Unironically the worst patch notes I have ever read, still no significant balance changes.

"

Senju_Hyoketsu wrote:

If you play Trade leagues, what other people play has a direct impact on your purchasing power within the economy. From that standpoint on, playing overpowered builds can literally be deemed an unfair advantage.

It's not hard to understand, if people run faster, kill monsters faster, drop more loot; they will inflate the economy with currency and yours will in turn, be devalued, worth less and less.

If you disagree with such statement, or don't understand why, you should study basic concepts of economy.

There's a reason as to why 40% of the player base constantly plays Deadeye/Pathfinder/TS/LA every single league; because the strength and QoL is unmatched. These are simply the best currency printers/farming builds in the game by far, with infinite scaling.

It's the devs' role to tone these down in order to keep the game healthy. There's 18 different ascendancies in the game... Why they don't is baffling.

"

Senju_Hyoketsu wrote:

This is gonna be a very negative post; I'm letting you know in advance. I'm already expecting the white knight comments claiming I'm being mad on purpose, but in reality all I want is for the game and its balance to be both fun and healthy.

As a player who started playing in Breach league, and played extensively ever since, these patch notes are the worst I have ever seen. Yes you read me correctly. Hence, I feel qualified (as in my opinion matters).

So let me explain why :

1. The meta is NOT getting reshaped, it's the biggest bait I see everyone fall into. The transfigured gems will equal to some of the helm lab enchant from old, ok so what. There are a few exceptions sure, such as Falling Zombie and what not. I mean those are cool for sure don't get me wrong.
Keep in mind we lost boot, glove, belt, helm enchant, and all types of alternate quality gems. The old system was great, why change it ?
You said you chose that route instead of doing real balancing to skills and ascendancies, that it would be easier to do so; yet nothing has been done to keep the outliers in check, NOTHING. Heck some of the most powerful things in the game have even gained power...

2. No nerfs to Deadeye, Pathfinder, Tornado Shot, Lightning Arrow, etc. Assassin, Gladiator and more are still garbage tier.
The game has 25 ascendancies, yet 20% are playing Deadeye every single league, 10% Pathfinder... 20% are using Tornado shot...
What is wrong with you, don't you have eyes, as well as an analytical brains ?

3. Yet another Tornado shot Deadeye Crimson Temple league. The Kirac map mods are not great, so surprise it's gonna be ambush strongbox div card farming league where the top 1% can abuse interactions and the economy. Players are pigeonholed into doing said strategy, which is not good for the health of the game, and those not enjoying the Magic Find playstyle are forced into doing so.

And before someone says ''you don't have to do this, play what you want, nobody is forcing you, what others play doesn't impact you''...

While that would be true in SSF, the Softcore trade economy is a pvp-based environment, meaning people abusing overpowered builds and mechanics in turn have a much stronger foothold in the economy, acquiring more purchasing power, hence reducing yours.

4. The league mechanic seems to be a mix between the delve cart and ghosting, with a touch of sentinel gameplay.
You need to follow some wisps in the darkness in order to ''buff'' some mobs in the map so that they drop more loot, are you kidding me come on. Magic find and ghosting gameplay, two of the least liked mechanics combined.

5. Ultimatum. Who have you been listening to? Did people asking for that mechanic's return really run it more than 50 times ? Or even 200-300x ? Because it becomes extremely boring and tedious real fast, and often you don't even get any good loot besides a stack of 5c...
Overrated, rose-tinted glasses. I played the entirety of Ultimatum league, and NEVER once have I heard anyone (friend nor acquaintance) state they enjoyed the mechanic long-term, nor anyone say they missed it ever since.

--

To conclude, I was really hype for this league finally expecting a real meta shake-up (buffs and nerfs to outliers) as well as a fun league mechanic; but all hype is now gone. I despise GGG for the direction they are taking regarding balance; same meta for the past 2 years, same league starters, same endgame builds, same everything (almost).

What you fail to realize is the fun and hype generated by the patch notes of old were the main driving force of this game. It felt like Christmas every single time patch notes came out; anticipation, stress, joy, disappointment, euphoria, etc. The anticipation of gorging on all the Youtube videos, content creator build ideas, etc. It was so much fun. Nowadays, everything is recycled, ALL the builds suggested to players are the SAME, league in and league out. The exact same builds...
I would like to reiterate this one more time because I feel like nobody understands : THE META HAS BEEN THE SAME FOR TWO YEARS, allo.

