Results of the Worst Keystone Poll!

https://strawpoll.com/8y1gubs6q/r

Here's the final results of the vote for worst keystone in the game started by me about a week ago in this thread here - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3050135

as well as on Reddit here - https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/lj914m/which_is_the_worst_keystone/

Both posts led to the same poll, so this is from people on both Reddit and the game forums. Btw, I DID initially make that post here on GD, but for whatever reason the mods moved it to Gameplay Help (where it languished), and didn't respond when I told them I didn't think that was the right place for it. Anyway, here's the final tally -



It's a pretty clear win for Imbalanced Guard, however I'm sure I won't be the only one to suspect that this is due to a lot of people misunderstanding what it actually does. IF we take it that Imbalanced Guard is being misunderstood, then the true winner would be Dance with Death, followed just behind by Arrow Dancing. If not, well, then apparently a lot of people just really don't like that keystone.

Anyway, I hope GGG finds this info useful. None of these keystones are brand new, and yet there seems to be quite a bit of negative perception around them. Some of them are niche sure, but others were perceived by a lot of the people in the comments as just downright bad - particularly Dance with Death, Supreme Grandstanding and Doomsday found mention multiple times.

Thanks to all those who took part. Remember to stay out of the shadows, exiles! :)

Arrow Dancing is such a dramatic shift from Ondar's Guile. The balance pendulum swung too hard on that node. Still has some use though.

I missed your poll, but I would have voted Supreme Grandstanding. It's basically Conduit that eats up an extra jewel slot. 5 years ago the charge generation might have been okay but with how the game is played today, it's just bad.

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Nubatron wrote:

Arrow Dancing is such a dramatic shift from Ondar's Guile. The balance pendulum swung too hard on that node. Still has some use though.

I missed your poll, but I would have voted Supreme Grandstanding. It's basically Conduit that eats up an extra jewel slot. 5 years ago the charge generation might have been okay but with how the game is played today, it's just bad.

It's worth noting that it does have one big difference from Conduit - it applies to ANY type of charge (so long as you have the ability to gain them), not just the standard three of Endurance, Frenzy and Power. For instance, multiple players can share Void charges for Voidfletcher in order to be able to fire off Void shots rapidly. Multiple Inquisitors can share the new Fanatic charges as well, so you could try having some of them be attack based in order to generate them while other are spellcasters who make use of them. And so on. That's a pretty niche use, but it is a notable difference from Conduit.

Dance with Death + One with Nothing + Kaom's Heart + Kaom's Roots = the auto-attack build, since you literally can't socket anything

Wow this really shows you how little people understand about aspects of the game to be honest. Imbalanced Guard is actually quite a good node for physical defense.

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TheAshmaker wrote:

Wow this really shows you how little people understand about aspects of the game to be honest. Imbalanced Guard is actually quite a good node for physical defense.

To be fair, the wording on it is not user friendly. Quite a few people would not realize that physical damage reduction is the only reduced damage. To someone that is newer or less studied on the differences between reduced and less, you would assume the 50% cap applies to resistances as well.

Even for the people that do understand, 50% is very middle ground and a lot of builds seem to be all in on one defense rather than a healthy mix. I prefer 90% physical damage reduction personally.

It is a good node though. Not worth the hate or #1 worst for sure.

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Exile009 wrote:

"

Nubatron wrote:

Arrow Dancing is such a dramatic shift from Ondar's Guile. The balance pendulum swung too hard on that node. Still has some use though.

I missed your poll, but I would have voted Supreme Grandstanding. It's basically Conduit that eats up an extra jewel slot. 5 years ago the charge generation might have been okay but with how the game is played today, it's just bad.

It's worth noting that it does have one big difference from Conduit - it applies to ANY type of charge (so long as you have the ability to gain them), not just the standard three of Endurance, Frenzy and Power. For instance, multiple players can share Void charges for Voidfletcher in order to be able to fire off Void shots rapidly. Multiple Inquisitors can share the new Fanatic charges as well, so you could try having some of them be attack based in order to generate them while other are spellcasters who make use of them. And so on. That's a pretty niche use, but it is a notable difference from Conduit.

Yeah, I was a bit hyperbolic on the Conduit's paint chip eating cousin part. It certainly will have a niche for the oddball charge sharing in a group. Then again, I rarely play in groups, so even conduit is pretty useless to me.

is there any big downside of imbalance guard that I'm not aware of?

i think if that keystone moved to the MOM location it will immediately turn to god tier keystone just like the old Glancing blow and every witch/templar build will be forced to take it. i must be missing something here.

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Ozxell wrote:

is there any big downside of imbalance guard that I'm not aware of?

i think if that keystone moved to the MOM location it will immediately turn to god tier keystone just like the old Glancing blow and every witch/templar build will be forced to take it. i must be missing something here.

It depends on your build. If your build easily gets 51-90% physical damage reduction, the node is a negative.

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jeerinho wrote:

Dance with Death + One with Nothing + Kaom's Heart + Kaom's Roots = the auto-attack build, since you literally can't socket anything

Technically, you still have 3 possible sockets - two Unset rings + a Black Maw Talisman.

On a related note, they should add UNSET BELTS! Two sockets, linkable.