A slightly deeper conversation about Whirling Slash

Hey!

I think there's been enough (justified) emotional responses to the mid-season "bug fix" that occurred with Whirling Slash. So I thought I would just state facts instead so that there is a sort of condensed, organized and hopefully objective feedback.

1. Poe 1 and 2 are games that are about build exploration and freedom/agency.
2. Because of point #1, Whirling Slash like many other skills isn't specifically MEANT for a class. It is weapon-type locked only.
3. Because it is usable on any class, the functionality of it shouldn't be massively impacted by one specific sub class. Right now, Twister users are 69% Deadeye for one reason only; movement speed. My current character up until today was the highest DPS twister and I'm playing an Invoker.
4. Whirling Slash is also not meant to be exclusively physical as it heavily implies it gets better with elemental whirls.
5. The best way to generate consistent elemental whirls (and tornadoes) is equipping boots that have elemental ground. Those options are currently limited to Wake of Destruction (10% movement speed) and Birth of Fury (20% movement speed).

With all those points in mind, here's what happened:
- People massively stacking attack speed (to the detriment of damage) pushed the boundary of the skill to a state that was obviously past what GGG wanted. Not in a gamebreaking, economy ruining capacity, but in a way that made movement extremely high and needed to be reigned in (Note: Reigned in does not mean gutted to oblivion)
- The "bug fix" made you move about as fast as your movement speed (slightly slower even) while spamming Whirling Slash after the patch. This is something I witnessed myself on my invoker using Astramentis and Hand of Wisdom and Action. I am stacking a good bit of attack speed, but not an extreme amount as I went mostly int for damage. I have about 3.5 attacks per second.
- The "bug fix" left everyone playing the skill that isn't a deadeye in a (honestly insulting) bad position. The majority of people playing this skill rely on unique boots with terrible movement speed. The kind of move speed that simply isn't capable of handling the end game well and made the skill very tedious/dangerous to use. Not to mention...playing end game maps with 10% movement speed is literally painful.
- The change was done several days into the season after many people had reached end game and invested everything they grinded into their build. Impacting a build negatively to this extent in the middle of a season was something I never expected GGG to do unless the build was dramatically impacting the economy. But twister users are 2% of the population.


It's no surprise that the response was incredibly negative and many people quit the season over it. Myself included. We haven't heard a single word from GGG on this topic since the change and as someone who has supported GGG since the beta of PoE1 with way too many supporter packs, I feel betrayed and find myself not wanting to play the game or spend a dollar.

This needs to be addressed.


P.S.: If you want to actually fix a bug that matters @GGG, why not fix the fact that on frequent occasion, Whirling Slash will perform the attack, move you forward but not actually create a whirl or increase the stage of a whirl. This occurs frequently in boss fights or when dealing with very large packs of monsters leaving you unable to throw out twisters. This is ACTUALLY GAMEBREAKING as it temporarily invalidates 2 skills at once entirely.

Bump because I genuinely think this needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

I think the foundation is the mistake here. I'm talking point #1. PoE2 is not about build exploration or freedom/agency, which is why so many people are upset. Instead the closest answer we have is the vision. We really don't know what this game is about. We just know vague things like "tactical/meaningful combat" that don't seem to play out how anyone imagines.

So...basically there can't be much of a discussion when we don't know what is expected. Pushing the limits just ends up with rushed "bug fixes" that bury whatever folks were trying to do.