The BIG Lightning NERF

The following is really nothing more than my impressions. Some may agree or disagree with them in part or in whole. This thread is intended as discussion and not intended to be "inflammatory". Please remember, we all have differing opinions.

My thoughts/impressions; Sporker Builds were OP, doing 10K DPS. As a result, GGG decided to Nerf Lightning, Totems and Auras. I feel they went a little overboard in either the Nerf, or the changes to the monsters in general. And although Arc received a buff it's negated by the totem and lightning Nerf's.

I have a lvl 85 Triple Totem Build. The DPS of my build was nowhere near the DPS touted by the, for lack of a better term, Traditional Sporker Build. The reason for this is that a 3 totem build has no real option but CI if they want to survive. Can't use Shav's Chest because Soul Mantle is needed for 3 totems. Can't go Pain Atonement with CI. Those 2 reasons already Nerf a 3 totem build. Add to it that Shav's has 3-10% Spell Dmg and add Pain Atonement's 30% Spell Dmg, that equals up to 40% more DPS. Then when you look at the other items used by Traditional Sporkers, it's just more stacking of mods from more Unique items to reach the 10K DPS. I think GGG overlooked this to a great extent. Maybe some more MODS on Unique Items like "Can Not Use With..." would have served just as well to Nerf the OP Builds, without killing off Builds that "were" able to manage but are no longer looking to be viable...it's really disheartening, to spend so much time trying to make an alternative to a "Trend Build", only to have it Nerfed when GGG implements changes to kill the Overpowered Builds.

I'm very disappointed in the release, for other reasons as well, and I hope GGG will re-evaluate the changes they've made.

Anyhow, as stated; Simply my opinions.

Take care All.

GGG gets infinitely more data about damages, player builds etc than anyone of us will ever see. Odds are, your build wasn't that good to begin with if you feel like your build has broken completely. Nerfs and buffs will always happen and some characters will not work after them.

Overall, all of the changes done in 1.0.0 has balanced the game a lot and removed some of the most common cookie cutter aspects of the game that made a few builds ridiculously OP.

If you feel like changes to the game breaks the fun, then you will have that feeling at every single patch and major content update. Guaranteed.

Aura stacking was just off the chart before 1.0.0, I'm glad they toned that down a bit.

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Katulobotomia wrote:

GGG gets infinitely more data about damages, player builds etc than anyone of us will ever see. Odds are, your build wasn't that good to begin with if you feel like your build has broken completely. Nerfs and buffs will always happen and some characters will not work after them.

Overall, all of the changes done in 1.0.0 has balanced the game a lot and removed some of the most common cookie cutter aspects of the game that made a few builds ridiculously OP.

If you feel like changes to the game breaks the fun, then you will have that feeling at every single patch and major content update. Guaranteed.

Aura stacking was just off the chart before 1.0.0, I'm glad they toned that down a bit.

i hope this is not true since the game was officially released... I have invested a lot of my free time in some characters and I do not have hours every day to play, so if my builds are being nerfed/destroyed before I manage to get bored of them this will definitely make me leave... i let it go during the beta but if it continues it will certainly suck

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AintCare wrote:

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Katulobotomia wrote:

GGG gets infinitely more data about damages, player builds etc than anyone of us will ever see. Odds are, your build wasn't that good to begin with if you feel like your build has broken completely. Nerfs and buffs will always happen and some characters will not work after them.

Overall, all of the changes done in 1.0.0 has balanced the game a lot and removed some of the most common cookie cutter aspects of the game that made a few builds ridiculously OP.

If you feel like changes to the game breaks the fun, then you will have that feeling at every single patch and major content update. Guaranteed.

Aura stacking was just off the chart before 1.0.0, I'm glad they toned that down a bit.

i hope this is not true since the game was officially released... I have invested a lot of my free time in some characters and I do not have hours every day to play, so if my builds are being nerfed/destroyed before I manage to get bored of them this will definitely make me leave... i let it go during the beta but if it continues it will certainly suck

The job of balancing a game like PoE is never finished. Especially considering that they are going to regularly add new content to this game. Everything new needs to be balanced and prerelease testing doesn't always cut it.

If you can't deal with ongoing changes then ARPG's are definitely not the sort of game for you.

