Steelskin and the Guard Skills

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BAD9eR wrote:

so immotal call got nerfed :C better rename it to something other than "immortal" call eh ?

I agree. So...

Mortal Call?

Tough Call?

Close Call?

Ok, Immortal Call nerf is a terrible idea. It will make nearly all evasion builds unplayable endgame and HC and evasion will become mutually exclusive terms.

I am seeing a lot of people talking about just needing skill and active play, and range chars can just kill for 3 screens away blah blah. Well, most of those comments are from people who have never actually played evasion in an endgame map.

Firstly, we don't choose to clear fro ma distance, we have no choice. In a red map, even some blue packs can rip evasions builds a new one. Mostly we move around a lot and, yes, keep mobs at a distance. BUT, that isn't always possible. Take for example the Betrayal tileset that looks like graveyard. Try keeping mobs at range there. And this is where this nerf is a killer. Pure evasion chars either Evade all damage or none of it. EVEN with high evasion, some hits will get through, and with no mitigation, you will die. UNLESS...something saves you so you can reposition...TADA, enter Immortal call.
It is for that time when you can't keep at range and you just failed your evasion roll. Now I can already hear people say, "don't play pure evasion then". This also doesn't help much. If you mix with evasion, I find you just end up with a char with low mitigation, low dodge/evade chance and just dies constantly.

Even with Immortal call, Evasion was frustrating to play, in red maps, YOU are going to die. The question is, will you do it little enough to be exp positive. Without Immortal Call, the answer will be no. Nearly all evasion builds will be unplayable in red maps entirely.

Now if briefly, we look at the alternative, Steel skin. It sounds great. Absorbs 70% of incoming damage, EXCEPT, it is capped, it can only absorb so much. When stuff starts critting you for 6k+...having 1000 or even 2000 damage is moot, with or without steel skin you are dead. To make matters worse, it is more or less manual cast. Yes, it can work with CWDT, but CWDT cannot trigger a gem with a req of more than 38. This means you can not lvl up your steel skin past lvl 10 or something. So it absorbs like 600 damage. For evasion, steel skin is a worthless skill endgame. We could still use the nerfed Immortal call. Whether or not its mitigation is enough to stop you being one shot when you fail an evasion roll, that is yet to be seen, but on a t15 map...i doubt it.

And before anyone says I am talking through the side of my head, I have played nearly EXCLUSIVELY evasion builds on POE, what can I say, I like bows.

I don't know why, but EVERY rebalance in this game seems to make Evasion builds more unviable. In GGG's desperate attempt to provide a variety of builds, they seem to ever be pushing people into cookie cutter builds more and more. At this rate, in a few years time GGG, this might as well be an MMO with 6 class to pick from.....

does VMS count as a guard skill as well? If it does, does it also benefit from the Adamant notable on the tree?