0.9.12m Patch Notes

It is not only good in races, races are merely one indicator chosen by the devs how good things are in general.

Races also do not end after merciless. The real race starts with maps and that is no different to the default league.

DoubleSmiggings basically explained why it is inherently too storng. I guess there would have been other ways to nerf it, not sure if those are flat out preferable. 20% is a lot though.

20% is like nerfing your gem by 6lvls.
Not sure if the 20% nerf is gonna hit the base dmg of the skill or its overall 20% but still it is one nerf that makes it 1/5th weaker, and yet there is no alternative.

How does Ranged Attack Totem vary from Spell Totem?

If the former uses the player's equipped weapon and the player's attack skill it seems functionally identical. Why have a separate gem?

As some have stated, it doesn't make much sense to nerf GS. Why not alter the values of cleave or sweep to make it more in line with GS's damage and scaling.

Or, was the change partially due to being used with frost wall, then you change frost wall don't you, if that was a big issue.

Then you bring in the argument "it is too efficient" or "look at the history of the races" which again is a flawed argument.

It just seems weird how they nerfed GS like that, and as someone pointed, there are just as equally strong skills in the game that even have greater utility.

The main reason GS is used so much is because it is an AoE skill with a nice damage/range on it, and early game attacking one mob at a time is a boring and tedious task due to everyone's attack speed/rate being so low early game.

So the skill was effective, so what? You bring some other skills inline with this effectiveness, maybe it wasn't that GS was OP but that other skills needed a bump.

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DEWO wrote:

Ok 1st of all you still dont get it.

Answer me precisly if you want (i wanted the answer from devs the most since they made this decission out of nothing (for me ofc)).

WHY is it too strong?

You are ignoring what other people are saying while miss reading the main point of path of Exile. The devs want build diversity and players making tough choices. See the question inherent to currency items: "Do I use it now or save it for later." It makes you think about your choice.

There are three main strength attacks, each one meant to have a unique strength and a unique weaknesses. Ground Slam was nerfed because it took away the choice. If you wanted the best move that did the most damage you choose Ground Slam. Using a different move was obviously and deliberately weakening yourself.

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Lou102 wrote:

"

DEWO wrote:

...

You are ignoring what other people are saying while miss reading the main point of path of Exile. The devs want build diversity and players making tough choices. See the question inherent to currency items: "Do I use it now or save it for later." It makes you think about your choice.

There are three main strength attacks, each one meant to have a unique strength and a unique weaknesses. Ground Slam was nerfed because it took away the choice. If you wanted the best move that did the most damage you choose Ground Slam. Using a different move was obviously and deliberately weakening yourself.

+1

And the nerfs continue... rather than bringing skills that are under used or not used at all up to par to give players other viable options. This is just plain LAZY. I know another company that went this route and all but destroyed a consumer base's faith in their product and reputation.

Personally I think Heavy Strike's single target damage is way more out of whack than GS's damage; I never really used GS because it would omgwtfpwn a group of enemies quickly, I used it because it was a semi-ranged attack to deal quickly with things like clusters of spitting snakes, constructs and archers.

I've uninstalled as there is very little if anything left in this game that feels rewarding for the amount of effort/skill one puts in. The dangling carrot that was once golden and dripping with honey has withered significantly with recent patches...

- Rare mobs used to guarantee at least a blue drop
- you used to be able to get an Alchemy orb once every few levels or so from matched rares
- IIQ/IIR used to spawn frequently on gear
- you didn't used to have to grind for hours/days to get your resistances to the right numbers for certain areas/bosses (this applies to hardcore far more than default)
- there was NOTHING wrong with having your auras on a weapon swap as you were sacrificing a 2nd swappable skill set to do so, yet it is gone. I think it just created issues for keeping auras active while changing zones and again the devs were just being lazy.
- DESYNC is still one of the top causes of deaths in this game yet Voice Acting is prioritized!

@Lou102
The devs want diversity and they give you the option via passive tree and uniques. It doesnt have anything to do with nerfing/buffing skills.

There will be ALWAYS a "best way" to deal as much dps as possible to as many targets as possible. It will just swap on patches etc. I've seen how this works in WoW when devs want to level all the things to the point the builds have similar dps etc. This leads only to disaster.

Also if the devs made this change to encourage ppl to build diferently i would like to hear that from them, and why they try to do it like this if ppl are enjoying what they are doing.

Making ppl follow dev roads is imho the last thing they want to do. They sooo much encourage ppl to try freaky builds even via posting those BOTW videos!

I want a plain and simple marauder that ground slams through whole game. I like it that way so why force me to change by nerfing the skills. Make others more appeeling to players.

About that 2nd part...
I played 3 difficulty levels on Sweep... Swapped to ground slam realy realy late. It is not that you HAVE TO. As a maul marauder you are given an option to use ground slam becouse you have a mace... that is something nice. Want a better build diversity on marauders? Than make it in the passive skill tree. There are too many maces around and getting to swords/axes is making you way there too complicated. Those are my ideas to "fix the diversity".




@flab

I like the idea of making this skill more range based. It makes melee character way more enjoyable to play. If we all would like to just desintegrate everything that moves with huge IIR/IIQ etc we would simply go frost witches...
Like in diablo 2 sorc was the best MF char (mostly).
Ranged is still riddiculously OP compared to melee and making this skill a bit range'ish is just trying to make up something for those melee folks.

Ground slam doesnt permastun enemies... damage does. You can permastun enemiest with each and every skill you use.
Ground slam makes stunning enemies in front of you quite helpless but that is the deal behing MAUL MARAUDER not Marauder with ground slam.
It gives you safety... yes it gives and god bless it for it otherwise we would all play a ranged chars...
It can lifeleech nicely but also overheal a ton, since you are, let me quote here, "1 shot everything" and you also have to build your gear around lifesteal since passive tree doesnt give you much of this. And that is a gear choice not a skill choice... you can drain equal amounts by sweeping and cleaving...
Ok the last one is again stupid... each and every class can 1 shot nearly everything. Crit builded witches or flicker strike shadows can even 1 shot rares... I dont get that point.


I know i am all in favor of Ground Slam. My vision is not clear coz i play a marauder and i play with ground slam. But it just doesnt solve the puzzle on how many lvls it is a wrong choice of balancing the game. IMHO (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, MY).

PS. Very informative posts there Balron :D