Path of Exile Path of Exile 3.16 Balance - Part 2 - Core Character Defences and Recovery |
Path of Exile 3.16 Balance - Part 2 - Core Character Defences and Recovery Posted: 06 Oct 2021 01:51 PM PDT In our upcoming 3.16 expansion, we're making a number of balance changes. Yesterday we began our three part series by talking about our plans for {LINK REMOVED} . We strongly recommend reading that post prior to this one. Today's post covers our plans for Core Character Defences and Recovery. Tomorrow, we'll reveal the third part to this series which covers our plans for Auras, Curses and Elemental Damage Over Time. We've assembled this article as a set of identified problems and our intended solutions. Below each solution is a spoiler tag with the specifics of what we're currently intending to change. Please note that as we're still a couple of weeks out from release, anything here is subject to change based on our further testing and your feedback. Core Character Defences and Recovery We are doing a major balance pass to improve defences and recovery for all characters. The goal here is to put more power into the core defences (Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield) to make them the best way to mitigate the kind of damage they are best at preventing, while taking some of that power away from the one-off mechanics that provide a significant defence for too low a cost. While some individual mechanics have been nerfed, this is overall a massive buff to defenses across the board.Previously, there were some very tanky characters, but they were gated behind specific niche mechanics and uniques that were not accessible to everyone. What we're doing here is moving a lot of that power to everyone else, so that core defenses are far more powerful than they were before. We're also making sure that every type of character has plenty of ways to mitigate a much more diverse set of damage types. For example, Evasion mitigates Attacks well, so we're introducing Spell Suppression to help Evasion builds protect themselves against Spells. Overarching Problem: Dodge and Blind provide more mitigation for fewer passive points and item slots than any other defence type. Attack Dodge does this in a form that is almost identical to Evasion but is far more efficient. Overarching goal: Remove Dodge entirely and review certain powerful mechanics like Blind (and Fortify for non-melee characters). Improve almost every other scalable defence type significantly to make them more powerful. This includes Armour, Evasion, Energy Shield Recovery and Spell Block. Problem: Armour as a core stat doesn't provide sufficient defence with low to medium investment. Armour characters instead rely on a number of other mechanics to provide them with the defence against Physical Damage that Armour is meant to provide. Solution: Improve the Armour formula so that Armour is more powerful, providing better mitigation across the board, and increase the strength of modifiers on items that add base local Armour. Specifics: Previously, if you had 10,000 Armour and you took a hit that dealt 2,000 physical damage, you'd reduce that hit by 20%. Now you'll reduce that hit by 33%. A rule of thumb with the new Armour formula is that if you want to get 50% mitigation against a physical damage hit, you need 5 times the damage as Armour where previously it required 10 times the damage. As an example, if you want to mitigate a 5,000 hit down to 2,500, you used to need 50,000 Armour to do this. Now you only need 25,000 Armour. Increased the strength of modifiers on gear that add base local Armour, and added a smoother progression of tiers (as they were currently very low until the highest tier, and had some levels where there was no new tier for a large number of levels). This will on average result in items with higher Armour on them, especially during the Campaign and early maps, and make it much more affordable to reach decent Armour values. Armour provided by base types can now be up to 10% higher, as part of a variable base type system detailed below. Determination has been buffed to provide both a flat bonus to Armour, as well as its existing "more" multiplier to Armour.
Review monster base Armour as a result of changes to the Armour formula. This may result in no changes if there has been no significant impact on character damage. Problem: Evasion doesn't provide sufficient defence. Evasive characters instead rely on the Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics keystones to provide Attack and Spell mitigation. Solution: Remove Attack Dodge entirely. Substantially buff Evasion so that it is a good option and make sure it is easily available on items. Specifics: Improve the Evasion formula to grant more chance to evade for all values of Evasion Rating.
Evasion provided by base types can now be up to 10% higher, as part of a variable base type system detailed below. The Grace Skill Gem now has "You and nearby Allies gain 20% more Evasion Rating" at gem level 1, up to 29% at gem level 20", as well as its existing flat bonus to Evasion Rating. These changes make the Aura very effective at Attack Mitigation if you've already invested in Evasion Rating. Reworked Evasion passives. Adjusted monster base Evasion and Minion Accuracy to compensate for changes to the evasion formula. Problem: Evasion provides no defence against Spells. Solution: Introduce "Spell Suppression" on Evasion items as well the Dexterity section of the Passive Skill Tree, which gives a chance to halve spell damage taken. The chance can be stacked up to 100%. Convert existing sources of Dodge and Spell Dodge to Spell Suppression or replace them with other bonuses. Specifics: Spell Suppression is designed as the Dexterity character's best answer to spells. In general, Spell Suppression gives easier access and more reliable spell damage mitigation for Dexterity characters without reliance on specific uniques. It's also much more reliable than Spell Dodge, but has a lower maximum. There will be a few specialised ways to invest in increasing the spell damage suppressed to reward high investment if you want to further protect yourself from spell hits.
