3.18.0d Patch Notes Preview

Great changes, thank you GGG team!

steel-infused nerf seems exagerated, otherwise Im happy with them.
HH will get too strong in 3, 2, 1

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DiabloImmoral wrote:

If you're a low damage character and don't have reflect immunity won't Effigy still literally kill you just as easily as before?

No, the effigy counts as an ally to you. It won't take damage from your attacks and reflect them. It takes damage from ENEMY attacks and reflects that damage over to you (now at half the value). Basically, it makes it a lot more likely the enemy can hurt you as the effigy will taunt enemies and won't move to avoid enemy attacks. The reflected damage will bypass defenses like Block, Evasion, etc. Resistances, Armor, and Energy Shield will still work appropriately. Anti-reflect abilities will NOT help with effigy damage, as those only reduce or eliminate reflect damage from your own attacks, not enemy attacks.

Think of it like a voodoo doll, where the enemy can hit the effigy to hurt you instead.

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Jerle wrote:

Good to hear the changes coming.

But why does HH gets such special treatment? Lots of chase uniques over the years have gotten nerfed due to fundamental changes. I don’t see GGG bending over your back to fix them?

Because that was last league's Kirac's pass final reward. They hope for lots of income from league rewards. If they don't fix it (soon), they get mageblood users nervous about spending on this league's pass.

I'm sure they are uncertain but hopeful on league passes. Kneecapping the first one isn't ideal. (so TL;DR: money)

Better than nothing doesn't mean it's good enough to be not bad.

Now that the beta testing phase of the league seems to be completing, perhaps we can talk about extending the league so people have chance to get those challenges completed. I mean each challenge is like 10 from any of the other league prior.

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TryToGetMeThisTime wrote:

Remove archnemesis from the game or make it rewarding at least like in 3.17! You didnt test it, everyone can see this (lies). Are we supposed to wait 10 years until you make something like alittle balance so the game will become playable again and still not fun, because noone likes archnemesis in the game?

Just imagine, you dont have to fix anything, if u dont ruin entirely at the first place. Think about it.

Absolutely, do not prolong/change the problem, just remove it, it is very simple.

Ive been playing Hardcore PoE since there was 2 acts. This is by far the worse anti HC league ive ever seen. I just lost my lvl 97 Aegis inqui to the stupidest shit ever (Effigy). You guys finished killing HC PoE, Congrats.

now reduce the billions of on-death/on-hit effects and the other billions sources of ground degen and slows.

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While linked, 50% of damage from Hits taken by the Effigy is also taken by the player as reflected damage (previously 100%).

WHY, of everything else, this even exists in the first place? GGG has forgotten that player agency is the key in an action game. Mind you, GGG is notorious for its bad game designing skill from the very beginning, but they have literally removed this exact bad game mechanic from the game (except Atziri boss fight for some unexplainable reason). Now, they bring it back in a totally uncontrollable way (since there's no practical way to even warn the player about it, let alone have him do anything about it before it's too late) -- to what end? Those 2% megaexpert players that shape the meta will still work around it, while the rest will suffer for no real reason.

Let's be honest: Archnemesis as a league where you could build your challenge was great fun (although tiny mod inventory and decisions on what to take and what to skip was hampering it), but that was fun exactly because of the player's agency. He knew map mods, he knew exactly what he was building up and was able to test his creation at every step -- so he could both control his risks and understand the exact dangers he was subjecting himself to. Oh, and he was rewarded for the risks he took.
Now, with enforcing Archnemesis on everything, including BLUE mobs, in every game mode (including Blight, Delve and Delirium) and on every map, without any control from the player -- GGG is just screwing him up -- for no reward, at that. Those that struggled with timed content will be extremely grateful for their completely unnecessary character deaths -- and it already shows in statistics.

Not understanding their players has alwais been the problem for GGG, which they have demonstrated time and time again. This is yet another case of that. There's no fixing enforced Archnemesis except removing it completely (or remaking it completely, which is even harder).