life and ES changes - feedback

1) almost all stuff i suggested (and was attacked for by certain forum goers) has been implemented EXCEPT one.


A) ES changes
TL;DR: some players will have to learn to play this game. and for some it might be too big of a task. current (2.6) game is so braindead easy when abusing ES/leech that it cannot be any easier..

removal of instant leech:
(i hope it is 100% removal. not some typical 'we nerf it, but at the same time add a rare unique that quickly becomes mandatory' fiasco.)
but if ES can no longer - no matter the method - instantly leech life, then players will have to think (wow!) about reflect (if it is not removed.. i fear they will remove reflect entirely) and about offence/defence balance for the first time since forever

this should end a reign of clown-fiesta builds that used ONLY leech as a defense. this is good. this will slow the clear speed meta (because people will now have to invest something into defences as well) while providing a choice: clear fast and die often or clear slower and die rarely.

will everyone play totems/mines/traps/minions? maybe. or maybe not. these playstyles each come with distinct 'meh' attached to them

gutting the ES numbers:
the technicalities are convoluted and take most of the post length to be over with. but the end result is interesting
- 'more' multiplier on CI - gone. good change.
- cutting affixes. sad about the 1000ES (And $..) chests in standard tho. but it is nice something has been done despite it being (yet again) a mouthfull to repeat. that internal system surely doesnt take changes good
- %ES ring craft. good riddance. who let this idiocy persist for so long? WHO?
- discipline.. not really needed

one thing that is missing is INT %ES scaling. this one is too strong (both compared to DEX/STR and in itself)


will these changes make people 'quit' (game, ES or both)? for some - maybe. they are so used to right-click to victory that any form of challenge will be considered unfair

GGG - it took you TOO LONG for this. significant part of the playerbase takes current deplorable state of the game as the best one. conditioned playerbase is very difficult to appease after change so huge like this one


Elephant in the room:
I have a standard ES character. 9k ES or something like that. No Leech. and i still feel safer than any life build ive ever played. Once people realise how strong the 'faster start of ES recharge is' we will see return to ES meta. Occultists + FSOESR are incredibly strong and while ES change will hurt im still confident that this char will remain very very strong

with proper items and more though put into it i think i can keep current ES level with 3.0 scaling and still be very safe thanks to faster recharge speeds.

ES is not dead, far from it (except for a bunch that will knee jerk react and wait for new guides to copy)



B) life changes.

these seems half-baked. im hoping there will be further adjustments

1) will a CHANCE to make
+life (mandatory)
+flat defense (mandatory)
+flat life/defense
+2 res
+5% phys reduction

make me think about not picking Belly if i want to make a decent life build?

NO. 30%+ increased life is worth more than these (with current life tree and scaling ofc). even being immune to phys is rather unimpressive in 'spells everywhere meta'


there is also a huge problem
chest to make sense currently needs LIFE and both Flat Defence AND %Defense rolls. all prefixes.

making me to choose flat life/defense roll OR one of the abovementioned defense duo makes the entire change irrelevant. i cannot see myself ever picking this new hybrid roll on anything but boots and maybe gloves.
helmet? no. too much defences lost for 30 flat life..
chest or shield? HELL NO. too much defences lost for pesky life increase

all that is left is pair of boots
+life
+life/defences
+MS
+3 res

these will be damn expensive and rare


In short i do not forsee a huge popularity of these rolls on endgame equippment. AR and EV as unappealing as they are (compared to ES) are still rather good and asking players to pick these OR +life (that life builds desperately need) is rather weird way of fixing things. Nerfing already unappealing AR or EV? Really? There wasnt any other way? Like adding +life to high end base items? what is wrong with Glorious Plate giving +40 flat life on a white base? This current proposal is DoA..


Life rare chests will still remain sub-par to Belly/Koams just because all the fluff is irrelevant compared to massive life buffer increases these two items provide. It is a result of a 'balance' this game has: spike damage > all. So people gear for spikes and that means buffer first, mitigation later. Because you can always meet a threat that deals damage your character cannot defend against.