Problem: Due to Armour and Evasion not working effectively as primary defences previously, we've introduced a lot of mechanics over the years that either scale them too efficiently or scale off them too efficiently (or not well enough). The intention would be that the straightforward way of getting armour or evasion on your items is the best way to maximise its efficacy. Solution: Review all mechanics that scale off Armour/Evasion, and all mechanics that grant large values or increases to Armour and Evasion. Specifics:
Problem: Characters who rely solely on Armour are not protected against Elemental Damage. Solution: Add more Maximum Elemental Resistances to areas of the passive tree that have Armour in them. Specifics: More access to maximum Elemental Resistances has been provided to Armour areas of the Passive Skill Tree in order to shore up the weaknesses of Armour-focused characters.
The Veiled modifier that increases quality on equipment was required to maximise the Energy Shield from an item. This is a problem because you cannot pick up the best Energy Shield items off the ground. Second Problem: Stacking the "Energy from Naught" notable passive on Cluster Jewels was too efficient as a way to maximise your Energy Shield. Solution: Replace the Veiled modifier and lower the power on the Energy from Naught Notable. Compensate all characters for the loss of maximum energy shield by increasing the strength of all Energy Shield base types. Add more Energy Shield to the passive skill tree. Specifics:
Problem: With the desire to increase Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield power across the board, we felt that the base values on items were too low. In addition, we feel that our item system needs more base type heterogeneity. Solution: Base Types are now generated with a random 0-10% higher base defence, as an inbuilt currently-non-modifiable property. This means that all base types can be better than they currently are, and armour base types are not homogeneous any more. Energy Shield values on base types instead vary from 0-20%. Problem: Energy Shield is most often used with leech and regeneration like Life, rather than embracing its unique recharge mechanic. Solution: Increase the base recovery rate of Energy Shield recharge. Rework the downside of the Wicked Ward Keystone. Move improvements to Energy Shield Recharge to the core modifier pool for Energy Shield gear, away from specialised item mechanics. Specifics:
Problem: Builds wanting to invest in both Evasion and Energy Shield rely heavily on Ghost Dance, requiring them to be a Trickster. Solution: Give everyone access to Ghost Dance as a Keystone Passive. Specifics: Every 2 seconds, gain a Ghost Shroud, up to a maximum of 3. When Hit, lose a Ghost Shroud and Recover Energy Shield equal to a percentage of your Evasion Rating. Cannot Recover Energy Shield to above Evasion Rating. We're still deciding on the specific value. The Trickster Ascendancy will be changed as it no longer grants Ghost Dance. Problem: Builds wanting to invest in both Armour and Energy Shield have no mechanic that gives a synergy between the two. Solution: Add a new Keystone Passive Skill, and add more hybrid Armour/Energy Shield Passives to the Templar section of the Passive Skill Tree. Specifics: New Keystone Passive Skill called Divine Shield: Percentage of Total Physical Damage prevented from Hits Recently is Regenerated as Energy Shield per second. Cannot Recover Energy Shield to above Armour. We're still deciding on the specific value. Problem: Some areas of the Passive Skill Tree, the Shadow area in particular, have no defence against (and very little life regeneration to overcome) Damage over Time effects. Solution: Improve Life Regeneration modifiers on gear, and add a new Keystone between the Witch and Shadow area on the Passive Skill Tree to heavily dampen the initial impact of Damage over Time. Specifics: Greatly enhanced flat Life Regeneration modifiers on gear, to be closer to 2-3% of an expected character life at their level. Percentage based Life Regeneration has been removed from non-Unique equipment modifiers, and the Influenced modifier pool. This is now reserved for Uniques and the Passive Skill Tree. New Keystone Passive Skill added to the Shadow Area called Lethe Shade: Take 75% less Damage over Time if you've started taking Damage over Time in the past second. 100% more Duration of Ailments on you. Problem: A few specific mechanics grant a lot of Life Regeneration, especially with Endurance Charge stacking, but for many other sources Life Regeneration is not very powerful. Solution: Remove various sources of Life Regeneration per Endurance Charge or lower their values, review effects that give Life Recovery Rate and high values of Life Regeneration. Add new passives in the Strength area of the tree that grant Life Regeneration and one source of increased Life Regeneration Rate. Problem: Shadow attackers don't have a form of Life Recovery that they excel at, while almost every other core character has a signature special Recovery method. Solution: Add new passive skill clusters to the Shadow area of the Passive Skill Tree, allowing investment in a combination of Life on Hit, Life on Kill