Development Manifesto: Energy Shield and Life

yay time to theorycraft again :D

"

Marxone wrote:

Good that we still have Berzerk with 100% leech and working Vaal Pact for a life build :p

Will be fixed without doubt.

"

Rory wrote:

For your benefit:

TLDR:

Now this is a story all about how
ES got nerfed right into the ground
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I made our Int defences totally fair

At the top of the tree, it was nerfed and raised
On niche builds was where it spent most of its days
Not for min-maxin', just trying to be cool
If you didn't like life, CI was your tool
'Til Vaal Pact and GR let it put life to shame
Started making trouble in the metagame
It cakewalked the fights and the team got scared
We said, "You're getting a big rework 'til the meta's repaired."

I ground down the values on all of the gear
Had to buff some base types to keep it all fair
All to nerf what you could get from the best rare
Then I whipped up new life mods
That all armour could share

We dialed down some keystones, giving them all a flaw
We tweaked crafted mods and we added some more
So that's all the changes
But don't you be a hater
You'll try it all out and we'll tweak it in Beta

hahahahahahahahahaha epic Rory

"

Vegalyp wrote:

"

Rory wrote:

For your benefit:

TLDR:

Now this is a story all about how
ES got nerfed right into the ground
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I made our Int defences totally fair

At the top of the tree, it was nerfed and raised
On niche builds was where it spent most of its days
Not for min-maxin', just trying to be cool
If you didn't like life, CI was your tool
'Til Vaal Pact and GR let it put life to shame
Started making trouble in the metagame
It cakewalked the fights and the team got scared
We said, "You're getting a big rework 'til the meta's repaired."

I ground down the values on all of the gear
Had to buff some base types to keep it all fair
All to nerf what you could get from the best rare
Then I whipped up new life mods
That all armour could share

We dialed down some keystones, giving them all a flaw
We tweaked crafted mods and we added some more
So that's all the changes
But don't you be a hater
You'll try it all out and we'll tweak it in Beta

Rory, I love you.

I saw him first! :D

<3 <3 <3

I think POE is a great game but there is a big space between players - this energy shield nerf is a bad idea. Remember not all players have 1000 ex gear. I am poor one that's why say. Until there are 1600 ex gears and 50K ex players in game - sure energy shield will OP - life will OP - default attack will OP - everything will OP - and players can 1 hit anything with closed eyes. But ES nerf only mean - the poor players can't play ES anymore - can't play aurabot anymore - while rich guys say ok who care than I have half es - still unkillable with best items in game. So nerf a lot in 25K es builds - nerf a lot in 15K+ es builds but 8K es no need nerf I think because only make the game for them unplayable. Sry for my eglish and gl hf guys :D

back to life build, wts all energy shield items

"

Rory wrote:

For your benefit:

TLDR:

Now this is a story all about how
ES got nerfed right into the ground
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I made our Int defences totally fair

At the top of the tree, it was nerfed and raised
On niche builds was where it spent most of its days
Not for min-maxin', just trying to be cool
If you didn't like life, CI was your tool
'Til Vaal Pact and GR let it put life to shame
Started making trouble in the metagame
It cakewalked the fights and the team got scared
We said, "You're getting a big rework 'til the meta's repaired."

I ground down the values on all of the gear
Had to buff some base types to keep it all fair
All to nerf what you could get from the best rare
Then I whipped up new life mods
That all armour could share

We dialed down some keystones, giving them all a flaw
We tweaked crafted mods and we added some more
So that's all the changes
But don't you be a hater
You'll try it all out and we'll tweak it in Beta

As someone who has played since the early days of closed beta (you know, back when 10k anything, including dps was pretty fking good), here's my thoughts:



tl;dr The problem has never been how high ES could get. It has always, always been Vaal Pact.

Ive been playing a while, played both sides of the fence and know that ES > Life.

Most decent ES builds with decent gear = 10-12k ES.
Most decent Life builds with decent gear = 6-7k Life.

There are the elite that can go way higher 16k+ ES etc.

IMO, and im allowed that (no flames)...

1) REMOVE Vaal Pact from the game
2) REMOVE Elreons rings from the game
3) No more ES destruction
4) Add more flat Life in the tree to make it poss to match the 10k ES
5) Release 3.0

Cheers...

How to fix Leech, ES and general game balancing in 25 easy steps.

