Some suggestions for balance etc.

I wanted to make this a huge, detailed and probably tl;dr post but I just haven't felt up to it. I really wanted this to come out earlier as well, in hopes that the team might read it before they'd done most of the balancing for the 1.2 patch. I think that ship's probably sailed by now but hey, we'll see.

Anyway the short version:

1: Auras. I've heard a lot of talk about nerfing aura nodes but I don't personally think that's a good idea. I think aura nodes (and their spaced out positions on the tree) perfectly represent the kind of investment one should have to make to run multiple auras. My suggestion is to actually buff these nodes, but make the reduced mana gem have no effect on auras. Overall, I think reservation costs should be slightly higher and require more tree investment all around (maybe one cluster to run two 60's, two clusters to run two 60's and a 40, etc.)
EDIT: I'm talking about buffing reduced reservation here, not effectiveness.

2: The Reduced Mana Gem. Currently useless except with auras (unless the above change is made). If the above change is made, then the reduced mana gem can be buffed to see actual usage with actual skills.

3: The Blood Magic Gem. Though many disagree, I think the passive is currently in an OK spot (in other words, aura usage needs to be changed to consider the passive, not the other way around), and with change #1 making 4+ auras less enticing, I think the passive would be in an even better spot. However, I feel the gem is too powerful and should be given a higher life cost. As is, it's really just a way to take all those points you might consider spending on mana and cram them into more survivability.

4: IIR. The removal of IIQ was a step in the right direction. However, I am of the opinion that IIR needs to go as well. Magic find as a whole makes people choose between making their characters more powerful and getting a real, impactful bonus in loot drops. It's not fun as a mechanic. I am paraphrasing here because I don't remember where I heard this (it was spot on, so if it seems otherwise, it's most likely my fault), but I read somewhere (I wanna say this was on global) that no one magic finds willingly. They do it because they feel they have to, to either get drops at all or simply to remain competitive. Those who decide not to in lieu of actually using their most powerful equipment (which is what the game should encourage) often feel they are poor because of it and consider magic finding anyway, to the detriment of their own game experience. This is when the game starts to feel like a grind for many and farming simply loses its fun.

EDIT:
5: This is another idea I can't take credit for (or give credit for, as I don't remember where I read it), but if Pain Attunement was changed to a cast speed bonus instead of spell damage, I am fairly sure that most of the low life CoE problems would be solved.

Additionally (this part is my own idea), Pain Attunement could carry a reduced mana multiplier. This would essentially give it (if the numbers are tweaked properly) a similar DPS boost to spells, without adding to attacks made with CoE, without boosting trigger spells, and without costing any more mana.

I guess that's it for balance... Now for some random suggestions:
A: Stream boxes are terrible. I think the idea was to make a box that couldn't be decimated by a single AoE attack but what you've done is made an affix that is often worth skipping or rerolling not because it's too difficult, but because it's too annoying. If the bit about wanting a box that couldn't be cleared with a single attack was right, I suggest a box that resurrects nearby enemies with onslaught... After it's cleared. So normal box, clear it, THEN resurrect things with onslaught. (Yay, better now!)

B: Please fix the pathing of cyclone to go around obstacles and along walls. I never had a problem with desync until using multi cyclone and I think this would help. I know most players' solution is to simply not use this combo but I'm hoping it gets fixed eventually. I suppose the same would apply to enemies with vaal cyclone... Seeing them get stuck on rocks is kind of annoying.

C: Let the recipe for 5 magic/rare items of the same base type also factor in their art. Basically, allow 5 Kaom's Hearts that have been corrupted into rare items to be vendored for a new, uncorrupted rare Glorious Plate with Kaom's Heart's inventory and 3D artwork. This increases collectibility, further incentivizes vaal usage, allows free players to have cool skinned rares and will almost certainly not impact skin transfer sales. Why? Because the recipe is still bound to a base type (In other words you can't put that awesome Saffell's Frame skin onto say a Golden Buckler) and is also still bound to the lowest ilvl among the rares (you can't get an ilvl 78 iron ring with Blackheart's skin unless you vendor 5 vaaled rare Blackhearts with ilvl 78+).

And finally a question: Diablo II had a cube recipe to upgrade the base type of certain items (I wanna say it was just uniques, but it might have been sets too). Is it possible we might see this in Path of Exile uniques?

tldr

joking, will read it now.

After Reading:

1. the removal of snapshotting should put auras where they were supposed to be.

