2.
- Molten shell should have cooldown that start after explosion, this skill can oneshot 1,6k life with 76 fire res(happend to me once) and can be recast immidetly.
- Imo chill time is too high(it is refreshed almost instantly with some bulids like ice shot, fp ect). Its one of the strongest mechanic that gives you tons of control especially with temp chains
- I agree that elemental eq should be nerfad a little. Its impossible for any mid tier players to overcap res by 50(and for casters that are using it its like insta win) and really hard for high tier players to do so. Maybe -40 res in pvp?
+ Much more diversity than season one
+ Flask change - without it casters would be meta by far
+ 2,5 sec Clever construction duration
HLD:
- Damage overall should be tooned by like 30% or so. Even though all these hld events are definitely fun its a little too much about 0,5 sec kills.
- Explosive arrow dmg should be tonned even more than 30% its by far most dominant skill and cheap to bulid.
offtopic:
Fix crasing from ctf and bring back that event!
In my opinion balance should focus on swiss events not blitz for reasons already pointed out.
- LLD stuff below
One of the things bothering me is how easy it is to stun with skills that hit multiple times per cast/attack - tornado shot, firestorm and molten strike. In my opinion the more times a skill hits the less stun duration it should have.
Another thing only partially related to balance is fix the ilvl of leo's items! Almost nobody is using/crafting theese items right now (basing my claim on how many leo's vs how many elreon's items are for sale in torment/bloodlines), and I think this is limiting the meta.
Elreon's jewellery is so dominant I can't imagine doing a build without atleast 1 such item, 2 whenever possible. Mana cost for most skills is balanced for PvE and nobody is running with 5/6 linked items by the time they are level 28 so maybe you should review mana cost and how neccessary it is to have elreon's jewellery in LLD.
Spoiler
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Post is going to be quite long and not for the light hearted.
First of all i beg someone from support or a dev to delete the toxic posts regarding sidro's and meph's feud, they do not belong here, resolve your problems in private. All you do is stain pvp/pvp community with your piddling disputes. This thread was made for constructive feedback so please refrain yourselves from posting if you are going to post things like that.
Introduction : I'm a two hander melee dude in season 2, named Chen_Stormstout, and compared to season 1, im doing quite well. I'm also an alpha member who has strived for better 1v1 experience as hard as i can. Those said lets move on.
Prologue
Comparing season 1 and season 2 till this point everyone can see that last season's extremeties are really confined, and a lot of steps have been taken towards balancing the game, steps that have disappointed a lot of people cause their builds got nerfed even though those changes where helpful for the whole pvp scene. When it comes to balancing things out, people must understand that being subjective is unacceptable, especially when some of those people's reputations and words bear heavy weight. Having said that i would like to divulge a real incident as an example*: Last season as you all know legacy FB + shield charge/cyclone/3triggers was dominating everything, from ffa, to blitz and swiss, a thing that upset many of the players including me cause it was really OP. So it happened that in a EU Swiss event i encountered GreenDude with his FB build which totally annihilated my 2hander. After the loss we stopped and talked about it a bit and while he agreed that FB was strong he didnt cared for it to change for season 1 since it wasnt so gamebreaking. The thing is that GreenDude had GGG's ear whenever he wanted and cause he was playing FB at that his perspective on the matter was clouded. Thats something we all must avoid if we need pvp to take a step forward and not back.
*Clarification, i have the outmost respect for GreenDude's effort, contribution and work for the general pvp scene and his pvp events pre-season 1, are what made me fall in love with pvp. That example is not made to blame him or accuse him for being responsible for s1 FB thing, just a reminder that people with weight/prestige should more than anybody else try to be objective no matter what.
On topic/feedback : Despite of the confined extremeties of season1 there are still mechanics/skills out there that cause problems and discord amongst the community and this part is where i adress them. It doesnt mean that everything i write here is in need of a nerf or tweak or a buff etc. I will speak about them in general, for some i will even make some suggestions while for others i will not. So lets get started.
I. Melee
Sword + shield : The melee scene and builds are exactly the same as last season with a few exceptions. Sword and shield (and in a lesser degree unarmerd+shield) is the way to go and vs other melee builds that dont utilize shield (2h, duel wield ) sword+shield is the undisputed champion. Their active damage output is almost the same with a 2h build, but they excel in mitigation and triggering attack damage. Not only they have insane amount of block and life but with the trigger gems they can dish out 2-3x times the damage any other melee build can. I cant see how this is balanced and how two-handers or dual wielders are supposed to win vs those builds, its not that they have a chance, sword and shield builds can easily afk and still win vs any other melee build. This needs to be adressed, by adding a cooldown and/or damage effectiveness for every extra trigger gem someone is using or make some trigger gems exclusive to builds, like riposte only for dual-wielding, reckoning only for shield users, vengeance only for melee builds without an offhand (2handers and even goddess scorned builds if they still exist).