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Nonsensei436 wrote:

If you can't deal with ongoing changes then ARPG's are definitely not the sort of game for you.

well o now we don;t have beta tag to blame it on so we just going to say all ARPGs have major balancing changes every month?

yeah I don;t think so man, much better games out there that you could have fun with builds for years...

again this game is cool but if this major nerfs and shit will be happening im out, and I feel many ore will follow... beta is beta but this shit was released

All they did was make it so if you are going to be a totem character you have to focus on improving totems. I did that with my sporker, changed her totem to Arc, which is WAY better than it used to be and she is doing just fine. I put the spork onto traps and use arc + remote mines as well. The combination of these things seems better than my old build.

You aren't going to be able to build the way you used to, GGG made it so if you are going to focus around totems, traps, auras, anything really then you are going to have to actually focus on it. Darting down to one keystone no longer makes the build.

The real nerf was not to totems, that is minor if you are willing to get the proper nodes, it's the duration of spark. I think it was over kill, but let's face it, very few people use spark unless they make a spork totem, and they did it just because of them.

This belongs more to the feedback section doesn't it?

There wasn't a particular huge nerf to lightning mentioned and I don't think it is such an issue. If you feel like having too low dmg, you need to spec more into dmg.

Totem players only stand behind their totems, they shouldn't be as tanky eg as maras. At least not if they also want to do equal dps.

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Xalmaren wrote:

All they did was make it so if you are going to be a totem character you have to focus on improving totems. I did that with my sporker, changed her totem to Arc, which is WAY better than it used to be and she is doing just fine. I put the spork onto traps and use arc + remote mines as well. The combination of these things seems better than my old build.

You aren't going to be able to build the way you used to, GGG made it so if you are going to focus around totems, traps, auras, anything really then you are going to have to actually focus on it. Darting down to one keystone no longer makes the build.

The real nerf was not to totems, that is minor if you are willing to get the proper nodes, it's the duration of spark. I think it was over kill, but let's face it, very few people use spark unless they make a spork totem, and they did it just because of them.

you can use traps with Ancestral bond? I thought you can only use totems as dmg source after that...

first, there were no spork builds EVER getting 10K dps. EVER. Baker was around 8K at level 100 with max power charges.

Second, the % of spell damage on an occultist adds almost nothing to dps. it is INCREASED. Pain Attunement is MORE. The Pain Attunment did add 30% DPS.

Third - They destroyed Shavs value when they made it so that RF is no longer useable for ES users. Now with a Shav you can get the pain attunment bonus, but you then take the full brunt of chaos damage (-60%) so it is not a large enough increase to use it instead of using CI.

Spork was not at all OP previously. It was just cheap to gear and you could stack magic find. They nerfed the piss out of it in every possible way because members of the community whined so much. You could still clear much faster with discharge, wander, facebreaker, flicker, Freezing pulse/RF, and a ton of others. Proof is that Qarl himself even said Shav's was fine a month or so before he destroyed it. This is why there are so many whine threads now. You whine enough, The dev's cave.


I'm very sad about the spork nerf because I enjoyed the playstyle after a long day at work, but there are far better builds. Now you just stack life nodes + block chance, use leech and carry a granite + saffell on swap and tank through the game.

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reboticon wrote:

first, there were no spork builds EVER getting 10K dps. EVER. Baker was around 8K at level 100 with max power charges.

Second, the % of spell damage on an occultist adds almost nothing to dps. it is INCREASED. Pain Attunement is MORE. The Pain Attunment did add 30% DPS.

Third - They destroyed Shavs value when they made it so that RF is no longer useable for ES users. Now with a Shav you can get the pain attunment bonus, but you then take the full brunt of chaos damage (-60%) so it is not a large enough increase to use it instead of using CI.

Spork was not at all OP previously. It was just cheap to gear and you could stack magic find. They nerfed the piss out of it in every possible way because members of the community whined so much. You could still clear much faster with discharge, wander, facebreaker, flicker, Freezing pulse/RF, and a ton of others. Proof is that Qarl himself even said Shav's was fine a month or so before he destroyed it. This is why there are so many whine threads now. You whine enough, The dev's cave.


I'm very sad about the spork nerf because I enjoyed the playstyle after a long day at work, but there are far better builds. Now you just stack life nodes + block chance, use leech and carry a granite + saffell on swap and tank through the game.

I agree,


although I haven't checked my discharge dude yet but somehow I feel he will be unplayable... I did not have 5Ls and really good gear so definitely not doing maps with him after cost increments and aura nerf lol