Content Update 2.6.0 Balance Changes

this entire manifesto is such a tiresome thing to read. so many words used to say 'we have changed nothing important'

first - most changes apply to the most used part of the tree (ranger/shadow) and are a) irrelevant b) do not touch important things c) fuel the power creep meta even further

second - 5% buffs for melee/1h weapons or changes from useless implicit to slightly stronger useless implicit. guys. do you even play your own game?

nerfs.. or rather parody of nerfs: "daggers are too strong and everyone is playing them. we have to fix that! lets.. cut the crit from 850% total to 840% total. done."
guys: fortuify + whirling/charge is the reason. not that implicit. as long as some movement skills are 10x better than others this wont change. you ought to nerf movement skill spam. but you opt for the no-change instead hoping it changes something?

no life/ES changes. if thats it noone sane/experienced will touch life builds AT ALL. because in 2.6 with current life/ES balance it is ES or 1k Kaoms (that item and bringing it back is IDIOTIC)

semi buffs.. ice crash. smaller than EQ. tedious to play (sound, gfx vomit, unclear radius covered with this white stuff). less desirable enchant. converts to cold (requires cold pen or inquisitor otherwise terrible for end-game). 6% buff i guess. no guys, noone cares and noone will.

ice shot.. 10% conversion is to 'save' this skill? without pyre/double dip? you spoiled us with ignites from all sources and now pretend the reason is elsewhere? please.. nerf tornado shot so maybe someone will use ice shot in a legit build (without cold->fire->ignite)

etc etc


only good changes:
- vaal discipline
- pyre/CotB
- some implicits on 1h weapons (that most likely noone used and noone will - thanks to life situation and general melee situation. why play the underdog when there are builds literally 100times stronger?)


oh, and if the double dip and life/es stays -> noone cares about other changes anyway. this is what happens when you screw up balancing of your game. it gets stale and boring. meta or bust.

I am extremely disappointed to see that once again - elemental and non physical damages have been given some attention and physical damage getting yet another nerf.

Being able to play a Ranger that actually uses the bow as a physical weapon should be an option, and without resorting to crit and cast on gimmickry.

Why not leave Master Fletcher - or just move it somewhere else? If the problem is scaling from add on skills, then reduce the scaling. Please STOP balancing the game around meta builds and top end items.

"

Rory wrote:

Leech effects in the Shadow area of the tree now leech from all attack damage, not just physical attack damage.

Could you confirm whether this includes the claw-specific node "Soul Raker"?

Don't understand the AoE part at all... is this a buff or nerf or the same for flameblast, cyclone, EQ, ice crash etc...

"

MBata wrote:

Summary of comments:
1st 5 pages: first!, Hypu, Choo Choo, nice, My **** left me, etc.
Pages 5 - 15: "You broke MY build" - said by slew of players who learn game from Twitch/Youtube and blindly follow FOTM - no real ownership, just a shit-ton of entitlement.
Pages 16 - 22: lashback from non-FOTM players "hahahaha BF finally fixed"
Pages 22 - 26: What about ***insert non-essential issue***? Fix life. Fix trade. Fix mtx stash. Fix this, don't fix that.
Pages 26+: dumbass questions by people who didn't read the first 26 pages and didn't realize that the answers were already given...

You know why this community can't have nice things?
Because it doesn't deserve it.

Trolling? Or did you recently switch meth dealers? This can't be regarded as an actual critique of anything, can it? I mean, c'mon what is your point here? Is there even a point?

GGG don't play the game, that much is obvious, the nerfs and changes are all done as scatter-shot see-what-sticks thingy, and don't seem to reflect any real desire to smooth out the game or balance things such that all skills see use. Killing uber, T15 maps with harder mods, Shaper deathless can only be accomplished by a few skill gem setups, that's the simple truth, gearing up a glacial hammer, ice crash, ice shot totem, zombie build, etc ain't gonna get it done, son, and GGG don't seem to care- Howa/ BF/BV/ SRS/ vortex/ Barrage/TS /bladefall totems/ arc mines or gtfo.