On the same matter just ask yourself and tell me how many 2handers or dual wielders have you seen until now. Five? Ten? There is a reason people prefer to play with shields and thats because shield builds are better than any other melee build.
Special mention on FB. Lacking the legacy version in the new leagues FB surely has fallen a bit, both in power as well as popularity. The removal of vengeance was also a huge blow, and the small nerf to shield charge was also bad for the build. It still performs very good vs 2handers and dual wielders but nobody is playing those builds, and its performance vs sword+shields is excellent too. What keeps it alive vs those builds is the trigger gems (yes even if it uses "only" two) but since it performs very bad vs any non-melee build i believe this state of FB is very good.
Cyclone atm is the most used melee skill (maybe with flicker strike and leap slam), there are even archers out there that have cyclone on weapon swap (and believe it or not they win vs pure melee builds while on swap). The issue with cyclone is the utility it offers. First of all it allows you to move while attacking which is a big advantage of the skill, but it also grants immunity to stun + knockback. Yes it has big drawbacks like 20% Less AS, 30% Less Ms and deals 50% of base damage, but even with minimum effort it still outshines every other melee skill when it comes to damage. So my suggestion here is to rework cyclone ( FOR PVP ONLY) and instead of immunity to stun and knockback make it so it gives 50% chance to avoid stun and knockback on pvp. Another fix could be that the base damage is reduced from 50% to 40%. Any of those two changes could really help balancing cyclone for pvp.
Heavy strike and permanent-knockback or knockback lock. Thats not the problem of heavy strike on its own, but on weapon range as well. Not only swords have better passives nodes on the tree but they also have outrageous attack range. Fix the swords regarding that matter and we get double the benefits, not only knockback lock will be confined but swords might even lose their throne to something else. Cyclone is GGG original counter to heavy strike's utility (stun + knockabk), but both mechanics are broken for pvp (meaning immunity to stun+knockback on cyclone, and 100% knockback chane on heavy strike plus the reduced stun threshold). Damage wise a small nerf would be most welcome.
That leaves skills like Glacial Hammer (even with recent removal of an older nerf), infernal blow, static strike, frenzy, dual strike, double strike and viper strike in the bin with the unused skills. (i dont even mention sweep, cleave, reave due to their nature and also because they are lame)
II. Ranged
Well puncturers took a huge blow with the change to the pots, especially in blitz where pots refill every time, facing a puncturer is not a big of a problem. Since bleeding is very well countered with the flasks now. Though we can still see that bow puncturers are still doing extremely well in top competitive events (blitz + swiss). But as i said before puncturers are in a good position only because the flasks are very good now.
An interesting fact is that Tornado Shot (at least on EU events) has almost gone extinct . The lack of +1arrows corruptions in temp leagues must have played its role too together with the nerfs on the skill itself.
Its nice to see new skills used, Explosive Arrow, Ice Shot, Rain of Arrows, Burning Arrow etc, together with the old ones (Puncture, TS) and until now from what ive seen they are doing well too but thats not because of the skills themselves but the combination with traps which will be further analyzed shortly.
Mirror arrow/Blink Arrow : If GGG plans where to make lld bow users as annoying as possible they have succeeded. They now have 3 skills (along with smoke mine) to escape and reposition themselves while still doing some dmg with the illusions. In 1 v 1 those skills might seem ok (even though they are top tier utility skills) but in 3 v 3 those skills are absolutely obscene. That said, i still havent found a reasonable solution to that clone spamming.
The matter though that needs addressing from GGG as soon as possible is the one shot capabilities of Kinetic Blast. Its unacceptable that 1-shot skills still exist in pvp after season 1 fiasco with 1-shot shield charge. One shot mechanics should not exist for any reason at all, and the fact that Kinetic Blast builds have low health in general does not mean they are entitled to 1-shot people. Please fix that.
Bow users in general have a wide variety of vialbe skills that they can use and they actually do. Only exceptions are lighting arrow and split arrow but the latter one's nature is not suitable for pvp.
III. Spellcasters
Well until now, the pvp season 2 is dominated by spellcasters (who would have thought that eh?). Selfcasting spellcaster nonetheless too, pretty exciting if you ask me. Is it ok though to win so easily?
