Elemental Hit nerfed yet again, while Wild Strike buffed

"

The Elemental Hit Skill Gem now requires a Melee Weapon, while Elemental Hit of the Spectrum still requires a Bow or Wand.

Huh?!? This doesn't make any sense. First, you introduced Wild Strike (an offbrand version of Elemental Hit, specifically for melee), then you introduced the Fig version to have lower damage plus the same restriction of not being able to use chaos nor physical damage with it.........now you change the original gem to require a melee weapon while STILL having Wild Strike to exist.

So now, not only does Wild Strike continue to exist as a melee skill it's now buffed BUT the original skill it was based off of, gets nerfed and requires melee. Why have Elemental Hit to be required to be used with a melee weapon when not only do you have Wild Strike but we were already able to use Elemental Hit with melee anyways?

This change completely kills off Piscator and any other elemental wand.

"

Elemental Hit: Now has a Mana cost of 6 at gem level 1 (previously 7), scaling up to 10 at gem level 20 (previously 11). Now has 26 to 49 Added Fire Damage, 21 to 40 Added Cold Damage, and 4 to 80 Added Lightning Damage at gem level 1 (previously 22 to 40, 18 to 33, and 3 to 67 respectively). These scale up to 748 to 1389 Added Fire Damage, 609 to 1133 Added Cold Damage, and 118 to 2287 Added Lightning Damage at gem level 20 (previously 480 to 891, 391 to 726, and 75 to 1467 respectively).

Can't even get excited about the boost cause it's strictly for melee now which is outright wrong.

I see that there's a buff to melee skills which is +1 in the right direction BUT here's where the typical -4 steps backwards comes in, with nerfing others. You don't have to nerf to make other things shine. The nerfs are not only senseless and uncalled for; but have no solutions being presented to make up for them. Determination nerf is a great example; it's nerfed HEAVY but there's no positive fix or solution to help balance or make sense for the loss of a defensive mechanic. Buff melee skill (offensive), yet nerf Determination (defensive) at the same time? This makes sense?!

"

Wild Strike: Now has a Mana cost of 7 at gem level 1, scaling up to 10 at gem level 20 (previously 6 at all gem levels). Now has 219% Effectiveness of Base and Added Damage at gem level 1 (previously 160%), scaling up to 403% at gem level 20 (previously 231%).
Wild Strike of Extremes: Now has 178% Effectiveness of Base and Added Damage at gem level 1 (previously 130%), scaling up to 328% at gem level 20 (previously 240%).

Even the Fig version of Elemental Hit currently makes zero sense to use with Wands or Bows compared to the normal version. In fact; Elemental HIt of the Spectrum seems to either be incomplete or rushed since it's release. Why put out a nerfed version of a gem that has NO upside benefits at all. What WOULD make more sense, is if it were able to benefit from Chaos or Physical damage being used. Then it'd be a comparable and different function for builds.

By now, it's common knowledge that NOBODY even asked for the Fig version of gems in the first place, especially to replace the alternate quality versions we previously had. Yet again, what WOULD have made more sense is to have taken the effects of all alternate quality gems and COMBINED them; therefore becoming new versions. In fact, with the Fig versions it begs the question of why wasn't the alternative quality gems effects incorporated instead of giving us a rushed, nerfed version of most of the gems?

I spoke out on this

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3498020

"

WoT_Seanchan wrote:

I'm confused as to why would anyone bother to use this Fig gem instead of the regular version if they use bows and wands; seeing as it's way less damage. In fact, I'm wondering if this Fig gem was released too early or incomplete because with the lower damage, by all rights this SHOULD be able to add in other damage types including chaos. Yet it still has the restriction on it just written a different way.

As for the Original Poster's point, I fully agree with him. I can't see not including melee tag. However, to play devil's advocate here if you look at some gems like Molten Strike for instance they completely changed the weapon type. Fig version now requires 2 handed weapon only (for some reason ugh); so with Fig gems changing the types it does set the precedence for such a drastic change.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------













TLDR:

How was this even considered and why? Now, there's damn sure no possible way to try pulling the same Jedi mind trick on people by saying "this is a buff" like how people allowed themselves to be fooled the first time you guys changed Elemental HIt a few years ago.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2148682 - What did Elemental Hit do to deserve this upcoming nerf?

It sounds like Elemental Hit of the Spectrum is closer to what you wanted in the thread you linked at the end of your post: an Elemental Hit that deals all three elemental damage types in the same hit, as opposed to being a Prismatic skill dealing one type and none of the other two. It's may be missing physical damage converted to a random element, but if you need that there are quite a few sources for that these days.

While it might be a biased view, looking at poe.ninja, it looks like a lot more people are playing Elemental Hit of the Spectrum than are playing Elemental Hit.