[Megathread] Path of Exile

[Enjeh]

Right now I would say; wait for the 3.1 patch notes until you start trying to make a build for Abyss, seeing how Vaal Pact was changed I'm sure other stuff will be changed as well. :p

[Gatsbybutters]

Anyone know if we get an optional passive reset for our characters this expansion? I haz regertz but don't wanna spend regrets if I get a free reset soon.

[satimy]

Anyone know if we get an optional passive reset for our characters this expansion? I haz regertz but don't wanna spend regrets if I get a free reset soon.

Pretty much guaranteed, usually a week before the league when Harbinger ends

[Enjeh]

QoL additions for 3.1.0.



Due to popular request, we've added a counter to the challenge panel in 3.1.0!



Here's another small Quality of Life change for 3.1.0!

In 3.1.0, you will be able to trade Divination Cards with Navali in your hideout!

Elemental Bearer Bloodline packs have had their post-death visual effect enhanced for 3.1.0!

[SirCowdog]

Just out of curiosity(those of you who are still following this thread): What are you guys doing in the last 5 days or so before the new Abyss League?

[I Push Buttons]

Just out of curiosity(those of you who are still following this thread): What are you guys doing in the last 5 days or so before the new Abyss League?

Waiting for patch notes.

Don't want to choose/come up with a build before I know what's changing.

[SirCowdog]

Waiting for patch notes.

Don't want to choose/come up with a build before I know what's changing.

As someone who's relatively new to PoE(I played during early beta when Piety was the furthest you could go), and only recently played Harbinger league:

What kind of preparation can be done for the new Abyss league other than settling on a build to get yourself established once it starts?

[Kelimbror]

What kind of preparation can be done for the new Abyss league other than settling on a build to get yourself established once it starts?

You can buy one of these.

[SirCowdog]

You can buy one of these.

I LOL'd! Well played sir.

[I Push Buttons]

As someone who's relatively new to PoE(I played during early beta when Piety was the furthest you could go), and only recently played Harbinger league:

What kind of preparation can be done for the new Abyss league other than settling on a build to get yourself established once it starts?

Settling on a build is pretty much it as far as preparation. That's why I am holding off, I put a lot of thought into what I want to do since I only make one character per league. I don't want to spend hours putting something together and then read the patch notes that something that makes my build work is nerfed; or see something buffed that I would like to do better.

You could look up some efficient leveling tips and try to get to mapping ASAP when the league begins. The very early league (the first few days) economy is fucked, prices are wacky and you can make/save a lot of currency before the market stabilizes.

[Gatsbybutters]

I LOL'd! Well played sir.

Well aren't we fancy around here with our shit buckets and plastic bags. Poopsock upgrade, give the bucket a gem socket for faster attacks and you're set.

[SirCowdog]

Well aren't we fancy around here with our shit buckets and plastic bags. Poopsock upgrade, give the bucket a gem socket to for faster attacks and you're set.

Wouldn't you want increased duration so you could play longer before expiring? xD

[Enjeh]

Abyss League Challenges and Rewards

Here's a little teaser of the upcoming Zana mods!

[potis]

As someone who's relatively new to PoE(I played during early beta when Piety was the furthest you could go), and only recently played Harbinger league:

What kind of preparation can be done for the new Abyss league other than settling on a build to get yourself established once it starts?

The preparation is basically deciding what you are gonna aim to do.

As example, do you just want to try the new skills and if it fails simply abandon the league?

Go the safe way of speed-clear farmer?

Go the boss-clear previous-OP builds?

Do a bit of both by at a slower pace?

Etc etc, it all comes down to "Wait for the patch notes and hope your choice didnt get nerfed"

[SirCowdog]

The preparation is basically deciding what you are gonna aim to do.

As example, do you just want to try the new skills and if it fails simply abandon the league?

Go the safe way of speed-clear farmer?

Go the boss-clear previous-OP builds?

Do a bit of both by at a slower pace?

Etc etc, it all comes down to "Wait for the patch notes and hope your choice didnt get nerfed"

I'm still at the point of learning all the nuances of the game. Trying out builds to see how things work. So I'm definitely not try to race or reach the heights of the new league.

