2.6.0 Area of Effect Changes

When we initially mentioned the major Area of Effect changes coming in Content Update 2.6.0, some players asked why we were buffing AoE skills further. While most players understood correctly, we wanted to post a detailed description of the changes so that all players understand the purpose of the changes.

Extreme min-max AoE builds are nerfed by these changes. Builds that didn't go all-in on AoE are generally helped somewhat. In addition, less-frequently-used skills with lower AoE have been improved. This is an intentional rebalance with the specific goal of providing more decision variety and reducing the absolutely-mandatory feeling of AoE for certain builds. It now acts like other game systems, rather than growing exponentially at the end-game.

What are these changes?

All sources of "Increased Radius of Area Skills" have been replaced with an increase to area. This means that rather than the area of the skill increasing geometrically as the player invests in the modifier to area scale, the radius gained per point of the stat will be lower and lower as heavy investment occurs, similar to diminishing returns. The goal of this change is to make investing in the size of your area skills to be less rewarding the more you invest, so players don't feel like they need to gather every single point of area radius to reach their character's full potential.

How have these changes impacted Skill and Support Gems?

We have made the following changes to the base radius of skills:

• Static Strike from 16 to 19
• Shockwave Totem from 20 to 24
• Blade Flurry has gained 2 on all of its ranges. (The damage area has changed from 12 to 14 units, the channeling targeting area has changed from 15 to 17 units and the release targeting area has changed from 17 to 19 units)
• Blast Rain 20 to 24
• Contagion 18 to 20
• Righteous Fire 14 to 18

• Ball Lightning 16 to 20
• Glacial Cascade 10 to 14
• Blade Vortex 14 to 15
• Earthquake's initial hit from 20 to 18

• Kinetic Blast 10 to 14. Kinetic Blast's spread of explosions has also been increased to avoid overlapping with the primary target as a result of the change of the explosion radius.

These specific changes have also been made:

• Static Strike no longer has a base variance in the size of the explosion.
• Reave and Vaal Reave now gains +50% More Area of Effect per stage, instead of 20% More Radius per stage.

1) Reave with 4 stacks before the changes.
2) Reave with 4 stacks after the changes.
3) Reave with 4 stacks, with a level 20 Area of Effect Support after the changes.
4) Reave with 4 stacks, with a level 20 Area of Effect Support before the changes.

Skills will no longer gain increases to Area of Effect as they level, in a lot of cases these skills now gain base Radius as they level or instead have had their base radius increased. These are the skills which no longer gain increases to area of effect as they level:

• Lacerate
• Rain of Arrows
• Blade Flurry
• Blast Rain
• Ground Slam
• Static Strike
• Cleave

Some skills now gain additional range at certain thresholds. For example, the Cleave gem has +1 radius at level 3, +2 radius at level 6, and so on. These bonuses are larger on skill gems that first appear at lower levels, and have a cone shaped effect.

• Cleave gains +1 radius every 3 levels

• Ground Slam gains +1 radius every 3 levels
• Sunder gains +1 radius every 3 levels
• Fire Trap gains +1 radius every 3 levels
• Lightning Tendrils gains +1 radius every 3 levels
• Storm Call gains +1 radius every 3 levels
• Shrapnel Shot gains +1 radius every 4 levels
• Lacerate gains +1 radius every 4 levels
• Cold Snap gains +1 radius every 4 levels
• Righteous Fire gains +1 radius every 4 levels
• Static Strike gains +1 radius every 5 levels
• Sweep gains +1 radius every 5 levels
• Caustic Arrow gains +1 radius every 5 levels
• Blade Vortex gains +1 radius every 5 levels
• Rain of Arrows gains +1 radius every 5 levels
• Blight gains +1 radius every 5 levels
• Reave gains +1 radius every 5 levels
• Fireball gains +1 radius every 6 levels

Support Gems:

• Melee Splash Support now gains 2% more Area per Level (from 1% radius per level).

