It's just a dumb precedent IMO. Don't pretend to balance for standard, it's busted by design. AND THAT'S OK!!!! It's literally the thing that makes standard kind of fun.
I'm not saying it's the problem, I don't care if it's nerfed or not, nor I care about economy on standard (if there is any). I'm saying I do understand why would they want to nerf it and it was quite expected outcome as it's unproportionally good for the investment in general.
Example I gave was based on my own experience as that's the version I've played. It doesn't matter if it's feared or ubers, it's the best bosser for the investment and accessibility. You agreed yourself that it should have been nerfed but GGG nearly never nerfs builds during the league (sometimes even keeping bugged builds to adjust them when league ends ex. detonate dead and corpse life).
I just don't get why would someone complain so much about it.
Because not everyone went out and bought the items to make their builds. I spent the time crafting my bow using the league mechanic that sucked a portion of my soul away. I picked up a bajillion bows, I used the mechanic to unveil trees, I used the geodes to forge trees together. I farmed the imprint beasts to salvage the multiple trees that got trashed by RNF. The gear I made isn't near as good as some, but I actually made my own stuff. I spent the time to put it together. GGG is devaluing the time I spent crafting a bow while a huge portion of the player base went off to play another game after a month of the league. That's why it is an issue for me. What other "crafted" item in the history of POE has been nerfed as it has moved to standard?
It's just a dumb precedent IMO. Don't pretend to balance for standard, it's busted by design. AND THAT'S OK!!!! It's literally the thing that makes standard kind of fun.
I'm not saying it's the problem, I don't care if it's nerfed or not, nor I care about economy on standard (if there is any). I'm saying I do understand why would they want to nerf it and it was quite expected outcome as it's unproportionally good for the investment in general.
Example I gave was based on my own experience as that's the version I've played. It doesn't matter if it's feared or ubers, it's the best bosser for the investment and accessibility. You agreed yourself that it should have been nerfed but GGG nearly never nerfs builds during the league (sometimes even keeping bugged builds to adjust them when league ends ex. detonate dead and corpse life).
I just don't get why would someone complain so much about it.
Because not everyone went out and bought the items to make their builds. I spent the time crafting my bow using the league mechanic that sucked a portion of my soul away. I picked up a bajillion bows, I used the mechanic to unveil trees, I used the geodes to forge trees together. I farmed the imprint beasts to salvage the multiple trees that got trashed by RNF. The gear I made isn't near as good as some, but I actually made my own stuff. I spent the time to put it together. GGG is devaluing the time I spent crafting a bow while a huge portion of the player base went off to play another game after a month of the league. That's why it is an issue for me. What other "crafted" item in the history of POE has been nerfed as it has moved to standard?
Cluster jewels for example. Some of those very expensive btw.
GGG has also changed mods on many existing items in standard throughout the years, and players with some experience in this game know that very well.
And it's a good nerf, because it is targeted to an specific mechanic, rather than global nerfs that cuased immense collateral damage (for example when they destroyed supreme ego, best keystone for builds with essence worm, because of builds that abused of march of the legion and/or vaal impurities).
Last edited by Iggy5150 on Aug 4, 2023, 1:38:54 PM
Your assumption that I don't have time in the game is poor. I've been playing since Betrayal, I just don't have much to show for it because of how I play.
The cluster jewel nerf is a perfect example and a terrible example at the same time. Purposeful Harbinger was so broke, they made a rare exception and performed a mid-league nerf. Which would have been completely appropriate here with totem explode. Except they let it live. They let us continue to sink time into building/crafting the item.
Why cluster jewels are a terrible example is because they went core. Virtually everything about cluster jewels was reworked as we went from Delirium to Harvest. If they were going to be part of future league they had to be reworked.
Last edited by ratscroat on Aug 4, 2023, 2:15:34 PM
I just don't get why would someone complain so much about it.
And I just don't get why someone would defend it so much... so how about we avoid the personal disparagement and either focus on the merit of our points or just end it.
Since there are multiple builds for explode totems, I think it's best to step back and evaluate them on their own. Explode totems gives us a ton of flat damage at a very low cost, allowing you to focus on scaling this damage for one-shots or focus on scaling defences for better all around gameplay.
1. The most popular build by far is the PF poison version (chaos hit also viable). Explode totems gives you a relatively cheap way to reach dot cap while scaling a lot of defences via flasks and taken as ele. Progenesis is probably the ultimate gear for scaling this version (which ain't cheap). This is a build with some clear advantages in league, but honestly doesn't offer much in standard where dot cap is already so easy to reach. Decent all around build, but limited by dot cap on Ubers and has the slow trap play style in maps.
2. Trickster / Sabo (to a lesser extend Champ) cold conversion. Ton of damage. Great for bossing. Can be scaled to 2k delve depth (this requires bigger investment). Below average mapper. There are multiple totem, trap, and mine builds that can one shot Ubers for the same investment albeit without the defences, but who cares if mapping sucks anyways! 100div is plenty to one shot Ubers if you don't care about defences. Ice spear totem, explosive traps, ice traps, etc. Any time you can preload and focus.
3. Elementalist / Chieftain non-trap big ignite versions. Again limited to dot cap. Takes some effort to hit ignite dot cap (Chieftain won't be viable by the time this hits standard). Squishy, but fairly fast mapper. Again doesn't really impress on standard compared to mapping builds like wardloop and TS.
There's just not a very impressive niche for explode totems to fill, especially up against the possibilities in standard. The real ballers coming out of crucible will be builds like SST (at least until VC is nerfed) and poison TS MF.
None of these arguments to nerf explode totems make any sense when you really think about it. I suspect they just want to kill it because of the popularity. I still don't get it though. Leave standard the f* alone. I want to retire my ballers there and admire their multi-mirror gear.
Your assumption that I don't have time in the game is poor. I've been playing since Betrayal, I just don't have much to show for it because of how I play.
The cluster jewel nerf is a perfect example and a terrible example at the same time. Purposeful Harbinger was so broke, they made a rare exception and performed a mid-league nerf. Which would have been completely appropriate here with totem explode. Except they let it live. They let us continue to sink time into building/crafting the item.
Why cluster jewels are a terrible example is because they went core. Virtually everything about cluster jewels was reworked as we went from Delirium to Harvest. If they were going to be part of future league they had to be reworked.
I'm not even talking about Purposeful Harbinger
Many clusters have seen their notables replaced at the end of leagues. For example, Precise Commander + Vengeful Commander were replaced by this rubbish with two notables that will never work together, instead of making the original notables legacy
and that has happened with more notables.
Also enchant mods (such as aura effect) have seen their values lowered from 6% to 3%, which affected existing items.
I can list other changes that ruined many items as a result of a mechanic being changed, or as collateral damage for GGG nerfing certain broken build.
Explode totems is broken and the best approach to nerf it is by targeting the mod on items that make the build broken.
I really hope GGG follows this approach for upcoming nerfs.
Last edited by Iggy5150 on Aug 4, 2023, 2:51:29 PM
Is the new guardian getting reserved life removed? Or is that an error and one should read life? Otherwise low life on guardian will be kinda loose its advantage :/
