Not coming back to pure life builds
|
I've been stubborn (and stupid) enough to play pure (i.e. no ES, MoM or other added buffer) life builds since 0.1. This time i tried first the Witch Hunter with the buffed sorcery ward, and then ES lich in HCSSF.
MY GOD. You just play a different game. ES is obviously stupidly overpowered and makes you near immortal except for the Arbiter fight. But sorcery ward is perfectly balanced and it's where *all* life builds should be. With 2100k life, 7.5k armour, 7.6k evasion, AND ~4.5k ward i can be at least confident that i won't be punished with being sent back to Miller for dodge rolling 0.1 seconds late by basically any boss in a juiced T15 map. I'm not immortal and get close calls now and then. Hell i don't even feel particularily "tanky", i just feel like i'm playing the game **AS INTENDED**. Of course would it not be SSF i'd probably just buy gear with stupid high armour/evasion and ramp up my ward easily to like 10k. But this is besides the point. The point is that around 6-7k hp is where the game starts to feel like an actual ARPG instead of a Russian Roulette every time i enter a boss arena. I know there's a lot of people who play 2-3k life builds and are ok with it. But just because you *can* absolutely do all content on such build doesn't mean it's good or balanced. So please GGG, we need something. More life, overleech that's actually available without trade, some new ward type, anything. Check HC/HCSSF poe.ninja. There are almost no pure life builds on page one. This should tell you a thing or two about the state of the game right now. Last bumped on Dec 26, 2025, 6:37:12 AM
|
|
" While I agree that life is not in a great state at the moment, and it does need bit of a buff, and to be honest I think increasing character base life by maybe 1k might even be enough to tip the scales. ES is just broken and needs a a nerf more than life needs a buff, when I can literally pick up one ES node with full ES gear and get 1k ES from it, thats telling me something is wrong. ES scaling is too high and this is what needs to be fixed. Ideally you want 2-2.5x more ES than HP available for PURE ES stacking builds, due to other defensive layers not being as redily available. Hybrid builds are where the scaling is wack. You can get an ES/EVA build with CI, 40-50% EVA and 5-6k ES. Armor/ES is in a similar situation but does not have ready access to CI which makes it quite a bit worse off. As for SSF and HCSSF these are optional game modes, the game is not balanced around them and so yes, certain builds and playstyles will just not be as good for these modes as others. The game is balanced around softcore trade more than HC and definately not HCSSF. |
|
|
I fundamentally disagree that ES is broken. The top end, maybe, but that doesn't mean the defense stat is broken at it's core. The top end should be shaved off and EV / Armor need to be raised to meet it. They tried this with Deflect but it's fallen flat on it's face.
|
|
" SSF and HCSSF are the game modes which *most people play* even if they're in a trade league (at least this was the case a few years ago, and is probably partly true still even after they added async trade). A even among those who do trade, a lot are unhappy about how they *must* trade. An awful lot of people either never trade, or rarely trade in trade leagues. No need to balance *around* SSF but balancing while keeping *SSF in mind* is absolutely reasonable and would be a win-win for everyone. Last edited by onetruelai#7327 on Dec 26, 2025, 6:38:22 AM
|
|
