In our upcoming 3.16 expansion, we're making a number of balance changes. Over the last two days, we talked about our plans for
{LINK REMOVED}Flasks and Ailment Mitigation and
{LINK REMOVED}Core Character Defences and Recovery. We strongly recommend reading those posts prior to this one. Today's post 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.
Support characters - Auras and other Reservation Effects
Problem:The Reduced Reservation stat provides very little benefit at low values, but becomes very powerful when heavily invested in. This allows players to run every Aura in the game. It also forces Reduced Reservation to be balanced around extreme levels of investment, limiting how useful it can be to characters that do not run enormous numbers of Reservation Skills. Finally, characters that heavily invested in Reduced Reservation in order to run more skills on Mana were also able to reserve Life extremely effectively as well with no further investment, rendering this the only sensible way to play most heavily reservation-focused builds.
Solution:Replace "Reservation Reduction" with "Reservation Efficiency". When stacked, Reservation Efficiency does not allow for infinite Auras. This can be given out much more liberally as a result, letting characters run additional Reservation Effects with only a couple of sources of Reservation Efficiency. The average character benefits, but the top end of extreme reservation has been made significantly weaker.
Specifics:Modifiers to Reservation have been replaced with Reservation Efficiency. Reservation Efficiency works by dividing the cost of the Reservation Effect: 100% increased Reservation Efficiency would halve the cost of all Auras. 50% Reservation Efficiency cuts down costs enough to let you reserve an additional 50% Reservation Aura.
Passives and item modifiers with reduced Reservation have been replaced with increased Mana Reservation Efficiency, generally at double the value of the previous reduced Reservation value, but sometimes with different values for balance reasons. This means that a small amount of Reservation investment is more impactful than before, while high investment doesn't allow as many Auras to be used. The vast majority of Reservation Efficiency offered is now Mana-specific in order to prevent reserving both Life and Mana being the default choice for a build heavily invested in Reservation. Generic Reservation Efficiency and Life Reservation Efficiency are still available on some item modifiers.
- If not mentioned below, all sources that previously provided reduced reservation, including for specific skills or types of skills, now provide increased mana reservation efficiency at twice the value of the reduced reservation they used to give. Modifiers on existing items are affected by these changes.
- Notable passive skills granted by cluster jewels that previously granted reduced reservation of a specific aura now grant 60% increased mana reservation efficiency of that skill for auras that have 50% base reservation, and 100% increased mana reservation efficiency of that skill for auras that have 35% base reservation.
- The Hierophant's Sanctuary of Thought Notable Passive Skill now provides 25% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency, instead of 10% less Mana Reservation.
- Helmet enchantments that previously granted reduced reservation of a specific skill now grant the following values of increased mana reservation efficiency for that skill. Existing items will instead have twice the previous reduced reservation value (generally lower than the new values). Enchantments for skills that have 50% base reservation now grant 20/30% increased mana reservation efficiency, for Merciless and Eternal Labyrinth versions respectively. Enchantments for skills that have 35% base reservation now grant 30/45% increased mana reservation efficiency. Enchantments for skills that have 25% or flat base reservation now grant 50/75% increased mana reservation efficiency.
- The Corrupted Implicit modifier on Jewels that previously provided 1% reduced Reservation now provides 2% increased Reservation Efficiency, not specific to mana.
- Skyforth now grants 12% increased Reservation Efficiency (not specific to mana), instead of 6% reduced Reservation.
- Hyrri's Truth now grants "Precision has 100% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Precision has 50% less Reservation". This change applies to existing items.
- Replica Hyrri's Truth now grants "Hatred has 100% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Hatred has 50% less Reservation". This change applies to existing items.
- Essence Worm now grants 80% reduced Reservation Efficiency (not specific to mana), instead of 40% increased Reservation.
- Memory Vault now grants 20% reduced Reservation Efficiency (not specific to mana), instead of 10% increased Reservation.
- Unique items that previously granted a specific skill 100% reduced reservation now cause that skill to have no reservation. This change applies to existing items.
- Items that previously caused socketed gems to have reduced reservation have been balanced separately to other reservation efficiency effects. They still provide generic reservation efficiency rather than mana reservation efficiency, but generally have values lower than double the amount of reservation reduction they used to provide. Existing items will be updated to the functionality and values stated below, but will still display the old values unless updated with a Divine Orb.
- The Shaper and Hunter Influence Shield modifiers that previously granted 10/15% reduced Reservation of Socketed Gems now grants 15/20% increased Reservation Efficiency of Socketed Gems.
