Blood magic uniques, the gem, and upcoming aura changes

With the upcoming patch, auras will be changed so that - when you change zones - their effects will be applied to you at the state of the skill at the time of you changing maps. To put that legibly, if you attach a Blood Magic gem to a Hatred aura, it will reserve life instead of mana. If you take off the Blood Magic gem, the aura will still reserve life - but if you change zones (say, to town and back, or entering a map from the Eternal Laboratory) then the aura will update so that it reserves mana again. Another upcoming update will change auras so that this change applies immediately upon switching out the gems (or removing a unique that grants Blood Magic). However, this update will also apply to other support gems such as Reduced Mana, so that if Reduced Mana is no longer connected to your aura, your aura will not have its mana reservation reduced.

Here's an example of the current state of affairs:


Socket outlay:
B-G-R-R
G-R-B-B

Gems:
Discipline-Grace-Blood Magic-Vitality
Hatred-Reduced Mana-Purity-Critical Weakness

I can't link those since they're socketed.

WALL OF TEXT. You've been warned.


I will first swap the Reduced Mana and Vitality gems for the arrangement Discipline-Grace-Blood Magic-Reduced Mana. I cast both Discipline and Grace to reserve 65%+ of my life for my low-life build. I then swap the Blood Magic for the Vitality, and cast Vitality with a reduced mana reservation. I then swap the Blood Magic for the Reduced Mana, and cast both Hatred and Purity at a reduced reservation. The end result is Discipline and Grace on Blood Magic/Reduced Mana, and Vitality, Purity and Hatred running on Reduced Mana.

With 0.11.4, I will need to re-cast all of these auras every single time I change areas. With a patch following 0.11.4, I will no longer be able to do this at all.

It will be possible for me to run Discipline and Grace on Blood Magic. This will reserve 385 life, multiplied by a factor of 208%, and after a reduction of 10% mana reservation from passive skills, will reserve 721 life. This is more than I have. If I choose to run Reduced Mana, this will be reduced by 26% for a total of 534 life reserved. This is equal to what I have now.

However, in doing that, I will be unable to run Reduced Mana on my other three gems - Vitality, Purity and Hatred. Currently, with the aforementioned 10% mana reservation reduction and Reduced Mana, I reserve roughly 73.26% of my mana. Without the Reduced Mana gem, this value is 99% of my mana, such that I will not be able to cast any spells.



Ergo, I perceive my options as such:

1) Acquire another Reduced Mana gem, and level it up. This takes time and my build will be largely non-functional in the interim. It's also an ineffective response to the larger problem that I am attempting to address.
2) Use fewer auras. This does not address the issue of space for my gems and my need to shuffle them around.
3) Post on an internet forum. Here I post; I can do no other.

With option 3, for the upcoming patch that will change auras to be immediately updated when gem arrangements are adjusted, I will attempt to present the following alternative: adjust the Blood Magic gem mana multiplier from its current ~200% to be similar to the mana multiplier of the Reduced Mana gem. Reduced Mana uses a 91% multiplier, minus 1% per level of gem (level 1 inclusive - level 1 multiplier is 90%). Blood Magic can use this same formula, perhaps increased by 5%.

The requirement to have the Blood Magic gem attached at all is a particularly harsh one for builds that do not use the gem at all and that are being broken with the next patch. With the inability to shuffle it out and make use of freed-up gem sockets, the mana multiplier on the Blood Magic gem is now an obstructive roadblock instead of a meaningful decision. This will allow builds that used Blood Magic auras gained through use of uniques (Malachai's, The Covenant) to continue to function, provided they sacrifice no more than a single gem socket - or indeed, if they used a Reduced Mana gem (and are willing to replace it with Blood Magic) to notice almost no change at all, save that all auras cast must remain connected to the gem.

Builds that use the Blood Magic gem for non-auras will notice a reduction in the amount of life spent to use their abilities, but I argue that those who choose to cast with life instead of mana using a gem socket, as opposed to the Blood Magic keystone, are already making the conscious decision to gain the functionality of not being constrained by mana in exchange for sacrificing some small amount of survivability. I cannot dismiss the exact quantity of life spent as being irrelevant, but if it matters that much, the addition of a flat cost increase to the Blood Magic gem (as opposed to a multiplier) would strike me as solving this nicely. It would also encourage the use of the Blood Magic gem on more expensive abilities such as Dominating Blow while having little if any effect on lower-cost abilities such as Cleave and Lightning Arrow.