First of all we got Freezing Pulse, either selfcasting or with traps. Its really good, good enough to win EU swiss yestarday and have 2 more people in top 10, as well as having 2 people in US Swiss top 10 too. The damage with lmp + the utility (chill + occasionally freeze) with the very good range (with faster projectiles) make it super strong. Add to that some utility skills like cold snap/molten shell/ or the occasional trap, and you have a build that has answers for everyone (except other casters maybe). Whats the problem with that skill if you ask me is the huge damage output in combination with the utility it offers (something like cyclone for melee). Either reduce its damage (its damage though is augmented so much for lmp in which case lmp is the problem and not FP), or lessen the utility it offers
Molten shell, i talked about it last season as well as in alpha : the damage done by molten shell is over the top. It can easily take out 60-80% of your HP and it can be casted immediately after detonation granting you also some protection from physical attacks. It should be noticed that molten shell is the common denominator in all succesfull spellcasting builds. Its damage needs to be lowered, nothing else to add here.
Firestorm : Well i for once was really happy to see a new entry on spellcasting scene. I have encountered plenty firestorm builds and i can say that not everybody is good. The problem though is that people complain about certain individuals and their firestorm which obliterates everything without even sweating. I'm not against selfcasting spellcasters to have a night in the spotlight, but being so easy (proof US Swiss the other day) is against the fair and competitive nature pvp should offer. From videos and streaming i watched some firestorm builds win vs everything else no matter what, and thats an issue that should be checked.
And then we have skills like fireball, firetrap, flameblast, discharge, flame surge, ice nova, shock nova, lightning tendrils, storm call and searing bond that are not even used. Maybe its time to change that?
Honorary mention: Arc/Spark those skills still find their way into competitive plays no matter what, without being overpowered, they can offer utility or even damage output (spark vs melee is still excellent). Make the least used spells offer at least something similar to what arc/spark offer.
Cast when stunned gem : its in the same category as cast on death before the nerf the damage output can be extreme, maybe raise the chance to cast the spell linked when stunned but reduce its damage to a similar way COD was nerfed.
Lastly i want to mention that contrary to season 1 there are no summoners in season 2.
IV. Mechanics/Passives
Stun: I do agree that it is a crucial matter and that stunlocking can easily win games, ill say it though for the hundredth time, its so easy to counter it or confine it : US, Chayula, Leo mod, Cyclone, block/dodge, Heart of Oak, stun recovery mods. Seriously why people still crying about it?
Elemental Equilibrium (EE) : I mentioned how strong EE is countless times both pre-season 1 (in alpha) as well as during season 1, and people used to mock the very notion that EE can be strong, the "pros" at that time couldnt believe that EE was even viable/usable how could it even be OP? Well now that people started facing more and more EE and die like Krillin in DragonBall cause of it they realised that indeed EE is a big uncounterable threat (and please dont use the argument get +50res over the max, cause with elemental weakness combined you need +80res over the max and thats 155res in each element). Add some scaling in EE that affects it in pvp only or leave its values as they are at the moment but make it removable with Warding flasks (yes i know its not considered a curse)
Desync : Unfortunately its chronic continuous existance in PoE, made me (as it made many others too) to consider desync part of the game. And losing due to bad servers in pvp is outrageous. What happens when ranged/spellcaster character runs around pillars and obstacles laying traps and the melee flicker strikes or leap slams? Yes he desyncs like crazy and dies. Sadly but true desync needs attention, cause players can use it to gain advantage by using that stupid tactic of running around obstacles, when somebody desyncs its obvious to the enemy too who will launch an attack that moment (especially if the desynced person is melee and the other one can use ranged skills).
Resistance rating on the events : Can we get an answer what that value represents? Its crucial enough to decide who can get a Talisman of the Victor and still nobody knows what it takes into account.
Traps : Well traps are still a gamebreaking mechanic all spellcaster/ranged characters use and offer MORE damage. They can control areas preventing opponents from using paths to find an opening, and can be placed in such a manner that they can win games too offensively. They are so good that allow you to lay 1-2 and fight where you want too, and while you opponents try to find a way to bypass them you can easily rain hell on them. Its a mechanic that provides both offensive and defensive utility and its exclusive to spellcasters/bow users with the exception of bear trap that melee builds can use but only for the utility while every other traps can have utility + INSANE damage. Raise the CD, raise multiple traps support gem lvl to 31, raise the mana multiplier for everything that has to do with traps, all are viable solutions (not all together but one of them).
Point Blank : While the Keystone is very well balanced, the gem is not looked at, at all since the beggining of the pvp seasons. Physical attack damage traps can be augmented with the ridiculously overpowered point blank gem offering 50% MORE damage without any drawback. Wouldnt be wise that this value was reduced to something like 20-25%? Even if it was reduced to that it would still be strong as hell since it has no drawback (even its mana multiplier is low). If that is deemed to be to strong of a nerf for bow users raise its mana multiplier to 160% or something.
