On Balance Feedback and Charge Changes

I'll have a much more detailed post on my thoughts for this tomorrow when I can devote an hour or so to it, but I feel the need to say this was certainly very blindsiding.

Yes, you communicated poorly about these choices. In fact, we might just agree the word "poorly" is an understatement because this ended up being quite the disaster. Critical, system-defining changes such as altering how charges work should have been the first thing mentioned due to how popular they are and how inextricable they are from many builds now. They should not have been in an edit much less in what amounts to merely a footnote of an edit.

While the changes to chill (but not freeze?) and shock are significant, how the game has progressed means they generally aren't going to be cared about anywhere near as much as charges.

This also comes just a week before the 3.0.0 patch is supposed to go live. GGG, are you sure you're giving players enough time to give you feedback on these changes, and yourselves enough time to analyze that feedback and figure out where to go depending on its results?

i understand these changes, and all i see that negative behavior from players come from not understanding changes

I think it would help if they explained the changes using a rap.

The #1 priority at the moment should be getting more reddit gold.

The Assassin was already massively nerfed by the skill tree and Energy Shield changes, you didn't need to change how charges worked too. Any one of those nerfs would've been enough, but all three is drastic overkill.

If you have to leave Frenzy as attack only for thematic reasons, then give Power Charges a small amount of Crit Multi on top of their current crit chance and spell damage. Even speccing hard into Power Charges, even WITH crit multi bonuses, still wouldn't put a player anywhere near where Crit Multi was before the tree/item nerfs. It just makes the difference a little less painful for those who invest heavily into it. And that's what you want, right?

In my opinion the biggest problem with these changes is that they were anounced so late.

Such significant changes should be anounced at least 3 weeks and not a week prior to the release. During that period GGG could process all the feedback received regarding charges and shock/chill changes and react accordingly. I feel like they could not have enough time now to properly process all the feedback regarding changes.

I'm happy that you guys said that chill and shock are not in their final state for the 3.0 release with what they are becoming on beta. They don't make any sense. Maybe if you needed to do 20% hp to get full effect with the same changes I would accept that. for a build that hits an act boss more than 8 times before it dies, you might be able to get a 5% damage shock.

as for the charges, I understand game development wise why they needed to be altered. crit is too easy with charges and non crit anything doesn't have a single use for them in the top half of the tree. frenzy was OP, and seems more normalized. New chest piece is interesting with a useless frenzy generation though.

and for the assassin, nobody would play assassin anymore. I would rather play a scion with assassin and another ascendency and just come out of the assassin tree than play assassin. Its dead. The assassin could use a change to make it more niche instead of a buff, like 100% increased crit multi for skills that only hit one enemy or something. Scion is just going to be better.



I'm still very happy with the direction of the game and excited about the 3.0 release. The ES changes and nerfing the OP things like vaal skills is a needed change. Please fix freeze and shock. I don't play dot builds, but I can't even see the bottom of the grave you dug that hole is so deep. could they even clear dried lake?

Ok, my 2 cents.

Honestly i think you are making a huge mess. Too many radical changes all at once, that's the problem.

I mean, game's too easy for certain builds (vp+es lol)? Then buff difficulty so these can't shit on the shaper anymore AND bring other, weaker builds/skills/items to the level of power these (however expensive) characters have.

This is how you encourage build diversity. Player have to be tempted by what they think it could be fun, and at the same time they have to be given a chance (if the idea is good) to make what they think is fun also powerful enough. Now try to make elemental hit not even effective, but just playable.

You're doing the exact opposite and narrowing our options instead (by a huge margin i could add).

Also, while having new content on a regular base is really nice, you should not forget the old stuff (again elemental hit, for example) and try to polish/improve it if needed. While at the same time you are not forced to bring stuff the game is already cluttered with, like uniques, on a regular basis. Maybe upgrade the ones that already exist, and that are useless even for levelling, before?

In the end i still love poe, and i don't like to whine about a game, since in the end i will be playing it in any case. For this, you have my thanks, but you asked for an opinion and this is mine.

Best regards, and good luck.

Best developers in the world hands down.
While theme for certain things is ok, I still don't think charges needs to be bind to certain build types. The beauty in this game is diversity. If u feel like making charges less op then just nerf innitial values or add to them more broad stats. Like more damage instead of more spell damage, and the attack bind for frenzies is the same. Owerall u guys made me buy new pc because of this game )). Gl and thx for the response.

I for one really liked the charge changes, once I checked all the item and ascendancy tweaks that were intended to get the mechanics in line with the new direction. Keep up the good work!

Shock changes make no sense, as others have stated. If I can do 50% of a monster's HP in one hit, then I don't need Shock. For anything I'd actually need Shock to kill, it will no longer help me.

Frenzy Charge change doesn't change several builds, and kills many others for no reason. The problem listed was with Blood Rage, not Frenzy Charges. Perhaps go after the actual problem?

Chill is fine. New Power Charges are great.

As much as I'd like the new Power Charges, you don't have the time to adjust all the uniques, skills, and ascendancies in a way to make this work without overpowering spell casters by giving them 4% from both Power and Frenzy Charges. Also, as previously stated, there aren't enough ways to generate Power Charges without crit' to make them viable for non-crit' builds as the game is currently balanced. Leave charges as they are for now, and come back to them when you have the time to fix all of the above.

As many have suggested, you're better off fixing weak options, like garbage uniques and skill gems than making these sorts of sweeping changes.

Also, put all of the threshold jewels in the threshold jewel merchant. Keeping certain ones difficult to obtain arbitrarily is not desired. If you're worried certain ones (Ring of Blades) will hurt build diversity, why not try buffing weaker options instead?