Content Update 3.15.0 -- Path of Exile: Expedition

("Monster life has been increased by roughly 46% at level 1" <-- rip oni-g farming...?)

i'm looking forward to 3.16's announcement, when chris comes out and says:

"oops. we done fluffed up. we didn't nerf NEARLY enough!"

Heavy strike, but not mortal.
Only wish they kept harvest as zana option and nerfed aurabots so partyplay not that much stronger than playing solo.

Oh well, read a lot of stuff that I didn't really like at all (knowing how hard some of my extremely non-meta builds will be hit, but who cares about that, apply a universal nerf to everyone, no matter how far they are from the most broken 500m+ dps/full screen instant clear builds - way easier that way), but I really do not get the idea behind the awakened gems quality changes. Now most of them will be just a slightly better version (in a purely numerical sense) of the equivalent regular gem, which basically means that a lot of the players will not even care about chasing them as much as before (even less incentive to min/max your build, therefore play the game more).

Bye bye Intimidate on Awakened Melee Physical Damage, now you are just Melee Physical Damage's big brother, nothing special about you anymore!

Hey Awakened Multistrike, thought you were cool? Think again son, now you are just a slightly more expensive version of the regular Multistrike. Oh and you know what, you will also have a higher less damage penalty than your younger sibling, how about that?

Hi there Awakened Brutality, you know, you should be happy with 5% more damage, that extra added benefit of overwhelm is something that you should forget about (don't even get me started on Impale support).

Yooo Awakened Hextouch how's it going? Wait what, you have been giving all of these filthy players the option to apply an extra curse?! Go back to the dumpster where you belong! Ok fine, calm down, I will let you keep the chance to affect hexproof enemies. You know what, I will even throw you a bone and apply a small buff there. I know, don't tell anyone I used the word "buff" or there will be consequences!

I got a bit carried away there, but there is sadly so much more to talk about (T4 Aisling.......for real, was that really needed?!). My honest opinion is that these "small" balance changes are really over the top, and it seems that they were designed in a very lazy and simplified way. I just don't see any original thinking here or subtlety in the decision making, rather feels like someone decided to take an axe and chop everyone's head off for personal satisfaction only.

Having said all of the above, I will still give this patch a go, but my wallet will most probably remain sealed for the time being (don't be fooled by the lack of supporter pack banners/icons under my account name, I just buy point packs on a regular basis and purchase individual cosmetic items, but I have bought over 6000 points since coming back to the game last September), as I feel like my level of enjoyment will be significantly lower due to same of these changes. The sad thing is that this already happened in 3.14, as the time you spend in the game became less rewarding overall.

Sincerely,

Someone who really likes the game in general, but is starting to consider other options to continue his gaming adventures.

Wait, where is the 20% Rolling Magma buff they mentioned earlier?

This:

Rolling Magma damage growth per level has been increased and it now deals 20% more damage at gem level 20 (and more at higher levels).

Herald of Agony Jugg is dead if i read correctly?
No 60% from poison gem makes it very clunky - unplayable?

.

I'm glad that I've already played many strong and fun builds before because it looks kinda sad. Anyway gonna try this myself on Friday and see how it goes.

"

ThaTonka wrote:

I'm fine with GGG trying to make the game harder, but there is one big problem with getting these "balance checks" in increments...


...We are playing an ARPG which gets defined by it's loot and oh boy do we NOT have any kind of chase items loot in 3.15. The boss loot is now so watered down that it barely is any meaning doing them and the abundance of trash drops will now be so high that it will be extremely uninspiring to do the grind loop.


Cortex had Bottled Faith left - gone
Sirus hade Awakened Gems - mostly nerfed to the ground
Maven and Oshabi - Dead on arrival
Heist Bosses - Likewise
Conquerers - Meaningless unless you get their orb which rarely happens
Elder - still fine for Watchers Eyes but mostly for fragment
Shaper - only for fragments


and so on. I wish GGG would've made these big changes only when all aspects of the game would've been tuned cause this league will be brutal item wise.

Dont forget Atziri's Acuity

horrible patch notes
You need to make the game faster not slower, why would you try and make the game like it was in the past when it was dead?
plenty of other slow/boring ARPGs exist now

predicting massive player drop off this league.

i might actually go and try D3 lol

oof