Hope i helped even a tiny bit. See you in the arena.
and those are just a sample of feedback, i just quoted the most memorable
Cypher through all the feedback and find the unbiased feedback
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1211679/page/1 - This whole thread, more than 15different people send their feedback about the same thing ( 15 people is like 1/6 of the season 2 core player base)
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209402/page/1 - look at some posts there too, (kuan, A222, hege, sacr0 made some really good posts, telling the things as they are)
5. PvP Town for pvp chars. PvP is anti-social and needs a better method for trading/grouping for pvp events rather than through guilds solely. Cross league friendly would be preferable, segregation between leagues is a problem.
I've seen you post many non bias posts since I started playing this game. We all have, some people are totally bias while others see the big picture. There's a handful of people that if you really read their posts you can tell they want an overall better balance even if it neuters their build for it. I know people misconstrue many of my posts for being bias and wanting 2h buffed to god tier status but that's not the case. We need to sit back, pin point whats really really abused and why. Fuck my build, fuck your build, just weigh the pros/cons/options of these given things and why they should or shouldn't be how they are now.
I could sit here and type a wall of examples but I'll only post 1. It really isn't as busted as it seems because its hard countered but it perfectly outlines the idea that somethings do not need to be this powerful because they are almost always paired with a slew of other powerful options.
Example Molten shell's multiple uses in lld and hld. It's great that it provides a meta game where you have to adjust your physical damage to handle it. That sort of thing is great for PvP. The part where it does 1/2 to 100% of your life if you can't properly do this is not. The part where it can be tossed on you as such a powerful melee deterrent while you can still freely move, freely attack with spells (that do top tier damage) plus also be a tank (literally never seen a game where casters are so tanky, its pretty odd). Is a few too many pros and 0 cons. Even if recasting and the duration was considered a con, it does damage instantly on recast...again netting potential 1hit kills to any melee that wanted to seal the deal and kill you when you're down on es/hp. Overall its just a very low maintenance very powerful tool that is a bit overkill given the other options a caster has i.e Cwdt spells,traps,self cast,lightning warp (that can do 1/4-1/2 your life on a crit warping away)+++++.
In lld its used even more widely. By melee,caster,bow users...basically everyone. Its just a great "stay away from me or I'll fuck your ass" skill. Physical to lightning really helped change the game though and honestly Molten shell versus experienced players is pretty much a non issue anymore. So I don't know why I went on about it for so many sentences because stuff like EA and Cwdt in high level are the real problem skills not Molten shell. Molten just struck me as the best example of a skill that is overkill when paired with so many other options ppl would have at the same time. Why it's been left un nerfed this long is beyond me and many others. I know you lld pretty exclusively so you can at least relate to its utility and damage output. The rest is pretty much hld crap that doesn't apply to you but amplifies its utility that much more.
Like in most competitive (esports) games, the Top level of competitive play is key to the success of the scene as a whole. If top level balance is not fine tuned because the priority was balancing mid tier, then the top guys will stop playing and as the mid tier players reach a higher skill level, they will encounter a contradicting balance to what they were experiencing in mid tier play. Furthermore, mid level players often ask "experts" for help by asking competitive players for tips, watching videos of tournaments or even reading build threads. This means that if the top level scene is not there, the mid scene will not follow through as it has no one to look at above them, nor a goal to reach (be as good as "them"). In essence, the competitive minority fuels the excitement and determination of the mid level and therefore should be prioritized for any balance decision. I am not against decisions that help mid level without affecting top level, but realistically I don't think that is ever the case.
Balance Issues
A few notable issues include Firestorm, Elemental Equilibrium and Kinectic Blast. I am 100% in favor of builds that dominant one mode of play but are sub-par in others. However Firestorm is currently winning 1v1 Blitz, Team Blitz and No-Party Blitz quite easily. This is because adding the Stun gem to firestorm gives perma-stun to anyone without stun immunity. Usually Stunning someone rhymes with dealing a big hit but Firestorm can manage to stun a player long enough for another ball to mini stun once again, creating an infinite chain that is hard to get out of. Add to this the Temp Chains on hit effect and you are creating a wormhole that covers a fullscreen and will not allow anything to get out of it. The solution seems obvious: Wear a Chayula. Unfortunately Chayula's dont solve everything. I'd like to remind everyone that the firestorm's damage is high too and the temp chains can still be annoying. Furthermore, the cast speed achieveable combined with the large AoE of the skill allows for quickly covering large portions of the map, forcing a player to enter the storm in order to damage the caster within it. This means the attacker has reduced life and damage due to Chayula, is taking heavy damage as he travels within the storm and is forced to use a curse immunity flask at least if not also a Health flask to approach the player. These are exceptionally high costs that the Caster will gladly trade with as he can then take you down, smokemine away or run with a quicksilver. This can be and has been done in 1v1. But in 3v3, the havoc it causes it unprecendented. Speaking of 3v3 unbalance, Kinetic blast is currently able to one shot players by getting a hit off a wall (similar to EA builds). They usually only have 500 hp but their kinectic blast allows them to one shot while maintaining high attack speed too. I have personally experienced an instant kill of me and my entire team at the start of a round in a small map where kinectic can fire across the full length. I was extremely pleased to see a brand new build immerge, that was exclusively intended for 3v3s, but considering more things that 1 shot have been removed in LLD, this feels quite broken.
