Ancestral Totems Dead? How do we think they'll implement the change?

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Phrazz wrote:

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1453R wrote:

Warcries are "mandatory" and thus the worst thing ever. Banners are "mandatory" and thus the worst thing ever. Doing anything whatsoever except clicking one single button one time to hit one enemy with a weapon is Simply Not Cool.

Have to second this.

Just the massive buff to melee skills alone, should make the "mandatory" word disappear. The buff has made warcries and banners LESS mandatory, but they are there as an investment option if you CHOOSE to implement them into your builds, ENCOURAGING an active playstyle.

What made the totem buffs so out of place, was the fact that they died by one hit, and for them to really be a buff over time, you had to re-summon them all the time and micromanage their placement. Warcries don't die. Banners don't die. And both of them are 4275 more interesting than a couple of stupid, squishy totems.

The immense offensive and defensive tools that melee has received - inherently - should alone make the archetype(s) A LOT more viable. It has been needed for years and is finally here.

A few of my favorite melee (or "melee", to hear the purists say it) have more than double the damage effectiveness they used to. As a confirmed Frost Blades enjoyer, I'm seeing nearly 500% DE on the skill. Sure, the flat cold damage it used to provide is gone, but with my weapon contributing more than twice the damage it used to for the attack, and the new DE number also hitting things like Added Cold Damage support? I get the distinct feeling that modest flat added cold will not be missed.

Like, some of the numbers I'm seeing in my skim of the patch notes are bonkers. We're at the point where you can take most any random bargain-bin three-alch unique melee weapon and carry it to red maps just through raw gem strength alone. I've seen a couple skills that get nearly three times the max DE they used to - Double Strike and its transfigured variants went from 140% DE at gem level 20 to 409%. Skills getting double-ish their old DE looks to be the norm rather than the exception, which also means getting double the effect from any gem-level modifiers you can acquire. "+X to level of Melee Skill Gems" is no longer a shitty meme, or at least a whole lot less of one.

As for the defenses complaints? Yeah, not buying that. The new base types plus the changes to quality means good armor is now really goddamn good; they took ~15% of the 'MOAR' modifier out of Grace and Determination and put a 20% MOAR modifier on the base armor itself from quality alone. Roll your armor well and that more than makes up the difference, which has the knock-on effect of making those auras less 'MANDATORY' in turn.

Like, hell. I can't see how anyone who can routinely make it to Ubers couldn't make melee work this league. Rage is the next best thing to free for melee builds now and that's a 30% MOAR modifier right there at just the most base level.

Anyone griping that Grinding Gear refuses to Buff Melee has lost every last nanospeck of credibility after today. If this patch doesn't count as Buffing Melee, actually factually nothing ever will.

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1453R wrote:

Anyone griping that Grinding Gear refuses to Buff Melee has lost every last nanospeck of credibility after today.

Well, to be fair; they took their time :P But it looks to be worth the wait.

Frost Blades is probably my favorite skill in the game. It just oozes fun like few other - and you can build it on all melee archetypes. I would definitely go FB if I didn't play it the last three leagues. Now, I'm actually thinking about going back to basics (not the atlas node) and do a Cyclone build. I like what they did to Infused Channeling, giving you 10% reduced damage taken for both physical and elemental, and it's no longer dependent on the tag of the linked skill.

We'll se, those patch notes need further inspection.

They turned totems into banners. I like it.

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Phrazz wrote:

Well, to be fair; they took their time :P But it looks to be worth the wait.

Frost Blades is probably my favorite skill in the game. It just oozes fun like few other - and you can build it on all melee archetypes. I would definitely go FB if I didn't play it the last three leagues. Now, I'm actually thinking about going back to basics (not the atlas node) and do a Cyclone build. I like what they did to Infused Channeling, giving you 10% reduced damage taken for both physical and elemental, and it's no longer dependent on the tag of the linked skill.

We'll se, those patch notes need further inspection.

Yeah not gonna lie, my eyes started glazing real quick at the Skill Adjustments section. Yowzers. Nobody does patch notes like Grinding Gear, hueh. It's a running meme in my friend circle that From Software patch notes consist of "Changed some stuff. Adjusted some things." Meanwhile GGG...

I'd told myself that if the league looked playable I was gonna try that cool Ephemeral Edge Animate Weapon of Self-Reflection build I'd seen. I quite enjoy AWoSR, had a lot of fun with it as a random fun project after accomplishing what I set out to accomplish in Necropolis. But now, hell if I don't want to revisit Frost Blades myself. Heh, it's one of my all-time favorites too, though they killed my favorite Ascendancy to run it on. Rest in peace, my beloved Raider. You will be missed.

Still, now that Deadeye gets passive frenzy generation that basically never falls off, could be interesting to try a Deadeye build. Get the free Deadeye chain and the Frenzy generation, do Focal Point with Assassin's Mark for easy crits and constant power charge generation while clearing, Tailwind because Tailwind. Feels like there could be something there, especially now that Frost Blades better respects physical damage weapon bases and thus lets you get up to shenaniganry with Hatred much more easily. Hell, I might even be able to make Touch of Anguish work! Loved that little bastard back in the day, even if it's hilariously anemic by modern standards.

Anyway. Build spitballing aside, yeah. There's so much that's gotten a ridiculous glow-up this league that really - if you can't make whatever your favorite melee build is work, then no amount of numerical fixes will make your favorite melee build work. Heavy Striking one enemy per second is never going to work, even if Heavy Strike dealt theoretically infinite damage.

They Removed Totems and Ruined the game for me.
I really wish we could have a way to play old version of PoE where totems exist.

Can't believe I supported this lame company so much

Project PT was right

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Anirml wrote:

They Removed Totems and Ruined the game for me.
I really wish we could have a way to play old version of PoE where totems exist.

Can't believe I supported this lame company so much

Project PT was right

Common GGG W