Character Balance in Path of Exile: Lake of Kalandra

Rip skeletons

problem: some builds are strong

solution: nerf every build

THIS NEW LEAGUE?
U PLAY FIRST, IM FINE.

ok, can't wait for the mega overtuned league content that is full of bugs on top of the nerfs. i will wait for launch weekend to be over and let others test this because my faith in ggg is pretty much gone at this point. luckily, my desire to play is almost 100% gone anyway after the mess of 3.18 and how 3.15 and 3.16 turned out.

Remember, Chris knows he's smarter than all of you.

Damn

What about this patch makes anyone at GGG think people would want to a) play this and/or b) give them money again?

[Removed by Support]

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Phemeto wrote:

Death Wish is a player-inflicted ignite, so this will not change that. I'm not sure if any spectres do big fire hits, but I don't think ignite minions will be a thing. Bleed Zombies/AW look interesting though

Thanks. yeah, that was the conclusion I came to too.
It was brought up by someone else that Minion Instability might work with it, so depending on how the minion life changes settle out, I might pivot to popcorn golems instead.

I got stone golems up to 435k hp this league and they could def hit 500k (pre-nerf) so the various increased life losses might be offset entirely by the 20% more base life, which would be an absurdly scalable base hit for ignite.

Problem: Fun and a lot of problems.

Solution: More fun and more problems.

Good thing is that, who wasn't expecting anything at least will still leave with nothing. These are always happening, and it's still PoE after all, right? :X

Reserving myself for the actual patch notes, if this is the development manifesto, ok...these are the things that are causing an issue in GGG's eyes.
However you need to splash some positivity in there and not just dread which alot of people are feeling when they read these things season after season. This sparks hostility and negativity. I almost rather read this AFTER the actual patch notes, then read why you went the direction that you did. Not Before.

Now Chris is going to go on stream, go into a Q&A section from the community and have to "Answer" for his "Crimes" against the community with the nerfs and justify them to the public. And reassure people that they rather nerf something hard and buff it later then nerf it too little and nerf it more mid league.

For me i'd expect larger swings with other skills (including fluidity for melee abilities and melee specific defenses vs ranged/caster)

I say this because shot gunning from bosses is a problem for almost every melee build (unless melee/ranged style) and most melee DPS skills dont feel good bossing having to whirling blades away/ leap away predictively every 1.5 seconds because of the insta-burst potential of bosses. Fortify is not that answer as "less" damage per stack. There should be other styles of "Fortify" that reduces AOE damage, Spell Damage, etc thats all based on proximity if you hit a target with a melee ability and extends the time based on either damage of the ability or # of times hit with a melee ability. That way it prevents ranged or spell casters who don't have the support investment to benefit much from this defensive layer. (Aka 1 Shield charge for 5-10 seconds of fortify should not be a thing, their thing is to be fragile and not get hit in my eyes)

Another idea is to add a support gem that gives melee "X" charges to absorb large burst damage, after the charges expend from each massive hit taken they have a cooldown and have to resort to dodging until the cool down expires, then they have to strike the boss to reapply the charges (not auto reapply). And yes this should have a strong visual indicator so the player can react properly and no this shouldnt be an immunity, but a high resist or tolerance to resist a back to back attack from a boss to stack with other defensive layers.

So heres my questions from what I read...

So what changes happened to ghastly jewels?

What new support gems are being added or ways to obtain defenses?

What changes are being made to melee to make them more fluid and what defensive layers are going to help them with bossing rather then running every 2 seconds? (Dont tell me fortify or more stacks of fortify)

What is the league mechanic going to do to make us that much more powerful to justify these changes?

Is Ultimatum making a return?

Is harvest getting it's item to store crafts for easy trading?

Are you going to change bossing drops to no longer be 1% as a low point but instead 5% as a base line low point? (20+ maps just to do a boss and get the same drop 2 drops isnt much fun) And don't factor that you can buy it, buying stuff is a luxury, but shouldnt be balanced around that fact.

What are you doing about the arch-nemesis insta-kills with all the lightning and poison popping up on the players instantly rather then travel/chase a player? (Also address the visual clutter of 100 monsters on the screen all doing their abilities?)

More questions then anything at this stage. But as I said, I'll wait for the patch notes and announcement. This really has to have something to counter the constant feel of dread seeing nerf upon nerf and not seeing much of a positive swing.

And no I'm not against the manifesto, but I'm not 100% for the changes either, im in the middle seeing some justifications, and others im like....ok?! Really?! Like Mana reservation "Killing builds" ehhh. But from GGG swapping +2 skills to Unholy Might....ehhhh. Drastic responses on both sides I feel.