Nerfing Defensive Archnemesis Modifiers

In a patch in the next day or so, we will be reducing the impact of a lot of defensive Archnemesis Modifiers. This post explains why and lists a preliminary version of the changes.

Archnemesis modifiers are meant to make combat more challenging. Even more so when two synergistic mods stack together to create an especially dangerous emergent behaviour. However, this philosophy is mostly meant to apply to offensive mods, rather than defensive ones.

We want defensive modifiers to exist, and these implicitly make rare monsters harder for certain builds to kill. However, we absolutely agree that it's frustrating when multiple similar mods stack together and extend the length of the fight exponentially. A build affected by this has no way to get around the mods, other than enduring a long fight or running away from the monster.

We have nerfed many defensive modifiers. Our primary goal is so that when two similar defensive modifiers stack together, they don't make monsters incredibly slow to kill. In doing this, we have also generally reduced how punitive most defensive modifiers are towards specific builds (for example, builds that deal damage of a specific element).

We're looking at making the following changes. This list is preliminary and may change.

Toxic

• +25% to Chaos Resistance against Damage over Time (down from 40%)

Chaosweaver

• No longer has +10% to maximum Chaos Resistance
• No longer has Immune to Wither
• Instead has 60% reduced Wither Duration on Self

Flameweaver

• No longer has +10% to maximum Fire Resistance
• 50% reduced effect of Scorch (down from 80%)

Frostweaver

• No longer has +10% to maximum Cold Resistance
• 50% reduced effect of Cold Ailments (down from 80%)

Stormweaver

• No longer has +10% to maximum Lightning Resistance
• 50% reduced effect of Lightning Ailments (down from 80%)

Assassin

• 50% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes (down from 70%)

Deadeye

• No longer has 60% less Damage taken if you have not been Hit Recently
• No longer has 200% increased Evasion Rating if you have been Hit Recently

Incendiary

• No longer has +50% to Fire Resistance
• No longer has 60% less Duration of Ignites on Self
• Now has +30% to Fire Resistance against Damage over Time

Sentinel

• No longer has +10% to maximum Chance to Block Attack Damage
• No longer has +10% to maximum Chance to Block Spell Damage

Juggernaut

• No longer has +2 to Maximum Endurance Charges

Steel-infused

• 30% additional Physical Damage Reduction (down from 50%)

Overcharged

• No longer has +1 to Maximum Frenzy, Power and Endurance Charges

Consecrator

• No longer has take 30% reduced Elemental Damage while on Consecrated Ground

Flame Strider

• 50% reduced effect of Scorch (down from 80%)

Frost Strider

• 50% reduced effect of Cold Ailments (down from 80%)

Storm Strider

• 50% reduced effect of Lightning Ailments (down from 80%)

Ice Prison

• 20% additional Physical Damage Reduction (down from 25%)

Storm Herald

• +40% to Lightning Resistance (down from 60%)

Splinterer

• 30% chance to Avoid Projectiles (down from 50%)

Crystal-skinned

• +40% to all Elemental Resistances (down from 50%)
• Crystal explosions now deal damage of equal parts Fire/Cold/Lightning instead of just Cold. The damage of the skill is unchanged.

Entangler

• +25% to Chaos Resistance (down from 30%)

Lunaris-touched, Solaris-touched, Arakaali-touched, Brine King-touched, Tukohama-touched, Abberath-touched and Shakari-touched

• These modifiers no longer grant large individual resistance bonuses to a specific damage type.
• They instead all now grant +30% to all Elemental Resistances, +20% to Chaos Resistance and 10% additional Physical Damage Reduction. Innocence-touched and Kitava-touched grant +40% to all Elemental Resistances, +25% to Chaos Resistance and 15% additional Physical Damage Reduction.

Tomorrow we will post an explanation of what our intentions were with the balance changes in this expansion and what went wrong with our process. We're sorry for the delay on this, it has been a bit of a week.