Development Manifesto - Balance Changes in Content Update 2.1.0 - Forum

" Rory wrote: Summon Raging Spirits (Early-game Buff/Late-game Nerf for certain characters) Raging Spirits have been completely rebalanced, with a faster cast speed, longer duration, and greatly improved AI. This makes it much easier to hit the limit on the number of Raging Spirits available at once. The damage has also been adjusted to compensate. Hmmm, ok, well, yeah. SRS was OP, nothing new. " Rory wrote: Raise Zombie (Buffed) Raised Zombies now have a faster attack speed, and will occasionally use an AoE slam that damages enemies in a small area, to make them less reliant on Melee Splash. They also have a naturally higher stun threshold, so they're less likely to be stunned out of an attack. Yeah, well, Zombies were a little weird like that, but there were some people using them. Good that they got buffed! " Rory wrote: Raise Spectre (Buffed at lower levels) Raise Spectre now has a lower penalty on Life and Energy Shield at lower levels, as Spectres raised at low levels died too easily. Good to see Specters being viable again. ... Rory? I think you have forgotten about something. There is one more summoner skill. Oh yes... SUMMON SKELETONS PLEASE?! Why this skill is getting ignored all the time... : / This has to be like 3rd post about summoner changes in a row, that talks about summoner changes, but totally ignores Skeletons as a summoner skill... FREAKIN SKELETONS! The most basic, cliche summoner skill of them all. Why?! I DEMAND ANSWERS! (well, not really, but this is kind of funny to me... don't judge me) Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.	Posted by Perq#4049 on Dec 7, 2015, 12:57:17 AM Quote this Post
Love Balance changes ... esp OP/META balance : D SSF since ~OB	Posted by stonespeak#5283 on Dec 7, 2015, 12:59:51 AM Quote this Post
This was a very fast race due to the perfection shrine recipe. We were beeing abled to run fastly high maps much earlier. One month on steroids. Last edited by Blutzoll838#6892 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:01:15 AM	Posted by Blutzoll838#6892 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:00:19 AM Quote this Post
" Exile009 wrote: If only popular skills were being balanced, then Searing Bond would literally never be touched. I've seen only two SB characters in all my time (over 3 years) playing this game - and both were levelling. I've never seen anyone play SB at end-game. Yet...there's a SB balance (actually a more complicated mechanic) change right there. Reave needs balance, yes. Cyclone, I think, is suffering from it being used more often than not for CoC Discharge, making it seem over-represented. Discharge needs a serious nerf, imo. Overall, I like the changes. 3 years ago, people were "wtf discharge opop", and the justification for it was it was self-cast and horrible to play (still is, if self cast). Not sure what justification for it's power is now. And you're right, I've seen many good cyclone builds - all CoC (lol), except one (Pepock's marauder worth around 1500-2000 exalts). Melee remains shit tier, actually even more shit now. Oh well. I've already scrapped my melee plan for 2.1, no reason to torture myself. Searing Bond buff is irrelevant, you still won't see it ever in end game. I'm kinda meh overall, there are definitely some good changes, some bad, and some strange omissions - Vaal Spark, somehow, by some fucking miracle, avoided a nerf lol. Says a lot about game balance, really. 177 Last edited by toyotatundra#0800 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:09:57 AM	Posted by toyotatundra#0800 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:02:28 AM Quote this Post
Magma orb is not going to be any better just because of another chain. It needs mechanical tweaks or substantial damage boosts to outperform other skills...	Posted by Delfofthebla#4022 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:05:15 AM Quote this Post
" Kullevi wrote: Legacy flasks?? I'm fine nerfing surgeons but leave legacys? Lol, less reason to play in permanent hc I guess. Changing items in my stash is why I quit playing. Its lame as fuck to have my items get nerfed in standard. And really, who plays base hardcore?	Posted by TRV#4623 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:10:52 AM Quote this Post
" Reinhart wrote: I hope this patch brings classic skills like storm call, fireball, ice spear and ice nova, ... back into the spotlight. Nobody will play that garbage. Let me explain how meta is created: Step 1) Try new skills for one day. Then abandon them. Step 2) Google "havoc pathofexile" and "etup pathofexile" Step 3) Decide which of their build you like better. Right now, Havoc is much better choice cause he only plays completely broken builds (he abandoned Incinerate cause it wasnt OP enough for him lol) and Etup has moments of insanity when he decides to play melee garbage Step 4) Play that build for the next 3 months Step 5 is where it gets complicated, you can either: Step 5A) Post on reddit how that one build is the only thing worth playing and meta is stale Step 5B) If you're playing Vaal Spark, downplay your skill, say it's not that good, in an effort to sucker GGG into not nerfing it Step 6) Faceroll the game, right-click your way to victory, all while looking at porn on second monitor. 177 Last edited by toyotatundra#0800 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:16:37 AM	Posted by toyotatundra#0800 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:16:09 AM Quote this Post
" toyotatundra wrote: " Reinhart wrote: I hope this patch brings classic skills like storm call, fireball, ice spear and ice nova, ... back into the spotlight. Nobody will play that garbage. Let me explain how meta is created: Step 1) Try new skills for one day. Then abandon them. Step 2) Google "havoc pathofexile" and "etup pathofexile" Step 3) Decide which of their build you like better. Right now, Havoc is much better choice cause he only plays completely broken builds (he abandoned Incinerate cause it wasnt OP enough for him lol) and Etup has moments of insanity when he decides to play melee garbage Step 4) Play that build for the next 3 months Step 5 is where it gets complicated, you can either: Step 5A) Post on reddit how that one build is the only thing worth playing and meta is stale Step 5B) If you're playing Vaal Spark, downplay your skill, say it's not that good, in an effort to sucker GGG into not nerfing it Step 6) Faceroll the game, right-click your way to victory, all while looking at porn on second monitor. What build are havoc and etup playing right now? seems like an easy choice for GGG on what to nerf is any of this is true. IGN: Arlianth Check out my LA build: 1782214	Posted by Nephalim#2731 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:20:22 AM Quote this Post
Aaaaaaaaand arc got buffed... again... for the 3423424th time, even if it was op before the buffs	Posted by Valeere#6538 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:20:44 AM Quote this Post
Ok serious point here for rory and the devs, Im looking over the new tree and its basically all still there in a slightly different order, generally good stuff, but theres a bit of an issue imo with these leech node changes. Lust For Carnage in the Marauder area is 1.2% of physical attack damage leeched, but Vitality Void is 1.6% of attack damage leeched for the same points.... So if you are a physical build somewhere between 30% and 70% of your damage is elemental, so a physical attack build is going to get basically double the leech from 1% attack damage leech than they are from 1% physical attack damage leech. You said the strength area has the highest values but its utterly crap compared to the dex side leech, it has lower values AND they are half as effective.	Posted by Snorkle_uk#0761 on Dec 7, 2015, 1:22:59 AM Quote this Post