Clarifying the Ascendancy Changes

I really like the changes. It might shift the meta a lot. I think people don't realise how OP introducing Harvest will be. You can get close to mirror-tier gear for 5-25ex/piece. Explode chests and other OP influenced mods will be more common. Also not everything has to be OP. Assasin's been too strong for a couple of leagues, the same goes for necromancer(despite the previous nerf attempts). Of course it needs a nerf if you can clear everything on a 10c budget. GGG is trying to make us actually play the game and think while playing instead of mindlessly running and looting. Just play AFK Arena or something like that on your phone if you want to afk most of the game.

It is when many players say they are unsure what to play now means GGG has done a good job balancing the meta. When everyone is going for the same build, that is when it is broken.

Well done GGG and keep it up. You have my support and 1 supporter pack on the way when league starts.

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Benzka wrote:

As always, there is a lot of crying about balance changes ...

Of course nerfs and buffs hit one or the other sometimes more sometimes less. But with such a complex game, I don't think you can say "OMG they nerfed the shit out of XY" just because they removed one thing or another.

Sometimes it reads far worse on paper than it really is, e.g. lots of gems are getting buffed (information that we don't have yet) and balacing POE is really not easy to imagine.

Here the name Grinding Gear Games is a good example for it, if you only turn a small gear wheel, then it has an impact on the entire rest. Of course, it is now difficult to decide on a league starter, but I'll wait until 1-2 weeks in the league with my opinion.

And to be honest, I think it's pretty awesome that this time nobody really has a clue what to play, what is meta and what isn't and maybe even makes you think instead of stupidly following some build guide (nothing against the writers of build guides, keep up the awesome and important work :))

And of course some people like it and others don't. In any case, I'm really looking forward to the huge update and the new league, even if I have no idea what I'm going to play at the moment

not following working build on start of the league is stupid you can et stuck if you creating your own build and then you have to reroll and go again from the scrach soo gl with that

in the time everyonme will be in red maps and people that try create new builds will be week behind

the problem why most people are upset is not because stuff was nerfed, but because it was promised to be streamlined and overall equally strong.
if you want to do nerfs for the health of the game, do nerfs but just admit that's what you're doing!

Thanks GGG for the hard work and clear reviews as always! This has clearly not been said enough!

Looking at all the ascendency class changes, it is obviously clear that most popular options had a nerf (necromancer, assassin, trickster, hierophant). Yes, this is a fact, but in the long run this isn't really an issue. Power does clearly not come from ascendency classes alone, as the skill tree, skill gems, gear, enemy stats and player aptitude play just as important a role.

Regardless of whether the changes were nerfs or not, I do think many ascendency classes look a lot more interesting and have more nodes that work as specializations just like GGG intended. So a great job on thinking out of the box with some of them! (Love the new raider, deadeye, elementalist, slayer and even occultist, because they got more generic and specialized at the same time, great thinking there!)

It does make sense though, that nerfs to ascendancies impact the entire community as they are one of the few reliable ways for player with 'LITTLE INVESTMENT' to power up. If a player only has limited funds or limited time to play, they cannot invest in maxed out gear, which does seem to get more and more important to be able to comfortably play this game as of recent and the impact of gear is just too large. The trade system often also prohibits players from getting the gear they truly need to power up their ascendancies' inherent powers fully.

Offensive power has never really been an issue in path of exile, which did see the most changes in ascendencies, but defensive power is still a problem. The only true defense comes from EHP, because there are so many different high enemy damage mechanics out there nowadays. Go for eva/dodge and a huge hit still one-shots you, go for armor/block and DoT still melts you away. EHP is what hasn't seen a real boost in the last few years, despite enemy damage/amounts getting higher and higher. Life improvements came mainly from rare stats on rare chest armor and (too rare/expensive) catalysts. Where Energy shield has been rebalanced all the time, but also only saw minor improvements (unless maxed-out gear). Especially in a league where you fight several bosses at once, the total damage taken won't be too much of an issue with overlapping defensive mechanics, but getting "shotgunned" will get statistically many times more likely, when several bosses damage you in a short time interval with multiple different damage mechanics.

Key focus points: Defense over offense, trade system, Non-endgame / low-tier players.

Anyways, this league does look like a lot of fun and I for one am looking forward to trying the new ascendency classes and see how they hold up in the amazing new content! You have my support (also in terms of the new astonishingly beautiful supporter packs).

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CreazyX wrote:

not following working build on start of the league is stupid you can et stuck if you creating your own build and then you have to reroll and go again from the scrach soo gl with that

in the time everyonme will be in red maps and people that try create new builds will be week behind

So where is the problem? When it comes to challenges, so i will reach 24 or 36 at the end of the 2nd month or at the end of the league, instead of the end of the first month.

The comparison is the thief of joy.

A very fitting piece of wisdom that fits well here :)

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Beliaris wrote:

Like seriously, what is wrong with you guys. They nerfed the most played builds becasue they were simply toi strong for the state of the gamę. It almost felt like if there were literally 5 subclasses in this game.

Champ actually destroyed in new patch, jugg nerfed.

I would call the game balanced if every skill and class were viable and able to do all content. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and others might argue it never should be the case, and the game forces you to have multiple classess/builds where each is able to do certain content but not other. In practice, when I play and encounter random content (like Zana offering a unique map), which I can only do with that other character I'm not playing now, I see this as annoyance, not as an incentive to experiment.

The difference between classes and builds should come from different playstyles, not different levels of power or ability to tackle content (one build for lab, one for bosses, one for blight etc.).

GGG, Your rationale sounds nice, but where does introducing new skill gem changes leave the player who wants to continue playing their viable spectre build in Standard?

Stop trolling, there are no good things coming from this changes, its like boss at work tells you- next month you will get 200 dollars less in salary.

And you guys who support GGG with trolling say "yaaaay! lets see how i will survive next month with smaller salary! It will be fun experience!".

Dont make fools of yourself, people are not dumb.