Elemental Equilibrium
The keystone needs to be nerfed in pvp. This can be done without affecting pve by mentioning that it's effects are 50% less effective against Players. The reason for this is because it is extremely hard to overcap certain builds for curses, let alone EE which cannot be dispelled. In High Level PVP, in order to stay at 75% resists from a Dual Curse + EE combo (with high gems and quality), you need 232% for all three resistances. Please note that applying EE and the curses can all be done offscreen using a bow for example.
Knockback
One of my goals when visiting NZ to help out with PVP was make Knockback immunity more accessible. This was because Heavy Strike was not only a hard hitting skill that can stun very well, but it also has 100% knockback and causes what is known as Knockback Lock. Knockback Lock happens when a player knocks you back, sending you in the knockback animation. But before the player can end the animation, the player gets knockedback again. Combining 100% knockback with fast enough attackspeed creates an infinite loop that locks you into this form of "stun". To avoid knockback, a player needs to craft 50% knockback avoidance on gloves or corrupt boots for 100% knockback. During my visit, I suggested making a unique, similar to Chayula, whose purpose is to allow players to swap on a Cannot Be Knockedback unique when facing a heavy striker. This is a useful tool to have until you acquire the boots and liberate the slot. Chayula uses the same purpose for stuns.
Other Issues
Stunning should be made possible through using Stun Gem + Stun belt/gear or even passives. Currently stunning is a bit too easy without much cost (only requires a gem that has no mana multiplier).
The nerf to Clever Construction to 2.5 seconds was done because of Traps. However that change affects Remote Mine in HLD which is weird because Remote Mine was already quite easy to counter whereas now with 2.5 seconds it is almost too easy.
I'll gladly update my post or make a new one after Swiss. Currently the only events we have are Blitz (which is fun but gets boring when the meta is exclusively about rushing). Swiss will help create different metas and playstyles but it only happens once a week.
Disclaimer: This is simply my opinion base on personal experience. This is not a nerf request list, simply a list of things that potentially needs looked into.
LLD
Traps -
-Traps should have half duration in PvP. This will fix a lot of "trap opness" in my opinion. If you're able to get the traps onto someone that takes a bit of finesse. However the imbalance I notice (I also play a trap build) is from rogue traps that are on the battleground for 25 seconds or so (in a 1.5 minute event).
Molten Shell -
-The damage output of molten shell is pretty insane.
LLD:
- Again stun need to be nerfad badly by at least 50%.
- Skills like firestorm, cyclone, molten strike, kinetic blast, barrage imo are too strong right now, especially first 2.
- Molten shell should have cooldown that start after explosion, this skill can oneshot 1,6k life with 76 fire res(happend to me once) and can be recast immidetly.
- Imo chill time is too high(it is refreshed almost instantly with some bulids like ice shot, fp ect). Its one of the strongest mechanic that gives you tons of control especially with temp chains
- I agree that elemental eq should be nerfad a little. Its impossible for any mid tier players to overcap res by 50(and for casters that are using it its like insta win) and really hard for high tier players to do so. Maybe -40 res in pvp?
+ Much more diversity than season one
+ Flask change - without it casters would be meta by far
+ 2,5 sec Clever construction duration
HLD:
- Damage overall should be tooned by like 30% or so. Even though all these hld events are definitely fun its a little too much about 0,5 sec kills.
- Explosive arrow dmg should be tonned even more than 30% its by far most dominant skill and cheap to bulid.
offtopic:
Fix crasing from ctf and bring back that event!
In my opinion balance should focus on swiss events not blitz for reasons already pointed out.
- LLD stuff below
One of the things bothering me is how easy it is to stun with skills that hit multiple times per cast/attack - tornado shot, firestorm and molten strike. In my opinion the more times a skill hits the less stun duration it should have.
Another thing only partially related to balance is fix the ilvl of leo's items! Almost nobody is using/crafting theese items right now (basing my claim on how many leo's vs how many elreon's items are for sale in torment/bloodlines), and I think this is limiting the meta.
