Path of Exile 3.16 Balance - Part 2 - Core Character Defences and Recovery

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Problem:
Block is a pretty fundamental form of defence available to characters, seeing as it is available on Shields, but the Gladiator Ascendancy is far more efficient for Block investment compared to any other class because of the Gladiator's "Versatile Combatant" notable skill that grants as much Spell Block as you have Attack Block.

That is not "a problem"; it is called class identity.

so now armor builds stack spell block instead of attack block rather than go for the 50-50? cuz 50-50 sounds so weak imo...

Armour buffs across the board.
- Changed formula. Less armour needed to reduce physical damage
- Increased the flat phys part on shields and body armours BUT only on armour based and on these two slots
- More max ele resists for specialised armour-characters
- Vaal Molten Shell got slightly buffed
- Base armour through all armour tiers was increased by 10% with a RNG chance to increase its quality/base value by 10+%.


Also Tempest shield is now the new king of low cost auras, replacing Flesh and Stone (which has its old aura costs back but only 20% blind).
-Grants higher spell block and shock immunity


Spell dodge overall seems it's nerfed and got replaced with a 50% effectiveness spell dodge now called spell suppression.
Similar as the spell block node in the Templar area.

It directly competes with the new Versatile Combatant node which may only give 50%/50% chance but blocks all damage and not only reduces it by 50% like supression does.

Theoretically you could stack both (new) mechanics but not sure if possible in an efficient way after passive skill tree rework.

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Problem:
Armour as a core stat doesn't provide sufficient defence with low to medium investment. Armour characters instead rely on a number of other mechanics to provide them with the defence against Physical Damage that Armour is meant to provide.

Solution:
Improve the Armour formula so that Armour is more powerful, providing better mitigation across the board, and increase the strength of modifiers on items that add base local Armour.

Problem: Armor is still preferrable option over other core defence types since it is the only universally accessible source of phys damage reduction. Yes, let's make it more powerful.

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Problem:
Evasion doesn't provide sufficient defence. Evasive characters instead rely on the Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics keystones to provide Attack and Spell mitigation.

Solution:
Remove Attack Dodge entirely. Substantially buff Evasion so that it is a good option and make sure it is easily available on items.

Problem: 50% Phys Reduction from Armor is still better than 50% Evasion from Evasion.
A character with 1000 HP takes 10 hits for 1000 damage each.
Armor-based character will die on second hit.
Evasion-based character will die on first hit with 50% chance (and may survive over 10th hit).
Much fun for either.
And we've lost other means for boosting Evasion/Evasion-alike stat...

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Problem:
Evasion provides no defence against Spells.

Solution:
Introduce "Spell Suppression" on Evasion items as well the Dexterity section of the Passive Skill Tree, which gives a chance to halve spell damage taken. The chance can be stacked up to 100%. Convert existing sources of Dodge and Spell Dodge to Spell Suppression or replace them with other bonuses.

Why not apply same treatment to Phys damage too? To avoid abovementioned problem.

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Problem:
Characters who rely solely on Armour are not protected against Elemental Damage.

Solution:
Add more Maximum Elemental Resistances to areas of the passive tree that have Armour in them.

In Path of Life Nodes. As if skilltree nodes were more powerful than items in this regard. The irony...

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First Problem:
The Veiled modifier that increases quality on equipment was required to maximise the Energy Shield from an item. This is a problem because you cannot pick up the best Energy Shield items off the ground.

Second Problem:
Stacking the "Energy from Naught" notable passive on Cluster Jewels was too efficient as a way to maximise your Energy Shield.

Solution:
Replace the Veiled modifier and lower the power on the Energy from Naught Notable. Compensate all characters for the loss of maximum energy shield by increasing the strength of all Energy Shield base types. Add more Energy Shield to the passive skill tree.

Here we go again... To nerf it back to the ground next League?
Also, did 'off the ground' itemization became viable?

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We're experimenting with a system that lets Fortify be applied based on Melee Damage dealt, so that tiny little Melee Damage Hits don't provide a full strength Fortify.

Two. Weeks.

I have a bad feeling about this...

P. S.

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*beep*ing. Really.

Thank you GGG, this kind of communication is very appreciated.

Ambitious changes and they will probably be good.
The fortify problem seems like the hardest one to solve.

Building defensive layers is one of the most interesting aspects of this game,
hopefully it will stay that way!

Overall I'm really hyped to test all these changes!

Lets hope, there won't be really bad mistakes in the balance and it will work out to be very good.

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ComradeSlon wrote:

So whats gonna happen to Elusive given that "attack dodge is being removed"? Is it just gonna have the movement speed bonus now? Can you at least give it flat evasion instead of % evasion, since there are a number of people who get Elusive from boots and are scaling it with Badge in some cases?

From the announcement:

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Change Elusive to provide 15% chance to Avoid Damage from Hits, instead of it's old Dodge-related stats.

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Community_Team wrote:

Review monster base Armour as a result of changes to the Armour formula. This may result in no changes if there has been no significant impact on character damage.

It's nerf for physical DoT.

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Community_Team wrote:

Remove Attack Dodge entirely.

Not good.

Thanks god we still have spell dodge.

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Community_Team wrote:

Modifiers such as Chance to Block Projectile Attack Damage, Chance to Avoid Stun, Increased Global Physical Damage, Global Elemental Damage, Global Attack Damage, flat Mana gained on Block, percentage Life Regeneration, and Increased Cast Speed either felt out of place, or generally did not have impactful values. These can no longer be obtained on various Shields.

If you remove only FLAT, it's ok,
But if you remove "percentage mana on block" this is really bad, especially for MoM and/or Agnostik builds.

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Deimarr wrote:

English is not my mother language, so i can be wrong about this but, this all feels like sugarcoated nerfs.

And one thing in particular bugs me, you add all that passives to the passive tree but we still have max 123 passives to spend (and lets be honest most of the ppl are not usually lvl beyond 95, so its more likely 118). So you want us to give up more damage from passive tree to invest in to defences. this is just nonsense.

Yes, that is exactly the intent. GGG has stated that they want to slow down the game and that is still the goal. What most players complained about (and what was stated in the podcasts) was not that the game is slowed down but that without a buff to defenses a slow down by reducing player damage means only more deaths for these players. Players also complained that only late-game high-tier high-cost items would actually provide the defenses necessary.

GGG has addressed these points now, but they did not change their overall goal. Therefore:

- Player damage is reduced (and game therefore slowed down) by virtue of us having to invest in defenses
- Defenses are made more accessible by moving more of it into the tree and make less of it available only on items
- This also means that the curve of character progression will be more towards starting defensive (via the tree) but low damage towards higher damage (which primarily comes from items)

I can't say if the changes will actually achieve these goals or if there will be necessary improvements to them but the overall direction is imo correct. Make it more accessible for people to not die (as often) but have them be slower and progress towards upgrades that improve their kill-speed. Dying twice per map is just not a fun experience for most players, even if you can clear it in 2 minutes (though I think that counts as slow by now...). Going by the comments I read over the last 2 months it seems that most agree that they would rather take 5 minutes per map but be not under constant threat of dying, making the game also more relaxed and enjoyable.

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WhiteDragonRU wrote:

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Community_Team wrote:

Review monster base Armour as a result of changes to the Armour formula. This may result in no changes if there has been no significant impact on character damage.

It's nerf for physical DoT.

Armour does not work on DoTs? Do I forget something?