Reflect needs a rework

I'm currently running a 100% Puncture build, with a 280 DPS bow, 95% crit, and 555% crit multi.

And seriously... reflect is just a broken mechanic. As an evasion-based character, I basically one-shot myself against anything and everything. There is no mitigation I can use unless I pigeonhole myself into Iron Reflexes and a Lightning Coil, and I'm unwilling to replace every last piece of gear I have in a build I have worked hard on. It's all just a coin toss as to whether I'll randomly hit a reflect mob off the screen at any given moment.

I feel that reflect needs some type of rework to protect against one-shots. For example, why not make it so that reflect can't take you under 5% life? This will keep you from killing yourself accidentally, but it means that a single hit from any given mob will still kill you.

I also feel that reflect mobs need to have a large and noticeable, umistakable aura. Some may say that it would be dumbing down the game, but the truth is that in parties, over half of the screen is attack and spell effects going off at over 5 times a second each, and you seriously can't even see if there's mobs there. This is something that's required to make up for what's pretty much out-of-control art design.

Would be interested in hearing alternate opinions on how to redesign reflect. GGG has reworked a lot of map mods in the past. I feel it would be in their best interest to rework one of the most rage-inducing ones.

Reflect should have a cap on damage you can do to yourself per second (like 30%-40% or something).

It's a horseshit mechanic, but it's the only way GGG can figure out how to stop people from making glass canons.

It's a fucking terrible mechanic I 1 shot myself haha though all I have to do most of the time is pop aztiri's flask and I'm good.



Basic setup can't even save me from killing myself.

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Zaanus wrote:

Reflect should have a cap on damage you can do to yourself per second (like 30%-40% or something).

It's a horseshit mechanic, but it's the only way GGG can figure out how to stop people from making glass canons.

Has this ever been confirmed? Because it seems so silly I actually can't believe it's true ...

The idea is that every character should have some effect that pisses them off. If not, there would be little reason to play other characters. So you have to find ways to avoid or otherwise deal with reflect, just like a single target melee character needs to find ways to deal with groups and other characters need to deal with their foils.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

The idea is that every character should have some effect that pisses them off. If not, there would be little reason to play other characters. So you have to find ways to avoid or otherwise deal with reflect, just like a single target melee character needs to find ways to deal with groups and other characters need to deal with their foils.

This seems more likely. And that there always is some tension in PoE because you never know if your killer is around the next corner.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

The idea is that every character should have some effect that pisses them off. If not, there would be little reason to play other characters. So you have to find ways to avoid or otherwise deal with reflect, just like a single target melee character needs to find ways to deal with groups and other characters need to deal with their foils.

And this is the stupidest design philosophy I have ever ever seen.

Congratulations, your entire game consists of pass/fail gameplay. Either you don't come across that one situation that's the bane of your existence and faceroll everything, or you come across it and just get murdered in a second.

This, along with the garbage economy, is why PoE is a second-rate game IMO. Even a decade and a half after D2, it's still worse.

Just goes to show that PoE is a labor of love--and it shows. Because once you get to the edge case scenarios, you see that GGG clearly doesn't have enough experience and quality control to actually make a game that's good at all stages of the game.

The thing is, nothing will ever fix reflect. Because even if it'd apply as a DoT, if you have a crit build and you used an AoE skill into a reflect pack (EG Righteous Fire) and just did 100,000 damage to 30 mobs, congratulations, that's 3 million damage, 14% of which is still 420,000, 10% of which (say you have 90% fire res) is still 42,000.

Whether that applies as a DoT or instantly, congratulations, you're still dead.

And at the end of the day, say you spawn a reflect pack that has 30 monsters each with say, 10,000 HP. You'll still need to do 300,000 damage to kill them all. And if they have reflect to your damage type, you're still going to eat an obscene amount of reflect damage in the process of killing them, no matter which way you slice it.

Just my 2 cents, but I think the discussion on whether a reflect mechanic should be in the game is missing the point. The problem I see with the current implementation is that for a number of builds, the reflect will trigger a oneshot even though the mob is not even on screen. Flameblast is a prominent example, and basically every high crit mult attack.

If reflect applied as a degeneration effect (dealing its damage over time), it would still counter glass cannons and it would still give people that precious 'oh crap' moment - but it would spare you from the more-than-occasional 'Ah, I died again, better watch out, there might be a reflect mob around the corner'.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

The idea is that every character should have some effect that pisses them off. If not, there would be little reason to play other characters. So you have to find ways to avoid or otherwise deal with reflect, just like a single target melee character needs to find ways to deal with groups and other characters need to deal with their foils.

Shags, go play a build like mine and see how you feel about it when you one-shot yourself due to something offscreen. I'm not even exaggerating, I'm talking a literal one-shot where I have full health and next thing I know I have 0 and I'm dead.

The balance and decision-making in this game is great. But one-shots to things beyond our control is not, and it's not a legitimate way to give each build a pro and a con.

Furthermore, let's say reflect is reworked to make it fairer. Wouldn't this open up possibilities to hardcore players that weren't there before, thereby expanding the ways the game can be played?