Mana reduction gem...

Everyone was running at least 1 reduced mana gem, if everyone is doing it it doesn't need to be in the game at all. You got a free respec on that character to rebuild, and actually building for auras is better now, if you take a bunch of aura nodes you can run more auras than before.

you can push aura reservations from 50%->33% easy

I was initially against this change, but have come around to supporting it. Stacking auras is harder now, sure, but it's not impossible. And most people can now run 2 auras or 2-3 auras/heralds without much issue, depending on the aura. More builds require some reduced mana reserved on the tree, but honestly not that much of it.

A few of my builds had to give up an aura, but they wound up buffed in other ways so it worked out. Auras should have a steep cost associated with them, and defensive auras are definitely a priority now - we might have to give up some DPS.

"

j33bus wrote:

Everyone was running at least 1 reduced mana gem, if everyone is doing it it doesn't need to be in the game at all.

This keeps getting overlooked.

Literally, there wasn't a single build in the game for 1.3 that didn't include at least one item socketed with nothing but reservations and a Reduced Mana. It was a minimum of one socket you were automatically out of... Only worse, since if you were running INT, DEX, or worse, INT/DEX gear you might be in for an extra-hard time coloring it... Especially as previously, not just RM, but Herald of Ash was mandatory for all attacking classes.

Same here, my very first Poe character on standard which was the RF marauder just got wrecked by the reduced mana nerf. I can't get him enough hp regen anymore, his hp is even lower somehow. I don't really care about that character anymore but I can understand the frustration of other players. Some decisions that GGG made towards the balance was very rough against the players, the did take out everybody out of their comfort zone, to make the game more diffucult they went the easy way - nerfs. The result - the game is still the same, no new mechanics, no new tactics, just a lot of nerfed or destroyed builds, people can't get to maps, evasion and CI is shit, especially ci, if you don't have armor, even if you have 20k ES(which you will never have even with 500 ex gear), you can die in 3-4 hits on end maps. Game is so underwhelming atm, I try to like it the way it is right now but I find it difficult to enjoy the game the way I used to enjoy it before. All I m hoping for is the future when GGG will finally realize that many builds need a buff, the only way to play hardcore is to stack armor, how is that a balance?

"

Shagsbeard wrote:

You don't get it. GGG was unhappy with the meta that everyone ran 2+ auras at essentially no cost to them. So they changed it. Time to get over that.

Self-found players have a much harder time adapting to anything. When we invest into builds, we spend tremendous amounts of time trying to find the items we need to further the development of our builds. When a build is forced to switch to something else due to a nerf, that means even more time and resources being spent just to compensate.

Transitioning from a common 'reduced mana' gem to a rare 'enlighten' gem to fix the new problem? Good fucking luck finding it on your own. 2.0.0 was a major kick to the balls for self-found players, overall.

"

Pizzarugi wrote:

Transitioning from a common 'reduced mana' gem to a rare 'enlighten' gem to fix the new problem? Good fucking luck finding it on your own. 2.0.0 was a major kick to the balls for self-found players, overall.

The answer was that Self-found characters (and, in fact, most characters) shouldn't be using the Enlighten Gem at all. (to be honest, they shouldn't have given it mana reservation)

The whole POINT was to press a transition to a "people use less auras" meta. And this goes for self-found. Not really GGG's fault that "harder to adapt" becomes "refuses to adapt the build."

Especially since SF became a LOT easier through a bunch of 2.0's changes... Guaranteed ability to buy most gems, for one... As well as the oh-so-popular "you can now farm a Tabula" option.

"

ACGIFT wrote:

The whole POINT was to press a transition to a "people use less auras" meta. And this goes for self-found. Not really GGG's fault that "harder to adapt" becomes "refuses to adapt the build."

I find that hard to believe, when auras are so useful, that they're practically mandatory in every build imaginable.

"

Pizzarugi wrote:

I find that hard to believe, when auras are so useful, that they're practically mandatory in every build imaginable.

That's been the meta from 1.3 and prior, most definitely; there was no reason NOT to stack all the auras you could get away with, turning every player into their own discotheque/rave.

Progress away will happen slowly; I liked one of the first steps I saw, with the "Clear Mind" jewel: something to better reward players who skip the auras entirely.

But beyond that, at first, SOME auras will still be mandated: as right now, there's zero downside to reserving a part of your mana meter when you didn't need the whole maximum anyway, just the regen. Perhaps in the future we'll see better balance around this, (such as, say, reserved mana only counts half as much for regen) but for now, the first step would be to just cut back the sheer NUMBER of auras.

In 1.3, virtually any build mandated a minimum of 3 auras/reservations: attackers, for instance, would always need Herald of Ash+Hatred+Haste to max their DPS. People were always better off still then if they could stack all the Heralds at once, then also maybe push on some defensive auras: Grace/Discipline, or for low-life builds, take all three Purities for that +4 to all max resists.

2.0 Has taken a bit of a step in the right direction; most builds now have to stick with just 2.