- The Synthesised Implicit modifier that previously granted 10% reduced Reservation of Socketed Gems now grants 20% increased Reservation Efficiency of Socketed Gems.
- Prism Guardian now grants "Socketed Gems have 30% increased Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Socketed Gems have 25% reduced Reservation".
- Victario's Influence now grants "Socketed Gems have 45% increased Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Socketed Gems have 30% reduced Reservation".
- The Devouring Diadem now grants "Socketed Gems have 25% increased Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Socketed Gems have 20% reduced Reservation".
- Vivinsect now grants "Socketed Gems have 20% reduced Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Socketed Gems have 10% increased Reservation".
- Heretic's Veil now grants "Socketed Curse Gems have 20% increased Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Socketed Curse Gems have 12% reduced Reservation".
- Rotblood Promise now grants "Socketed Curse Gems have 80% increased Reservation Efficiency", instead of "Socketed Curse Gems have 50% reduced Reservation''.
Problem:Characters specialised in maximising the power of auras provide an absolutely insane amount of damage and defence to party members, making a party with an aura-specialised character so much more effective than one without.
Solution:Remove sources of Aura Effect from Cluster Jewels and move the Aura Cluster Jewels type to Small Cluster Jewels, so it is no longer possible to continuously stack Aura Effect for your party. Introduce a new Cluster Jewel Notable to increase the "Effect of your Auras on You" for builds that are building Auras for their own power.
Specifics:- The Aura Cluster Jewel type can now be found on Small Cluster Jewels, rather than Medium Cluster Jewels. This makes it more costly and less impactful to stack large numbers of Aura Cluster Jewels. The small Passives now grant 6% increased Reservation Efficiency, instead of increased Aura Effect.
- Cluster Jewel Notable Passive Skills have all had Aura Effect removed. The increased Aura Effect of Auras on you from the Purposeful Harbinger Cluster Jewel Notable now only applies to your own Auras Effect on you. The Master of Command Cluster Jewel Notable Passive Skill now grants 10% increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skill on Enemies (previously 15%). A new Cluster Jewel Notable has been added that grants 10% increased Effect of your Auras on You.
- Cluster Jewel Notable Passives that grant reduced Reservation to specific Auras instead now grant high amounts of Reservation Efficiency to that Aura, as well as improving the secondary bonus that notable gave.
- Added Cluster Jewel Notable Passives that grant high amounts of Reservation Efficiency to specific Auras, as well as some other small bonus. For example: Zealotry has 60% increased Reservation Efficiency, and 10% increased Effect of Consecrated Ground you Create.
- The Jinxed Juju Amulet now grants 5-10% increased Effect of your Curses (previously 10-15%), and 5-10% increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills (previously 10-15%).
Support Characters - Curses
Problem:Characters specialised in maximising the number and power of Curses provide far too much damage and defence to party members, making a party with a Curse-specialised character so much more effective than one without.
Solution:Make Curse Cluster Jewels a Small Cluster Jewel, with many of the Notables reworked to benefit specific Curses significantly, greatly improving a regular character wanting to maximise their Curse of choice. Make significant changes to Doedre's Skin as it applies many Curses at almost no cost.
Specifics:The Curse Cluster Jewel type can now be found on Small Cluster Jewels, rather than Medium Cluster Jewels. This makes it more costly and less impactful to stack large numbers of Curse Cluster Jewels.
To make these Jewels more useful for characters using only one or two Curses, we've greatly improved the Cluster Jewel Notables granting benefits to specific Curses as well as added new ones, however, they can no longer be found on Cluster Jewels other than Curse type ones.
List of Cluster Jewel Notable Passives changed:
- Evil Eye, Whispers of Death, and Dark Discourse Cluster have been reworked as new Curse themed Notable Passives. In general, Curse Effect that applies to all Curses no longer exists on Cluster Jewel Notable Passives.
- Lord of Drought, Blizzard Caller, Tempt the Storm, Misery Everlasting, and Exploit Weakness all now grant 40% increased Curse Effect of specific Curses (previously 25%).
- Forbidden Words no longer grants 5% increased Effect of your Curses. It now grants 20% Increased Reservation Efficiency of Curse Aura Skills (previously 4% reduced Reservation).
Added new Curse Cluster Jewel Notable Passives that benefit Doom, Marks and Hexes that previously didn't have their own Notables (such as Punishment, Elemental Weakness, Temporal Chains and Enfeeble). For example: 20% chance for Hexes to be applied at Maximum Doom and Hexes have 50% increased Doom Gain Rate.