Popularity of rare chest essence crafts should be proof enough that life-based rare options really cannot compete with uniques and bit of fluff cannot solve the fundamental problem - the balance of this game forces people into buffer-first gearing



oh - and keeping instant leech to life builds is a rather desperate way of making people actually play life builds :) just kill instant leech. kill it with fire..

I like those changes overall, I also do think that those new hybrid rolls will be .... meh, especially on chest/shield.

Another nerf to Shavronne's wrapping wasn't necessary imho, it isn't a CI item after all, now 350 ES top roll ? not even 400 ?


And having VP still fully operationnal dor life build means ...... new Zerk meta ???
That's kinda weird honestly.

We will see what will happen from the beta tests anyway.

Honestly I think removal of Instant Leech for ES is a big enough nerf. Now nobody would even bother with it anymore. And I'm a pro-lifer as well.

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Genmaicha wrote:

Honestly I think removal of Instant Leech for ES is a big enough nerf. Now nobody would even bother with it anymore. And I'm a pro-lifer as well.

Have you ever heard about zerks ?
You will anyway if those changes are all that gets implemented.

That new hybrid life affix seems like a useless thing:

* % armor (must have)
* % hybrid armor
* flat armor
* flat life (must have)
* hybrid life & armor

all of them prefixes... meh.

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Fruz wrote:

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Genmaicha wrote:

Honestly I think removal of Instant Leech for ES is a big enough nerf. Now nobody would even bother with it anymore. And I'm a pro-lifer as well.

Have you ever heard about zerks ?
You will anyway if those changes are all that gets implemented.

yeah, zerker with instant leech is quite broken. i have SSF Ngamahu cycloner with 6.8k life and can do tier 11-12 8 mod maps relatively easy. very good at tanking bosses with 100% dmg leeched as life. seen 6k life gained in an instant several times already.
i can't imagine how powerful a legacy kaoms and mirror 2h sword/mace/axe char could do.

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k4n3 wrote:

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Fruz wrote:

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Genmaicha wrote:

Honestly I think removal of Instant Leech for ES is a big enough nerf. Now nobody would even bother with it anymore. And I'm a pro-lifer as well.

Have you ever heard about zerks ?
You will anyway if those changes are all that gets implemented.

yeah, zerker with instant leech is quite broken. i have SSF Ngamahu cycloner with 6.8k life and can do tier 11-12 8 mod maps relatively easy. very good at tanking bosses with 100% dmg leeched as life. seen 6k life gained in an instant several times already.
i can't imagine how powerful a legacy kaoms and mirror 2h sword/mace/axe char could do.

i just hope that these changes will make people actually give a fair try to AR and EV instead of just relying on instant leech and buffer

ofc it wont happen if life can still leech instantly..

the main problem with AR and EV is in the pure 'colors spam' where most dangers come in as elemental and mostly spells

typical life builds have zero options. spell block? so we all are to play Gladiators? spell dodge? right side only. max res? corruption only and pretty damn out of reach for most.

this leaves us with pure buffer.

toning down stuff that ignore both AR and EV would do a lot to make life builds viable without instant leech and/or kaoms/belly (aka buffer)

yeah, personally i like blasphemy + enfeeble. coupled with high EVA it is a great form of defense against both melee and ranged. but still spell damage wrecks it and only high HP buffer can mitigate it.

Once again, they overdid it with the nerfs. I believe that 33% less base es across the board plus the removal of the more es behind ci will result in too low es numbers. With VP removed what is the upside of ci now? It used to be higher hp pool.

Maybe a 20% reduction would make for a better balance?

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Pyrokar wrote:

Once again, they overdid it with the nerfs. I believe that 33% less base es across the board plus the removal of the more es behind ci will result in too low es numbers. With VP removed what is the upside of ci now? It used to be higher hp pool.

Maybe a 20% reduction would make for a better balance?

they will provide more means of faster energy recharge to compensate for the nerf to VP and reduced ES pool.