3.20 Balance Manifesto: Curses

Another ascendancy node moved to main passive tree...

Rip occy

Curse changes seem great, though moving curse effect to the passive tree is not optimal. Already all builds are tight on passive points, with many builds already having to sacrifice either damage or defense or life on the tree to grab priority nodes. Adding yet more passive clusters just means very, very few players would choose to sacrifice how many, at least 3? passives they need for damage or survivalability to get a bit of curse effect. This would most likely only be curse bots, since they would no longer use curse effect clusters which will be removed?

It would really be nice if the passive tree was cleaned up a bit, or if the defense mechanics were fixed. Right now there's just too many defensive layers you need late game (I'm talking late red - guardian maps, since for stuff like pinnacle bosses you need even more defensive layers).

Overall I'm glad about the curse buff though - I'm expecting many Bane/Hexblast league starters :D If the loot is fixed, that is. Because players won't come back if the stupid/annoying/insulting, or all three if you want, nerf that caused them to drop the game, stays.

Q&A How powerful are these changes in HH?

yeah thats what we wanted more power to party play.
rn a nerf like "15% less to everything-what-you-have per player on your party" would be a balance for party play. and we still getting these huge buffs for them like these.

changes are honestly disapointing.
Curses arent used as a layer of defense anymore because of a multitude of reasons. One of them is the ammount of monsters that chouse curses (like abyss monsters and other that become invulnerable while still casting spells and such). These changes do not address this and its a huge opportunity.

reasonable changes, but not enough.

For the FAQ, will the less curse effect on players be removed from temp chains? Everybody knows that the strongest pinnacle boss is the players themselves.

The changeup to the ascendancy assumed any build that would get profane bloom would've also specced into malediction. It's not necessarily so, so any build planning to do so is now going to feel pigeonholed or heavily nerfed.

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Due to the significant increase in the power of hexes against tougher monsters, the effects of this notable are still very strong, as the removal of the hex penalty cannot be understated. The massive buff to hexes especially applies to Occultists because they have access to more Hexes than other Ascendancies.

Ok question for the FAQ: How can you formulate a sentence like this while simutaniously introducing a ring that gives out curse limit like it's nothing? I think the overall intent of the manifesto is good but there is no real reason to hit Occu this hard.

Im from the future

Melee manifesto soon boys ~ Written by Rage in 2035

the power!