Okay, so here's the post for my initial thoughts on Patch 3.0.
First of all, timeline:
- Today: Relevant Patch Notes Highlights
- Today: Proposed Tree
- Saturday: Initial testing with what I have available, basically T16 Maps, Uber Lab, etc.
- Sunday: More testing, likely with different bows. If possible, when people find new Lioneye or Opus in Standard, please contact me so I can borrow.
- Early Next Week: More Trees, Leveling Guide + extra details
- Non-too-distant-future: Guide Revamp
Relevant Patch Notes Highlights:
- Power Charges now grant 40% increased Critical Strike Chance per Charge (down from 50%).
Comments: It's not terrible because we were never investing into a point where we would be hurt too much from this. We may be forced to do heavier investment into Crit overall to stay capped, though. I also saw Crit Multi nerfs.
- Similarly, Shock no longer increases the damage taken by enemies by a fixed amount for a variable duration. Now, Shock will apply to enemies for a duration of 2 seconds and increase the amount of damage the shocked enemy takes based on the Lightning damage dealt to the enemy. A purely Lightning hit which removes 10% of an enemy's life will increase the damage that enemy takes by 50% for 2 seconds, scaling linearly down to 0% at no Lightning damage dealt. Shock is still only applied by critical strikes or based on your chance to shock.
Comments: This is actually okay since the distribution of damage that we have is mostly Lightning/Fire. I do not think it will be an issue to keep targets shocked, especially boss fights is where we care. However...
- Vessel of Vinktar: The Shock aura now increases damage taken by 10%, but the Shock on the player still increases damage taken by 50%.
Comments: This is going to be quite a hit, since we don't start the fights off now with a free +50% damage. Hoping that the Shock changes compensate for this, with our initial hit.
- Herald of Ash's secondary effect no longer ignites. Instead, enemies near slain enemies are burned based on the overkill damage. The description on Herald of Ash has been updated to properly reflect what it does.
Comments: We were never Ignite/Ailment focused, so while this seems to have nerfed HoA in a way, we were mostly interested in the damage itself scaling off Physical, which looks to be unchanged.
- Weapon Elemental Damage Support has been renamed Elemental Damage with Attacks Support. It has been reduced in power at all levels, from 40% to 35% at gem level 1, up to 54% more Elemental Damage with Attack skills at gem level 20.
Comments: It's not like we weren't planning on using it. Still does what it's supposed to do, which is give us a fat multiplier.
- Innervate Support has been reworked. It now grants 20% chance to shock at all levels (up from 15). At level 1 of the gem, it grants 1-25 added Lightning damage to supported skills, up to 11-218 added Lightning damage at level 20, and grants Innervation for 4 seconds on slaying a shocked enemy with a supported skill. At level 1, the Innervation buff grants 1 to 17 added Lightning damage for 4 seconds, up to 8-145 added Lightning damage at level 20. Innervate now has a 130% Mana Cost multiplier.
- Added Cold Support and Added Lightning Support have been buffed, bringing them on par with the Added Chaos support gem. Added Cold Support now does 35.1% more damage at gem level 20. Added Lightning Support now does 17.5% more damage at gem level 20.
Comments: Arly's take on LA is Elemental Focused, so just pointing out if you were to ever transition to that "flavor" of archer, this actually seems pretty good. Is worth playing around with.
Comments: Definitely weaker than what it was like before. I tried to find some footage to see for myself but I'm on limited time here. I would imagine this is still going to be value-added for TS, but LA-Chain has been a monster in AOE once you have 2x 5L+ active anyways.
- Maligaro's Virtuosity: Global Critical Strike Multiplier lowered to +20%-30%.
- Facebreaker: Global Critical Strike Multiplier lowered to +30%.
Comments: Jesus. Literally just use rare gloves at this point in the early stages.
- The Wise Oak: Elemental Damage Penetration lowered to 10-15%.
Comments: Figured as such. Still going to be op as fuck, I think they missed the point of the Flask.
- Taste of Hate: Physical Damage added as extra Cold Damage lowered to 15-20%.
Comments: In most setups, depending on situation/preference, I would not privatize TOH at all so this doesn't have too much of an effect on us. Sad to see some of these flasks getting stomped into the ground though.
- Atziri's Promise: Physical Damage added as extra Chaos Damage lowered to 15-20%, Elemental Damage added as extra Chaos Damage lowered to 10-15%.
- Vessel of Vinktar: No longer has Lightning Damage Leeched as Mana during Flask Effect. The Shock aura now increases the damage taken by enemies within it by 10% (down from 30%).
- Dying Sun: Increased Area of Effect lowered to 15-25%.
Comments: Unfortunate for the 1c wonder that was Atziri Flask, but still very strong and a good stand-in before we get end-game Flasks. Usually I replace this last, with Dying Sun, based on price. Vinktar not providing Mana Leech is a little unfortunate, but the important part of it was always the Life Leech. Don't really see that going anywhere. Also LOL @ Dying Sun "nerf" since it was all about the Projectiles anyways.
- Lioneye's Glare: Now grants Far Shot.
Comments: I'm already drooling.
- Heartseeker near the Ranger has had its Critical Strike Multiplier reduced to +30%.
