OP mechanics: cast on crit, vaal pact, surgeon flasks [2 boss, vuln Vaal Temple DEATHLESS]

Video of these mechanics in action fighting a double boss, vulnerability, -max vaal temple boss.

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For the past two months I believe I've been playing the best build in poe. A cast on crit discharger. Not the squishy kind that can't level past 90, but one with 9k EHP, which I easily leveled to 100 with, and killed all the unique bosses in poe with. I believe unless the mechanics I'm highlighting are quickly reigned in, the metagame will become stale as people flock to them. I personally am getting bored because almost any build I try whose gear isn't 5x as expensive as mine will be drastically weaker. The only exception I can think of is Anapoe's incinerator, but incinerate is over powered as well.

Cast on Crit: The wand/bow-based cast on crit stuff is nice, but it's not overpowered to compared to self-cast. The main problem is discharge. When CoC is combined with cyclone and discharge, the synergy becomes too strong. Cyclone acts as a charge generator, movement ability, and casting ability all in one. And we can use another spell at the same time as discharge. As a result the damage becomes strong. Compared to self-casting we're doing 3-4 as many things at the same time. The efficieny is incredible. To reign Cast on Crit in, it needs to be brought back to similar efficieny as self-cast discharge. Make it have 30-40% less damage. Or give it a 100-200ms cooldown. Or just remove the gem. Another problematic item here is voll's devotion but I don't know how to handle it.

Vaal Pact: life regen is extremely over rated, as is blood rage. 20% more damage and 20% atk speed is just 50-60% increased damage if you have 200% inc on your tree. 10% life regen won't save you from 1shots, but instant leech will. If you're dying to non-1shots, you need to work on your reaction time and game sense. Furthermore, leech is capped at 20%/sec, and you have to spend tons of points to make it go faster (or gear slots...), whereas vaal pact is 1 point and you get full leech. I'd suggest making vaal pact 40-60% effectiveness in order to make acuities and regular leech more reasonable alternatives.

Surgeon Flasks: My tree and gear didn't get any mitigation. Rather I just speced life, energy shield, and damage. All my mitigation came through surgeon flasks. I was able to get 88 allres, and 10k armor for no investment. This made most map bosses factankable, and was enough defense/mitigation to do core malachai close to deathless. Since these flasks work with crit, effectively I get defense by getting damage. Just remove surgeon flasks already, everyone knows they're overpowered, and the double dipping of damage as defense makes building too easy.

Yes, let's nerf it now that you have enjoyed it, got bored and want to move on. F everybody else!

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AxxiusEQ wrote:

Yes, let's nerf it now that you have enjoyed it, got bored and want to move on. F everybody else!

These mechanics have been around for over a year now, it's getting boring having the same stuff being top dog.

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MatrixFactor wrote:

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AxxiusEQ wrote:

Yes, let's nerf it now that you have enjoyed it, got bored and want to move on. F everybody else!

These mechanics have been around for over a year now, it's getting boring having the same stuff being top dog.

And yet, diversity of builds still remain - even in light of the fact that these particular mechanics exist.

When you exclude the top ladder racers, and a good % of the Twitch streamers, from your definitions of the "meta", you're going to end up with a lot more accurate picture of the level of diversity that exists within the current playerbase.

Hell, have a look through the various build forums - there is a solid build guide for practically any skill you could name.

Yes, Crit/Cyclone/Incinerator blah blah blah dominate - but you're also looking at skills that have been extremely well explored, the mechanics are well understood, basic trees are easy to plan, and you can customise various gear and aura tweaks to make your own "separate" build.

I appreciate that there is some concern from a small, vocal, and slightly weird sector of the community that wants GGG to nerf/balance everything. But remember, GGG has millions of points of data at their fingertips when deciding whether to take action on a particular skill or mechanic.

Leave the balancing to the guys that we're paying to do it, and leave the actual fun of the game to the guys who are building the characters for it. Becoming less involved in "what everyone is playing" and "what the meta is" is not a bad thing.

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MatrixFactor wrote:

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AxxiusEQ wrote:

Yes, let's nerf it now that you have enjoyed it, got bored and want to move on. F everybody else!

These mechanics have been around for over a year now, it's getting boring having the same stuff being top dog.

So try something different yourself. Other players can decide what's fun and what's boring without you getting it nerfed for them.

I'm very truly grateful you are not a developer like for once I think Carl is actually doing a good job compared to you.

Cast on Crit - add FLAT mana cost of a spell to the final 'trigger' cost. currently cast on crit provides good damage (not the best but 'good enough' for everything) but what makes it truly broken is the simple fact that it is mostly.. free. 100s of spells everywhere for some laughable mana (or life with BM). This gem alone is the cancer that makes development harder (most new spells were designed AROUND CoCS) and spell pool smaller (due to 'nice' ideas being simply too good with CoCS). self-cast characters compared to CoCS spellcasters are just in a very very strange place (excluding another joke - incinerate)

Surgeons is broken and noone besides devs understands why it is allowed to stay so. it isnt that crit has not enough upsides.. removing it might create legacy flasks (lol) changing it to '15% chance to get an extra charge' might be impossible without legacies so maybe turn it into 'doubles charges from magic/rare' mobs. it is still better than what non-crit builds get


to the all 'broken mechanics defense force' - game that allows this kind of BS for too long turns into a boring one. it is true that one can finish a game with 'crap' builds but if anyone is playing to a) reach 100 b) acquire wealth c) stand out he for sure is to use a build that makes it easier. if the gap between 'easier' and 'crap' builds reaches orders of magnitude then.. well.. main complaint about D3 is that 'there are just 2-3 builds per class'. there arent, one can play with any combination, but these 2-3 just are SO MUCH better than the rest.

currently poe migrates into these waters

All trigger gems can go to hell*.
They were a mistake. Give them the Phase Run treatment please.

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Chris wrote:

*Phase Run: Has been retired to the plane of elemental fire to be reforged anew.

Edit:
Lol @ flasks. None of my chars need surgeons to achieve permanent uptime (exluding niche situations but WE TOTALLY BALANCE THE GAME AROUND THOSE AMIRITE).

Observe the usage of taste + rumi + promise.

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nait2k4 wrote:

Yes, Crit/Cyclone/Incinerator blah blah blah dominate - but you're also looking at skills that have been extremely well explored, the mechanics are well understood, basic trees are easy to plan, and you can customise various gear and aura tweaks to make your own "separate" build.

I appreciate that there is some concern from a small, vocal, and slightly weird sector of the community that wants GGG to nerf/balance everything. But remember, GGG has millions of points of data at their fingertips when deciding whether to take action on a particular skill or mechanic.

Leave the balancing to the guys that we're paying to do it, and leave the actual fun of the game to the guys who are building the characters for it. Becoming less involved in "what everyone is playing" and "what the meta is" is not a bad thing.

So you're saying don't leave feedback on this forum? What..?

My point is that the combination of these three mechanics makes for power builds of the kind where if you play them once you won't want to power with anything else again. That's really bad for the game, as well as player retention. That's why I'm basically asking GGG to nerf the build I'm playing ATM.

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MatrixFactor wrote:

if you play them once you won't want to power with anything else again.

That's a/your personal problem. Please do not speak for others.