Vaal Pact - The node make the game imbalance

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Llyrain wrote:

Other possibility for melee is aegis tank - but that's the same mechanism, a faster than leech replenishment of the energy shield instead of life.
If've done breach league with an aegis tank - the flickering of the energy shield bar in hard breaches in T15 maps was crazy, must have been more than 3k / second despite sitting on 25k armor / dual maxblock.

I am using Aegis.

You guys do you. But I have no issues progressing without VP. My damage is actualy a little low since I'm not going glass cannon, but the extra durability has kept me alive where my party members die.

One BIG thing you guys are forgetting is factors like stuns and defensive skills. With a cast on damage taken + Immortal Call + Molten Shell + Extended Duration, I survive damage spikes fine and the leech usually heals me to full before the IC buff wears off. Combined with a near perma stun from using a Mace and stun passives, I rarely (if ever) fall below 50% HP.

I won't sit here and claim to be a pro, but I've done my homework on my builds. An almost identical build -without Vaal Pact- is running T13's and higher (obviously I don't have the gear for that right now).

THe people I usually party up with, do not use IC or VP. I see when the damage spikes because they do die instantly. But that doesn't make VP the only viable counter to damage spikes.

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Nephalim wrote:

VP can not leave the game until GGG re balances the entire game from the ground up starting with base mob damage, damage scaling under map affixes and reflect as a whole.

They dug themselves into this hole and they should find a better way to get themselves out of it other than lining the hole with the corpses of their devoted player base who are only trying to play the game optimally.

Stop punishing players for using mechanics mandated by your alt-f4/rip-fest game design.

For the rabid mass band wagoning the removal of VP without understanding how the game evolved around it: you are part of the reason why the game has taken such a massive downward spiral in terms of balance and diversity since 2.6.

Thank god someone has a head on theor shoulders. When 6-7k hp disappears in a fraction of a second, VP is one of the only options. Life/ES regen only works for a handful of builds otherwise crippling offense because of such high investment.

GGG needs to completely chmage monster damage and remove instant logout before VP is removed.

Vaal Pact isn't imbalanced, the games damage is. You know they failed when the best and fastest way to do all content in the game is face tank everything for maximum up time. Besides from block, totems and the guardian ascendancy that can avoid having to worry about leeching your options are just so limited for dealing with the damage at late game that it kills build diversity and just makes the game shit IMO.

They can make the game very mechanically difficult without this super high dps from mobs, and I hope they balance things out in the future this way.

The current balance state of the game is in shambles and the main reason was GGG treating the original aegis aurora tank builds in open beta like anthrax.

Why is GGG so terrified of tanks? Because players who can not die, will eventually level to 100 and this the most dangerous thing for them since their income relies on donations and players who "finish" the game are less likely to donate. The game since they has added more and more rip mechanics (corrupting blood, violatiles, crit, burst damage, overtuned mobs) until the current state we see here. This has never been about hardcore gaming or challenging game play with the developers actually encourage log out macro abuse.

There tends to be two groups of players, the ones who whine about VP being imbalanced without understand the 5 year development history of poe and the others who just want to feel powerful in a game that does everything to keep players in progression poverty.

VP is the last vestige of defense after life nodes, block, max resists, armour, CI have been wiped out. I have lost much of my faith in GGG's vision and ability to effectively balance end game.

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Nephalim wrote:

The current balance state of the game is in shambles and the main reason was GGG treating the original aegis aurora tank builds in open beta like anthrax.

Why is GGG so terrified of tanks? Because players who can not die, will eventually level to 100 and this the most dangerous thing for them since their income relies on donations and players who "finish" the game are less likely to donate. The game since they has added more and more rip mechanics (corrupting blood, violatiles, crit, burst damage, overtuned mobs) until the current state we see here. This has never been about hardcore gaming or challenging game play with the developers actually encourage log out macro abuse.