2. It is beneficial. I have used it instead of mana leech several times.

3. I see no issue with BM.

4. I complained about IIR and IIQ since closed beta. Back then IIR was useless compared to IIQ (more items = better rare chances + better chances of more slots + better chances of currency). Now they have removed IIQ and we are left with IIR. Honestly I dont think it makes that much of a difference. If you can clear twice as fast without IIR I see it as a IIQ. With IIR builds you generally (GENERALLY, dont come tell me that your MF character can kill triple piety with -500 resists.) sacrifice clear speed for chance at more uniques/rares. By putting IIR aside you can "generally" clear much faster, thus seeing more quantity of items, thus acting as an inherant IIQ bonus.

A. Agreed, stream boxes suck. They interrupt play and make you stand around killing one mob at a time for 30 seconds or so. Kills my zone.

B. Cyclone has been a desync problem forever and ever. Not gonna happen anytime soon.

C. Interesting and fun for collectors. Not much else to say. I think they should give a skin microtransaction that allows you to put any item skin onto another item. IE love the Chernobog look but want a ES shield? Use shield microtransaction to swap skins. Would also make PVP more interesting because you never know what you are actually up against. Could also hurt PvP because you never know what you are up against.

Could you elaborate on the cube recipe? Never played D2

The existing skin transfer microtransaction WOULD allow you to put a Chernobog skin onto an ES shield. This is what gives it an advantage over the proposed recipe. EDIT: Though this advantage is obviously still purely cosmetic.

As for the cube recipe, in Diablo 2 there was an item called the Horadric Cube that basically served the same purpose as vendor recipes in this game. One of the recipes allowed you to take an item (again, pretty sure it had to be unique, or maybe it was "unique or set") and upgrade the base type to the next "tier".

So in this game, it would allow you to take a Foxshade Wild Leather and upgrade it into a Frontier Leather or even a Destiny Leather.

yes they should make cyclone basically the same as if you just ran to a certain point, so that you cyclone arround obstacles instead of cyclone into them and get stuck and just stand there

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MosesXIII wrote:

The existing skin transfer microtransaction WOULD allow you to put a Chernobog skin onto an ES shield. This is what gives it an advantage over the proposed recipe. EDIT: Though this advantage is obviously still purely cosmetic.

Ahh, I was unaware. That solves that then.

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yes they should make cyclone basically the same as if you just ran to a certain point, so that you cyclone arround obstacles instead of cyclone into them and get stuck and just stand there

Just guessing here but I think the problem with cyclone is it is passing so much information to the servers at once (hence desync). It hits multiple enemies multiple times while also moving the player. The vast majority of skills stop the player from moving while casting so it is a simple (hit/send/receive/send/.

Cyclone is a bit more intensive and since the majority of the game is calculated server side as opposed to client side (feel free anyone to let me know if that is incorrect) cyclone is a much more "intensive skill".

Adding directional changes into the already packet heavy communication between client and server would lead to even more desync than the current cyclone generates.

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Enkidu wrote:

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yes they should make cyclone basically the same as if you just ran to a certain point, so that you cyclone arround obstacles instead of cyclone into them and get stuck and just stand there

Just guessing here but I think the problem with cyclone is it is passing so much information to the servers at once (hence desync). It hits multiple enemies multiple times while also moving the player. The vast majority of skills stop the player from moving while casting so it is a simple (hit/send/receive/send/.

Cyclone is a bit more intensive and since the majority of the game is calculated server side as opposed to client side (feel free anyone to let me know if that is incorrect) cyclone is a much more "intensive skill".

Adding directional changes into the already packet heavy communication between client and server would lead to even more desync than the current cyclone generates.

I dunno how it works but if this is the case then you might be right. It was just something I don't think I've ever seen asked for before and it seemed right from my perspective. That said there's really no way to know without being GGG, is there? :P

Also, something I wanted to post here that I totally forgot:

This is another idea I can't take credit for (or give credit for, as I don't remember where I read it), but if Pain Attunement was changed to a cast speed bonus instead of spell damage, I am fairly sure that most of the low life CoE problems would be solved.

Additionally (this part is my own idea), Pain Attunement could carry a reduced mana multiplier. This would essentially give it (if the numbers are tweaked properly) a similar DPS boost to spells, without adding to attacks made with CoE, without boosting trigger spells, and without costing any more mana.

Editing this into the original post.

All feedback is appreciated. :)

Haven't bumped this in a while.