Reposting here for visibility.
Volatile Dead (and builds with it) are not overpowered.
Here's the thing. The helmet enchant deserves a nerf. In fact I don't think this nerf goes far enough - compared to most other skill enchantments, uber lab provides +40% increased damage. This was offering +100% More damage, which is way out of line. Nerfing it to just +1 ball still is a +33% More damage boost - way out of line, still powerful beyond almost all other enchants.
As others have pointed out, perhaps it was not intended and somehow overlooked that these enchants made it into release with these stats. Perhaps it was somehow not noticed until the other day - this makes for suspiciously bad timing, considering the way meta shifts in this game with streamers. This build had *just* started to get picked up by popular twitch channels, etc. and gained a lot of traction, and is now getting nerfed partway through it's huge upswing of popularity. That's really fun-killing.
Nerfing something so severely
during a league is an extra cold and cruel move. People have mentioned barrage enchant... those of us who have been playing longer can remember far more OP things. How about 100% chaos conversion spark, for example?
The helmet enchant needs nerfed, more than what GGG has posted, BUT it should wait until after the league to be consistent with other changes. As-is, it is strong, but calling it "overpowered" is farcical when in recent memory we have things like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr9bJ9VOt-A
Vaal pact, high ES pools, crazy OP flasks like vinktars and taste of hate, these all got nerfed finally. But it was between leagues and after being in for several leagues.
100% chaos conversion, double dipping nerfed, poison, ignite, etc., but after several leagues, and between leagues. I could go on, and on, and on...
Let's get to the real issue here, and what I believe to be the real reason for this change. GGG wants their boss fights to matter, and not be trivialized. This has been made clear by the recent huge buff to boss fights/boss HP, and by countless nerfs to things that scale to trivialize boss fights (like ignite double dip in the above video), vaal pact (also used in the above video), and nerfs to other skills such as SRS. Yes, summon raging spirit was nerfed way back in the day, and people cried like mad. Why? It was one of the best boss killing skills in the game, because just like VD, you could pre-cast all your damage. As the boss spawns, talks, does some cutscene-esque move, you are summoning 50 angry flaming skulls that will obliterate it. And back in the day when Atziri and uber Atziri was among the top and very end game content, as you all know, being able to push Atziri through her phases with high dps absolutely trivializes the encounter.
Now: I want you to watch these two videos and compare them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta-4h82IVIs (VD getting nerfed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_gYTK4stac (GC got buffed this league lul)
Volatile Dead, Mines/Traps, Summon Raging Spirit, Blade Vortex, etc. - these abilities all share a common feature. You can pre-cast or pre-load the damage before the boss actually becomes available for dps. This is a tremendous advantage for any encounter that has phases, or any period where you are able to do this - which is MOST end-game content. Even boss rooms in general allow you to zone in and pre-cast before aggro-ing the boss itself. This is a design flaw that is not specific to VD, but the pre-loading of DPS that many other abilities can also do - in other words, a flaw in boss encounter design, not skill design! The fix is EASY and works against ALL of these abilities - stop allowing players to pre-load damage! Freeze them while the boss does his talking. A classic example is Izaro - you have like 20 seconds to muck around while his elevator rises.
"But this shifts balance in favor of front-loaded builds that have full dps from t=0 (like a cycloner), instead of my back loaded build that requires t=-10 to pre-load! (like summoning 20 srs or casting 20 blade vortex or exploding 40 corpses with VD)" Yes. But this can be addressed in other ways, with categorical changes to this dichotomy of skills when it comes to bossing.
TL;DR
Helmet enchant needs to be nerfed, more than what is being communicated.
Nerf should wait until league ends. As it stands it is hardly "OP".
Far more powerful things have been in the game for far longer, and enjoyed more equitable treatment.
This change is out of line with GGG's history of balancing the game, and feels very knee-jerk and "slap in the face". UNLESS this signals a precedent to a change in the way GGG will balance the game going forward... which does not seem to be a popular change...
