Raise Spectre Gem did NOT deserve your shortsightedness

I don't know which of the [redacted] developers thought it wise to reduce the level the gem provides to spectres, but let me show you the shortsightedness it brings:

The spectre level affects:
- Damage
- Life
- Accuracy

Older spectres or spectres which don't have the endgame treatment (e.g. xxxx% life) are now not viable anymore. Example: Solar Guards, which were the chosen spectres before the minion revamp, are now completely nonviable for endgame, because they don't have enough life and/or damage because of the level loss.

SCION and GUARDIANS were also able to do 6-links spectres setups, however - unlike the necromancer - they don't have ascendancy nodes to provide +levels to minions. Which means the generic level downgrade hits them even harder, because now they need to additionally compensate for the level loss, which was already difficult before for them.

The unique playstyle the spectre gem grants is now restricted to a) best dps (and not ultra squishy) monsters or b) support only, albeit now support gems are probably needed for survivability.

INSTEAD of nerfing some of the cluster jewels ONLY and maybe some mob if it's somewhat broken you chose to penalize EVERY SINGLE BUILD WHO WANTS TO USE SPECTRES IN AT LEAST SOME CAPACITY. Now any in-between is barely possible as without major investment the spectres won't survive endgame.

Another thought: Level 20+ gems are generally meant for endgame. The new Raise Spectre gem provides level 72 monsters. The endgame has in general level 83 monsters. That's a [redacted] 11 level difference. Think about it!

Edit: You might consider supporting kayella in her reddit post: https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/kvdynz/ggg_please_reconsider_monster_level_nerf_for/

"

Funkjoker wrote:

I don't know which of the [redacted] developers thought it wise to reduce the level the gem provides to spectres, but let me show you the shortsightedness it brings:

The spectre level affects:
- Damage
- Life
- Accuracy

Older spectres or spectres which don't have the endgame treatment (e.g. xxxx% life) are now not viable anymore. Example: Solar Guards, which were the chosen spectres before the minion revamp, are now completely nonviable for endgame, because they don't have enough life and/or damage because of the level loss.

SCION and GUARDIANS were also able to do 6-links spectres setups, however - unlike the necromancer - they don't have ascendancy nodes to provide +levels to minions. Which means the generic level downgrade hits them even harder, because now they need to additionally compensate for the level loss, which was already difficult before for them.

The unique playstyle the spectre gem grants is now restricted to a) best dps (and not ultra squishy) monsters or b) support only, albeit now support gems are probably needed for survivability.

INSTEAD of nerfing some of the cluster jewels ONLY and maybe some mob if it's somewhat broken you chose to penalize EVERY SINGLE BUILD WHO WANTS TO USE SPECTRES IN AT LEAST SOME CAPACITY. Now any in-between is barely possible as without major investment the spectres won't survive endgame.

Another thought: Level 20+ gems are generally meant for endgame. The new Raise Spectre gem provides level 72 monsters. The endgame has in general level 83 monsters. That's a [redacted] 11 level difference. Think about it!

As someone who has been playing minions builds since Betrayal I 100% agree with this post.

"

Vaildez wrote:

"

Funkjoker wrote:

I don't know which of the [redacted] developers thought it wise to reduce the level the gem provides to spectres, but let me show you the shortsightedness it brings:

The spectre level affects:
- Damage
- Life
- Accuracy

Older spectres or spectres which don't have the endgame treatment (e.g. xxxx% life) are now not viable anymore. Example: Solar Guards, which were the chosen spectres before the minion revamp, are now completely nonviable for endgame, because they don't have enough life and/or damage because of the level loss.

SCION and GUARDIANS were also able to do 6-links spectres setups, however - unlike the necromancer - they don't have ascendancy nodes to provide +levels to minions. Which means the generic level downgrade hits them even harder, because now they need to additionally compensate for the level loss, which was already difficult before for them.

The unique playstyle the spectre gem grants is now restricted to a) best dps (and not ultra squishy) monsters or b) support only, albeit now support gems are probably needed for survivability.

INSTEAD of nerfing some of the cluster jewels ONLY and maybe some mob if it's somewhat broken you chose to penalize EVERY SINGLE BUILD WHO WANTS TO USE SPECTRES IN AT LEAST SOME CAPACITY. Now any in-between is barely possible as without major investment the spectres won't survive endgame.