Elreon's jewellery is so dominant I can't imagine doing a build without atleast 1 such item, 2 whenever possible. Mana cost for most skills is balanced for PvE and nobody is running with 5/6 linked items by the time they are level 28 so maybe you should review mana cost and how neccessary it is to have elreon's jewellery in LLD.
Spoiler
"
Post is going to be quite long and not for the light hearted.
First of all i beg someone from support or a dev to delete the toxic posts regarding sidro's and meph's feud, they do not belong here, resolve your problems in private. All you do is stain pvp/pvp community with your piddling disputes. This thread was made for constructive feedback so please refrain yourselves from posting if you are going to post things like that.
Introduction : I'm a two hander melee dude in season 2, named Chen_Stormstout, and compared to season 1, im doing quite well. I'm also an alpha member who has strived for better 1v1 experience as hard as i can. Those said lets move on.
Prologue
Comparing season 1 and season 2 till this point everyone can see that last season's extremeties are really confined, and a lot of steps have been taken towards balancing the game, steps that have disappointed a lot of people cause their builds got nerfed even though those changes where helpful for the whole pvp scene. When it comes to balancing things out, people must understand that being subjective is unacceptable, especially when some of those people's reputations and words bear heavy weight. Having said that i would like to divulge a real incident as an example*: Last season as you all know legacy FB + shield charge/cyclone/3triggers was dominating everything, from ffa, to blitz and swiss, a thing that upset many of the players including me cause it was really OP. So it happened that in a EU Swiss event i encountered GreenDude with his FB build which totally annihilated my 2hander. After the loss we stopped and talked about it a bit and while he agreed that FB was strong he didnt cared for it to change for season 1 since it wasnt so gamebreaking. The thing is that GreenDude had GGG's ear whenever he wanted and cause he was playing FB at that his perspective on the matter was clouded. Thats something we all must avoid if we need pvp to take a step forward and not back.
*Clarification, i have the outmost respect for GreenDude's effort, contribution and work for the general pvp scene and his pvp events pre-season 1, are what made me fall in love with pvp. That example is not made to blame him or accuse him for being responsible for s1 FB thing, just a reminder that people with weight/prestige should more than anybody else try to be objective no matter what.
On topic/feedback : Despite of the confined extremeties of season1 there are still mechanics/skills out there that cause problems and discord amongst the community and this part is where i adress them. It doesnt mean that everything i write here is in need of a nerf or tweak or a buff etc. I will speak about them in general, for some i will even make some suggestions while for others i will not. So lets get started.
I. Melee
Sword + shield : The melee scene and builds are exactly the same as last season with a few exceptions. Sword and shield (and in a lesser degree unarmerd+shield) is the way to go and vs other melee builds that dont utilize shield (2h, duel wield ) sword+shield is the undisputed champion. Their active damage output is almost the same with a 2h build, but they excel in mitigation and triggering attack damage. Not only they have insane amount of block and life but with the trigger gems they can dish out 2-3x times the damage any other melee build can. I cant see how this is balanced and how two-handers or dual wielders are supposed to win vs those builds, its not that they have a chance, sword and shield builds can easily afk and still win vs any other melee build. This needs to be adressed, by adding a cooldown and/or damage effectiveness for every extra trigger gem someone is using or make some trigger gems exclusive to builds, like riposte only for dual-wielding, reckoning only for shield users, vengeance only for melee builds without an offhand (2handers and even goddess scorned builds if they still exist).
On the same matter just ask yourself and tell me how many 2handers or dual wielders have you seen until now. Five? Ten? There is a reason people prefer to play with shields and thats because shield builds are better than any other melee build.
Special mention on FB. Lacking the legacy version in the new leagues FB surely has fallen a bit, both in power as well as popularity. The removal of vengeance was also a huge blow, and the small nerf to shield charge was also bad for the build. It still performs very good vs 2handers and dual wielders but nobody is playing those builds, and its performance vs sword+shields is excellent too. What keeps it alive vs those builds is the trigger gems (yes even if it uses "only" two) but since it performs very bad vs any non-melee build i believe this state of FB is very good.
Cyclone atm is the most used melee skill (maybe with flicker strike and leap slam), there are even archers out there that have cyclone on weapon swap (and believe it or not they win vs pure melee builds while on swap). The issue with cyclone is the utility it offers. First of all it allows you to move while attacking which is a big advantage of the skill, but it also grants immunity to stun + knockback. Yes it has big drawbacks like 20% Less AS, 30% Less Ms and deals 50% of base damage, but even with minimum effort it still outshines every other melee skill when it comes to damage. So my suggestion here is to rework cyclone ( FOR PVP ONLY) and instead of immunity to stun and knockback make it so it gives 50% chance to avoid stun and knockback on pvp. Another fix could be that the base damage is reduced from 50% to 40%. Any of those two changes could really help balancing cyclone for pvp.
