14th templar ranked 203 balance?

135 min PARTY? OUCH.

I guess I should play Templar instead of playing scion and constantly getting butchered early on.

I think the last time I reached Harbringer in EL was before release outside of the longer EL events.

The last Event 148 was the last Signature I didn't do something stupid like attempting to clear thicket if I came 2 minutes after the first one, go afk for a short time etc.

without muling ST ranger and shadow would be in dumbster too

Ranger would do fine with bow spec. Shadow would suffer without muling though, no doubts there.

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KoTao wrote:

Ranger would do fine with bow spec. Shadow would suffer without muling though, no doubts there.

Problem with bow is still that it's too incosistent, it's amazing damage with good gear, but under normal conditions it can be absolutely terrible (damage-wise).

Most people's perception here is a little bit tainted by the two Descent races where you get showered in currency and pretty much always end up with an at least decent bow, but in normal races where currency is sparse you might end up with a shitty bow. To be honest Descent Champions also gave me the impression that Ground Slam is the best thing since sliced bread, but that was just because I had so much currency I was bound to have decent or good weapons throughout the entire race.

But then you look at normal races where you don't get much currency at all, no guaranteed upgrades, only 1 base weapon type you can really use (maces) and you can kind of draw some parallels there with bows.

In a trivial sense you could argue that it's "fine" because with a perfect run people would probably still hit 33 or 32 records with bows, but clearly we want all classes to be somewhat balanced, meaning that they all have similar average capabilities which already isn't the case (look at templar or witch) and would be even less so the case if ranger didn't have Spectral Throw.

Spectral Throw is a bandaid fix to balance problems though, if there is only one viable skill to use for all/most classes you are sacrificing variety for an illusion of balance. Which at least in my opinion is a far worse solution than having open imbalance problems in the game and then fixing them step by step. Spectral Throw just allows GGG to be lazy in terms of skill and class balancing, the ad-hoc argument here being "all classes use spectral throw or leap slam, all classes (with exception of witch and templar) have the capacity to hit 34, therefore balance" which is just lame and silly.

It makes me wish Spectral Throw didn't exist, personally I couldn't care less if they nefed spectral throw as long as they balanced other skills to give classes their own unique touch.

Why am I throwing swords as a ranger and not using bows? Why am I doing the same as shadow and scion? Why do I jump around like a retard as Duelist and Marauder, why are there no alternatives that are equally viable? The answer is simple, GGG have their balance illusion and can hide behind it, no need to balance other skills because ST and Leap Slam are somewhat comparable and that's enough for them. I mean when you look at it realistically 5 out of 7 classes use the same 2 skills, so there is nothing that makes them any different from eachother, so really we don't have 7 classes in this game, we have 4. Spectral Throw, Leap Slam, Witch and Templar.

Witch to me is the only class that really makes sense, they are a caster class using spells. Templar is just an abomination.

got some thoughts there http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/790767
tried ranger in burst today, holy shit the overall damage from 10 split arrows casts is less than from one spectral throw

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SlixSC wrote:

You could even buff ele cleave to make it stronger than pre-nerf and it would still be worse than spectral throw, so there's nothing that's holding GGG back, except their egos, because buffing ele cleave now would be a tacit admission that they made a mistake back when they nerfed it and honestly... I guess they would rather plug their eyes out than admit that mistake.

They save large skill balance changes like this to the big 4 month patches. I'll be interested to see what they do on this front (ST/Cleave) in a couple weeks.

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SlixSC wrote:

http://poestatistics.com/events/135-minute-party-s06c160/templar/

That level gap is hilarious. Basically one good player playing Templar, the rest likely don't realize how bad it is, or are nickel and diming easy top templar points.

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SlixSC wrote:

Most people's perception here is a little bit tainted by the two Descent races where you get showered in currency and pretty much always end up with an at least decent bow, but in normal races where currency is sparse you might end up with a shitty bow.

Well, given the "new" rustic recipe, you're guaranteed good bows now.

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jstq wrote:

without muling ST ranger and shadow would be in dumbster too

Ranger would totally suck unless Lightning Arrow from CB comes back, without the Manacostinsanity after level 5(5 linked level 15 La cost me 335 HP and I could only pay it due high lifeleech)

Shadow nope.

Just look at the NP race.I think there was a solo one.

"

got some thoughts there http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/790767
tried ranger in burst today, holy shit the overall damage from 10 split arrows casts is less than from one spectral throw

Start a petition LA at Breaking some eggs.

I started to hate the ranged with LA getting to level 10 and totally stopped him after LA got nerfed to nothing.

The CB ranger would the best class for burst races.
Break eggs get LA get level 5(now) or level 6 in CB in Upper passage because LA was so powerful.

"

But then you look at normal races where you don't get much currency at all, no guaranteed upgrades, only 1 base weapon type you can really use (maces) and you can kind of draw some parallels there with bows.

Templar can also use the staff but the issue is that the staff nodes are too far away, they suck and staff got this issue.


It's the same problem with Daggers.

"

Witch to me is the only class that really makes sense, they are a caster class using spells. Templar is just an abomination.

Wanna laugh?

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA37CSwY6-ES18g836uJOnCIP3HwJ-r3YR2t2THYQMN-wICOuf

Spectralthrowwitch.

If you don't find an Axe just take the nodes for the Mace....
The only luck you need is a a Jade/Amber Amulet.

"

unsane3 wrote:

Well, given the "new" rustic recipe, you're guaranteed good bows now.

Yeah that's a good point, it could be viable given that the vendor recipe is so good. I haven't farmed docks with RoA in ages, but I just remember from season 4 (where Pam and I were the only rangers going RoA afaik) that RoA damage in docks was pretty terrible. I'm talking sub 200 dps with "ok" gear. Just bad memories from season 4.

I did a prac run with RoA when they added the IPD recipe last season.

Granted, im not a top racer and i havent played Ranger in 3/4 seasons but my impression is:

1. ST hits way more targets than RoA (covers more ground)
2. You attack faster with ST (wrecking ball is enough to be faster, late docks you even get wicked blade and blade master)
3. You do way more damage with ST

Even though the IPD nodes for bows are good, the base dmg of bows vs the base dmg of melee two handers is not even comparable (this affects the IPD recipe too, higher base dmg weapons benefit most from the recipe).

A 75% IPD longbow is still less dps than a white jade chopper (even taking into account the fact that longbows are faster).

But idk, i won't be very surprised if im proved wrong.

Ranger is fine running a 1-9 lit damage shortbow (or similar shoppable blue) through all of act 1 thanks to iron rings and wrath. The recipe wouldnt be used until act 2, where a serrated composite switch would be guaranteed before sins- even if a whetstone or 3x scraps hadnt dropped by then, 40% worth of superior weapons certainly would have.

And while roa generally isnt as fast as st in docks, its certainly safer. Trying to train huge packs of undying and wraiths with sub 500 life can get a bit hectic.

Ranger still suffers from horrible starting gem selection, no aoe before ledge and an overcosted main skill in roa though.