Another thought: Level 20+ gems are generally meant for endgame. The new Raise Spectre gem provides level 72 monsters. The endgame has in general level 83 monsters. That's a [redacted] 11 level difference. Think about it!

As someone who has been playing minions builds since Betrayal I 100% agree with this post.

same here

"

Funkjoker wrote:

I don't know which of the [redacted] developers thought it wise to reduce the level the gem provides to spectres, but let me show you the shortsightedness it brings:

The spectre level affects:
- Damage
- Life
- Accuracy

Older spectres or spectres which don't have the endgame treatment (e.g. xxxx% life) are now not viable anymore. Example: Solar Guards, which were the chosen spectres before the minion revamp, are now completely nonviable for endgame, because they don't have enough life and/or damage because of the level loss.

SCION and GUARDIANS were also able to do 6-links spectres setups, however - unlike the necromancer - they don't have ascendancy nodes to provide +levels to minions. Which means the generic level downgrade hits them even harder, because now they need to additionally compensate for the level loss, which was already difficult before for them.

The unique playstyle the spectre gem grants is now restricted to a) best dps (and not ultra squishy) monsters or b) support only, albeit now support gems are probably needed for survivability.

INSTEAD of nerfing some of the cluster jewels ONLY and maybe some mob if it's somewhat broken you chose to penalize EVERY SINGLE BUILD WHO WANTS TO USE SPECTRES IN AT LEAST SOME CAPACITY. Now any in-between is barely possible as without major investment the spectres won't survive endgame.

Another thought: Level 20+ gems are generally meant for endgame. The new Raise Spectre gem provides level 72 monsters. The endgame has in general level 83 monsters. That's a [redacted] 11 level difference. Think about it!

100% agree with everything you said.

Monster level reduces the life much more than the damage. The nerf to monster level will make spectres die easily at endgame content. And re-raising spectre mechanic is almost impossible in middle of fight. We need to desecrate and find the right one and target corpse to raise new spectre.

A lot of endgame content might become impossible to play, especially for newer players.

What makes me most sad is that we are having a pandemic, ok NZ doesnt but the rest of the world does and you would think a company like GGG would take this into account before destroying one of the most played classes.

I have a friend he is stuck at home due high risk and he can only play summoners, he was so looking forward to this league to get something else than Covid nightmares.

In my opinion GGG has done a really poor job here, its not the first time that for some reason the company lacks sympathy.

I believe Chris is a great guy, but for some reason he doesnt see the wrongs happening and what consequences these design choices can have on people out there.


Please GGG, hire a PR guy or girl, someone who looks a bit further than the own doorstep.

This was absurd. This has nothing to do with balancing, it was a deliberate (and somewhat authoritarian) decision of removing necromancer from most played list just for the sake of it. I dont know what the discussion was, but maybe they wanted other classes dominating the most popular builds. And for that, they would go to any lenghts necessary to make sure that THIS TIME, necro players would not be able to squeeze any way of being viable in the last hour.

But, let's just hope there are fun builds from other classes for us to enjoy this great new amount of content coming up.

Having said that, this set of nerfs was absurdl, unless patch notes show us otherwise, which I doubt.

"

Ygidua wrote:

What makes me most sad is that we are having a pandemic, ok NZ doesnt but the rest of the world does and you would think a company like GGG would take this into account before destroying one of the most played classes.

I have a friend he is stuck at home due high risk and he can only play summoners, he was so looking forward to this league to get something else than Covid nightmares.

In my opinion GGG has done a really poor job here, its not the first time that for some reason the company lacks sympathy.

I believe Chris is a great guy, but for some reason he doesnt see the wrongs happening and what consequences these design choices can have on people out there.


Please GGG, hire a PR guy or girl, someone who looks a bit further than the own doorstep.

Seriously... This game is an escape for me. I am in my late 30's and a lot of builds completely murder my hands and wrists with carpal tunnel. I just wish they would be more considerate about stuff like this.

You all might want to consider supporting kayella in her reddit post:

https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/kvdynz/ggg_please_reconsider_monster_level_nerf_for/

I think it's time we say goodbye to spectres this league.

Probably I'll try some Dancing Duo shananigans, then respec into a Deadeye or Elementalist.

If they don't reconsider the gem nerf I may take a break from this league and maybe longer. I have been playing spectres since Betrayal and I just enjoy the playstyle. The gem nerf is just too much and pretty much makes it unplayable.