Ashes of the Stars isn't chase anymore

First of all patch seems overall good for the majority of people, however I'm upset at what was done to try to balance this amulet's power.


It got the classic triple+ nerf in the same patch and as a boss chase drop it shouldn't happen.


Nerf 1

No more alt quality gems, so builds that used it usually benefited from alt quality auras and utility skills. In addition its not needed for skills that converted like psn spark for example.


Nerf 2

Removed the RMR from it completely.

I would have been fine with it being reduced, but as is its terrible to strip it from it.


Nerf 3

There would have been more competition in the slot with the new heist bases.



Give it back the RMR or make it roll 1-2 all skills as compensation. The amulet is worth 2 divines, compared to the 16+ of omni. In addition the red boss needs an actual good uber chase unique added PLEASE.

Get more creative with your amulet slot. Nerf was warranted

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ArtCrusade wrote:

Get more creative with your amulet slot. Nerf was warranted

Do you read or you feel your response was helpful?

It got nerfed MULTIPLE TIMES in the same patch, so no it wasn't warranted.


My profile is public, you can clearly see I'm using another amulet.

It was helpful in the sense that I disagree with your assessment that the nerf went too far. I think it's in a good position where it is still strong and has good benefits, but isn't just an item you slap on any type of build anymore.

The 30% quality to active skill gems also became more valuable with the new gem system and you happily forgot to mention that.

There, helpful enough now?

OP is very much correct that it most certainly isn't "chase" anymore. While the specifics of the nerfs vs buffs could be argued a bit....it is undeniable that it lost a SERIOUS amount of power and value (as shown by its current market price).

The new quality buffs certainly do not make up even half of the power lost from alt quality losses in almost all cases.

It should be reconsidered as to where and how it drops accordingly. I can't name a single build anymore where it would ever be considered BiS, or even second-BiS. It's really just an "average" mid tier amulet now.

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ArtCrusade wrote:

It was helpful in the sense that I disagree with your assessment that the nerf went too far. I think it's in a good position where it is still strong and has good benefits, but isn't just an item you slap on any type of build anymore.

The 30% quality to active skill gems also became more valuable with the new gem system and you happily forgot to mention that.

There, helpful enough now?

30 quality does not make up for the loss of quality on every skill gem the build could use, including auras. The didn't even incorporate the alt quality effects into most auras, only purity.


Look at it compared to other options? Or even its second cousin in the omni drop.

Compared to omni its absolute trash. Compared to replica flight for all but like a couple of skills its trash. And its suppose to be a chase drop from eater.



I'm not mentioning it compared to the new heist base, but if you think about it, its bad compared to that, although that would be fine if it could stand up on its own 2 legs.

New heist base can get +2 all +2 specific and another mod if you weren't aware.


30 quality doesn't make up for anything. As the only times you would care about the quality aspect of this is if you are using multiple skill gems that benefit greatly from having quality (which is far less then previous leagues with alt quality gems)

So DD, VD, self cast desecrate\unearth is the only one that I think would consider it always BIS. Theres a handful of other gems that might be OK with keeping it, but as you can see based on the price, its not chase. Chase would be far more in demand and merit power its intended to have.

I didn't argue that it wasn't nerfed. I said that it has clearly defined strengths now without being overpowered. It's just 'nice' now and still finds use in 3% of builds on the top ladder which is still higher than omni which sits at 2% so clearly other people still value it.

I stopped caring about market value as an indicator for item power. Most of the time the price will be high for whatever is the new flavor of the month and obviously people will be turned off by a freshly nerfed item.

Also, it does not have to compete with other unique amulets. It has its own niche and it does what it does very well. Nothing else to say there, really

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ArtCrusade wrote:

I didn't argue that it wasn't nerfed. I said that it has clearly defined strengths now without being overpowered. It's just 'nice' now and still finds use in 3% of builds on the top ladder which is still higher than omni which sits at 2% so clearly other people still value it.

The response to the OP was to completely invalidate his OP, and snarkily.

He too was NOT upset that the amulet received a nerf. What he was upset about was the fact that it didn't just receive ONE nerf, but rather a handful of nerfs together that simply destroyed 90% of the value of this endgame unique. Plus...it had clearly defined strengths before too, now it actually DOESN'T have clearly defined strengths....because almost any rare will outclass it and will be defensively and offensively more flexible. The nerfs partially or mostly REMOVED its identity.

Yes...it needed to be nerfed. But with the removal of alternate quality supports and SOME overpowered alternate quality skills, that ALONE could have significantly affected this item's overall power and volume. But on top of that GGG completely removed a defining mod, when they easily could have just halved or even 1/4'd its power. They could have even cut both the quality and the reservation mods in half and it would have been a better "balance"

The OPs argument was that it was TOO MUCH, all at once like most of GGG's "balances". And we can look to usage % and market value as validation of this opinion.

yeah ashes got nerfed too hard. replica dragonfang is better now for most builds and the new "chase" item are those heist bases.

Great, first Metamorph was removed from the game instead of having its rewards be buffed, now an aspirational boss has mostly garbage loot so Shaper is no longer alone. Bossing build players really can't catch a break, can they?

At least Heist is still worth farming.