Content Update 3.19.0 -- Path of Exile: Lake of Kalandra

Luckily PoE is free to play. If someone does not like the changes, he does not have to support this product. There are many other games that can be purchased for 60-90$. I don't even try to understand most of these changes anymore, there's too much of it, besides of this, the game changes every 3 months and I just don't have time for that. Maybe will play for a week or two but I will definitely not buy a support pack.

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we have prepared a preview of our planned character balance changes and our thoughts behind them so that you'll have plenty of time to think about them and provide feedback before the expansion launches

As expected, 0 of the feedback from the manifesto was accounted for (apart from furhter nerfs, i.e. seismic trap, but that was warranted). Next time just avoid asking for it, these vapid small talks in the incipit sound like a mockery more than anything else.

Overall it seems that progression is going once again to be slowed down, grind increased, and always in the wrong places: instead of targeting late endgame [Removed by Support], early map progression will be more frustrating for normal people.
Defences are going to be gutted for everyone instead that for the usual top-tier outliers, especially after that excessive nerf to mana reservation. No new ways to compensate our lower baseline, apart from mindless grind. What we get instead? A laughable buff to ward.
The changes on rare monsters seem good on the surface, but they are not addressing one of the biggest problems of archnem mods (answer conveniently avoided in the Q&A): busted combinations that make already tanky monsters incredibly more tanky. Dancing around bullet sponges for 10 min has never been fun in a video game. Will it remain more convenient to just skip past them and loose another opportunity for currency drop? (except for those few busted outlier builds, of course).
Excessive is also the nerf on flask charges on hit, that now basically makes those rolls deeply underwhelming compared to anything else. As if 3.15 nerf to flasks wasn't already enough.
Then reading about 20 orbs of fusing for a 6L....this is another dishonest insult to the previous injuries.

Chances of me throwing moneys into a supporter pack get thinner an thinner.

All my favorite map bases are now gone. Not sure if this is the change for the better.

Gz for total ruining of my wanting to start a league.
First time no interest in doing that.

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Kanjiedge wrote:

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majinanti wrote:

Are those full patch notes? Are there ANY buffs for melee? Aside from OP Cleave ofc...

Sunder was improved a decent amount, and fortify had its stack gain buffed but probably will still be garbage sooooo

not really, lol

Sunder is already bugged.
Highly recommend to check the bug report page for anyone who was planning to leaguestart it.

Trading is dead. All prices will be in divines and typing 3div instead of 3ex is way worse - 1 more character and letters "d"/"v" and "i" are too far apart on keyboard compared to "e" and "x".

First and foremost, happy to see most of the planned changes.
Second, the league looks awesome and i can't wait to play it.
Third, i think you really nailed the new Trickster. Except Swift-Killer, which should enable frenzy-generation in one or the other way imo.

But i have feel like i wanna express my concerns and things that i wish you guys would maybe prioritize over others, even tho there will most likely be a comprehensible reasoning behind those decisons (sorry, not a native speaker).

I think melee-combat is lacking a lot of tools and mechanical quirks and i the last leagues evoke the impression that you kinda "gave up on it" or "put it on the PoE2-bench". Which, if you plan to overhaul animations etc., would be comprehensible but dissappointing non the less.

Since the "slam-era" there haven't been any real mechanical/flavor/gameplay relevant changes to melee-combat. And im not talking about Steel-Skills, LS, Helix or other (semi)ranged options which benefit/abuse the overpoweredness of the projectiletag.
Well besides the Behead-Support maybe.

I can imagine that the development is getting into the "hot-phase" of PoE2 and that sometimes it might boil down to deliberate wether you wanna invest time into live-changes or just delay it to PoE2.

But at the moment i feel like there's a whole archetype left behind and wilting because it might be taking to many ressources to make it interesting enough to be balanced and played.

Which again, i could fully understand from a development and ressource perspective.
But i'm here to give you the "average ssf-sc-player and long time fan" perspective :D
And i'd love to bonk enemies heads in close-combat and not having to hate myself for desiring so.
And for not just picking any of the more flexible, fancy, visually-pleasing, easily scaleable spells or ranged-options and fill the screen with projectiles.

Cheers, stay good and healthy folks.

Shock and trickster look BUSTED right now, time to play it before it gets nerfed.

Absolution -> Nerf
Melding of Flesh-> Nerf
Mana Eff. -> Nerf
Minion Asc. +2 -> Nerf
Devine Orb -> Nerf
Aura Efect -> Nerf
Defiance Banner -> Nerf
Brittle -> Nerf
AG Boots -> Nerf
Spectre -> Nerf

ETC ....

Thanks GGG

Overall good changes. Will be a nice league but GGG. What is that defiance banner nerf??!

Thats too much. Much much too much.

I also miss mechanic changes on support gems, more link options and where support gems apply