0.10.6 Patch Notes

Phew, lightning thorns always scared me after my melee death in hardcore. You could say I two shot myself. Learned the value of resists at low level that day.

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Alysma wrote:

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Chris wrote:

Version 0.10.6
Searing Bond is available as a quest reward from the "Lost in Love" quest in Normal difficulty for the Witch, Templar and Marauder. Shadows and Duelists can get it from the "Enemy at the Gate" quest in Cruel difficulty.

Any quest reward options for Rangers?

rangers don't deserve searing totems!!

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Chris wrote:

ersion 0.10.6

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence skill - Searing Bond: Summons a totem that casts a beam of fire at you and each other totem you control, dealing burning damage to enemies caught in the beam. Enemies near either end of a beam also suffer burning damage.
• Searing Bond is available as a quest reward from the "Lost in Love" quest in Normal difficulty for the Witch, Templar and Marauder. Shadows and Duelists can get it from the "Enemy at the Gate" quest in Cruel difficulty.
• Added four new cosmetic Microtransactions: Green Searing Bond, Antlers, Twisted Horns and Demon King Horns.
• Added four new Unique items, two of which were designed by our Diamond supporters. One of them is a Unique Map.
• The environment of the Terraces has been changed so that it's more consistent with early Act One.
• Updated the elemental impact sound effects.
• The Lightning Thorns skill, as cast by the Blackguard Mages, now does lightning damage to ranged as well as melee attackers. It does less damage than before. The casters have to be closer to use it and have a reduced chance to cast it.
• Use of the terms "burning" and "ignite" was standardised in the text for stats, skills, buffs and passives.

This one is a small patch because it's our fourth one this week. Due to the new skill and uniques it is designated as 0.10.6. Most of the bug fixes that would normally go in a major patch like this were either deployed earlier this week or pushed into next week's 0.10.7 patch so that this one could be deployed before the weekend.

As usual, thanks for your feedback and support.

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WhiteBoy wrote:

Maybe bow and spell users should consider having a backup plan that doesn't involve hitting in quick succession or spraying shots all over the place? I've always considered it poor building to rely on a single skill for damage.

When I told them the same thing about Lightning thorns in another thread, suggesting sources of indirect damage such as a trap or totem, or even summons, they told me to get out saying I knew 'nothing' about how it affected melee.

Unfortunately as it stands, when people make builds these days they also expect to faceroll everything without any problems just by casting their one decked out skill on all the enemies that get in the way.

The fact of the matter is though, most people will allow themselves to get stuck in a single playstyle, or they cannot seem to adapt to situations in the way it is demanded.

PoE I find is about trying to use as many options in front of you as you can. But however the gem sockets can be limiting. That said though, unless your sockets can't support a certain setup, I don't understand what is going to stop you from trying out an alternative to killing enemies.

All this and more said though lag and desync probably preclude true tactical play for most people. But, just my opinion of course, it's a vocal minority getting affected by severe lag or desync since I've had maybe 6-7 episodes of desync in total, and maybe one or two lag spikes a day. Not very big ones either.

TL:DR as long as people think that a single skill and support gem combination should be enough for all situations, this won't change.

Lightning Thorns almost killed me. GMP Freeze pulse reflects too much damage. Reflect elemental are far easier to control. Have to fight one at a time, not fun.

I have been playing a hardcore LA -focused character for 2 months. Many deaths, many lessons learned. Yesterday was the farthest I've ever gotten -- L67. Finally beat merciless fetid pool by use of extremely focused tactics. Still coudln't quite access maps.

I read the patch notes which said "Lightning thorns damage decreased and now affects ranged." I thought: "Well, they never hurt me much before, and if damage was decreased, i guess that's one less thing to worry about."

I took a break from farming Docks last night and wandered into Battlefront. 1 LA+CHAIN shot = DEAD INSTANTLY. No lmp, no gmp used. I had 65% light res, 3000 hp, high level life on hit gem. I also use Double Bear Trap and Elemental Hit and Skeleton Totem and Temp Chains and Conductivity, so I certainly wasn't limiting my character to 1 skill.

I understand: Hardcore is about learning hard lessons. I learned to use very special tactics when fighting things like rhoas and vaal and piety. I'm up to the long grind of re-leveling, but... :/ This wasn't a great feeling. Perhaps if there was some warning about the power of lightning thorns. Or maybe I should just read the reddit and forums more often.

did some tests and apparently removing GMP gem from Freeze Pulse let me fight Lightning Thorns. Probably 5 projectiles cause 5 times more reflect, its per hit not per damage dealt.

It takes time, but I can advance to next zone. If I roll these guys on a map Ill just do another map.

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Kien wrote:

did some tests and apparently removing GMP gem from Freeze Pulse let me fight Lightning Thorns. Probably 5 projectiles cause 5 times more reflect, its per hit not per damage dealt.

It takes time, but I can advance to next zone. If I roll these guys on a map Ill just do another map.

if it's per hit, then my build is mostly screwed. I'll have to use Firestorm or something. if each tick for incinerate reflects the same amount of damage as any other attack, that's kinda shitty.

Same for attack speed based characters. If it was a % of DPS I would handle it fine just like reflect. As is I have to do 1 big slow attack to minimize reflect per hit. Fortunately someone gave me WP to docks :D

Lightning thorns just made the game unplayable for me (ranged). Not entering game before the skill is "fixed".