Mostly I just enjoy learning the game under new conditions. It's come a long way since beta.

What did you mean by "abandon the league" though?

[potis]

I'm still at the point of learning all the nuances of the game. Trying out builds to see how things work. So I'm definitely not try to race or reach the heights of the new league.

Mostly I just enjoy learning the game under new conditions. It's come a long way since beta.

What did you mean by "abandon the league" though?

I simply mean, PoE has a huge replayability as long as you set "goals" to complete.

For some its "Finish all challenges for the skins", for others is "Buy a headhunter this league!" for others is "Kill shaper finally!" (Now Elder too).

As example my goal the last few leagues always was "Beat shaper with a non-meta OP build", i failed the first time cause i got burnt out, the second time i got him and havent really logged on since cause once more, burnt out.

In other words, PoE is fun, but not that fun cause it the end its all about, finish quests-->Cleave Maps-->Cleave more maps in a sense, personal goals make it replayable.

Despite being the best ARPG, its plagued by all ARPG problems, the end game farming is tedious and non-rewarding at all, considering nothing decent ever drops.

"Abandon the league" is basically that, like if you spend all your currency/time trying to make you own build work with the new abilities, only to find out the new abilities are simply worthless and a build 1/10th of the price of yours can do things x10 times better again.

As example, the build i killed Shaper with was non-meta, i could change ~5 passives and simply replace main ability with Blade Flurry, gain about double the DPS to something like 1.5mil burst phases and destroy him that way, but i didnt want an OP meta build.

It all comes down to simply if you enjoy running maps 24/7 and nothing ever dropping to make you feel "Excited" to continue playing the game especially since in the end you did before last league, and the league before that, and before that, etc etc.

After awhile you understand and learn "Yeah, ignore 90% of the abilities, this 10% of abilities are actually good, lets make a build out of them" which again its probably something like 10-20 OP builds, and 50 "Very good" builds out of those 10% of all the abilities, still a lot for ARPG.

[Enjeh]

Path of Nerfs

As developers, we're not afraid to nerf game elements that are too powerful and are harming Path of Exile. Unfortunately, patch notes are not the best way to communicate these nerfs, because their format and information density makes it hard to include sufficient explanation.

In today's manifesto, we have highlighted and explained most of the significant nerfs in 3.1.0. Of course, there are plenty of buffs in 3.1.0 as well, but we'll leave those as pleasant surprises in tomorrow's full patch notes.

Vaal Pact Keystone
Being able to leech instantly meant that many threats were completely mitigated by high-damage fast-hitting characters with minimal leech investment. Vaal Pact has been changed to no longer grant instant leech, but instead doubles your character's leech rate and maximum leech rate. This was one of the most heavily-requested nerfs in the history of Path of Exile.

The keystone is still powerful, but now really benefits from investment in leech.

Atziri's Acuity
Atziri's Acuity has been changed to instead grant Vaal Pact if you've performed a critical strike recently, giving it a slightly different use when compared with the Vaal Pact keystone. It now fills a different role to its previous one and acts as a way for you to avoid some of the downsides of the Vaal Pact Keystone

The Slayer
The Brutal Fervour Ascendancy Skill no longer grants Maximum Life Leech Rate. Hematophagy and Vitality Void now only grant +3% to Maximum Life Leech Rate (from +5%).

As a result of the changes to Vaal pact, other sources of leech were also examined. Brutal Fervour was identified as a problem, moreso after the changes to Vaal Pact, as it was the next-closest thing to instant leech. We didn't want to change what made the Slayer the Slayer, but were okay with it taking a small hit, given its dominance over the 3.0.0 ladders.

Mind over Matter
The mana bonuses granted by the passive skills behind this keystone have been reduced. The mana granted was very high, especially at lower levels. The keystone is currently at a power level where further mana investment is still worthwhile.

Vulnerability, Despair and Wither
Vulnerability is now a Strength gem, focused on Physical Damage, Bleed and Maim.

Despair is a new Intelligence gem that will replace existing copies of Vulnerability. It reduces Chaos Resistance, increases Damage over Time taken, and grants added Chaos Damage to hits against cursed enemies. (This gem isn't counted as one of the ten new ones in 3.1.0).