Doedre's Skin now grants "Hexes from Socketed Skills can apply 5 additional Curses", it previously granted "Hexes from Socketed Skills ignore Curse Limit" (this is so Replica Doedre's Damning has some downside with using it). Now grants "20% less Effect of your Curses" for all Skills, instead of reduced Curse Effect of Socketed Skills triggered with the Summon Doedre's Effigy Skill. The Summon Doedre's Effigy Skill now has a short Cast Time (previously Instant), its cooldown has been removed (previously 0.5 seconds), and now has a Mana cost. Existing items will be affected by this Curse Limit change, though they will only have 20% less Curse Effect of Curses triggered with Summon Doedre's Effigy.
Some other Uniques have been rebalanced:
- The Replica Doedre's Damning Ring now grants 15-25% increased Effect of your Curses (previously 25-35%). Existing versions of this item can be updated to the new values with a Divine Orb.
- The Wheel of the Stormsail Shield now grants "Curse Skills have 100% increased Skill Effect Duration" (previously 25%). Existing versions of this item can be updated to the new values with a Divine Orb.
- The Jinxed Juju Amulet now grants 5-10% increased Effect of your Curses (previously 10-15%), and 5-10% increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills (previously 10-15%). Existing versions of this item can be updated to the new values with a Divine Orb.
Elemental Damage over Time
Problem:The Elemental Damage over Time effects of Cold Damage over Time, Burning and Ignite are too dependent on Elemental Overload and Elemental Equilibrium. Ignites are too dependent on Ignite Damage Multipliers on skills, making skills without Ignite Multipliers too weak to use Ignite with.
Solution:Greatly improve the base strength of Ignite, Burning and Cold Damage over Time, while making Elemental Overload and Elemental Equilibrium less powerful or require more investment with Damage over Time skills. Rebalance skills that could apply Ignite effects around the new base damage of Ignite and remove the Ignite Damage multipliers.
Specifics:Player Ignite now inherently deals 150% more Damage than before (previously 50% of base Damage over 4 seconds, now 125% of base Damage over 4 seconds).
Cold Damage over Time Skills now deal more damage:
- Creeping Frost now deals 18.4 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 16.7), up to 2225.6 at gem level 20 (previously 1391.2). Its Hit Damage remains unchanged.
- Wintertide Brand now deals 13.7 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 12.5), up to 261.2 at gem level 20 (previously 164.6).
- Cold Snap now deals 34 to 52 Cold Damage at gem level 1 (previously 32 to 47), up to 1057 to 1586 at gem level 20 (previously 666 to 999).
- Vaal Cold Snap now deals 37.8 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 34.3), up to 2454.4 at gem level 20 (previously 1532.7). Its Hit Damage remains unchanged.
- Vortex now deals 42 to 63 Cold Damage at gem level 1 (previously 38 to 57), up to 833 to 1250 at gem level 20 (previously 524 to 787). It now deals 116.2 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 106.5), up to 2315.1 at gem level 20 (previously 1456.9). It now has a Critical Strike Chance of 6% (previously 6.5%).
- Siphoning Trap now deals 16.9 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 15.5), up to 760.7 at gem level 20 (previously 426.3).
Burning skills now deal more damage:
- Searing Bond now deals 32.2 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 29.4), up to 3899.6 at gem level 20 (previously 2459.5).
- Scorching Ray now deals 12.8 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 11.7), up to 696.3 at gem level 20 (previously 439.4).
- Righteous Fire now deals 39 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 35.8), up to 2447.9 at gem level 20 (previously 1541.8). It also now deals 35% of Life and Energy Shield as Base Fire Damage per second (previously 20%).
- Vaal Righteous Fire now deals 120% of Sacrificed Energy Shield and Life as Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 80%), up to 158% at gem level 20 (previously 99%).
- Fire Trap now deals 35.7 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 32.5), up to 2934.9 at gem level 20 (previously 1833.6). Its Hit Damage remains unchanged.
- Flame Wall now deals 2.2 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (unchanged), up to 679.9 at gem level 20 (previously 456.3). Its secondary Debuff now deals 7.2 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (unchanged), up to 2266.4 at gem level 20 (previously 1520.9).
- Infernal Legion Support now has "Minions from Supported Skills Deal 15.4 Fire Damage per second to Enemies near them" at gem level 1 (previously 15.6), up to 2092.6 at gem level 20 (previously 1315.9).
Many Skills that had an Ignite Multiplier have had that Multiplier removed. The Skill has been balanced to compensate for this, if necessary. Certain Skills have been rebalanced due to the change to Base Ignite Damage, taking into account whether they're able to take full advantage of Elemental Overload now. Note that examples below do not include the effect of Elemental Overload or Elemental Equilibrium, hence why the Ignite value is much higher for many of the skills:
- Fireball no longer has 50-88% more Damage with Ignite. It now has 25% chance to Ignite at all gem levels (previously 20-39%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 33.0% higher.
