Path of Exile

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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You're being incredibly pedantic. When it comes to melee there are strike skills and there are slam skills and strike skills have outperformed slam skills for a long, long time
 

Deathwing

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1761508193753.png

The bandaidiest of bandaids.
 

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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View attachment 607020
The bandaidiest of bandaids.

There's also

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I think it's fairly likely that there's a little "action speed cannot be modified" on a new unique item or two as well.

I'm not a fan. Adding more of this gives them leeway to add more shit that fucks your action speed. I don't need another box to check a la Corrupted Blood.

edit - overall though I do love what they're doing here, I kinda hope Sin shows up for the first of each boss kill and says a unique line
 
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Xevy

Log Wizard
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The Ward ones are probably going to make uber tanks. Their legitimately might be a bunch of 2-4 passive characters running around with 4-6 points invested into Runesmith.

The minion stuff is okay? Reddit is crying about it, but honestly most of it is side grade and outside of non-Necro summoners I'm not sure you'd use any of them.
 

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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Reddit's kinda dumb. Spectres have been sweet as hell for a few leagues in a row now. This all might be enough to get them nerfed again but rocking massive +defenses fixes a hole they didn't really have to begin with.
 

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
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You're being incredibly pedantic. When it comes to melee there are strike skills and there are slam skills and strike skills have outperformed slam skills for a long, long time
Pedantic or not, the distinction matters because it highlights where GGG's focus and balance philosophy actually lie. You're acting like saying "strike skills outperform slams" erases years of GGG blatantly propping up slam builds with patch after patch of direct buffs and mechanics built specifically for them.

Strike skills "outperform" because half of them aren't even melee anymore. Lightning Strike and Frost Blades are ranged hybrids that happen to swing a sword at the start of the animation. Smite's been an aura bot meme for years. None of those represent actual melee combat.

Meanwhile, slams have been GGG's golden child for literal years. Overexertion, Fist of War, shockwave scaling, AoE overlap fixes, seismic interaction buffs… the list goes on. Every single melee rework since 3.11 has revolved around making slams feel powerful.

Slams consistently get dedicated mechanics and deliberate design passes that make them feel impactful and modern. Strike skills, on the other hand, have been carried by bandaids like ancestral call, strike range, and weird projectile gimmicks that make them barely "melee" anymore.

So yeah, if your definition of "outperforming" means pretending ranged-hybrids count as melee while GGG keeps hard-buffing slams, sure. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious which archetype they actually care about.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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Pedantic or not, the distinction matters because it highlights where GGG's focus and balance philosophy actually lie. You're acting like saying "strike skills outperform slams" erases years of GGG blatantly propping up slam builds with patch after patch of direct buffs and mechanics built specifically for them.

Strike skills "outperform" because half of them aren't even melee anymore. Lightning Strike and Frost Blades are ranged hybrids that happen to swing a sword at the start of the animation. Smite's been an aura bot meme for years. None of those represent actual melee combat.

Meanwhile, slams have been GGG's golden child for literal years. Overexertion, Fist of War, shockwave scaling, AoE overlap fixes, seismic interaction buffs… the list goes on. Every single melee rework since 3.11 has revolved around making slams feel powerful.

Slams consistently get dedicated mechanics and deliberate design passes that make them feel impactful and modern. Strike skills, on the other hand, have been carried by bandaids like ancestral call, strike range, and weird projectile gimmicks that make them barely "melee" anymore.

So yeah, if your definition of "outperforming" means pretending ranged-hybrids count as melee while GGG keeps hard-buffing slams, sure. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious which archetype they actually care about.

I understand what you're saying but slam skills are ranged hybrids as well. VFoS was even more AoE screen clearing coverage than peak LS and Frostblades.

There is no way to make Melee good without Melee skills acting like ranged / AoE skills.

Heavy Strike of Trarthus is an insane skill gem that basically nobody used because it isn't inherently hybrid.
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
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okay hear me out

wolves give us pile of flat phys for paradoxica, and we bypass its dogshit attack speed

4 points in gladiator for lucky block and double dual wield bonuses

20 spectral animals clean up stragglers

then we have a ancestor turtle or something for determination + giant bonus auras

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Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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Bloodlines as a way to fill out nodes on an ascendancy that isn't loaded with raw, generic power makes a lot of sense. Gladiator and Sab both are kinda specific.
 

