Overboard 0.2 Nerfs Killed Dawn of the Hunt & Standard (Nerfing Monster HP Is Bland & Dubious)

Reran the campaign for the first time after the HP nerfs. Act 1 & 2. It was uninspiring. The skills being lackluster after nerfing the skills and supports people used early was the problem, and still is.

Staff Skills. Bow Skills. Hit Spells. The supports that were previously used for them. Uniques. MFing. Gear drops. Currency drops. All of these things were ground down from multiple angles, and completely gutted because of it. These were not simple oversights, they were active changes. GGG is too willing to nerf things substantially in multiple areas from multiple angles. Leading to a state of the game that they do not envision or intend.

GGG took away the OP builds from Standard players, killing their characters, instead of bringing them in-line. Players that they promised would be able to use those characters in the new content. At the same time, they removed everything that was fun early in the campaign previously, and ruined it for everyone on a fresh start. All in one fell swoop. Who is made happy by these changes? No-one. Not even GGG, because they broke their own campaign's balance.

There is less to choose from, and not because Lightning Spear or Essence Drain/ Contagion is so good, not because gear is unavailable, it's because everything else feels bad to use. That is why players gravitated towards the other skills. They felt good.

So much of the cool stuff you added in PoE2 never feels good to use. No amount of nerfing monster HP will change that fact. There needs to be some serious updates to the skills, and a rethinking of the design philosophy behind them.

Skills meant to combo should combo well with each other. There should be AoE, and single target skills, of different damage types, feeling and playstyle, that all function within the game at the point they are given. Not after you get X level, not after you get X amount of attack/cast speed, not after X amount of community testing, not after you become a master of the fights and know all the openings. When they are made available to the player, and the player chooses the skill, that skill should accomplish something notable on it's own, at that stage of the game. As the player progresses, gains more power, that skill should get better. I know it is not easy, but there are no shortcuts such as "nerfing monster HP since everything is weak".

If you are going to nerf an outlier at the top end, then nerf them specifically at the top end. Hitting everything from every side like it's an orgy and you have the biggest rooster in the room leaves us with no space to swing our little chickens around.

It is not Monster HP that GGG should be looking at. Monsters being weak is not equal to the player being powerful. There is something wrong with the design philosophy regarding skills right now that inhibits player agency/ customization. Too many specific pieces are needed for most skills to function properly too early, which is massively exacerbated by the restrictiveness of weapon categories, high attribute requirements, and GGG's current balancing strategies.

I hope this post reaches a pair of eyes that can make a difference before it is too late.

Thank you for reading.

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aparently , people who figured out thaat you could put aa light dmg rune in your weapon made the game unfair ,
that what the dev said

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