But -- auras. My build will break - not now, but soon. What will happen to yours? How can it be prevented?

Damn. I only use the reduced mana gem switch. I use 2 reduced mana on two pieces of gear. I remove one reduced mana than cast anger. And the other one I cast enduring cry with. If I can no longer slot them like this I would need to find a new place to put them.

Does this make Alpha Howl useless? I was gonna buy one to switch.

Minions still count as a snapshot right? Would be really sad if I can't manipulate my summoner's sockets for more space. I thought this was a game mechanic unlike any other game I ever played.

u cry too much for something that wasnt even intended to occur. if it was, it wouldnt have been patched. go play like everyone else.

TLDR: stop crying

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majicablanca wrote:

u cry too much for something that wasnt even intended to occur. if it was, it wouldnt have been patched. go play like everyone else.

TLDR: stop crying

Exactly. I am sick of people whining because they cannot exploit stuff, cannot run 6-7 auras without consequences (like being forced to take Eldritch Battery), cannot clear maps in 5 minutes but need 7 now...GGG has stepped forward and fixed things THAT WEREN'T MEANT TO WORK THE WAY THEY DID. That is a great thing and I salute that.

Yes, it will handicap me among others too, but I am ok with it. If nothing else, it will force me to be more creative with my builds and discover their limitations. It will force me to learn instead of rely on exploits. So, as the poster above wrote, stop crying, say thanks to GGG for fixing bugs (because, that's exactly what the aura thing was) in the game we love, get used to changes and play the game the way it was meant to be played.

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majicablanca wrote:

u cry too much for something that wasnt even intended to occur. if it was, it wouldnt have been patched. go play like everyone else.

First of all it's not players' responsibility to guess whether something is intended or not. Current behavior of these skills is logical and works the same for all gems: cost and effect of the skill is determined when cast. I'm sure that a large portion of players are using this to their advantage so "everyone else" surely doesn't refer to what you mean (a tiny group of evil cheaters vs vast majority of morally superior honest players).

I don't mind the change itself that much (I've never had any of these uniques) but I don't think it's the right one for several reasons.

1) It makes the acquisition of basic gems even harder. Currently Marauder and Templar are the only ones with good availability for both Blood Magic and Reduced Mana yet the change increases the amount needed (at least doubled for RM and perhaps +25% for BM). If practically every build requires 2+ RM it should be available to all classes.

2) Build diversity decreases when more sockets are permanently occupied by support gems that were removable before. With auras an average build will lose 2 to 4 sockets. Also things like Spectre summoner will be completely destroyed.

3) Especially due changes to Blood Magic (either through gem or unique item) life based builds will continue to get worse in comparison to ES based builds.

In my opinion it would be enough if Auras and other similar skills checked their level when zoning. That would remove all things I could accept being an exploit (+2 Aura level from Alpha's Howl without wearing the hat and replacing lvl 20 Auras with lvl 1's in town to lower the stat requirements).

my comments in CAPS and BOLD.

First of all it's not players' responsibility to guess whether something is intended or not.
-NO GUESSING NEEDED HERE> FACT IS, ITS GETTING CORRECTED. 1+1=?

Current behavior of these skills is logical and works the same for all gems: cost and effect of the skill is determined when cast. I'm sure that a large portion of players are using this to their advantage so "everyone else" surely doesn't refer to what you mean (a tiny group of evil cheaters vs vast majority of morally superior honest players).
YOU HAVE OFFICIAL NUMBERS? IM ALSO SURE THAT THERE ARE 3 MILLION DOLLARS ON MY BANK ACCOUNT, BUT IS IT TRUE? IF 1 IS NOT EQUAL TO 2, THEN 1=3?


I don't mind the change itself that much (I've never had any of these uniques) but I don't think it's the right one for several reasons.