Deadeye dominating, Tornado Shot, Lightning Arrow, Boneshatter the only good melee skill, Righteous Fire, SRS, EA Ballista, etc. The meta is boring and completely unbalanced.
Why ? Why can't you just take the time to balance things twice per year ? The explanation you gave during the livestream is absolute and utter bullshit. Nerfs are good for games, just do it. Adjust the outlier skills and ascendancies, even numerically if you don't have the time to do real reworks; it's EASY. It's very easy, it doesn't take that long.

I'm sorry but from now on I won't support this company any longer until I see significant balance changes, I (we) have been waiting for two years, and each time it's getting increasingly more disappointing reading the patch notes, going into every new league already knowing in advance which builds, skills and ascendancies will dominate the charts.

I shouldn't even have to write all this, but numbers... speak for themselves.

20% Deadeyes
10% Pathfinders
20% Tornado Shots
10% Lightning Arrow
10% Righteous Fire

How many ascendancies are there in the game again, how many skills.
You're all free to shit on me, but all I aspire to is a balanced and varied game, that feels exciting and fun to play each time a league comes around.

GGG, we played your game extensively, supported you through the years, spent copious amounts of money in your shop; yet PoE1 is in maintenance mode. And let's not even bring up the performance that's been atrocious lately... At least make some statements about that.
Please respect us in return.

You are forcing me to phrase it this way : make f****** significant balance changes.

Reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/189u9qe/still_no_significant_balance_changes_extremely/

"

Pizzarugi wrote:

and instead wish they would make sub-par options actually viable.

"

Senju_Hyoketsu wrote:

"

Pizzarugi wrote:

and instead wish they would make sub-par options actually viable.

Agreed. And the correct way to do that while avoiding insane power creep (hence having to buff both monsters and encounters) is by bringing down the outliers.

"

anti4z500 wrote:

"

Senju_Hyoketsu wrote:

"

Pizzarugi wrote:

and instead wish they would make sub-par options actually viable.

Agreed. And the correct way to do that while avoiding insane power creep (hence having to buff both monsters and encounters) is by bringing down the outliers.

i finally understood why you hell bend of wanting to bring dawn better skills dawn and not uplift worst skills up .... jesus that took too long....

"

sidtherat wrote:

"

Pizzarugi wrote:

I think the problem with melee is much deeper than that. What I feel like is happening with melee is that GGG has absolutely no idea how to address it without breaking the game or violating one of their many design philosophies. How do you go about making melee a desirable archetype without turning it into the most broken thing in the game, or without adding items which would probably throw their precious mUh EcUnUmiE into turmoil?

i play predominately melee and comparing it with casters the answer is obvious to me:

while there are many issues and facets of this, the thing GGG should start (but never tried) is:
melee needs more BASE damage. simple as that.


when you do a breakdown for passive allocation youll see that casters in general spend A LOT less on damage, freeing up the utility and defensive passive options.

melee.. not so much. i think old GGG team designed melee to be mostly phys and STR 'fixed' that somewhat. but nowadays the bonus you get from STR is just a drop in the ocean. to get on par (required by the content) you have to spend passives on various weapon nodes, nodes that are mostly hot garbage and inefficient (5 points for Fortify or garbage gem..)


doubling damage on a Cleave wont turn it into 'everyone plays it'. it will roughly match Reap. but without all the +gem scaling Reap has, without the range, without the DoT part.

Boneshatter, despite its 'i will kill you' drawback is popular because damage is there. that ALONE is proof enough that the problem with melee is NUMBERS and devs are stubborn and dont want to try it


it really is all about numbers. if I do not have to spend 60 passives on damage I can get tanky (the options are there) and do fine. but unless you use THE setups (you know, abyssus, paradoxica, voidforge) you have to overinvest into damage to reach 'enough' damage.

melee's problem is not coverage nor clicking - some people dont mind or even like this playstyle, me included. problem is - Reap and Cleave are visually the same, play similarly and yet Reap mops the floor with Cleave for 1/10th of a cost

- crafting phys weapons is a nightmare
- +gem scaling is very cheap and EXTREMELY effective
- melee's equivalent of +gem on an amulet is +20 phys damage to attacks. is that a joke or something?


dont overcomplicate it, just buff the damn numbers FOR ONCE and see what happens. GGG, you never did it, dont pretend that 'it doesnt work', you never tried.

"

Pizzarugi wrote:

I never suggested making skills OP, only viable.

But here's the problem: GGG would first need to stop buffing shit to be OP in the first place to later push the "shift the meta" nonsense that requires they be nerfed into worthlessness.

And make no mistake: If and when GGG finally nerfs these skills, they will be completely trash to make way for the next OP lineup.