There tends to be two groups of players, the ones who whine about VP being imbalanced without understand the 5 year development history of poe and the others who just want to feel powerful in a game that does everything to keep players in progression poverty.

VP is the last vestige of defense after life nodes, block, max resists, armour, CI have been wiped out. I have lost much of my faith in GGG's vision and ability to effectively balance end game.

Agreed. After all nerfs nothing left.

You could complain just as much about Vinktar. And if you get 2m+ dps and good aps about 2-4% leech is enough to be beserker-like.

Vaal pact is a set game mechanic that's been there pretty much since day one. Yet, people won't shut up about it "being op".

Playing almost exclusively VP for some time now, I can tell you, there are plenty of stupid kinds of deaths caused just by the way vaal pact works.

It seems op cause Beserker+VP is cheap, your dmg can suck and your defence too, yet newbies can facetank T13.

Tho if you play something like a advanced, expensive juggernaut MoM regen build, you can see that VP ain't that OP.

Regen catches up with vp at the higher levels, I think it's well-balanced.

(Do you lack the experience, or did ya just wanna generate a shitstorm?)

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You could complain just as much about Vinktar.

Vinktar was dumb, and thus nerfed. It doesn't give instant leech, it is just still OP with VP.

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Nephalim wrote:

Why is GGG so terrified of tanks? Because players who can not die, will eventually level to 100 and this the most dangerous thing for them since their income relies on donations and players who "finish" the game are less likely to donate.

It is a wrong mentality, actually.

First, do you (or GGG) think that player cant get bored and leave before reaching 100 level? I, for example, stop playing in league when i have 90-93 level, because grinding experience all the way to 100 is just a plain boredom for me, and it doesnt bring any significant bonuses, etc. (just a 8-15% higher DPS or 4-6% higher HP). When i reach my endgame goals, endgame gear, etc - i usually get bored with current build, and it doesnt matter much that i'm not lvl100 yet.

Second, why do you think that player, who got bored with his current build, cant start playing another build? To make that happen often, game should have huge build diversity (both in passive trees, items, skills, etc.). And there shouldnt be a clear "winner build", that deals better DPS, has higher AoE and defences, etc - literally, makes everything better than 10-15 other options. Because when player tries that "clear winner" build, he wont have fun playing other, weaker builds.

For example, i played with full physical Sunder Slayer with Disfavour and Kaom. But eventually, i get bored, after i could kill Shaper without deaths, farm T16 maps, etc.
So i tried another build, Slayer with cold-based Blade Flurry (with rare rapier), using Kaom and Tempest's Binding. I bought great gear for that build (the best i could get for reasonable price of maximum few exalts per piece), i honed it in PoB, got 20/20 gems, etc. Still, my new build now has ~800 less HP, has less range, kills slower (especially harbinger packs), cant run reflect, has big DPS drops against resist or EE map,d quickly loses LL stacks on boss and cant easily overcap resists or get decent chaos resistance.
Is he viable? Sure, i killed Shaper with him, and i'm still being able to farm T16. But he just feels weaker, than my previous build, period. I dont have any fun playing him, being weak just because you made a DIFFERENT choice causes only frustration. I want to play Slayer with something different from Disfavour + Kaom + Sunder, but whatever i'll try in PoB, it always makes a weaker, less tanky build and still without impressive DPS (unless i go full glass cannon and will die from oneshot from guardians or even T16 mobs).
If GGG cares to bring more option to around the same power level, i'd fell much better and would play longer.
For VP, there are a LOT of options viable (because VP is so OP itself), actually, while for really good Slayer, they're very limited.

"Imbalance" - such an empty word.

you guys who cry for vp nerf do realise that wont bring any new builds to the table right? nerf = kill the build available now, most of the self cast and melee build will simply vanish cause totem and rf and necro will be better in every way. while most people are using vp or slayer, this doesnt mean they will create new build without it. after es nerf no new es related build surfacce, after kill double dipping, no new dot build emerge, and you want the vp gone? just tell me what do YOU think people will player after?