• Increased Area of Effect Support now starts at 30% (From 20%) at Level 1, up to 49% (From 39%) at Level 20.

How have these changes impacted Passive Skills?

The following passives have changed:

• Bone Breaker now grants 8% increased Area of Effect.
• Amplify now grants 10% increased Area of Effect.
• Blast Radius now grants 10% increased Area of Effect.
• Leadership now grants 50% increased Aura Area of Effect.
• Volatile Mines now grants 8% increased Area of Effect.
• Hex Master now grants 40% increased Curse Area of Effect.
• Champion of the Cause now grants 20% increased Aura Area of Effect.
• Explosive Impact now grants 8% increased Area of Effect.
• All of the increased Area of Effect bonuses on the tree on all non-notable passive skills now grant 8% (up from 5%).
• All of the increased Aura Area of Effect bonuses on the tree on all non-notable passive skills now grant 20% (up from 12%).
• Unstable Munitions now grants 8% increased Area of Effect.
• All of the increases to Trap Trigger Radius and Mine Detonation Radius have also been changed to Area. As a result all of these values have been doubled on the passive tree.

Ascendancy Skill Changes:

• Endless Munitions (Deadeye) now grants 50% increased Area of Effect.
• Impact (Slayer) now grants 20% increased Area of Effect. The non-notable skill leading up to Impact now grants 10% increased Area of Effect.
• Illuminated Devotion (Hierophant) now grants 40% increased Area of Effect.
• Bomb Specialist (Saboteur) now grants 8% increased Area of Effect for each Mine.
• Chain Reaction (Saboteur) now grants 20% increased Area of Effect for Traps.
• Pendulum of Destruction's Area of Effect modifier is unchanged.

How have these changes impacted Items?

While we have updated some cases of area of effect bonuses on items, a lot of them have not been changed. Unique items that provided increases to all Area of Effect (Carcass Jack, Divinarius and others) have not been changed.

We understand that this reduces the power of these items and we will be re-assessing these unique items for a later patch. We do not want it to feel obligatory that skills or builds require the increased Area of Effect bonuses from these items in order to be considered viable for End-Game content.

The implicits on the Maraketh Two-Handed Maces, the Belt Corruption outcome and the Essence Mod for Area of Effect are all also unchanged.

Bonuses to Aura Area of Effect and Curse Area of Effect on unique items have been adjusted. Divine Orbs can be used for the following changes:

• Star of Wraeclast now gives 60% Curse Area, instead of 30% Curse Radius.
• Victario's Influence now has 20-40% increased Aura Area of Effect, instead of 10-20% Aura Radius.
• Victario's Charity now has 20% Aura Area of Effect, instead of 10% Aura Radius.
• Hair Trigger now has 40-60% Trap Trigger Area, instead of 20-30% Trap Trigger Radius.

Threshold Jewels (Divine Orbs cannot be used for this change):

• The Rolling Flames jewel previously granted up to 50% increased radius to fireball projectiles as they travel. New copies of the jewel grants up to +4 radius. A shared limit to 2 has been imposed on both existing and new copies of the jewel, but old ones will now grant 50% increased area at maximum distance, instead of radius.

How have these changes impacted Monsters?

Monsters in almost all circumstances will be the same. We have tried to keep these as close to as they were prior to this change but there will be discrepancies in a few cases, such as Reave. For monsters, Reave will generally be larger when they have fewer stacks, and smaller when they have higher stacks.

The following changes have been made to the Map Mods which granted monsters bonuses to Area of Effect. Despite these values being much higher, they have the same effect as when they were bonuses to Radius at lower values:

• Of Giants now grants monsters 45% increased Area of Effect on White Maps
• 70% increased Area of Effect on Yellow Maps
• 100% increased Area of Effect on Red Maps
• Titan's now grants the unique boss 45% increased Area of Effect on White Maps
• 55% increased Area of Effect on Yellow Maps
• 70% increased Area of Effect on Red Maps

EDIT: Updated the image of Reave to match balance changes to the skill noted in the patch notes.