Does anyone else find the ES nerf tears amusing?

A lot of people have been saying, "Why did you nerf ES, why not just buff life? Now everything is trash tier!"

The way I see it is that if everything is trash, then that's just the equivalent of monsters getting more challenging, except now our options for different defenses are on more of an even playing field. I don't know about you, but I rather like the idea of bringing some of the challenge back to the game....

That's exactly what it is.

There is very little difference between "buff Life" and "nerf ES" in terms of player choice.
There is a world of difference between "buff Life" and "nerf ES" when it comes to difficulty.

I was shocked that they would go this far... I had to make sure this wasn't april 1st. For whatever reason, I just could never get into ES based characters, so I've mained life builds in poe forever.

I expected more of a buff to life rather then this kind of a nerf to ES. I can't say I find it amusing, I don't general enjoy other ppls suffering but this may open up the game to people needing to drop some more dps for some more defenes. That plus the new paragon system might make things a tad more interesting.

We'll have to see when people try this out in the beta.

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KZA wrote:

A lot of people have been saying, "Why did you nerf ES, why not just buff life? Now everything is trash tier!"

I mean, it's the right way to go. lowering ES powerlevel will certainly force people to slow down and incorporate multi-layered defenses into their builds.

The clearspeed meta will still be accessible but only by absurdly geared players. It won't be the standard means of progressing a build through content.

I'm quite happy with GGG's choices in this matter. Also, itemization changes add power but ensure said power is gated behind lots of blood and sweat. (itemization!)

These changes were long overdue.

I must admit it was a rough and harsh nerf.

But a justified one.

Kudos to GGG for actually trying to fix their game.

I like it.

In before Vaal RF for days.

Both overdue and justified.
Though I myself was never really a CI person, so thanks to the new mods is practically 100% good news for me :D

GGG doesnt understand that nerfing everything is stupid like why not just buff life instead to be as good as energy shield? why GGG must nerf everything

I think it is good that they make a large scale change and we can test it in beta.

If it is too severe, they can then tone it back.

GGG makes a mention of builds that specialize in both life and ES. I never really understood ES/armour/life and ES/EV/life builds - they just seem really confused to me.

I wonder if GGG have any ideas for ways to improve hybrid ES defenses?