Content Update 1.3.0 Patch Notes, Deployment Timeline and Official Path of Exile Twitch Channel

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It's a whole lot easier to nerf the good skills into the ground and not risk them being crazy overpowered than to take the time to buff the bad skills and make sure they don't become overpowered.

This was my reaction when I read that comment. Instead of saying 'hey, lets make skill X more desirable in a build because it will become more effective' they have gone with 'hey, lets make skill X no more desirable than it is now, but make it seem comparatively less shit by nerfing other skills instead, all the while not actually doing anything to make skill X more appealing in any way'.

I agree that games need to be balanced, and you don't want something totally overpowered and/or game-breaking because that does remove the fun. But surely games like this are about trialling gems and gear with the aim of finding powerful combinations to give you an edge? If a skill is weak then bring it in line, why mess with something which isn't weak to create the balance?

If a sports team had a weak link they would replace that person with someone better, not get rid of the star players so that team was 'more balanced'...

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KingTen87 wrote:

I agree that games need to be balanced, and you don't want something totally overpowered and/or game-breaking because that does remove the fun. But surely games like this are about trialling gems and gear with the aim of finding powerful combinations to give you an edge? If a skill is weak then bring it in line, why mess with something which isn't weak to create the balance?

The thing is, you need to work on both ends of the spectrum.

You have your desired power level of X. That's what you design around. If setup A is overpowered in regards to X, then you've got to nerf A (or change X and everything else). Otherwise, your hard content isn't hard. Because it isn't like one player will discover a build and he'll be the sole outlier. Nope. The build will get posted on-line (heck, this game has stickied threads filled with just that), and soon tons of others will copy it and/or make variations on the theme. And if you do try to make it hard for A, then everyone else, including those that are at X, will feel underpowered.

So nerfs are a necessity. They're safer, they're less work, and they result in an overall better balanced game, especially for the majority of players who just play the game and don't research it (no forums, wikis, etc).

Of course, the problem lies with that "both ends of the spectrum". A might be overpowered, but B is underpowered. Because B doesn't ruin the designers ideal of how difficult their new encounter should be, there's no rush to fix B. And so B stays unfixed. That leads to patches that look like this one. Tons of nerfs, little in the way of buffs. And those jade players. We can all name a few powers that suck. Shock Nova, for example. It's crap, and it won't be touched.

But back to nerfs. Players tend to react negatively to changes. Under ideal circumstances, the devs could tweak a power multiple times. Chip off 10% here, see how it plays, then another 5% there. Tweak the power slowly until it is where it should be. Players though don't like that. They get nerfed, adjust, and then get nerfed again. It doesn't make them happy. So devs tend to go for the one big nerf, rather than a series of adjustments. Still leads to board blow-ups, but overall less-so than if they take more, smaller steps. One big one rather than a series of big to medium-sized ones.

That said, I'm not a fan of what they did with block. Not that they did it. On the whole, limiting the power of block is a good thing. Less force multipliers creates a better game, since you won't have vast differences in power. My problem is that they hit block and ignored most everything else.

Had it been a full on rework of survivability and damage, I'd be all for it. 75% resists, for example, should have gone the way of the dodo at the same time. A flat out nerf to resists from items, a cap lowered to 50%, and so on. And to go with all that, and this bit is very important, a re-evaluation and adjustment of how much damage mobs do.

But they didn't do that. They did a knee-jerk reaction and screwed with one thing, leaving people who felt reliant on shields to survive some poor balance choices feeling unviable, while leaving other things that present the exact same sort of problems alone. And also failing to adjust their precious monsters which helped create the situation in the first place.

To be blunt, this content update is a mess.

I can't figure out a way to make my main character work the way I wanted it to be again.

And no I don't think 4.5k life, 10k physical damage (cyclone), 78% block were OP - no criticals either.

In fact, I couldn't even do Aziri runs.

All previous patches had one thing in common, they somehow worked for my build - but this?

Do you want us all to use the Bringer of Rain and the Anvil now in order to have a max block character!?

I estimated I'll need about 20-50 extra passive points to get my main character going again.
And after trying out a few builds I don't want to and won't apply the passive points anymore.

Things that should happen:
Rollback the old tree or buff block nodes significantly.

But I think this will not happen soon. So I'm going into exile - I don't care about masters, other characters and ESPECIALLY PVP (the only reason I made that character like I did in d2) anymore until there's a way to fix that character.


UPDATE:

Old stats: 4.55k life, 12k armor, 10k physical cyclone damage 3 aps, 78% block
New stats: 3.6k life, 17k armor, 8.8k physical cyclone damage 2.1 aps, 75% block (my existing Lioneye's remorse was nerved - it has now 30% instead of 33% blockrate.)


I AM DONE WITH POE UNTIL THAT MESS IS FIXED.

I don't understand all the complaining, just because some particular builds got nerfed. The tree and game is now considerably better. It's terrible design choice for everyone to go crit and everyone to be able to get max block. Yeah the game is harder now, but deal with it. Bloodlines is an awesome and fun new league/mechanic and the tree has much more flexibility and mobility now. You can quickly swing from one side of the tree to the other. The game is made to break characters, that's why they made leagues where you have to create a new one, by design you're always leveling something new.

Also, why would you want GGG to explain every little philosophy behind design detail that would be tipping their hand. It was part of the issue with WoW. In that game you could play PTR and look through Blizzard archives and understand every single mechanic and it's function before you even played it. Playing video games forces you into a higher degree of malleability that creates enjoyment, at least if you let it.

So what we can say about this update =

=> PATH OF LAG or PATH of DESYNC or both ?


I dont care about your new transactions, i dont care about your new adds, Chris you are serious you tried your game or not?????

It s worst than ever, the priority of your game now is the "STABILITY" !!!!!!

I know that your fan boys club is happy for the new league, the new pets (lol), but can you just do something about this f........................ ing lag and desync desync desync.

I bought some microtransactions to help the developpement of this game but not like this,
I'm playing in standard league and now i can't ==> each map = desync desync desync, teleports in another rooms, it's just amzaing (if you want we have some videos for you), you will be happy to see what happens.

After each 4 Dominus runs i have error, after each 78 Palace = error.

I like this game but what i see, it's just more and more MICROTRANSACTIONS ( so cute spider, so cute chiken = omg whare i am !!!

At the end, you're using the word "Balanced" please Chris, just use the word "NERF".

looks pretty cool! cant wait for jimmies to be rustled

I agree desync is the worse ever, Its jut not playable. Block builds are eh well, worth trash. Tried my 89 incinerate witch and just not working anymore as I lost 40 points in block. Exalted spend on the gear, what to say here, who will buy block related gear now, whom to sell to make a new build? To nobody as we all playing block have the same issue. Frankly speaking, its really a balancing? NO I dont think so. Why not to focus on real issues as desync and really and issue to farm on level 87 and above.
GGG please think about that and at least get the back part of what you have already took out.

I haven't played this game in quite a while and the new content update sounded appealing and I was interested in coming back...

However, all the negativity surrounding the patch and reading through the patch notes that seem like one giant nerf. I will not be returning to this game right now.

Hopefully things will be improved over the next few weeks.

Good luck.

Hey, I do not give this game for no dollars, my CI Shadow is completely useless Loath Bane Ambusher, Atziri Acuity, everything is useless. I'm going to play where it works, this is a dead game.

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