Why does the "FORTIFY" skill gem exists?

Is it to allow greater customisation?
Or is it that they needed to adress some basic flaw of the gamebalance and needed a gem to make a difference from ranged to melee? Therefore allowing a "great diversity" in which Fortify becomes a must, closing the circle of ignoring the real problem.

Personally, i feel they messed up with fortify, it was to give melee a boost because of how squishy they were...they are still squishy and this is pretty much a mandatory support gem.

I'm fairly sure they can see this on their end and in the past they have changed things to not be mandatory, either by fixing the problem or by nerfing stuff to force you into changing, it's just a matter of time before something is done.

Thing is it's not just Fortify that's pretty much mandatory for melee fighters. You also need Arctic Armour, CwDT + Enfeeble, and some way to generate Endurance Charges. With Patch 2.0 it's not a matter of choosing which type of defense to specialize in, you actually need all of the above, as well as 4500+ HP, armour, block, or dodge, and of course maxed resists.

fortify is a crutch and sadly a badly designed one

it was to be a survival buff unique to melee guys (that are by design to take hits). well.. it is a defensive buff. but it is the same buff spellcasters got because there is nothing stopping spellcasters using it with daggers + whirling blades

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sidtherat wrote:

fortify is a crutch and sadly a badly designed one

it was to be a survival buff unique to melee guys (that are by design to take hits). well.. it is a defensive buff. but it is the same buff spellcasters got because there is nothing stopping spellcasters using it with daggers + whirling blades

yeah and availability to spellcasters is just a part of the problem.its mandatory for melee to the point it should be somehow incorporated into main attacks by default and forbidden to casters

Fortify is just a badly thought out support/mechanic

There would be no need at all of fortify, if only ggg lower the damage of the mobs. Because don't is that G0d himself has ordered to Chris to make blue merciless lvl 67 mobs hit me for 2k life with a legacy coil and 84% lightning resistance for example, huh? U.U

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RogueMage wrote:

Thing is it's not just Fortify that's pretty much mandatory for melee fighters. You also need Arctic Armour, CwDT + Enfeeble, and some way to generate Endurance Charges. With Patch 2.0 it's not a matter of choosing which type of defense to specialize in, you actually need all of the above, as well as 4500+ HP, armour, block, or dodge, and of course maxed resists.

You forgot puncture builds (enfeeble isn't the most appropriate curse when you deal DOT).
Arctic armour prevent from physical damage. Casters needs more often this type of protection than melee characters, and you may play a melee character without this skill.

But yeah fortify is opped. I won't complain about this, that's perfect with my minions :D

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Wispo wrote:

There would be no need at all of fortify, if only ggg lower the damage of the mobs

Wrong. Even without the 25% dmg buff to mobs in 2.0 something like Fortify was needed back then for melee. But it seems like they had the idea to counter Fortify with more dmg ingame when they introduced it (while killing most caster defences) and made it mendatory for all builds/classes -.-


There is overall too much damage in the game, players & mobs oneshotting each other (at least in softcore) :>

remove the s from exists in the thread title.

Fortify should have been added to all melee gems and not be a secondary gem eating up a link.

Elemental melee attack builds got royally screwed over by it since it offers nothing BUT the fortify effect to them.(and they where not in an excellent state before)

And then the choice would be there to utilize a defensive support gem (like blind/life leech/LgoH) or an offensive one in your last slot.

Made an extensive thread in the beta forums around this though.

Peace,

-Boem-