Heavy strike and permanent-knockback or knockback lock. Thats not the problem of heavy strike on its own, but on weapon range as well. Not only swords have better passives nodes on the tree but they also have outrageous attack range. Fix the swords regarding that matter and we get double the benefits, not only knockback lock will be confined but swords might even lose their throne to something else. Cyclone is GGG original counter to heavy strike's utility (stun + knockabk), but both mechanics are broken for pvp (meaning immunity to stun+knockback on cyclone, and 100% knockback chane on heavy strike plus the reduced stun threshold). Damage wise a small nerf would be most welcome.
That leaves skills like Glacial Hammer (even with recent removal of an older nerf), infernal blow, static strike, frenzy, dual strike, double strike and viper strike in the bin with the unused skills. (i dont even mention sweep, cleave, reave due to their nature and also because they are lame)
II. Ranged
Well puncturers took a huge blow with the change to the pots, especially in blitz where pots refill every time, facing a puncturer is not a big of a problem. Since bleeding is very well countered with the flasks now. Though we can still see that bow puncturers are still doing extremely well in top competitive events (blitz + swiss). But as i said before puncturers are in a good position only because the flasks are very good now.
An interesting fact is that Tornado Shot (at least on EU events) has almost gone extinct . The lack of +1arrows corruptions in temp leagues must have played its role too together with the nerfs on the skill itself.
Its nice to see new skills used, Explosive Arrow, Ice Shot, Rain of Arrows, Burning Arrow etc, together with the old ones (Puncture, TS) and until now from what ive seen they are doing well too but thats not because of the skills themselves but the combination with traps which will be further analyzed shortly.
Mirror arrow/Blink Arrow : If GGG plans where to make lld bow users as annoying as possible they have succeeded. They now have 3 skills (along with smoke mine) to escape and reposition themselves while still doing some dmg with the illusions. In 1 v 1 those skills might seem ok (even though they are top tier utility skills) but in 3 v 3 those skills are absolutely obscene. That said, i still havent found a reasonable solution to that clone spamming.
The matter though that needs addressing from GGG as soon as possible is the one shot capabilities of Kinetic Blast. Its unacceptable that 1-shot skills still exist in pvp after season 1 fiasco with 1-shot shield charge. One shot mechanics should not exist for any reason at all, and the fact that Kinetic Blast builds have low health in general does not mean they are entitled to 1-shot people. Please fix that.
Bow users in general have a wide variety of vialbe skills that they can use and they actually do. Only exceptions are lighting arrow and split arrow but the latter one's nature is not suitable for pvp.
III. Spellcasters
Well until now, the pvp season 2 is dominated by spellcasters (who would have thought that eh?). Selfcasting spellcaster nonetheless too, pretty exciting if you ask me. Is it ok though to win so easily?
First of all we got Freezing Pulse, either selfcasting or with traps. Its really good, good enough to win EU swiss yestarday and have 2 more people in top 10, as well as having 2 people in US Swiss top 10 too. The damage with lmp + the utility (chill + occasionally freeze) with the very good range (with faster projectiles) make it super strong. Add to that some utility skills like cold snap/molten shell/ or the occasional trap, and you have a build that has answers for everyone (except other casters maybe). Whats the problem with that skill if you ask me is the huge damage output in combination with the utility it offers (something like cyclone for melee). Either reduce its damage (its damage though is augmented so much for lmp in which case lmp is the problem and not FP), or lessen the utility it offers
Molten shell, i talked about it last season as well as in alpha : the damage done by molten shell is over the top. It can easily take out 60-80% of your HP and it can be casted immediately after detonation granting you also some protection from physical attacks. It should be noticed that molten shell is the common denominator in all succesfull spellcasting builds. Its damage needs to be lowered, nothing else to add here.
Firestorm : Well i for once was really happy to see a new entry on spellcasting scene. I have encountered plenty firestorm builds and i can say that not everybody is good. The problem though is that people complain about certain individuals and their firestorm which obliterates everything without even sweating. I'm not against selfcasting spellcasters to have a night in the spotlight, but being so easy (proof US Swiss the other day) is against the fair and competitive nature pvp should offer. From videos and streaming i watched some firestorm builds win vs everything else no matter what, and thats an issue that should be checked.
And then we have skills like fireball, firetrap, flameblast, discharge, flame surge, ice nova, shock nova, lightning tendrils, storm call and searing bond that are not even used. Maybe its time to change that?
