WHY ON EARTH SCRAP THRESHOLD JEWELS?

I realize that spell casting is getting a large buff over all in 3.17 for self-cast, and for specific skills the jewels could give you god powers but why not rebalance them the same way as the support gems?
Specifically the freezing pulse threshold jewel was sort of a staple unique for the totem variation of the build. The only other option is rain of splinters which has a glaring downside of 50% reduced damage.
Spell totem is going from 28% less damage to 49% at lvl 1. But freezing pulse should see an increase in damage overall (I think).
there just inst reallt a BUDGET option anymore that would give decent clear for the totem version (rain of splinters is about 50c for the first 2 weeks of league)
couldnt you add a caveat that says "doesnt for for self cast" ?

Also, Soul Mantle not having +1 totem anymore basically makes it impossible to play totems competitively with any other ascendancy than hierophant (even if you disregard using the freezing pulse skill)

if there are changes I missed that affect this build for better or worse let me know because its one ive wanted to play since i started this game and now I just dont see a way it can become end-game viable without an insane amount of investment, that would most likely be better spent elsewhere.

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JanDeArc wrote:

Specifically the freezing pulse threshold jewel was sort of a staple unique for the totem variation of the build.

Not just the totem version of "the build", but every build using Freezing Pulse. And that's the problem with Threshold Jewels; NO reason NOT to use them, so they just became "another thing you HAVE to get". Which begs the question; why do some skills have these Threshold Jewels you HAVE to get to make the skill "work", while others don't?

I'll get it, though. Buffing Freezing Pulse while removing +4 projectiles is paradoxical. But Threshold Jewels were nothing more than than an illusion of a choice.

I think you misunderstand the intention here, this is intended as a nerf, not a rework.

They want skill related threshold jewels to be gone because
a.) they are used by everyone (which means they are to powerful)
b.) they add power you can get other ways, they are just a shortcut

Balancing skills based on them having threshold jewels or not having one is bad, therefore just get rid of the jewels and balancing becomes more in line.

Everything threshold jewels add to a skill can be acquired through gear or support gems, losing projectiles on Freezing Pulse simply means you have to play with LMP/GMP/Volley now and that is the very intention of this change, to stop giving certain skills power shortcuts which are hard to balance.

Totem nerf is also very welcome, the playstyle is stupid, it was to dominant and if the changes mean the TOTEM ASCENDANCY is finally getting some playtime again then this is good balancing to me.

While I enjoy freedom in build planning it is kinda stupid when a melee ascendancy goes bow and outperforms bow ascendancies, same for totems.

They wanted to kill spell totems for a reason, not sure what the reasoning is, because it was already on very shaky ground after 3.15.

Why they went out of their way to nuke Soul Mantle when they'd already sucked the life out of Spell Totem Support is beyond me. It is now legit useless. Absolutely dead unique taking up drop pool space. They could have left it alone and people would still abandon spell totems because of the abysmal damage after gem nerfs and the previous league's slashing of totem HP.

Pretty much every dps delivery modality that's not live casting has taken a haircut, they really don't want you to bank effort and signal average at all. CoC builds were still trying and that's fine, but they went after the enabling uniques in a way that shows they really don't understand what makes the build attractive.

I never cared for the threshold jewels because with few exceptions, they were just "win-more" and didn't open up any new design space. Kind of wish instead of just erasing them, they would revisit them and look for ways to let people use common skills the way they want.

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crunkatog wrote:

Pretty much every dps delivery modality that's not live casting has taken a haircut, they really don't want you to bank effort and signal average at all. CoC builds were still trying and that's fine, but they went after the enabling uniques in a way that shows they really don't understand what makes the build attractive.

Actual in terms of for us as players they are the same as before not really a haircut, the reductions were tuned so that the damage for trigger methods remains the same after the changes.

The issue for totems is kinda like their changes to hydrosphere though, they removed the pole propping up a bunch of builds without replacing it with anything. Personally I would have liked them to just do +1 totem in general.

I've not played with totems since the HP reduction entirely caused by forbidden rite, is it really that bad to get them to survive now?

Lets fix handcasting by nerfing only skills that were used /s
(and also nerfing the onl supoort skill - Unleash, that was making it semiviable)

Ya whats with Spreading Rot, only 1 allowed and less cast speed?

"

crunkatog wrote:

They wanted to kill spell totems for a reason, not sure what the reasoning is, because it was already on very shaky ground after 3.15.

Why they went out of their way to nuke Soul Mantle when they'd already sucked the life out of Spell Totem Support is beyond me. It is now legit useless. Absolutely dead unique taking up drop pool space. They could have left it alone and people would still abandon spell totems because of the abysmal damage after gem nerfs and the previous league's slashing of totem HP.

Pretty much every dps delivery modality that's not live casting has taken a haircut, they really don't want you to bank effort and signal average at all. CoC builds were still trying and that's fine, but they went after the enabling uniques in a way that shows they really don't understand what makes the build attractive.

I never cared for the threshold jewels because with few exceptions, they were just "win-more" and didn't open up any new design space. Kind of wish instead of just erasing them, they would revisit them and look for ways to let people use common skills the way they want.

Well if they're killing spell totems that's reason enough for me to uninstall this. I had found a build I enjoyed when I returned and it was a spell totem build.

Wasn't happy with the nerfs this league so I sat it out, hoping next league would correct some of it. Nope, they're just nerfing it more.

I don't feel like finding another build to play. I'm not interested in trading and the massive RNG fest the game likes to call "crafting". I liked my spell totem build.

Maybe I can go back to a witch minion build. That was fun too, but not the same kind of fun.

"

MrSparkle001 wrote:

Well if they're killing spell totems that's reason enough for me to uninstall this.

Good thing they aren't killing it, then.

Sure, they are more or less killing Soul Mantle, but are the best totem builds really using that body armor anyhow? If we disregard the Soul Mantle nerf, totem builds got more or less untouched this league. Hell, most spells got a damage buff that is higher than the Spell Totem nerf - and the base type totem got a buff too, didn't they?

They obviously want you to use pinpoint for every single self-cast proj skill. I'm fine with that, but sucks that I can't go to 4th stack of intensity without another proj investment, which is just unrealistic for spell caster.