"

sidtherat wrote:

only good changes:
- vaal discipline
- pyre/CotB
- some implicits on 1h weapons (that most likely noone used and noone will - thanks to life situation and general melee situation. why play the underdog when there are builds literally 100times stronger?)

- Calls Vaal D change Good.
- Has obviously never played a support.
GG. RIP. TP. WP. I'm done.

I can understand it being "Good" for those OP builds that were using Vaal Pact/Ghost Reaver and were already high on ES because they spent 20+exalts in gear but what about people that don't have that?
That is the problem with a lot of GGG's changes. When they make changes like this it doesn't affect just one build but a wide variety of builds. Support characters were already expensive as a mother fuuka, if you want to live, now it is even worse.

Also, RIP Ice Storm since the only good build for it has always been AoF. Without the high conversion that build is going to hit rock bottom.

Did we not have a reduction of the attributes required for the threshhold jewels? All the new ones had this. Would be really sad to not have that on the old ones.

Sorry, but you had'nt changed anything here : every "successfull" build will be CI/VP this league also...
it'll be easier to leech if you're shadow/ranger.. ok, they was already all CI/VP it's just better for them.

AoE nerf, really ? 100=40 increase, ouch that hurt, let's see.

Meta will stay the same in 2.6 and you know it...

Can we get the new skill tree a bit quicker this time?

Theres always so little time between skill tree reveal and league start.

"

shinigamiscall wrote:

"

sidtherat wrote:

only good changes:
- vaal discipline
- pyre/CotB
- some implicits on 1h weapons (that most likely noone used and noone will - thanks to life situation and general melee situation. why play the underdog when there are builds literally 100times stronger?)

- Calls Vaal D change Good.
- Has obviously never played a support.
GG. RIP. TP. WP. I'm done.

I can understand it being "Good" for those OP builds that were using Vaal Pact/Ghost Reaver and were already high on ES because they spent 20+exalts in gear but what about people that don't have that?
That is the problem with a lot of GGG's changes. When they make changes like this it doesn't affect just one build but a wide variety of builds. Support characters were already expensive as a mother fuuka, if you want to live, now it is even worse.

Also, RIP Ice Storm since the only good build for it has always been AoF. Without the high conversion that build is going to hit rock bottom.

This game has never been balanced so let's not pretend actual balance is the goal here. Path of Exile has more in common with trading card game than anything else. Newly release item/skills are either OP or trash, because that's the only reason you will get people to change to the new meta. If people won't change, well, they are just gonna nerf the old stuff to force a change. The problem is the game is not gated by difficulty (either mechanic or macro), but by RNG. Once you break the RNG with brute force and/or luck by acquiring the necessary items, then you've trivialized the game. With each passing league, this has become easier and easier.

There are many underlying issue that causes "balance" issue, one of the most egregious is the one shot mechanic. That Chayula boss who is suppose to be the end game of the breach league? I can just 1 shot her. If I somehow mess up my 1 shot combo, I can just relog and do it again. If something can't 1 shot me, I'll just tank it.

The other one I can think of is the mechanic of the game itself. The fundamental mechanics appear clunky at best. What happens every league is a new GGG unique gets release and it breaks or bypass the game mechanic. Oh so ranged builds are balanced because they need to use GMP to clear the map, let's make Reach of the Council that completely bypass that. You see this over and over again with legacy uniques being nerfed because GGG realized breaking/bypassing the fundamental mechanic they put into the game with a single item is not "balanced", who would've thought?

The final one I'll mention is the obscene amount of modifiers you can get on a build. With perfect gear and passive tree, the HoWA builds gets over 3k dps per 10 int added. I'm pretty sure when they designed the game, GGG didn't intend a single Fertile Mind jewel to give over 30k dps by itself. I mean, there are budgets builds that only do 30k dps fully geared..... You also see this with added chaos damage and flat phys where +1 dmg gets scaled to several hundred dps once you add all the modifiers.

Generate hype - join the hype train - ride it - vaal all your gear - repeat

^ is the best way to enjoy this game IMO