Character Balance in Path of Exile: Lake of Kalandra

Reserving myself for the actual patch notes, if this is the development manifesto, ok...these are the things that are causing an issue in GGG's eyes.
However you need to splash some positivity in there and not just dread which alot of people are feeling when they read these things season after season. This sparks hostility and negativity. I almost rather read this AFTER the actual patch notes, then read why you went the direction that you did. Not Before.

Now Chris is going to go on stream, go into a Q&A section from the community and have to "Answer" for his "Crimes" against the community with the nerfs and justify them to the public. And reassure people that they rather nerf something hard and buff it later then nerf it too little and nerf it more mid league.

For me i'd expect larger swings with other skills (including fluidity for melee abilities and melee specific defenses vs ranged/caster)

I say this because shot gunning from bosses is a problem for almost every melee build (unless melee/ranged style) and most melee DPS skills dont feel good bossing having to whirling blades away/ leap away predictively every 1.5 seconds because of the insta-burst potential of bosses. Fortify is not that answer as "less" damage per stack. There should be other styles of "Fortify" that reduces AOE damage, Spell Damage, etc thats all based on proximity if you hit a target with a melee ability and extends the time based on either damage of the ability or # of times hit with a melee ability. That way it prevents ranged or spell casters who don't have the support investment to benefit much from this defensive layer. (Aka 1 Shield charge for 5-10 seconds of fortify should not be a thing, their thing is to be fragile and not get hit in my eyes)

Another idea is to add a support gem that gives melee "X" charges to absorb large burst damage, after the charges expend from each massive hit taken they have a cooldown and have to resort to dodging until the cool down expires, then they have to strike the boss to reapply the charges (not auto reapply). And yes this should have a strong visual indicator so the player can react properly and no this shouldnt be an immunity, but a high resist or tolerance to resist a back to back attack from a boss to stack with other defensive layers.

So heres my questions from what I read...

So what changes happened to ghastly jewels?

What new support gems are being added or ways to obtain defenses?

What changes are being made to melee to make them more fluid and what defensive layers are going to help them with bossing rather then running every 2 seconds? (Dont tell me fortify or more stacks of fortify)

What is the league mechanic going to do to make us that much more powerful to justify these changes?

Is Ultimatum making a return?

Is harvest getting it's item to store crafts for easy trading?

Are you going to change bossing drops to no longer be 1% as a low point but instead 5% as a base line low point? (20+ maps just to do a boss and get the same drop 2 drops isnt much fun) And don't factor that you can buy it, buying stuff is a luxury, but shouldnt be balanced around that fact.

What are you doing about the arch-nemesis insta-kills with all the lightning and poison popping up on the players instantly rather then travel/chase a player? (Also address the visual clutter of 100 monsters on the screen all doing their abilities?)

More questions then anything at this stage. But as I said, I'll wait for the patch notes and announcement. This really has to have something to counter the constant feel of dread seeing nerf upon nerf and not seeing much of a positive swing.

And no I'm not against the manifesto, but I'm not 100% for the changes either, im in the middle seeing some justifications, and others im like....ok?! Really?! Like Mana reservation "Killing builds" ehhh. But from GGG swapping +2 skills to Unholy Might....ehhhh. Drastic responses on both sides I feel.

So the necro only had detonate dead and mages, Everything else could not do the end game. So nerf the existing stuff that works to make it suck as much as the rest. Sounds legit but might as well skipp until The necro has a point in being played again

I love this game but its very hard right now to have any enthusiasm :(

Problem: Casuals are playing our game
Solution: Nerf stuff that makes sure casual will no longer want to play our game

One shot insta gib mechanics are not fun or challenging, just annoying.

Having to roll out specific mods because they are just complete no go's is not fun or challenging (if my only option to counter something is to completely avoid it altogether what's the point).
Spend 3 days fighting one mob because you have to nerf your dps into the ground to get defences capable of avoiding complete unknown insta deaths is not fun.
Seeing cool sounding/looking attack skills you would like to build around (i mean the whole freedom of build stuff right) but can't because they just completely suck/or your ascendancy is completely bottom tier for that skill is not fun.
It's just outright lazy at this point, you cant be arsed to work on the 95% of trash skills in the game to bring them in line so you just nerf the stuff people were "Forced" to play by yourselves.

Having 4/5 different defensive requirements at all times (not to mention all the ailment crap lumped on top) is just stupid, why are single defensives just not equal...ish, with small niche perks or something.
Like i get having a weakness to some aspects based on choice but it's not a weakness here, it's a you don't have that specific layer of defence you get one shot.
I have all this magical armour but armour can't negate a % of spell damage? I have a huge shield but it can't block a % of spell damage? I am highly evasive, but cant possibly avoid a big slow cast beam cannon...

Ward is a joke, you added it when you were already nerfing defensives to the ground, imagine adding more defensive layers at a time when you couldnt even get the core defensives on a level.

The more you nerf defenses the more people just think fk it, where's that 10 mill glass cannon build, may aswell sacrifice the portals since GGG is gonna make damn sure i lose em either way, may aswell just obliterate content in 2/3 respawns instead of standing there for 10 years with my zdps super defensey boi.

"

Chainbreaker has been reworked. It now grants 1 Rage regenerated for every 25 Mana Regeneration per second, Mana Recovery from regeneration is not applied, and Skills cost +3 Rage.

Huh?

Chris, did you forgot to add based +3 rage per second?



It's definitely a nerf

The Necromancer's Unnatural Strength notable passive skill is extremely strong for almost all minion builds
(Necro...mancer... OFC it should be strong because is part of the minion builds or what else a necromancer should do... milk the girafs?)


If diablo 4 for a holy miracle will come out (first miracle) and hit correct the sumoner/necro class as diablo II did (second miracle) this china company can quit.

Every manifestos nerfs on nerfs... not a drama but dudes lets even the build under 250 ex have a bit of fun.

We like the changes to defenses, but we don't like that you've adapted to them.

Guts defensive mechanics again.

Don't worry, we'll provide you with diverse options to counteract this!

WHERE ARE THE OPTIONS?!

In other news, guess its that time again to take a big, hot, steaming shit all over minions and auras.

"Path of Exile is a game about finding items to improve your character. Minion builds historically got most of their power from their gems, and didn't have as many strong options to benefit from finding better items. The overall goal of these changes is to improve the variety of viable minion builds, but also make minion builds more reliant on items."

You are so fucking out of touch with your own game its laughable. Minion builds don't rely on items for their power? Yeah good fucking luck doing any endgame content without extremely expensive items specifically designed for minion builds.

"The Necromancer's Unnatural Strength Notable Ascendancy Passive Skill no longer provides +2 to Level of all Minion Skill Gems. Instead, it now grants Minions Unholy Might."

Who the fuck cares about unholy might? There are so many sources of it if one actually wanted to use it and guess what, most don't even bother. You could have buffed unholy might to actually make it an attractive option, but no no no. So really, you could have left that passive as "grants nothing" and it would have the same effect for this nerf. Honestly, just fuck you for arbitrarily diluting Ascendency identity and forcing players to jump through crafting hoops of your horrible slot machine crafting system to get it back.

After all the reading anyway, seems like many interesting things may come after all, hoping for the best (: and paying respects to everyone that may have lost their building plannings for next league, hope you guys get through this ♥

Sounds interesting and now my mind is searching of new ideas! The suspense is terrible I hope it lasts!

yikes