Awakened CoC and Void manipulation removal is a huge nerf ?

TLDR : With the CDR being removed from the CoC gem (removal of awakened cast on crit) and put onto a new separate 40% CDR gem, CoC setups now have to spend one more link in order to do the same as they would right now. Which equals to a huge nerf, not only is the imbued gem system now mandatory in order for the build to perform similarly as it is right now, but it also means other builds would be gaining an effective 7th-link ; while CoC is not (technically it would, but only to attain the same power level as pre-3.28). HUGE, huge nerf.

During the reveal it was stated that “we are certainly not aiming to reduce top-end player power with these changes.”

However, looking at what was shown regarding Exceptional gems, I’m a bit confused about how this applies to CoC setups.

They mentioned ~40+ Exceptional gems, and 41 were shown in the preview. Existing Exceptional versions seem to retain their original icons — but I didn’t see icons for Awakened Cast on Critical Strike or Awakened Void Manipulation.

Additionally, a 40% CDR Exceptional gem was shown.

From what was presented, it looks possible that:

Awakened Cast on Critical Strike

Awakened Void Manipulation

may no longer exist in their current form.

If that’s the case, CoC setups may need to:

Drop Power Charge on Crit in favor of the new 40% CDR Exceptional gem

Move Power Charge on Crit or CoC onto cyclone or the chosen trigger skill (via gem imbue system)

Which means:

Losing the CDR from Awakened CoC

Being forced to use a gem slot on the new exceptional 40% CDR gem

Losing +1 gem level previously granted by Awakened Void Manipulation

So comparing to now, with the imbued gem, it would be a net neutral. Also meaning other archetypes would all be playing on a 7-link, while CoC would be playing on a 6-link.

In other words, because of the removal of the awakened cast on crit gem (more precisely GGG seperating the CDR included within the gem onto another one), now CoC is not benefiting from the imbued coin mechanic ; while everything else is.

No matter how one looks at it, this is a HUGE nerf to CoC. HUGE. And nobody has realized it.

Again, with precomplaining before seeing all the new supports which will be better than the awakeneds, they fell flat.. did you bother actually listening?

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nhull17#5978 wrote:

Again, with precomplaining before seeing all the new supports which will be better than the awakeneds, they fell flat.. did you bother actually listening?

The CoC situation is unique, doesn't pertain to other archetypes. You can read it as "complaining" but there are massive design issues here.

We went from everything being baked into one gem, to now 2 gems being needed for the same thing.

This couldn't be more relevant:

1. it's a MASSIVE nerf

2. the coin from the league mechanic doesn't even feel fun for this archetype, because it's just required to even attain the same power level as pre-3.28

3. the imbued coin is mandatory going forward for CoC, meaning it has to go core following 3.28, or the build is nuked from orbit

Which CDR breakpoint do you usually go for on a CoC build? Haven't played one myself but there are other sources of CDR that might be less opportunity cost than a support gem slot.

Besides, there are tons of other archetypes to play. Any one of them getting nerfed isn't the end of the world.

52 CDR breakpoint of course.

Yeat but, them stating in the livestream that the goal is not to lower top end player power... then not writing anything in the patch notes, and then removing a link

I'm all for lowering power and fighting power creep ; but nerfing ONE archetype (CoC) doesn't seem right when there are much stronger stuff out there

You could also go down to the 14% breakpoint, which is ~25% less damage, and try to compensate with the imbued gem. Getting 25% more out of a level 1 gem is probably not quite going to happen, but 20% should be possible. There might also be other new ways to scale the damage with the new exceptional gems. Or going for more of a utility support and compensate for the lost damage in other places like passive tree or gear. Or switching ascendancies.

What I'm getting at is the new system might not offer an easy drop-in replacement to maintain the power level. It might require re-thinking the build a bit more deeply.

Doesn't change the fact that; CoC builds now require an additional gem link in order to perform similarly to how they have been up until now. It is a massive nerf.

I haven't seen any single other build or archetype that was treated that way, it's unique to Cast on Crit