Tempest Bell power charge generation removal ):

Good day, Grinding Gear Staff. I hope this message finds you well and in a good mood.

First and foremost: This is not an attack on any of the game devs. I know you guys work really hard and I can see the passion and love you pour into this game. That is all the more reason I bring up this point, because it makes me scratch my head a little. This is a fan reaching out to have a discussion with you guys, because we love this game together.

I am a long time player and fan of ARPGs. I have played the likes of Diablo 2, Torchlight 2, Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Last Epoch and Path of Exile 2. Of all of the above, POE 2 stuck with me the longest, left the strongest impression and is hands down my favourite among these and among my top 5 games of all time. The build-crafting, the looks, the atmosphere, the story, the visual feedback, the combat, just the fucking feel of this game, man... chef's kiss.

I have recently finally maxed out my Tempest Monk (maxed out gear, lvl 97, maxed gems, the whole shebang). After 600 hours on the dude, I am now slaying like a BOSS. But as the subject title above mentions, a feature was removed from my carefully crafted and curated Tempest Flurry build. Bell was my only way of obtaining Power Charges during a boss fight on the fly (and more challenging content like T4 simulacrums and maps with high ailment resistance). There are other ways of obtaining it during boss fights, the only one I can think of during boss fights is minion sacrifice.

I'm not going to pretend like I'm not still eating through bosses, but this is not really a DPS matter (although for people that have not come to my level of power yet, it most certainly is). I will make a list of the pros and cons below to try and get my point across a little better maybe.

PROS of having Tempest Bell generate power charges with the correct passives and gems equipped:

+ Flat DPS boost during boss fights.
+ More build consistency.
+ More utility (have something like Charged Staff apply enhanced shock with the right support gems).
+ More build variety (not having to now switch over to -- but still have the option to -- something like minion sacrifice which is undoubtedly a very unengaging and unsatisfying way of obtaining charges and takes you out of the heat of the moment).
+ Kind of similar to the point above, but FUN! Man, it was so much fucking fun blasting away on Tempest Bell then to activate my Charged Staff and have that sweet Shock debuff on the boss climb to 60%, lightning shockwaves melting through Xesht at the speed of... well, lightning XD. Like some ancient Jedi. The visual candy more than the actual numbers.

CONS:

+ Jatin_GGG wrote:
'This is intended behaviour, Tempest Bell is not your enemy and Combat Frenzy only grants Charges when applying a specific ailment to enemies.'

Although this point above makes sense, it also doesn't make sense and wouldn't pass for a good way of looking at game mechanics. Yes, Tempest Bell is not your enemy, but is still an entity. An entity that can get ailments put on it. So you do freeze it... yet no charges? Why should it be excluded? I understand the logic of it not being an enemy, but why does it have to be an enemy to give charges?

Even if you guys over at GGG are adamant on not changing this feature, that's okay, just give us better ways of obtaining power charges (talking about Monk here) that aren't unfun and don't require us to fill gem slots with very niche and specific-situation-gems. General use and still very viable? Allow us to have this feature (power charges) obtainable during all scenarios. If it is intended for us not to have access to power charges during all situations, please give me a good reason as to why not.

Okay, I think that is kinda all I wanted to say 😁. Hope I got my point across and not in a too rude manner. Have a great day guys.

Regards
Nathan

PS. I'll leave a link here with my 0.2 build just to show the love I had poured into this build and the mechanics behind it.

https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/97a99042-1858-48e9-b633-fe0e645e85b6/builds/f523fdfc-0760-43cb-9506-06cb8717ab92