Energy Shield and Life

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Atlantae wrote:

Does the in-house dev team solely rely on whiny baby reddit threads to determine proper balance? Has anyone on the balance team actually played an Average (as in not a streamer/high-end) CI build? How about an actual Lowlife build? With these new changes to ES levels on both items and on the tree, how in the hell are the regular people supposed to play CI? Not everyone runs around with 978 ES Chests and 600 ES shields and all the really expensive stuff.

I am severely disappointed with how the balance team has decided to tackle the current Life vs ES problem. You guys have always been volatile and extremely break-neck with balance changes, but this overwhelming nerf to everything about Energy Shield seems like a child decided what would go down in 3.0.

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Daniel_Pereira wrote:

Dear GGG,

I normally agree with you, however I think you may have gotten things very wrong this time. You are mistakenly comparing ES to Life. What you are forgetting about Life builds, is that they have plenty of Armour and/or Evasion to mitigate damage. ES builds do not have that because ES was originally intended to replace Armor and Evasion - not Life. Playing a Witch is not easy compared to playing a Marauder because I have zero Armour. I depend on my hit points to absorb all Physical damage and even then it's not always enough against Daresso's spinning blades.

The sad truth is, characters with no Evasion or Armour need at least twice as many hit points as other characters because there is no mitigation of damage - especially Physical damage. Armour can stop up to 95% of Physical damage end game. Witches often end up having to suffer the full 100% of Physical damage. That's 20 times more damage than what a 95% physical damage reduction from Armour can achieve. Marauders usually have 50-95% physical damage reduction from Armour end game. Without any Armour or Evasion, twice as many hit points would be equivalent to the normal minimum 50% physical damage reduction which is what most Witches need. Please ask yourself if you've really taken all factors into account.

You might think that this means Witches have an advantage against Elemental damage but I think if a Witch focused on getting twice as many hit points, she would have to sacrifice elemental resistance so instead of 75% resistances, she might just have 50% which means taking twice as much elemental damage as other players therefore compensating for having twice as many hit points. Please, please, please reconsider this decision you've made. I think this is going to disadvantage Witches making them less playable in Hardcore than other characters.

Daniel

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JOHN_RA wrote:

Can we have the % on life keystones same as on ES on skill tree please? And rolls on jewels for life equal to ES too.

Also energy flasks, like life flasks :)
Then it will be improvement.

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Weaz wrote:

Ok so... Some input from me, for the little that is worth to anyone reading but, more importantly, GGG as one of their players.

I have played this game for 4 years I think (I lose track) essentially I am an avid addict, like most of the player base I appreciate the diversity and ability to change small things, reflecting in a better, or worse outcome for the character. I appreciate the games mechanics that drive me forward to create a better character. My point is that I think I have a basic understanding of the nuances of the game and any I am missing I look forward to finding out.

Or at least that was the case.

I see a worrying trend that is being implemented prior to Xbox arrival. THe dumbing of the game and worse yet the need to find perfect parity (to make things easier to understand?)

Having read this 'Idea' and lets face it that is all it is currently, I am left numb, inert, even speechless, that this could get past an amusing chat over the urinals, ' Hey Chris could you imagine for one second if we Nerfed Es ?'
' *Chuckle* Yer Bex the players would wrap themselves up in the simplicity of Life and be more content'.............

I mostly play life based builds for the record, when I do attempt an Es based build I have yet to ever get over 10k Es pool, I am not in the top 2 % of people that do. Your choice to Nerf Es is based on a few streamers godly ES pool (Please feel free to enlighten both myself and others if i am incorrect) why then am i so upset?

Strictly speaking this Nerf shouldn't really effect me, however I am in the minority, ES builds allow most to actually get into the endgame fights and remain alive. 12-13k Es seems to me to be the viable pool required to get you past tier 16 fights and the endboss fights (Ignoring your Queen)

Life based builds required a buff not the other way round, it's so evident to me, how can you guys be so blind. Most life base builds top out at around 7k ish if you want to do anything other than wear Koams and tickle the mobs feet. We all know 7k can still get you one shot and is not viable in HC for the endgame.

You are making very poor decisions based on the few that are going to impact the many that love the game.

(IF you implement this change you will kill the game for 75% of the existing players)