Massive (accidental?) nerf to Essence Worm, Memory Vault coming...

In the latest balance manifesto, a key problem they're trying to address is Reduced Reservation providing very little benefit at low values, but being OP when stacked (notably Aurabots).

With that goal in mind (whether you agree with it or not), their solution DOES make sense for REDUCED reservation (notably changing it to "reservation efficiency" at twice the values).

However, "twice the values" does NOT make sense at all for INCREASED reservation, and has the complete opposite effect of the intended goal because of how the math works out.

Consider these proposed changes from the 3.16 development manifesto:

"

Essence Worm now grants 80% reduced Reservation Efficiency (not specific to mana), instead of 40% increased Reservation.
Memory Vault now grants 20% reduced Reservation Efficiency (not specific to mana), instead of 10% increased Reservation.

Essence Worm, a very cool item, was previously useful in Mind of Matter builds, when you want just want 1 good aura (e.g. Wrath), and some small auras (Clarity). But what does this change mean? 80% reduced effectively, 5x more mana reservation!!! To put it in context:

Clarity (base 279 reservation) in 3.15 would be 390 reserved
Clarity (base 279 reservation) in 3.16 would be 1395 (!!!) reserved

That seems a huge and seemingly unwarranted nerf to Essence Worm, and possibly other other similar items, which I hope wasn't intended! Since these "Increased" Reservation items weren't meta afaik, nor conceivably used by any kind of aura stacking strategy.

your math is incorrect. how does 80% in any type of calculation lead to 4x more mana reserved?

But when dealing with with this new mechanic, the efficiency is not as simple as applying the % to the reservation. It's going to have it's own equation. For example, GGG stated that at 100% efficiency that means you can run 2 50% auras. Does this mean that 2 50% auras become 90% reservation at 100% efficiency or what? We don't know.

I believe efficiency is going to be a very small multiplier and the 80% reduced efficiency of Essence Worm is going to translate to similar or maybe SLIGHTLY more reservation than 3.15.

But definitely not 4x more...

Ex: if it worked in the WORST possible way (80% reduced efficiency = 80% more mana reserved) it would STILL only be 297 x 1.8 = 534.6 mana. But that is almost certainly not how it's going to work.

How is my math wrong? They said:

"

Reservation Efficiency works by dividing the cost of the Reservation Effect: 100% increased Reservation Efficiency would halve the cost of all Auras. 50% Reservation Efficiency cuts down costs enough to let you reserve an additional 50% Reservation Aura.

Dividing the cost of the would be like:

Reservation / (1 + efficiency)

So with +100% efficiency (i.e. increased), it would half the cost of auras like they said, i.e.

Reservation / (1 + 1.0) = Reservation / 2

But in cause -80% efficiency (i.e. reduced) like the new Essence worm

Reservation / (1 - 0.8) = Reservation x 5

So it will cost 5x more... Clarity will cost
279 x 5 = 1390 mana...

The formula is X / (1 + |X|). This is an incredibly common formula for diminishing returns. Many MOBAs use this for calculating resistances.

So +50% efficiency would be 50/150 or 33.3% reduction
100% is 100/200 or 50% reduction
200% is 200/300 or 66.6% reduction


Now, lets reverse this...
80% reduced efficiency (as in Essence Worm) is 80/180 or 44.4% increased reserved mana costs. So yes, it is a nerf... when wearing only ONE Essence Worm

Fun fact, if you are wearing 2 of them it's 160/260 or 61.5% increased reserved mana. This is in fact a BUFF!

While using your clarity with a base 279 reservation...
One Essence Worm makes it cost 403 mana
Two Essence Worms makes it cost 451 mana

Edit: Fixed the function to correctly handle negative inputs.

Cool, then I hope that's the formula they use. :)

On the fun fact, it never actually occurred to me that you can actually use 2x essence worm! That's an interesting thought!

.. I really don't know how to play this game anymore
Sorry I don't have a PhD in playing games
Nor am I one English language linguist supremo..

"

EdenRage wrote:

.. I really don't know how to play this game anymore
Sorry I don't have a PhD in playing games
Nor am I one English language linguist supremo..

Easy way to understand it:
Each 1% is it's own less modifier.
What this looks like:
As your Efficiency% approaches infinity the reduced reservation approaches 100% on a curve.

The Y axis is your % increased/reduced mana reservation
The X axis is the amount of reservation efficiency in hundreds

Unfortunately, I was correct (and believe me, I wish I wasn't). There's no tricky math here.

In 3.16, essence worm literally increases reservation costs by FIVE TIMES in a fresh build. So Clarity would cost 1390 mana. For the simplest test, just put one and see a typical 50% reservation like Hatred, Wrath, etc aura go from 50% to 250%. :(

Only saving grace is there are some masteries that can help offset the nerf (like the Clarity 100% efficiency), but still a quite a big nerf.

I don't know about what an "aura bot" is, but my main character, which is my main driver to play this game, is no long playable because of the 40%->80% nerf. I was previously able to run wrath, purity of elements, war banner, anger, and precision and now i can only run wrath, and two of the other listed auras. Very disappointing and basically makes me unwilling to take the time to rebuild my main. I don't play this game to re-run the boring story and play alts. I won't be recommending this game to other players because I don't want them to experience the disappointment I've encountered.

Yep, the costs of using Essence Worm and trying to reserve anything else outside of one are insane now lol.