Dying Breath 1.0.6 Unique

Current Status: I'm offline. ;_; </3
Disclaimer: I'm not technically an official source, so if I'm wrong, don't rage. XD







Clarification
Damage Taken - Yes, YOU take more damage.
Curses - The increased effect of curses on enemies is an AURA effect, so using this as a swap to cast curses does nothing, since the bonus effect is lost when you aren't holding it.
Ally Damage - The second aura effect. ALL allies deal increased damage, including yourself, your party members, minions of you and your party members, and converted enemies (and any others that I couldn't think of).

Super Technical Notes:
Curse Effect on Bosses - Map bosses have 60% reduced effect of curses on then, and Act End Bosses have 70% reduced effect of curses on them, so the 18% increased effect bonus ends up actually being +7.2%/+5.4% (of the original unmodified value) on Map Bosses/Act End Bosses.
Ally Damage - This is an ADDITIVE multiplier, not a multiplicative one. That means this value is added to other "increased" modifiers on damage before multiplicative modifiers begin being applied. This means that the ACTUAL damage increase will vary from character to character, but total damage CANNOT be increased by more than 18% under any circumstance. Players with few/small "increased" modifiers and more/larger "more" modifiers on their damage will see the biggest difference.
Both Aura Effects - Both the increased ally damage and the increased curse effects on enemies are aura effects, but they aren't auras that you cast, so they aren't affected by anything that modifies curses you cast.

Item Design Notes:
Goal Use Range: Level 18 - Level 68
Although it DOES fit very nicely with the summoner archetype, this unique item was designed to be a "support item". Although there currently aren't any "pure support" in the metagame (and I doubt this will change), many build/character archetypes do strongly support and favor party play. This item was designed as a low level and low cost option for any character who focuses strongly enough on auras and curses (summoners almost always fit into this description). It was also designed to enable heavy aura/curse use earlier than usual.

From the Designer:
That's me! <3 I'd love to hear any and all feedback on my unique item. Feel free to label it as "another trash unique", I won't be offended in the least, although I would appreciate reasoning behind it for me to keep in mind for the future. I understand it's not the kind of item that will be used in 75+ maps (or even 70+ maps, except in rare situations), but I know a lot of people play casually and take a long time to get to that point, if they get there at all, and I feel my unique stays pretty useful (although somewhat situational) up to that point.

Quality Curse on hit + Spectral Throw with this one? Increased damage taken can be get around by using Enfeeble(and multiple curses).

I like the idea but i think this will be viable only in normal and cruel.

In merciless 18% damage taken and loss of a shield seems too big drawbacks for the bonus it gives, also at this point curse and aura radius are pretty useless since they get so big on theyr own

Not a trash unique, but I don't see where the user will be getting their damage from. To me that's the only real issue with it.

Will copy my comments from reddit:

I really don't think this staff needs a downside.

The downside isn't too bad for a summoner but the supporting stats need to be higher to justify it. I love the idea of enhancing curses and auras but this staff doesn't do enough.

Maybe the staff would be fine if it allowed you to do an extra curse. As it stands I'd rather use doedre ring or windscream boots for the extra curse which is far more powerful then a small boost to curses.

Do note these curse oriented characters become really weak to immune to curse map mods and rares. Losing your shield and 1 hand slot for it is still quite big. I'm confused why the stats are so low for such a niche item. Uniques like searing touch go out of their way to have every high stat while this staff wallows in low stats for a niche use.

18% damage taken way too harsh imo, 18% increased damage taken is nearly 2/3rds of the damage taken penalty of a single shock stack. This basically guarantees it cant be used for end game builds due to risk.

This isnt as bad as something like -max resistance but I think the gains could have been a bit more generous:

Effect of Curses on nearby Enemies This would have been really awesome and a possible counter balance for increased damage taken if not for curse immune mobs and curse immune maps which have really ruined curses in poe.


I can only assume one of 2 things happened
1) ggg never intended this item to be used for any build past level 48
2) they were terrified of releasing an OP unique theyd have to nerf in 1.1 or 1.2

Playing a quad-perma-curse build in Nemesis, I'm pretty excited for this unique. Maybe it will motivate GGG to make some changes to the "hexproof" map mod to help make support builds more viable?

@Amiag
It's definitely a softcore item, but taking damage can be almost avoided entirely as a summoner and in group play.

@MonstaMunch
Friends. ^^ I know that might sound corny and even unreasonable to design a unique around it, but my heart's too big for my own good. XD I've only ever played in groups, so I'm somewhat blind to how much of the community plays solo, but solo players weren't in my consideration in the slightest. I want to SEE my item being used by people in public parties!

@Kasub
I agree. I was constantly pushing to have higher value's, but the balance department has a crippling fear of anything related to curses being broken. I thought that since all the value's are % scaling (the bonus is based on what you already have) that it could be higher without making it drastically stronger in either early or late game. I lost that argument. ;_;

@Nephalim
That's fine with me. If it's used as a cheap and effective item for someone from level 18 all the way to early maps, I'd be happier than a tickled pig.
They were absolutely terrified of releasing something broken. Anything related to curses is tiptoed around with steel toed boots on. XD

Edit:
@Cloudily
No way that would happen. Even with those mods existing, the balance department cringes at anything that could make curses stronger than they are. XD

absolute garbage for summoners

damage taken/damage bonus -> throw away your shield and get 1 shotted even more for a single passive minion damage node?

aura/curse radius -> lol

curse effect bonus -> sounds nice, but when bosses already have 70% curse resistance this hardly makes a difference at all

@PoOrlandu
It's definitely a softcore item (as is ANYTHING that decreases survivability), but I disagree with the "one shotted" part of your comment. I don't even understand it actually. I've never been "one-shotted" on a summoner, or even close. I've only ever gotten a summoner to level 80 though, and done up to level 70 content, so you might be referring to content out of my experience with a summoner.

The aura and curse radius were just thrown in there as mods that wouldn't be considered when determining what the value's should be, and that would re-enforce the theme of the item. If you'll notice, it IS a 7 mod item.

Hmmm, well I feel that everyone in your party dealing 5% more damage or taking 5% less damage from a unique mob isn't "no difference at all", but I do think the value's should definitely be higher. ^^