1) It makes the acquisition of basic gems even harder. Currently Marauder and Templar are the only ones with good availability for both Blood Magic and Reduced Mana yet the change increases the amount needed (at least doubled for RM and perhaps +25% for BM). If practically every build requires 2+ RM it should be available to all classes.
WOW ITS JUST PLAIN YOU WANT TO BE SPOONFED. IF THE GEMS ARE THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU GO TRADE OR MAKE A CHARACTER JUST TO HAVE IT. PLAIN AND SIMPLE REASONING REALLY.


2) Build diversity decreases when more sockets are permanently occupied by support gems that were removable before. With auras an average build will lose 2 to 4 sockets. Also things like Spectre summoner will be completely destroyed.
THE BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF POE IS YOU SACRIFICE SOMETHING TO GAIN SOMETHING. NUFF SAID



3) Especially due changes to Blood Magic (either through gem or unique item) life based builds will continue to get worse in comparison to ES based builds.
REMEMBER THE TIME WHEN EVERY MELEE CHARACTER USED TO GO BM AND HAVE A MANDATORY LEECH/LOH GEM? THE GAME EVOLVES DUDE. ADAPT OR RESPEC. IF YOU ARE SO HANDICAPPED BY THE THOUGHT THAT LIFE BASED BUILD IS SHIT AND IS UNABLE TO FIND ENJOYMENT ON IT, THEN GO PLAY THE FLAVOR-OF-THE-PATCH OP CLASS, GATHER GEARS FOR MELEE ALT, WHATEVER REALLY. I STARTED A DOUBLE STRIKE, THEN DISCOVERED ELE CLEAVE, THEN PHYS CLEAVE, NOW IM A DOMINATING BLOW FACEBREAKER. IF CONTENT IS TO TOUGH, I MAKE AN ALT AND TWINK IT SO I CAN FEEL PEWPEWPEW AGAIN. I HOPE YOU GET THE POINT.

TLDR: THE WORLD MOVES, EITHER YOU MOVE WITH IT OR CLING STUBBORNLY TO THE PAST AND BE TRAMPLED BY THOSE WHO D

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majicablanca wrote:

I HOPE YOU GET THE POINT.

I get the point: you're either a troll or too stupid to understand what's written. No more replies to you.

no problem here.

majicablanca is doing like reverse crying. Crying about other people crying, it's painful to read.

Some of the best games I've ever played, had many unintended aspects that ended up being really cool parts of the game. The aura thing didn't seem like a very big deal to me, I'd have much rather then spent their time adding some new content or buffing some weaker skills/items.

Pretty much just another nerf to life builds and a few uniques that had a purpose have joined that ranks of all the other useless uniques. That and they really fucked up peoples sockets and colors, lol.

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Dreggon wrote:

But -- auras. My build will break - not now, but soon. What will happen to yours? How can it be prevented?

But you are asking about Low Life build or life builds in general?

I relation to Low Life build, they are screwed and I don't think that there is simple way to reduce damage.

But for most life build, change is medicore, but anyway further decreases number of active skills build can use.

Maybe it will be usable for someone...

On my lighting strike templar (The Bringer of Rain based) I used to use 7 auras: Grace, Anger and Wrath on life, Purity, Determination, Haste and Hatred on mana. Active skills: Lighting Strike, Enduring Cry, Rejuvenantion Totem, Enfeeble.

While preparing to change I decided to drop Wrath. I can't drop any defensive aura and although Wrath gives me more DPS than Anger, it needs 151 int on 20 lvl - to support it I had to put 2 passives into +30 int nodes. So resigning from Wrath (and Enfeeble) allowed me to spend point to get Berserking, which replaced Haste.

So, after change I will be using 6 auras: Grace and Anger on life, Purity, Determination, Hatred and Tempest Shield enforced with Blind (which replaces Enfeeble and works as small DPS supplement) on mana. Active skills: Lighting Strike, Enduring Cry, Rejuvenantion Totem.

So, I'm rather limited in putting on more auras by socket not resources availability.

And I have 480 mana and didn't take any mana reservation passives, Reduced Mana @ 20 lvl is enough.

My tooltip DPS went down from 9556 to... 8739.

So it makes me laugh, then the most pro-change are users who even don't have ladder characters, so probably doesn't have passives to spend or properly leveled gems. For me, gameplay did not change much, but for you... enjoy you character. Another missed change aimed at high top players, which is just a nuisance for them, but influences a lot small, casual players.