Blackguard Arcmage needs another nerf

I hate how these always offscreen me. The range for their Arc is absurd. Combine that with chain and you have a spell which stops players from using totems.

The cast speed and damage (and shocks) will melt nearly any character leveling up, and you have to really single these guys out and treat each one like a boss character, when they come in groups, it's even more difficult to avoid the instant-kills. Packs with these were already nerfed.

Lightning Thorns, still a devastating monster buff, it was already nerfed.

They cannot miss.

I honestly don't mind them. The shock stacks are annoying though.

LT wasn't a problem for me even when I was over 9 aps. Also arc isn't too terrible unless it has a bunch of damage mods leaving me stunned constantly.

If those packs need any nerf it's the guards life. They have a good block chance, seems like high accuracy, fairly high damage for a white S&B mob and also tank like crazy. Seems odd that a mob that usually comes in a 4-7 guard to 1-2 mage pack that the guards have it all.

Lightning thorns really is just a big fuck you to most builds, especially anyone using incinerate, especially because it's impossible to see if you have a wall of flames in the way.

Their arc range is a few yards too far I'd say but if you remember how it was when act 3 was new, this range seems merciful.

Anyway yeah if anything they should be easier to kill, I don't mind an enemy being noticably hard to deal with but they're not quite squishy enough to make up for that, and can come in some pretty plentiful numbers.

only annoying thing is the charging desynch the guards have, you cannot reliably dodge them and in higher maps they hurt bad, especially walking into a room with blue ones

I think Blackguard Mages - just like Whipping Miscreations - are a case of support mobs done wrong.

I love the concept of support mobs making fights harder/trickier, but a support mob should not be dangerous on it's own. they should be dangerous only due to the synergy with other mobs.

Mages are there to put shock stacks on you, and Lightning Thorns on ally tank mobs (Blackguards). Whipping Miscreations are there to put a Vulnerability Curse on you, making you prime target for tank mobs and primarily titty-gunners.
both should never be allowed to crit-one-shot you on their own, or go into an off-screen Arc-frenzy. both should be squishy enough (compared to tank mobs in same area) to be prioritised and taken out quickly by the player.
both, are currently neither.
and just like everything else in the game, melee characters suffer from this the most.

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johnKeys wrote:

I love the concept of support mobs making fights harder/trickier, but a support mob should not be dangerous on it's own. they should be dangerous only due to the synergy with other mobs.

I disagree. I believe support mobs should be dangerous on their own, but in a very supporty kind of way — not so much in a direct way. Marlboros from Final Fantasy would be a perfect example.

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johnKeys wrote:

and just like everything else in the game, melee characters suffer from this the most.

Most melee characters can use leap slam or whirling blades (or flicker strike or shield charge) to make closing distance with these guys usually not much of an issue. If you don't have a movement skill as melee, then you're gimping your ability to respond to the enemies you encounter.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

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johnKeys wrote:

I love the concept of support mobs making fights harder/trickier, but a support mob should not be dangerous on it's own. they should be dangerous only due to the synergy with other mobs.

I disagree. I believe support mobs should be dangerous on their own, but in a very supporty kind of way — not so much in a direct way. Marlboros from Final Fantasy would be a perfect example.

as far as I remember, Malboros came in homogeneous packs (at least in the old versions of FF I played) - so it was reasonable for them to both be able to Bad Breath you, and go for the kill.

PoE enemies - as well as enemies in many other ARPGs - come in mixed groups of at least two types: melee and ranged, melee and caster etc'.
this is where "support" mobs shine, and TL2 is an example of a game which does this brilliantly: support mobs that immobilize/slow/freeze you or pull you into a trap or a bad-news pack of melee mobs.
and usually, those "support skills" do little to no damage on their own - but can get you in a world of hurt really quickly if you are not careful.

this adds an element of strategy to the game: you prioritise targets and go for the support mobs first. they are typically push-overs on their own, but deadly when combined with the other mob types around.
PoE Necromancers - no matter how annoying - are really good support mobs.
kill them first, or you'll have a much tougher battle than you anticipated.

Whippers and Mages are the other side of the scale: "super support mobs".
you go for them first, and they just go crit/cast-frenzy and 1-shot you on certain builds/gear set-ups.
doesn't seem too fair, does it?
remember the enemies have strength in numbers and synergy between various types, so it really doesn't make any sense to have any non-unique enemy individually strong.

@dudiobugtron,
all melee use some movement skill or another, but ultimately you want to get close to the mob to deal damage - a bad idea in the Whippers case - while ranged can just "strafe" and kite them.
this is part of the reason why, you either need a shield as a melee, or another source of "extreme tankiness" such as a Kaom's Heart or insane ES gear.
in essence, this greatly limits your build options if you wish to push to higher levels, and at the same time puts you through gear-check after gear-check - thereby putting you at the mercy of RNG,
everything is ultimately connected.

Tbh i don't mind any of the monsters, sure some are annoying but you get used to it, like coming across necromancers for the first dozen or so times, they were really annoying...now they are a joke the arcmage are the same, focus on them first, it's when you get a few groups together that it becomes challenging trying to dodge the shield charges and twat several of the mages.

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ionface wrote:

Combine that with chain and you have a spell which stops players from using totems.

Oh noes, there is one mob in the game which is hard for totem builds.
As you pointed out, they already nerfed them.
They're fine.
Now, go flame me totemboys.