Honorary mention: Arc/Spark those skills still find their way into competitive plays no matter what, without being overpowered, they can offer utility or even damage output (spark vs melee is still excellent). Make the least used spells offer at least something similar to what arc/spark offer.
Cast when stunned gem : its in the same category as cast on death before the nerf the damage output can be extreme, maybe raise the chance to cast the spell linked when stunned but reduce its damage to a similar way COD was nerfed.
Lastly i want to mention that contrary to season 1 there are no summoners in season 2.
IV. Mechanics/Passives
Stun: I do agree that it is a crucial matter and that stunlocking can easily win games, ill say it though for the hundredth time, its so easy to counter it or confine it : US, Chayula, Leo mod, Cyclone, block/dodge, Heart of Oak, stun recovery mods. Seriously why people still crying about it?
Elemental Equilibrium (EE) : I mentioned how strong EE is countless times both pre-season 1 (in alpha) as well as during season 1, and people used to mock the very notion that EE can be strong, the "pros" at that time couldnt believe that EE was even viable/usable how could it even be OP? Well now that people started facing more and more EE and die like Krillin in DragonBall cause of it they realised that indeed EE is a big uncounterable threat (and please dont use the argument get +50res over the max, cause with elemental weakness combined you need +80res over the max and thats 155res in each element). Add some scaling in EE that affects it in pvp only or leave its values as they are at the moment but make it removable with Warding flasks (yes i know its not considered a curse)
Desync : Unfortunately its chronic continuous existance in PoE, made me (as it made many others too) to consider desync part of the game. And losing due to bad servers in pvp is outrageous. What happens when ranged/spellcaster character runs around pillars and obstacles laying traps and the melee flicker strikes or leap slams? Yes he desyncs like crazy and dies. Sadly but true desync needs attention, cause players can use it to gain advantage by using that stupid tactic of running around obstacles, when somebody desyncs its obvious to the enemy too who will launch an attack that moment (especially if the desynced person is melee and the other one can use ranged skills).
Resistance rating on the events : Can we get an answer what that value represents? Its crucial enough to decide who can get a Talisman of the Victor and still nobody knows what it takes into account.
Traps : Well traps are still a gamebreaking mechanic all spellcaster/ranged characters use and offer MORE damage. They can control areas preventing opponents from using paths to find an opening, and can be placed in such a manner that they can win games too offensively. They are so good that allow you to lay 1-2 and fight where you want too, and while you opponents try to find a way to bypass them you can easily rain hell on them. Its a mechanic that provides both offensive and defensive utility and its exclusive to spellcasters/bow users with the exception of bear trap that melee builds can use but only for the utility while every other traps can have utility + INSANE damage. Raise the CD, raise multiple traps support gem lvl to 31, raise the mana multiplier for everything that has to do with traps, all are viable solutions (not all together but one of them).
Point Blank : While the Keystone is very well balanced, the gem is not looked at, at all since the beggining of the pvp seasons. Physical attack damage traps can be augmented with the ridiculously overpowered point blank gem offering 50% MORE damage without any drawback. Wouldnt be wise that this value was reduced to something like 20-25%? Even if it was reduced to that it would still be strong as hell since it has no drawback (even its mana multiplier is low). If that is deemed to be to strong of a nerf for bow users raise its mana multiplier to 160% or something.
Hope i helped even a tiny bit. See you in the arena.
and those are just a sample of feedback, i just quoted the most memorable
Spoiler
Wild captain, Unbiased feedback is not feedback supported by multiple people. Unbiased feedback is neutral, impartial, or random not affected by other influences. There is biased feedback with good intentions. Intentions not impacting ones own gains. I have never said there isnt great feedback here. I simply said unbiased feedback doesnt exist around here to my knowledge.
I Stream PvP Twitch.tv/GrindcoreTHRALL
THE STORY OF MY Descent into the Abysmal Afterlife( HC to SC, too Stronk!)
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/346754
PK massacre, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldz09uBZ-ug
Wild captain, Unbiased feedback is not feedback supported by multiple people. Unbiased feedback is neutral, impartial, or random not affected by other influences. There is biased feedback with good intentions. Intentions not impacting ones own gains. I have never said there isnt great feedback here. I simply said unbiased feedback doesnt exist around here to my knowledge.
Though its offtopic, i would like to say that since you have taken this to a more of a philosophical level i totally i agree with you, since as human beings its impossible one's words/ideas not to be even in the slightest affected my his personal experience and point of view, especially here in the pvp section where to actually contribute to the better understanding and improvement of the scene someone has to indeed be playing it. And since we all play something different or a variant of a build, we are biased to see things based on our own perspective.
So if i want to be more punctual then the word unbiased (or anything with the same meaning to be honest) in my previous posts should be replaced with well-disposed and sometimes just or fair.