- Vaal Fireball no longer has 50-88% more Damage with Ignite. It now has 25% chance to Ignite at all gem levels (previously 20-39%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 33.0% higher.
- Discharge now has 55% less Damage with Ailments (previously 30%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 60.7% higher.
- Flameblast now has 60% more Damage with Ailments for each Stage (previously 90%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 75.0% higher at 10 Stages.
- Vaal Flameblast now has 70% more Damage with Ailments for each Stage (previously 100%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 81.8% higher at 10 Stages.
- Incinerate now has "Final wave deals 250% more Damage with Ignite" (previously 500%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 45.8% higher. It received a harsher damage loss because it still works very well with Elemental Overload.
- Quality on Anomalous Firestorm no longer grants "(0.00)-(-0.06) seconds to Base Duration", or "First Impact deals 0-60% more Damage with Hits and Ailments". Instead, it now grants 0-10% chance to Ignite Enemies. Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 150% higher. If using the Anomalous quality, the Ignite is now 110% higher.
- Fire Burst (Granted by the "Cast Level 20 Fire Burst on Hit" Essence Modifier) now deals 752 to 1127 Fire Damage at level 20 (previously 1122 to 1683). Now has a 1 second Cooldown (previously 1.5 seconds). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 67.5% higher.
- Hexblast now deals 103 to 155 Chaos Damage at gem level 1 (previously 74 to 110), up to 965 to 1447 at gem level 20 (previously 689 to 1034). It now has "40% more Damage with Hits per 5 Doom on Hex with most Doom" (previously 60%), and "15% more Damage with Ailments per 5 Doom on Hex with most Doom" (previously 40%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 95.6% higher at 30 Doom, and 83.3% higher at 40 doom.
- Doom Blast (from Impending Doom Support) now deals 54 to 81 Chaos Damage at gem level 1 (previously 39 to 58), up to 602 to 903 at gem level 20 (previously 430 to 645). It now has "40% more Damage with Hits per 5 Doom on Hex", and "15% more Damage with Ailments per 5 Doom on Hex". It no longer has "60% more Damage per 5 Doom on Hex". Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 44.6% higher at 30 Doom, and 32.8% higher at 40 doom.
- Divine Ire now has "Beam deals 30% more Damage with Ailments per Stage after the first" (previously 70%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 7.1% higher at 20 Stages. It received a harsher damage loss because it still works very well with Elemental Overload, and was already one of the highest Ignite damage skills.
- Penance Brand now has "Explosions deal 60% more Damage with Ailments per Energy after the first" (previously 100%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 54.8% higher.
- Explosive Concoction no longer has "Deals 30-49% more Damage with Ignite if Charges were consumed from a Ruby Flask". It now has "+40-78% to Damage over Time Multiplier with Ignite if Charges were consumed from a Ruby Flask". Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 155.0% higher if you had +50% to Fire Damage over Time Multiplier.
- Armageddon Brand now deals 40 to 69 Fire Damage at gem level 1 (previously 34 to 51), up to 613 to 920 at gem level 20 (previously 398 to 597). It no longer has 120-250% more Damage with Ignite, or 25% chance to Ignite Enemies. It now activates every 1 second while Attached (previously 0.75 seconds), and has a Critical Strike Chance of 5% (previously 6%). It now has "Deals 10% more hit Damage to Branded Enemy" at gem level 1, which scales up to 29% at gem level 20. Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 10.1% higher. It received a harsher damage loss because it still works very well with Elemental Overload.
- Shattering Steel now has "Projectiles deal up to 100% more Damage with Hits per Steel Shard consumed at the start of their movement, lowering this bonus as they travel farther" (previously Hits and Ailments). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 16.7% lower when consuming 2 shards. This skill is not intended to work well with ignite so it doesn't justify having its own unique multiplier stat.
- Explosive Arrow now has "Explosion deals 5% more Damage with Hits per Explosive Arrow on Target" (previously Hits and Ailments). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 66.7% higher with 10 arrows on the target. Ignite with the skill is now 25.0% higher with 20 arrows on the target.
- Sentinels of Purity summoned with Herald of Purity now have 40% less Life. Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 50.0% higher when using the Death Wish skill from the Maw of Mischief Unique Helmet.
- Frost Bomb now deals 8 to 13 Cold Damage at gem level 1 (previously 14 to 21), up to 930 to 1395 at gem level 20 (previously 1336 to 2003). It no longer has 25% reduced Energy Shield Recharge Rate. It now has "4% more Damage with Hits per 0.1 seconds Duration". Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 74.1% higher when it is able to ignite.