1. Remove all sources of "+x% of maximum Life per second to maximum Life Leech rate" (It's garbage and confusing.)

2. Introduce the more straight forward +x% Maximum Life Leech Rate and +x% Maximum Mana Leech Rate, an additive increase to the 20% Leech Rate cap. (+1% raises your cap to 21%)

3. Buff all sources of increased Life Leeched per second on the passive tree dramatically (it should be easier to hit the Life Leech Rate cap through normal play).

4. Change Slayer's Brutal Fervour to +5% to Maximum Leech Rate, Cannot be Stunned while Leeching, You are Immune to Bleeding while Leeching (it probably won't need the Leech per second with the buffs throughout the tree or you could just leave it in)

5. Add 1% of Damage dealt by your Traps and Mines is Leeched to you as Life to Saboteur's Explosives Expert.

6. Add +2% to Maximum Life Leech Rate to Vitality Void, Blood Drinker, and Lust for Carnage

7. Add +3% to Maximum Life Leech Rate to Bloody Bludgeon, Blade of Cunning, Splitting Strikes, Flaying, and Heavy Draw for their respective weapons

8. Add +5% to Maximum Life Leech Rate to Hemotophagy and Soul Raker.

9. Add +5% to Maximum Mana Leech Rate to Spirit Void, Essence Sap, and Mind Drinker.

10. Void Barrier's 10% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate replaced with 1% Life Regenerated per second

11. New Vaal Pact:

Vaal Pact: 150% of Life Regeneration per second is added to your Maximum Life Leech Rate. Life Regeneration has no effect.

(6% life regen will allow you to leech 29% of your Life per second instead of the normal 20% limit).

12. Life Leech Support and Mana Leech Support also add +1%-+5%(max level) to their respective Maximum Leech Rates along with their current effects.

13. Remove all additive sources of Life Regeneration on gear, replacing it with x% of Life Regenerated per Second (the additive affixes on pretty much all existing items should be converted to 0.1% to 0.3%)


14. Remove the Hybrid Armor/Evasion/Energy Shield+Stun Recovery affix from the game since we are adding...

15. Add the Life+Armor Type affix from the manifesto.

16. Reduce Energy Shield from gear at the top end of the spectrum by 15%.

17. Concerning Atziri's Acuity, they could be left as is considering their rarity but for the health of the game I would suggest:

Atziri's Acuity
Quality: +20%
Armour: (643 to 683)
Requires Level 75, 100 Str+
(60-80) to Intelligence
+(60-75) to maximum Life
(200-220)% increased Armour
(25-35)% increased Global Critical Strike Chance
10% of Life Regenerated per Second
Vaal Pact

18. No changes to CI or Infused Shield. Although, I would seriously consider adding stun immunity to CI for the health of the game and reduce the ubiquity of Eye of Chayula. Hybrid Life/ES and lowlife should be the build types depending on Eye and Presence of Chayula since they are vulnerable but not crippled by stuns like CI is.

19. Discipline's Energy Shield increase reduced 15%, but provides 25% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate and 15% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge.

20. Vitality adds 32(level 1) to 160 (level 20) Maximum Life. Always provides 2% Life Regeneration per Second regardless of level.

21. Stone Golem provides 0.5% to 1.5%(level 20) of Life regenerated per Second.

22. New Ghost Reaver:

Ghost Reaver: Life Leech is applied to Energy Shield at full life, -7% Maximum Life Leech Rate

23. New Keystone: Spell Siphoning (Should probably be located near Witch somewhere)

Spell Siphoning: 2% of Spell Damage Leeched as Life, -5% Maximum Life Leech Rate

24. Reduce hard hitting monster damage that are not designed to be one shots. (You can leave Shaper's Slam alone etc.)

25. Reduce monster/map reflected damage affixes.


RESULTS OF THESE CHANGES

Death from attrition rather than one shots is the new game without instant leech Vaal Pact. Life/ES Hybrid and CI enjoy larger effective health pools but have lower sustain. Life has lower EH pool but enjoys higher sustain and Armor/Evasion.

Vaal Pact is the ultimate in terms of sustain, but the sacrifice for Life Based characters is high. For CI and Life/ES Vaal Pact is an attractive option to help boost their sustain but not a game breaker.

Increased viability of Traps and Mines. Spell Siphoning is a lower sustain alternative to Life Leech Support for spell builds.