Bloodmage Feedback

So far i reached T5 Maps with my Bloodmage playing as Crit Hexblast - playing completely solo.
All in all its a bit of a mixed feeling.
The concept itself is interesting and has potential, but sometimes it feels like there maybe some tools missing that are in mind to make the ascendency work.

Sanguimancy:
The first Node feels actually like a punishment when taken at the early levels. Especially when playing in a group, since it seems that if anybody else in the group gets the killing blow, no Life Remnants are spawned!

I have some suggestions/ideas on changing the node to make it more appealing and less punishing in early stages, but wont change lategame potency.

1)
Increase the pickup range of the Remnants by ~100% or make it scale with Area of Effect increase. There are many situations, where picking up the Remnants is either impossible (big stationary bosses like Act 2 Skeleton) or very difficult since big Bosses can Bodyblock them.
This would already make a HUGE difference i think, since in my expirience the problem mostly doesnt come from not enough Remnants, but from them despawning because of said pickup problems. Maybe even make them despawn slower, or not at all like the Grim Feast Essences (which could use the same Pickup Radius Buff).

2)
Make Groupmember killing blows spawn Remnants aswell - my brother playing his Bloodmage with me in a party (im playing Warrior in this case) has much bigger sustain problems playing with me then playing alone since hes spawning much more Remnants solo.

3)
Reduce the Lifecost by ~50%
Before getting to Vitality Siphon, killing bosses is very problematic. I took much more dmg from myself then any boss did, resulting in sometimes having to kite the boss long enough that i actually regenerated enough life to be able to cast again. This feels extremely bad, and for newer/not as expirienced players it makes killing bosses near impossible.

4)
Move the Node further behind and get another one in its position, like Crimson Power or Grasping Wounds.
Blood Mage is themed around HP stacking to some extend, but the positions of the nodes make this only possible for very specific builds.

I feel like a combination of these changes would make a big difference and would make the Ascendancy much more appealing yet not unblanced, but rather playable.

I personally would prefere a mix of some changes from Options 1-3, but could also see some interresting possibillities with just Option 4

Gore Spike:
Tooltip is not changing, so its hard to say if it is actually working. The Node itself feels strong and worht taking, but im having trouble to actually find a good way to integrate it into a build and the skilltree.
If you want to stack much hp, you probably want to also take Crimson Power, but this is only possible if you dont have to take Sunder the Flesh and Vitality Siphon.
Going for STR on the Skilltree is also limited, since the INT requirements get somewhat high, so you are not able to get very high STR numbers.

BUT since im only at T5 maps, it is possible, that higher ILVL gear would fix this issues when optimised and get you to high enough Stats that it would make it viable.


Sunder the Flesh:
Good and strong node, nothing bad to say about it - leave as it is

Vitality Siphon:
Before the patch 0.1.0 it didnt do much, as i was playing with my hexblaster, i was constantly dropping low life from just casting.
After the patch, it significantly got better and i was somewhat able to sustain my HP while casting on single targets (if not getting hit) so i was at a HP neutral while fighting single targets.
Atm i think that Node is absolutely mandatory for Bloodmage to function for longer single target fights like in Trials or Endgame Bosses.

Open Sores:
Feels underwhelming, i dont think this Node will see much/any use because 1 Curse duration cluster, or Skill effect duration Cluster will be enough for it to feel good.
I think this would need something extra for curses, like adding 1 max Curse, Big Curse Effectivness or something like x% increased/more Damage for each curse on the enemy.

Blood Barbs:
Interresting Node, but somewhat contradictory. So you get the bleeding and phys dmg from elemental dmg, but if you want to scale the bleeding, you need to scale phys dmg, if you use elemental skills, you actually want to scale ele dmg.
So i feel like you have to spread out to much in to many different archetypes, but maybe im understanding the bleed scaling wrong in poe 2, absolutely possible.


So far i like my char, and will continue to play him and test it further, but i think that some changes are very much needed.

Glad for other views on this, would like to discuss this further with some other opinions and players with other builds.

I adore necromancy in most games (except the ones that went the lazy Diablo 3 route and made skeletons simple fireball reskins) so naturally I made one here too.


I have to say I am struggling to bring myself to play her since I ascended to Blood Mage.
Using life to cast isn't my first choice to begin with, but I dislike fire stuff so infernalist isn't an option.




I mainly struggle with 2 things now:
- Punishing casting, as you already mentioned.
- Way too many mechanics.


To point 1 all I can say is that Lifesteal should come on the same node as spells costing life to cast.

Point 2 is a weird one, it feels like the devs tried to be creative but didn't know how exactly.
On top of:
- Dodging AoEs, dealing with aggro, applying curses or other spells, directing minions, using minion abilities or realizing the particular ones are dead and working around that on a whim, making sure curses spread and reviving additional temporary minions...
...you now also have to micr-manage your HP outside of getting hit and run around the place to pick up heals.

Like come on, that's just ridiculous.
I don't know yet how much of that can be trimmed off with a better build, but ascending pushed the required busy-work so far past what I consider enjoyable that I don't even know anymore how to build her.
(And no I'm not asking for builds, I always make my own.)

I am also playing blood mage in low tier maps atm. Currently the first major node does need an overhaul for early ascendancy. It's straight out of poe 1 that players are being told they should wait until receiving 4 ascendancy points to actually ascend. I understand ggg wants you to be forced to use life on spells as a blood mage, so they force you to take that node, but currently it feels too punishing during the campaign without another way to offset the life cost.

The spell life costs in general feel bad because some of the mana costs start scaling very high in maps. I've been seeing this as an issue with other builds as well, so it might be something ggg is planning to look into.

For blood orbs, I will add my support to a slight distance you can pick them up by, and better positioning for their drops during boss fights. Currently the blood mage feels incredibly awkward on boss fights without many mobs to get additional blood orbs from. I suppose you could try to run more leech for bosses instead of things like life on kill, but it still feels like the blood orbs need some help for bosses. Some bosses have such a large hitbox that the orbs are unobtainable if the boss never moves before they despawn, and it's incredibly risky to try to collect them due to lots of one-shot mechanics.

For the theme, I also would not mind to see a unique spell blood mages could use, like some type of actual blood magic. This concept is rarely explored in games. Normally I wouldn't suggest this, but seeing as ggg has done this sort of thing with the chronomancer, I feel like it is a possibility they might consider.