The Elemental Overload Keystone Passive Skill now gives more Hit and Ailment Elemental Damage to Skills if they crit in the last 8 seconds. This means that you can't use a second rapidly hitting skill, making a small amount of critical chance investment much more important to skills taking advantage of Elemental Overload.
The Elemental Equilibrium Keystone Passive Skill now applies 25% Exposure of the Elements not Hit with, removing Exposure of the Elements you Hit with. It's now an easy way to apply a strong Exposure effect rather than a huge damage boost that we balanced Elemental Damage over Time Skills around. Some other skills have been reviewed because of these changes.
- We will be looking at pure Elemental Minions to determine what changes are needed here.
- Moved the Elemental Equilibrium Keystone Passive to the Ranger section of the Passive Skill Tree, where there is much less existing access to Exposure for Elemental builds and access to Skills that rotate Elements, such as Wild Strike.
More scaling options have been added to Damage over Time builds on the Passive Skill Tree and items, raising the top end of damage over time for well geared characters.
- There are now 5 tiers of the Global Damage over Time Multiplier Suffix modifier that rolls on all Weapons, going up to 26% on one-handed Weapons, and 45% on two-handed Weapons.
- There are now 5 tiers of the Global Damage over Time Multiplier Suffix modifier that rolls on all Amulets as part of their base modifier pool, going up to 26%.
- The Influence modifiers on Rings that had a chance to Ignite/Freeze/Shock as well as some flat Damage have been changed. They no longer provide a chance to apply the Ailment, but provide a lot more added Damage instead. The Fire version rolls up to 23-30 to 47-54 Fire Damage against Ignited Enemies, the Cold version rolls up to 20-26 to 41-48 Cold Damage against Chilled or Frozen Enemies, and the Lightning version rolls up to 4-8 to 82-86 Lightning Damage against Shocked Enemies.
- Essence of Delirium no longer rolls "Hexes you inflict have +5 to maximum Doom" on Rings, or +10% to Damage over Time Multiplier on Amulets. Instead, it now rolls +12-15% to Damage over Time Multiplier on Rings, and "Hexes you inflict have +10 to maximum Doom" on Amulets.
- Fire, Cold, Physical, and Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier modifiers on Jewels now have values of +6-8% (previously +3-4%).
- There is a new Global Damage over Time Multiplier modifier that can roll on all Jewels with a value of +4-6%.
- All Jewels can now roll a Faster Damage of Ailments Prefix modifier, with a value of 4-6%.
- The chance to Ignite/Freeze/Shock Suffix modifiers on Weapons now have multiple tiers, with their chances now 10%, 15%, and 20% respectively. Staves have a 20%, 25%, and 30% chance respectively.
- Damage over Time Multiplier modifiers on Influenced Gloves and Amulets now roll values up to +16-20% at its highest tier (previously +13-16%).
- Faster Ignite, Poison, and Bleed modifiers on Influenced Boots now roll up to 10-12% (previously 8-10%).
- Emberwake added a bit too much damage and crowded out any other options you could use with an Ignite build, and the downside has gotten weaker over time due to us adding more sources of Faster Ignite Damage. It no longer has "Ignited Enemies Burn 50-65% slower", and it now has 40% less Burning Damage. This change does not affect existing items.
Problem:Burning Arrow is too complex for a level 1 skill.
Solution:Redesign the skill without a secondary stacking burning effect, but with high added fire damage against Ignited enemies.
Specifics:- No longer has a stacking Burning Effect. Now deals 150% base Damage at gem level 1 (unchanged), up to 214% at gem level 20 (previously 184%). Now adds 3 to 4 Fire Damage to Attacks against Ignited Enemies at gem level 1, up to 201 to 302 Fire Damage at gem level 20. Now has an Attack Speed of 90% of Base (previously 100%). Now has a 25% chance to Ignite (previously 50%).
Problem:Ignite builds don't have a way to focus their damage on bosses, forcing balance to be the same for clear speed damage and boss damage.
Solution:Change Flame Surge and introduce a new attack-based mechanic to be able to deal much more Burning damage to a targeted enemy.
Specifics:- Flame Surge is getting a new burning ground mechanic that deals damage based on ignites on the target.
- We're investigating a similar mechanic for Attacks.
We want to stress that the above list and posts from the last two days aren't final. There are plenty of other balance topics that we plan to cover in the 3.16 announcement and patch notes. Thanks for reading through to the end, and please let us know your feedback on these changes and this new approach to communication.
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