Wither now has a lower max stack limit (15, down from 20) and slightly lower damage taken effect per stack (6% per stack, down from 7%).

Wither increased Chaos Damage taken by enemies much more than was reasonable for an easily totemifiable non-damage skill. We've split some of its damage bonus off into the new Despair curse, taking this opportunity to realign Vulnerability as a Strength-based curse as was more appropriate for a physical-damage-improving effect. As mentioned previously, old copies of the Vulnerability gem will become Despair with the release of 3.1.0.

Witchfire Brew now applies Despair.

Dark Pact
Dark Pact cast using your life no longer has bonus radius, and the damage bonus has been reduced from 95% more damage with hits and ailments when using your life to 76% more damage.

Own-life-spending Dark Pact builds were dealing too much damage over too large an area, granting an already very defensive build very high clear speeds.

Barrage
Barrage no longer has the additional projectile enchantment available in the Merciless Labyrinth. The equivalent Endgame Labyrinth enchantment now grants +1 additional Barrage Projectile (down from +2). Existing helmet enchantments are unmodified.

The additional projectile made this skill and enchantment combination the superior choice for bow/wand users. We want to ensure that there are several viable options for these characters.

Doomfletch and Doomfletch's Prism
Doomfletch: Now adds 100% of Physical Damage as Damage of a random Element (down from 110%). It no longer has increased Critical Strike Chance, and instead has (12-16) to (20-24) added Physical Damage.

Doomfletch's Prism: Now adds 100% of Physical Damage as Damage of each Element (down from 110%). As Doomfletch has no Critical Strike Chance value now, none is inherited here.

Doomfletch's Prism was providing some of the highest damage numbers of any bow in the game, so has been reduced. It's likely still the best bow.

Queen of the Forest
Now has 200 to 240% increased Evasion Rating (down from 240 to 380%). The movement speed bonus this item can provide has been capped at 100% for all versions.

Changes to evasion basetypes in The Fall of Oriath both pushed the evasion rating of this item too high, and took the movement speed this item granted to an extreme. We never intended for a single item to be able to provide so much movement speed. Over time as more movement speed and evasion became available this item has become unreasonable. The movement speed players were attaining was not something that the game was designed to handle. This cap is unlikely to affect average use of this item.

Rise of the Phoenix
Maximum Fire Resistance granted has been reduced to 5% (from 8%). Life regeneration has been increased to 15 to 20 per second (from 6). New versions now also grant 40 to 60 Life (this cannot be divined).

This item granted too much maximum fire resistance, more than any other shield provided for any other maximum resistance type. This made it far too easy to max out fire resistance on a Righteous Fire character. Other bonuses on the item have been added or increased to have the item remain useful for other builds.

Experience changes for high-level characters
Each league, the race to 100 is over more quickly than the previous one, as players become more efficient and the experience available gets larger. We receive overwhelming feedback (including from top racers) that this process should be made longer. We're going to be careful though, and just adjust it a bit at a time. In 3.1.0, this takes the form of small additional experience penalties at levels 95-99 that have the following effect:

• 95 to 96: 6.5% more experience needed
• 96 to 97: 11.5% more experience needed
• 97 to 98: 18.7% more experience needed
• 98 to 99: 28.25% more experience needed
• 99 to 100: 40% more experience needed

Conclusion
Well, there's the list of significant nerfs. Hopefully we didn't forget any important ones. We have a decent list of buffs to go with it, which will be posted tomorrow in the full patch notes!

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2035872

[SirCowdog]

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2035872

Seems interesting, although nothing I really need to be concerned with since I'm a low end casual.

[NoiseTank13]

Was wondering if they'd nerf Slayer; seems I was right in thinking so. Brutal Fervor no longer gives Max Leech rate, Hematophagy and Vitality Void grant +3% Leech (down from 5%).

Berserker still remains the only place where you can get Spell Leech, lmbo.

[Rocksteadee]

I'm trying to decide between ngamahu cycone, or regular ol' phys cyclone. Anyone played both? Which did you like better?