Demon Form weakens with levels

I was watching the last race, saw the demon form, decided to try it on the SSF... Big mistake, it turned out to be another trap for noobs from GGG...

I'm level 73 now, and after a recent level-up, my lifeloss rate is 130 per second... This is too much, my character is practically a brick. One more skill level up and it will be impossible to play.

I'm collecting items with passive health regeneration, and I managed to gain 88 health per second. And until recently everything was great, but I leveled up and thereby incredibly weakened my character. Demon Form provides a minimal increase in casting speed per level up, literally 0 boost, but an incredible downside in the form of increased health loss.

I gain levels and my character gets significantly weaker... What kind of power fantasy is this, GGG? How should I feel from the game when my character is suddenly weakened by a level-up?

I'm farming Tier 2 maps, and I'm item level 66. I prioritize life regen over resistance and other defensive stats. And I have no way to keep up with the health loss from my demon form.

This is actually another manifestation of the balance problem around high-end part of the game. GGG looks at people who stack demon form 300+, they look at the cast on crit, and they balance the game around 0.1% of players, making it unpleasant for 99% of other players.

In the case of cast on crit, in my opinion the solution is obvious - remove the level system for cast on metagems and make them one fixed level.
Then limit the maximum energy generation so that somewhere around 33% of the critical hit it is already the maximum. This way you'll cut down on game-breaking builds while adding variety to the mid-game.

Your usual approach is to leave a build working only for the 0.1% of players who can farm 1000 Divines and take it away from the 99% of the rest. Because you're nerfing the whole thing at once, raising the bar at which the build starts working, instead of just cutting the far end. And that's just stupid, you are cutting down on diversity.

I don't really know what to do with Demon Form. If you buff it, high-end builds will be overbuffed. But I have to report that for me this part of the game turned out to be a big disappointment. It's not normal for a character to become unplayable after leveling up. It's too bad, and it shouldn't be like this. There's no justification for this kind of balance.

I would like to write my solution to the Demon Form problem. If the developers actually read it.

1) Remove the demon form stacks. Because if there are some downsides to the form and there are stacks, I don't see how this can be balanced. You've already tried the option with health loss as a percentage and it was abused by having low health.

You just click on the form and it immediately works at maximum.

2) Instead of a certain amount of health loss, let's just disable any HP regeneration except flasks. And the form will give +% casting speed proportional to the regeneration not received!. This way, health regen on items will be converted into a combat stat of casting speed.

As for builds where people got 20k regen and 100+ stacks of form with the help of Abyss jewel - they will simply stop working. If the form disables regeneration, then such builds cannot support themselves. You could say it's bad, but I think it was a stupid gameplay. Standing at the start of the map, waiting for 50 stacks to start clearing... It's really weird. It's not a pity to lose something like this and it seems like an expensive build.

3) Make form a four pointer. The ability turns out to be very powerful. It can be said that there are no drawbacks, only advantages. You can have no regen at all and still get +30% more spell damage. In the next point I will add a minus to the perk leading to the form.

But you can also make the form give no damage at all without HP regeneration. For example, instead of a fixed +30% more, let it be +% of the added damage, and let it also depend on the regeneration. Or you can leave it as is and move on to the next point.

4) New ascendancy perk leading to form. Health regeneration also regenerates energy shield. (with the demon form, health regeneration is turned off, but the regeneration number still exists and is applied to the energy shield) This is of course ultra strong... Probably we should add some minuses. Let this be the only way to regenerate the energy shield, nothing else will restore it. Still too strong? Let regeneration then work on the shield not at 100%, but at 50% or 33%. Now this is a viable option, in my opinion. And the number can be adjusted as needed.

And this adds a minus for the balancing of the demon form. Now, without health regeneration, you have no shield regeneration at all. You must collect regeneration from items. There's probably still an option to play without an energy shield... But that's poor gameplay without an adequate layer of protection. And playing without energy shield, only with health and no regeneration... You can also turn off lifesteal for good measure.

And it must also be said that collecting regeneration on items is a HUGE minus. The fact that I'm doing this on the SSF now is only justified by the fact that it's difficult to find sources of damage on the SSF. Losing an entire stat on all items (and a huge amount of regeneration is needed) is in no way balanced by what the form provides.

But I must note that the mobility of the demon form adds survivability. Having such a convenient long-range dash allowed me to really get into the interactive combat.

I think the changes I proposed will make the demon form a truly enjoyable gameplay, early in the league. I don't think it's unbalanced in any way, compared to the Blood Mage. Overall, mechanics that change stat purpose on items are very cool. They refresh the market and make weak items strong.