Path of Exile 3.16 Balance - Part 1 - Flasks and Ailment Mitigation

Problem:
In 3.15, we changed how flasks prevent ailments and curses on you, but didn't provide enough reasonable alternatives for mitigating ailments.

Problem well-observed

Solution:
Introduce a large number of options and improve existing options for characters to deal with Ailments. Characters should now be able to pick between reservation skills that mitigate ailments, remove effects reactively with life or mana flasks, gain immunity at a cost through Utility Flasks, or use improved modifiers on items and the passive skill tree to mitigate ailments and curses.


Solution sounds thorough and complete, the cost for immunity uptime being duration sounds clunky for people expecting 100% freeze immunity uptime, though that problem being addressed with easier ways to obtain it (pantheon and auras)

Problem:
Many Flask modifiers grant buffs during Flask Effect, which isn't well-suited to a Life or Mana Flask's short and reactive nature.

yup, life and mana flasks are simply not built for utility buffs, fixing a long-standing design flaw is nevertheless always appreciated.

Solution:
Added new modifiers to Life and Mana Flasks that are impactful but brief, and have a Duration rather than applying during Flask Effect.

as long as the buffs feel impactful, sounds like a perfect fix.

Problem:
Utility Flasks are sustainable with enough character damage and clear speed, but there aren't easy ways to sustain Utility Flasks for less-powerful characters.

how accessible should flask sustain be is i think debatable, since the experience can be both exciting and stressful. i think the problem was that there was not enough options to build on flask sustain, and if Path of Exile is partly a become-a-god fantasy, every aspect of the game should be something that can be mastered, from internal struggles (flasks, mana, speed, etc.) to external struggles (challenges, fights and grand goals)

Solution:
Add new modifiers and improve existing modifiers on Flasks that affect their duration or charge gain. Add some new Passive Skills to help sustain Flasks. Extend the base duration of Utility Flasks to reduce how often they need to be used.

and because reasons mentioned above, i find adding new ways to scale flask sustain very fitting.

Problem:
Even after lowering the power of many Unique flasks in 3.15.0, Unique Flasks still outclass most Magic Utility Flasks. In addition, the item level of flasks did not matter after a certain point.

some unique flasks are obviously chase uniques, like dying sun and bottled faith, if they don't outclass normal flasks with only 2 rolled mods on them in some way, then their light should shine brighter. maybe the unique flasks outshined utility flasks too much? could be, but on that i tend to stay by the 'leave the chase items chase items' camp.

Solution:
Add multiple tiers to most Flask modifiers. At higher levels, Flasks now have much more powerful effects available. Flask modifiers that increase Armour or Evasion are now weaker at their first tier as the changes to Armour and Evasion below make them more powerful. These changes allow us to restore some of the power that was removed from Flasks in 3.15 without affecting the early-mid game so much.

TLDR: flasks should have mod tiers like any other item and that lets end-game balance stay in late game, and not affect leveling.

well? i think a point should've been layed-out more clearly, with this change and many other in part 2 and 3, it seems the PoE team wants defense to be more evenly accessible throughout the character progression, with more emphasis on scaling and mix-scaling rather then cherry-picking very powerful and easily accessible buffs. like flasks, fortify, acrobatics, etc. all the above were changed to fit better a scaling approach rather then pure buffs with easily avoided or non-existent downside.

Problem:
Instant-recovery Life Flasks are by far the most reliable tool for survivability, as the total Life recovery from a Flask is reasonable but spread over a long period of time.

generally about right, and it was made worse by that characters were often getting 1-2 shot, which made continuous recovery even less viable then it had to be.

Solution:
Keep the total Life Recovery from all Life Flasks the same, but halve the amount of time for this to occur, which doubles their healing per second. This is a huge improvement to how effective non-instant Life Flasks are at keeping you alive in tough situations.

what a convenient time to address that! now that scaling defense to the point you should survive multiple hits is far more accessible, continuous recovery can actually work well! would be refreshing to choose NOT to use an instant life flask on life builds :D

Problem:
There are no accessible tools for a player to change their charge gain method if gaining charges on kill isn't well-suited to their slower playstyle.

that can really suck, to scale your charges without a way to keep them when not specifically killing monsters, what about bosses? what about walking around and not going super-fast? that's a pretty serious problem...

Solution:
Rework the "Survival" Jewels available from the "Through Sacred Ground" quest to let you gain charges another way, while reducing the charges gained from kills. These designs are still in progress.

if that's an easily-accessible method to KEEP charges active, then that's some well-deserved quality of life for charge-centric playstyles, they should be able to function most of the time and not lose their power or defense to something pretty much out of their control.

Problem:
Rangers don't have a form of Life Recovery that they excel at, while almost every other core character has a signature special Recovery method.

yeah what's up with that? up until now felt like instant life-flasks and that's it, life on hit sounds great for archers, traps/mines, poison.. and leech for a continuous-recovery option also fits well! sounds great! about time..

Personal Conclusion:
i'm excited to try out new possibilities with defense scaling, ES, flask and charge sustain, new Tools and different approaches to my beloved Support builds :)

"

Grants Immunity to Bleeding for +15-17 seconds if used while Bleeding (Level 80)

Has staunching been nerfed? What exactly is the point of this modifier if it doesn't come with Corrupted Blood immunity as well?

"We're also addressing the extreme power of Auras and Curses in parties, "

"Purity of Elements: Aura now grants “You and nearby Allies are Immune to all Elemental Ailments"

.. wait what ?

"

EratheiL wrote:

Just retarted changes made by a bunch of retards.Now flask are even worse than before. At least before you knew they suck now you have to spend 10 skill points to make them viable.

with the new tier 1 rolls, the flasks are just the same as in 3.15 but stronger, longer duration (expect immunity which is about the same duration as before) with new flask mods that didn't exist before, they actually only buffed flasks... are we reading the same thing?

the talk about skill points and belt mods was about adding new options to scale flasks.

and who will roll all these affixes on flasks on different tiers? and reroll every time equipment changes? doesn't the game already consists of work? are you mad?

and who even uses these trash mods on belts? I always thought belts are life/es /dmg sources...

"

K4r4k4s4 wrote:

and who will roll all these affixes on flasks on different tiers? and reroll every time equipment changes? doesn't the game already consists of work? are you mad?

and who even uses these trash mods on belts? I always thought belts are life/es /dmg sources...

that is fair, maybe flasks should be really powerful without much crafting potential

I cannot express how exciting it is to FINALLY see some specific improvements designed around non-zoomzoom (and non-ultra-super-powered) builds!!!!!

Please please continue thinking along those lines!

Are those 'Survival' gem changes retroactive? Cause I like the green one

"

K4r4k4s4 wrote:

and who will roll all these affixes on flasks on different tiers? and reroll every time equipment changes? doesn't the game already consists of work? are you mad?

and who even uses these trash mods on belts? I always thought belts are life/es /dmg sources...

I have a quicksilver of adrenaline which states (for the adrenaline part) :
27% (6-8%)
So I will clearly not reroll it :D