- Lethality near the Ranger has had its Critical Strike Multiplier with Bows reduced to +30%.
Comments: Nothing we can do about that.
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tl;dr Patch Notes:
Things that Full Elemental Conversion Pathfinders use have been nerfed, but still exist in a manner that doesn't detract from the playstyle that has been highlighted in this guide. The Flasks that we use all took a hit, and we will do less damage, but here is the most important part:
- Vinktar still leeches a shitload of Life.
- Dying Sun still gives us the same number of Projectiles.
- Wise Oak still caps our Resists for fucking free.
- Diamond Flask didn't get touched.
- The most important part of Pathfinder, Master Alchemist, which allow us to use all these Flasks,
didn't get touched.
- WED (or now EDA? Whatever) style Support Gems didn't really get changed. Our Links will likely remain just as they were in 2.6
- Early Game could be even easier if Lioneye is as powerful as I think it is
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tl;dr of the tl;dr Patch Notes:
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Trees:
I personally don't think I would stray too far from the End-Game Tree w/ Vaal Pact tomorrow:
https://poeplanner.com/AAkAAQUACTIAAH8AXgMeBS0GIwguCIkNjQ-rES8UdRa_GYoZjh9BIXYi6i2DI_YkiySdJP0mlSo4LlMwcTB8MfoyATY9N9Q51DpCPs9DMUQNR35KfUt4TZLdDVFHU7tVS1uvXWhh4mJaYqxlTWyMFSBwUnTtdct1_Xb3ePl673sUfXV-3X8rhG-ExYbOh3aJ04w2jX2Nfo25jb8ZtJUFlwb2o5rxm42btZ2qoJ-hpKOKpMKn1LIZtUi3trvjvTa95r6nv9XBM8M6xKLI8Mqpz3rTb9N-1CPUQtaK2sHdqOHb51TqYutj7T_tg-4O73rI3P1u_rr-yP_ex503TBeW6ZjxbZ63_xB_gAAAAAAA
First 29 Points:
https://poeplanner.com/AAkAAEEACQIAAB2bjQgu7YMZjgBe0359df66JJ1iWrvjxKKn1P7I73ruDqOKI_ZNko19MHxRR5UFCIma8V1oyqmNv9QjAAAAAAA=
Next 18 Points:
https://poeplanner.com/AAkAAGUACQIAAC-bjQgu7YMZjgBe0359df66JJ1iWrvjxKKn1P7I73ruDqOKI_ZNko19MHxRR5UFCIma8V1oyqmNv9Qj9qMVIC2DGbS-p3XL6mK3to1-QzHawXTtBS1672VNvTZHfsjcAAAAAAA=
Next 22 Points:
https://poeplanner.com/AAkAAJEACQIAAEWbjQgu7YMZjgBe0359df66JJ1iWrvjxKKn1P7I73ruDqOKI_ZNko19MHxRR5UFCIma8V1oyqmNv9Qj9qMVIC2DGbS-p3XL6mK3to1-QzHawXTtBS1672VNvTZHfsjclwYZisM6JIsPqxa_df2EbyaVYeJVS4w21EK1SOtjAx4fQREvNj2dqmyMYqwAAAAAAA==
Next 23 Points:
https://poeplanner.com/AAkAAL8ACQIAAFwAXgMeBS0VIAguCIlKfREvFr8Zjh9Bh3Yj9iSdJP0mlTB8Mfo2PTnUQzFEDUd-DY3I3E2SUUdTu1VLwTNdaGHiYlpirGVNbIxwUnTtdct1_Xb3eu99dX8rhG-GziF2idOMNo19jX6Nv5UFmvGbjZ2qoJ-jiqfU9qO1SLe2u-O9Nr6nv9Vbry2DxKLI8Mqp037UI9RC2sHnVOpi62Ptg-4O73rdDf66_sj_3pcGGYrDOiSLD6sqOBm0AAAAAAA=
You guys know the drill.
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Bandits: Kill All
Pantheon:
Major God Arakaali > Lunaris > Solaris, requires testing but I'm a big fan of added protection against DoT, Chaos is a major pain in the ass for all life build.
Minor God Yugul > ? Reflect Protection seems like the strongest value. Could see the merit of Abberath as well.
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Links assuming you're using Lioneye's Glare on Day 1-2 ish:
TS-GMP-WED/EDA-PTL-Increased Crit Strike-Pierce (Try out Pierce, atm it still provides value imo)
or
LA-GMP-PPAD-WED/EDA-Increase Crit Strike-Chain
Barrage-PPAD-WED-PTL-Slower Proj or Added Fire-Ele Focus
HOI-Curse on Hit-Assassin's Mark-Ice Golem
CWDT-IC-ID-Vaal Haste/Blood Rage
Hatred-Blink Arrow-ID-Vaal Haste/Blood Rage
Simple and easy links.
If the Power Charge nerf is too much it could be beneficial to just go Herald of Ash and call it a day.
Frees up cool things like Spell Totem + Elemental Weakness so you get more damage against single target monsters for example.
Any questions leave them here, I'll try to be on periodically tomorrow to answer before the league. Good luck, everyone.