and Life Leech. This also includes a source of Maximum total Life Recovery per Second from Life Leech in the Shadow area of the passive tree. Problem: Witch and Shadow casters don't have an accessible form of Life Recovery. Solution: Add new passive skill clusters to the area of the Passive Skill Tree between Shadow and Witch, allowing investment in Life on Kill and recouping a portion of damage taken as Life. More information on Passive Skill Tree changes will be coming later. Problem: Block is a pretty fundamental form of defence available to characters, seeing as it is available on Shields, but the Gladiator Ascendancy is far more efficient for Block investment compared to any other class because of the Gladiator's "Versatile Combatant" notable skill that grants as much Spell Block as you have Attack Block. Solution: Give everyone access to a weaker form of Versatile Combatant as a Keystone Passive, and replace the Gladiator Ascendancy skill. Also improve how much Block chance and Spell Block chance you can get from other sources. Specifics:
Problem: The pool of modifiers available on Shields includes some that have values that are too low or aren't relevant to shields. The power level of shield modifiers in general is also too low. Solution: Remove irrelevant modifiers from Shields and add some really powerful ones. Specifics: Modifiers such as Chance to Block Projectile Attack Damage, Chance to Avoid Stun, Increased Global Physical Damage, Global Elemental Damage, Global Attack Damage, flat Mana gained on Block, percentage Life Regeneration, and Increased Cast Speed either felt out of place, or generally did not have impactful values. These can no longer be obtained on various Shields. These changes are meant to make Shields feel more cohesive as a defensive piece of equipment, as well as to make their core modifiers more impactful. This will also make it easier to roll powerful Shields and obtain Shields with a specific modifier you're after. As mentioned above, modifiers such as Block Chance and Spell Block Chance were significantly improved and new tiers were added. Block Chance now goes up to +16% at its highest tier, and Spell Block Chance goes up to +15% at its highest tier. We have added a few impactful modifiers to specific Shield types:
Problem: As a defence, Blind was equivalent to an incredibly high level of evasion, with minimal character investment. It felt mandatory for all characters. Solution: Make Blind synergise with Evasion so that it's more powerful only if you have built a very evasive character. The power level of the new Blind is significantly lower than before, but has more opportunities for further investment if you want to specialise in it. Specifics: Blinded now causes targets to have 20% less Accuracy Rating and Evasion Rating. This change makes it so Blind is of no defensive help to characters who have no Evasion, but helps if you do. It also has an offensive component, like if you want to lower the Evasion Rating of Evasive monsters to make it easier to hit them. Blind Effect is now available on the Passive Skill Tree if you want to invest in this further. The Saboteur Ascendancy Notable Passive Skill that is tied to Blind is being reviewed, and Flesh and Stone is being changed as noted below. Problem: Because Flesh and Stone blinded nearby enemies, it was incredibly popular. The changes to Blind have reduced its power, so now characters may be missing a low-cost defensive reservation effect. Solution: Reduce the cost of Flesh and Stone and change Tempest Shield so that it is a similarly powerful defensive reservation effect (alongside Arctic Armour and Flesh and Stone). The intent is that there are three competing defensive reservation effects that you are able to pick between, or use together. Specifics:
Problem: Fortify is intended as a defensive benefit for being a melee character, but can often be obtained by spellcasters using melee weapon types that don't actually engage in melee combat. Solution: Change the Fortify mechanic so its effect is based on your melee damage. Specifics: We're experimenting with a system that lets Fortify be applied based on Melee Damage dealt, so that tiny little Melee Damage Hits don't provide a full strength Fortify. This will mean that we'll be able to introduce a Chance to gain Fortify on Hit on Passive Skills or items, which we've avoided in the past, but we're working to avoid a system where every spellcaster wants to run Shield Charge to get Fortify at little cost. Our eventual goal here is that all Melee characters keep Fortify up reliably without a huge cost, while spellcasters and ranged characters won't have access to the mechanic without significant investment (or being a Champion). That concludes Part 2 of our 3.16 expansion balance changes. Tomorrow, we'll share Part 3, which covers our plans for Auras, Curses and Elemental Damage Over Time. Please keep in mind as we're several weeks away from launch, elements of what we've written here may change after further play testing, feedback and iteration. There's plenty more to discover in our upcoming reveal of Path of Exile: Scourge and its patch notes. See you tomorrow! |
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