1.0.0 Balance Changes

Quite excited to see some of these changes in action.

The Aura one especially, as hopefully this will make us have to choose which auras we really need rather than currently where its a matter of "how many auras can i jam into my mana/life pool"

a question
will the new 2h mods be prefix or suffix mods?

Awesome stuff

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Chris wrote:

We've rebalanced some of the various end-game options as follows:
Boss Runs: We're roughly doubling the rate of item drops from important bosses in Merciless difficulty. We want Vaal, Piety and Dominus runs to be a great way to stock up on rares and Unique items. While you won't find the absolute best top-tier gear from these bosses, they're probably the most time-efficient way to get a lot of wealth that can be traded with mappers.

Chris quick question on this. Are you saying that top tier uniques won't drop based on item level anymore? Or is it a different mechanic? Right now a Shav's, Soul Taker, LG, Auxim, and a few others can drop from Piety. Is this changing? (also docks could drop ST, Shav's same question)

I like the aura attention, but it seems like it is a change exclusively to encourage more partying. Partying was already extremely beneficial because group dynamic allows people to tackle content they could not tackle alone, not to mention clear speed, risk, concentration, mob/build coverage, and so forth. Making auras more costly in exchange for increasing their radii of effect is a direct buff to partying and a direct nerf to soloing.

This change comes after the following comment by Chris in the raptr Q&A.

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Chris wrote:

Soloing vs Partying: While going to the effort of playing in a group (which requires coordination and dealing with other humans) and trading (which requires learning a lot about items) should be rewarded, we definitely want to make sure that it's still fun and compelling when you don't engage in these systems. We're already making changes to how MF and party bonuses work, so there may also be some that affect the difficulty of play in parties.

If your goal is to balance the party/solo expierence, what benefit does the aura change give to solo play? I'll play regardless, and I'm satisfied with the changes, but I would like to know the thought process behind two seemingly conflicting intentions.

Finally a change to auras!

I always felt like you shouldn't be able to have more than one, and if you're starting a party for something you'll look for people who each can run the individual auras for maximum effect. This would also let auras have some more flashy effects again.

It always felt so stupid that every character you make you always have to shoehorn as many auras as possible into the build.

wow I cannot wait for the release booked the day off even more excited after reading the changes & super excited to see the patch notes outstanding job GGG

8.5 days to go!!!cant wait damnit
Really great changes there
Esp want to point out auras and DoT since they will add some nodes to the skill tree making more builds.
With extra trap/mine or i hope also extra totems passives there would be possibility to make some really specializing toons.
Thank You GGG

I love every one of these changes. Improved chances of getting 4 links, a boatload of auras no longer mandatory, boss runs, ooh I do so love it all. Not a clue what the DoT thing means though.

The game ain't perfect but you guys sure make it closer with each patch. Now I wonder what the hell avatar of fire's drawback is these days, considering we're talking about balance.