Dark Marionette Respawn Timer – Small Balance Suggestion (4s → 3s)

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Greemlin#2092 wrote:

Hi GGG,

I'd like to suggest a small but impactful balance adjustment for the Dark Marionettes: reducing their fixed respawn timer from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.

I understand that the original 1-second respawn was too strong. However, the jump to 4 seconds feels overly punishing for the following reasons:

No scaling options – The respawn timer is a fixed value and cannot be reduced by "Minion Recovery Speed" or "Cooldown Recovery". This leaves players with no way to invest in their build to smooth out the mechanic. We are forced into a 4-second downtime that often breaks the flow of combat.

Gameplay fluidity – In Path of Exile's current endgame, 4 seconds is a very long time. For builds that rely on these minions (whether for buffs or Minion Instability), this long gap often leaves the player either defenseless or without their primary damage source for too long.

A fair middle ground – A 3-second timer would be a reasonable compromise. It avoids the "instant-respawn" spam of the original version while making the minions feel much more reliable and fun in endgame content.

Lowering the timer to 3 seconds would bring back the "fun factor" for Dark Marionette builds without returning to the broken state of the past.

Thank you for considering this suggestion!