3.28 - the ins and outs

So, the patch notes are in and there are quite a few good things, few stinkers and a question mark

Questions:
- Exceptional Supports. First - i do not think removal of Awakeneds was needed (unless we are slowly saying 'bye' to Sirus and Maven (hope)) just to replace them with slightly different gems. FOR NOW it looks like a change for the sake of change. Secondly - if they are rare - then few builds that REALLY needed these +2/3 from ASupport gems (mainly DoT builds) are screwed for no reason. Searing Bond or Scorching Ray or Chaos builds ALL used these +gem level Awakeneds. Nasty collateral there.


The Goods:
- T17 (or rather their idiotic fundruining mods) are GONE. good riddance. i fear this shit will return in a disguise but for now - rejoice!
- ES/INT stacker nerf. Imo it is still too small of a nerf but at least it is something. INT stacking will get something stupidly strong for sure, they get stuff each patch. But it is a good start. Next should be 'accuracy for INT' and 'evasion for INT'. I know similar nodes exist for other attributes but are universally garbage. It is INT that has great masteries, all of them.
- Accuracy in Templar area. I doubt anyone even care, but right now Templar area is completely void of sufficient Accuracy access. It is a great change that will make melee Templars actually much nicer to build
- In general buffs to skills are mostly melee skills and thats a good thing.
- great to see more 'red' trans gems.
- crops <> ore swap.
- Warden Bark node buff is absurdly strong for people who know.
- Overextertion nerf. it is harsh, it is two-tap as always (20% reservation on Autoexertion is NO JOKE) but that gem kinda say 100% more damage and that is a LOT. new values might be undertuned but it should be 'fine'.



The Bads:
- I.. do not like POE2ification of Atlas. It looks like softening the blow that inevitably comes. POE2 atlas is something i will never accept.
- All Holy skills have 50% converted to lightning. minor nitpick but it just doesnt resonate well with me. If anything - make that 60% so one mastery is enough to convert it all (Phys to Lightning is a bad support). it also seems unnecessary as - if the skills turn out good - the best way to play them is INT/STR/EnergyBlade stack anyway
- Some obscene items survived the nerf bat
- The WALLS stay. like holly f.. why? what benefit do they bring to the game? it is a giant sandpaper circle put on a pizza.
- Deletion of Viper Strike of the Mamba. That skill - to those unaware - was killed because INT/ACC stacked used, not because it was busted for its intended use. But oh well, it is dead now. I understand the reasons (but it is stat stacking that is the root cause) but method picked is kinda random.
- Buffs to T0 uniques.. cool, but you are aware that since dusting is a thing, you really need to make them omglulpowerful for people to consider using them? Essentia for sure did not reach such level and anyone still interested wont be happy paying divs for a weapon worth chaos.
- no change to how dusting works. it warps SO MANY things around itself it is not even funny
- Assassin is still 100% garbage. partly due to how Perfect Agony works, partly because the class itself is built around two notables (all poison and mainhand crit) that even do not work well with eachother. it needs conditionals gone, mark node gone, travel/filler node gone. some claw/dagger masteries are better designed than notables on this class.
- Volcanic Fissure remains the weirdest and hardest to scale 'base' skill. Slam that scales projectiles? there are not enough supports that scale both.. VFoS should be the default, ans VF should be the 'trans' version. and it needs some changes, like 'modifiers to melee damage apply to projectiles with 150% effect or whatever'. right now it is a great challenge skill. this patch seen lots of similar cases straighten out - sad to see VF not receiving similar treatment


in general, for the first time in long time i see that some egregious items (INT stack ffs) were toned down. imo - too little but still.
I am not a fan of mass production of bloat content (all these 'special, mirrage only items') and definitely do not like 'infused gems' (that looks like a change invented few days ago). this bloated game works only when there are tens of thousands of players all farming different kind of bloat. once league slows down - you end up with noone selling the bloat content you need, and SSFing it requires a week of grind due to absurdly low drop rates). then you leave the league making the problem even worse

3.29 DeBloat league please

Quick update:

The Good:
- Templar passive changes are AMAZING. FINALLY we have attack mastery (for +1 strikes) and Accuracy Mastery (for +500 to acc) - either or both make leveling SO MUCH BETTER. now we need at least one source of attack mana leech somewhere there.

The Mixed:
- Exceptional gems seem to me as a mixed bag (they are strong, but they are most likely rare as f.. AND need billions of xp to level them..). The uber-shockwave looks like must have while the Toad thing is.. whelming (ofc the numbers mean everything here but the delay is never good)

- KF Totems not touched. we already had a wand league, this most likely will be the second one in a row. Wand skill that has great single target is always a balance nightmare due to how obscenely good clear on them is. Coupled with amazing totem buff this doesnt look great for build variety

- Mana stackers are still a problem, same as Ratpith

- I never though the solution to Mageblood will be something even more stupid.

- Assassin is in desperate need of a rework. Ive revived one of my old time Assassins (claw frostblade) and oh boy, this ascendancy is garbage. all it gives you is crit and even then - it is not THAT much crit.


I will skip the league, but i am looking forward to holy skills and re-doing all my old melee templars with new tree. Most people never played melee templar so they dont care but these two small passive clusters make an incredible difference.