Xevy

Log Wizard
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okay hear me out

wolves give us pile of flat phys for paradoxica, and we bypass its dogshit attack speed

4 points in gladiator for lucky block and double dual wield bonuses

20 spectral animals clean up stragglers

then we have a ancestor turtle or something for determination + giant bonus auras

View attachment 607035View attachment 607036View attachment 607037View attachment 607039View attachment 607038
Yes.

Turtle league login. They make the most sense for non minion people taking Farrul's stuff. They're giga tanky, they give PDR buff and Determination, and they're a beast so they'll get the 3 random auras.

Gladiator/Sab/Jugg/Guardian are all prime candidates for partial ascendancies. Gladiator is the most obviousl to me as the block shit just nearly instantly solves defenses and you can invest all your effort into dps.

I'm looking at playing Chieftain and I only really want 3 nodes (FR, MFR, and Explode) as I won't be Strike/Slam. Also perfect to grab another Asendancy from bloodlines and when the explode jewels are 2D total I'll get 4 possible extra choices.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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The bloodlines seem very well thought out. Not overly powerful to the point you'd always want to take them but interesting enough to open up a lot of new build ideas.
 
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Deathwing

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Yes.

Turtle league login. They make the most sense for non minion people taking Farrul's stuff. They're giga tanky, they give PDR buff and Determination, and they're a beast so they'll get the 3 random auras.

Gladiator/Sab/Jugg/Guardian are all prime candidates for partial ascendancies. Gladiator is the most obviousl to me as the block shit just nearly instantly solves defenses and you can invest all your effort into dps.

I'm looking at playing Chieftain and I only really want 3 nodes (FR, MFR, and Explode) as I won't be Strike/Slam. Also perfect to grab another Asendancy from bloodlines and when the explode jewels are 2D total I'll get 4 possible extra choices.
3 random auras? I read that as your beast spectre will have 3 random rare monster mods. Or maybe 3 random bestiary mods.
 
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Kirun

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I understand what you're saying but slam skills are ranged hybrids as well. VFoS was even more AoE screen clearing coverage than peak LS and Frostblades.

There is no way to make Melee good without Melee skills acting like ranged / AoE skills.

Heavy Strike of Trarthus is an insane skill gem that basically nobody used because it isn't inherently hybrid.
I get the point, but that kind of proves my argument. GGG has basically given up on making real melee feel good, so everything that performs ends up being a pseudo-ranged skill.

Yeah, VFoS was busted for coverage, but it only got there because of all the slam-specific mechanics stacked on it - Overexertion, AoE scaling, shockwaves, Fist of War, the whole package. It's not like strike skills got that same treatment; they just got awkward bandaids to barely reach one target.

Heavy Strike of Trarthus being trash despite insane numbers is exactly the issue - anything that doesn't have built-in AoE, overlap, or projectiles automatically gets left behind. That's not a "both are ranged hybrids" thing, that's a "GGG has no idea how to make actual melee feel rewarding" thing.

So if slams also have to function like pseudo-ranged to feel good, all that tells me is that GGG keeps bending over backward to make slams work while every other melee archetype stays clunky and forgotten.
 

Xevy

Log Wizard
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3 random auras? I read that as your beast spectre will have 3 random rare monster mods. Or maybe 3 random bestiary mods.
It looks like one of the 3 modifiers will be an aura based on how rare monsters currently operate, so I was wrong, but you should be getting 1 aura that will effect you and your minions.

Then again it could maybe be 0 auras or 3 auras if it's just randomly snatching up rare modifiers.
 
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Xevy

Log Wizard
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The reason the Turtle is a good go-to is because it's naturally incredibly tanky. The Tiger sounds like BiS, but without some investment and probably a dedicated 4 link it will still die in later mapping. Specters DO get re-summoned, but only on new instances. So if your Tiger gets blasted it's gone for the rest of the map. The turtle may offer little to nothing offensively, but it ain't dying!

It's an interesting concept because you're trading in one specter for what could be 3-4 other specters, but ideally a lot less headache. I think pure zoomancer types will still opt for multiple Ritual specters with Frenzy/Power charge monkeys (even though they are beasts).
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
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okay hear me out

wolves give us pile of flat phys for paradoxica, and we bypass its dogshit attack speed

4 points in gladiator for lucky block and double dual wield bonuses

20 spectral animals clean up stragglers

then we have a ancestor turtle or something for determination + giant bonus auras

View attachment 607035View attachment 607036View attachment 607037View attachment 607039View attachment 607038
The flat law of the wilds provides for paradoxica was already a possibility in 3.26. I'm not seeing how it synergizes with the new stuff in 3.27.