Undying Evangelist

fliker

I'm on the fence.

On the one hand:
This is the first time that I know of that GGG has created a monster that completely denies an entire class of attacks/spells. One of the things I rather liked about POE was the fact that there was no such thing as "cold immune," "fire immune" or "lightning immune," so you knew that whichever build you chose, you could deal damage to all monsters. That fact is now no longer a fact, and it's rather foreboding for the future where mechanics that just directly shut down a particular build or class of builds can be introduced.

On the other hand:
The aura IS easily deniable in theory. Get in close range, and it doesn't do anything. No builds have Far Shot currently, so technically no build is "gimped" by the new aura - at least in terms of damage output.

Back to the first hand:
That's a binary mechanic. That is to say, a matter of black and white. Such "Do or Die" dichotomies are often not fun, because it can almost feel like a game of rock-paper-scissors or being forced into a playstyle. Here, it's mostly just being forced into a playstyle very heavy-handedly.

On the other hand:
I've had lots of fun fighting Evangelists, somehow. I guess the binary mechanic somehow functions in a fun way for me, because I don't personally mind having a completely different playstyle forced on me. However, it ceases to be fun when practicality gets in the way:

Back to the first hand:
These monsters are a pain in the butt with desync in play, because the entire basis of their mechanic is obfuscated. Am I able to deal damage to the monster right now? No freakin' idea, dude. The monster could be here or way over there. And lots and lots and lots of players experience desync. Even if they stay completely silent about it, it doesn't go away, and it continues to be an issue for binary mechanics like this.

On the other hand:
The aura DOES have a limited duration, so waiting out the aura is another option that would allow all characters to face Evangelists.

Back to the first hand:
Good luck waiting for a crowd of 7 Evangelists to all have their shields off at the same time. Moreover, is it really considered "fun" to be forced to run around for a while and dodge or tank a bunch of spells without being allowed to retaliate? Probably not.

In my opinion, the aura should grant 75%, or 85%, or even 95% less damage from enemies outside its radius, not 100% less damage. Just not a TOTAL shutdown. The idea is to encourage different playstyle, not bring down the TOUCH of GOD to say you have to play in THIS style. That's just... well, it comes off as obnoxious, or hostile to players. "No, you can't do this. You have to do that." That's very much in contrast to other balance moves by GGG, such as the aura change. For auras, instead of obnoxious heavy-handedness, they said "No, you can't do this by slapping on two unique items. You have to do some math and some shuffling around and make some tough decisions. THEN you can do this. You can also do that, too." That's options. That's good. Evangelist aura, to me, doesn't really scream "options" right now.

They are crazy in tight corridors (tunnels map for instance). They kill my summons really fast, all I can do is to run right at them in hopes that they won't kill me before I get to them. Mind you I stand a fighting chance only because I changed my build on release to have a lot of armor, which not all summoners have. First time I ran into a group of them in such a tight corridor I was like - "wow, poor squishy range guys, no way they'll survive this".

i haven't rebuilt my bow ranger yet, but i think a ranged attack totem should solve it? (Raised inside the dome of course.) Those thing are pretty fragile once you get inside.

Are they immune to bear traps thrown from outside?

"

Ebrelle wrote:

i haven't rebuilt my bow ranger yet, but i think a ranged attack totem should solve it? (Raised inside the dome of course.) Those thing are pretty fragile once you get inside.

Are they immune to bear traps thrown from outside?

traps and totem is what u need. or point blank.

also its really hard to complain about survivability now that u also have cast on damage taken...i mean seriously ppl its a defensive mecca. use it!

I hate these damn things. Did 2 vuln 75 maps today (I'm an evasion user) and with enfeeble on them and 3 end charges they still managed to do 1k damage with that ground explosion they do. White mobs. I know I had vuln up but jesus, I went slower against a group of these than I did against merveil.

"

adghar wrote:

I'm on the fence.
One of the things I rather liked about POE was the fact that there was no such thing as "cold immune," "fire immune" or "lightning immune," so you knew that whichever build you chose, you could deal damage to all monsters.

Actualy, you fight alot of monsters with tons of resists and stuff, ele/chaos resists all along, bosses/rares are bareley cursable or are completely curse imune (I can't be curse immune, fair?) resists this, resists that, damage to ele resists mobs is noticable lower than non ele resist mobs, at least if you deal ele dmg. PoE always was like that, basicly every mob is simply "balanced" in resists stuff that you as player may never achive.
So the Undying Evangelist are basicly just the icing ontop of the cake. My Summoner witch now uses these Undying Evangelists with increased AOE and culling strike. Really efficient these bombers, especialy against dense mob groups.
You really see how OP some of the Mobs in PoE are designed if you can (ab)use them by yourself. ;) I use Blackguard Arcmage Spectres with Chain and Ele Prolif, believe me. For me it's clear thet these Evangelists and many other new mobs were designed to annoy ranged Players and especialy annoy Minions of Summoners. It's almost like someone at GGG hates us. XD

Please, bear in mind that Path of Exile is a hardcore Action RPG. It's supposed to be hard because developers at Grinding Gear Games love hardcore gameplay. Thank you.

If you can get one hit off on them the shield goes down.
Sincerely~ A ranged player.

"

Veracocha wrote:

Please, bear in mind that Path of Exile is a hardcore Action RPG. It's supposed to be hard because developers at Grinding Gear Games love hardcore gameplay. Thank you.

No, PoE couldn't survive with "hardcore only" players. ;) YOu always need some drips of casual in, otherwise the game would not earn enough money so at the end nobody could play it anymore.
But that's not a big proplem, hardcore Players usualy play, well, hardcore mode and if you want a more relaxing gameplay, people play softcore (like me). But so or so, I agree, compared to other Action RPG's, PoE is more hardcore, even in softcore.