Affixes, Defenses and Minions

Still if you use a shield for a block build the most viable stat on a shield is block chance no matter what. Okay maybe there will be some wierd stuff like “If you wear a shield but don’t block…” but untill then the most usefull stuff a shield can do is to block attacks :D.
If the devs realy want to make a difference all shields need the same block chance with maybe 1-2% difference to go for other explicits on the shield then block chance first.

Mmm. Your responses make me feel like you’re trying to temper my excitement about possible interesting new uses for shields. Has that been your experience in testing? Does that mean the new implicits offer token or minor alternative options rather than interesting new twists? I was hoping for some implicits unique to shields to encourage taking them over a second stat stick but I’ll settle for basic modifiers like fire/ignite chance and freeze if only for the fact that that will at least differentiate different shield base types more.

On a completely different note, the changes to itemization are obviously fundamental. Is anyone else facing the dilemma of what to clear out of their stashes to make space for the new stuff?

I think the bottom line is…

When is this patch dropping already?!?!

With all the stuff out about it, it barely feels worth playing the game right now, since it’s all basically going to be useless, and it’s killin’
me!! Gimme gimme gimme!!

I could see things like smaller shields being more useful for sentinel throwing skills (and therefore having the appropriate affixes) while having a lower block value as a trade-off while larger shields would offer a better block chance but not be able to be used for throwing skills. It’s a niche example, I know, but just an example of possible differentiation.

With changes to armour stacking potentially making more armour more impactful, shields could also be balanced more along those two stats with the trade-off between more armour and less block for larger, bulkier shields and vice versa?

Or how about allowing certain affixes on shields only, in the same way as polymath is only available on two-handers (which is kind of what I was hoping was being suggested by the new implicits)?

hello there.
thanks for the updates
i have a few questions please
i main necro minon

so well have to wear the new necro off hand and helmet to get minion health regen and minion dodge and the number of gear to put thos on craft wise is also reduced?
will this equal out to or be better than my 1760 minion regen now with the changes to how health regen works.
also will the new flat health regen plus the max 40 percent less damage reduce and work against wraith and abomination health decay.

thanks so much for the updtaes so waiting for this patch

The reduction of block chance from passive seems a bit harsh.
It still requires to invest quite a few points for a bonus that is quite low compared to what we can get from one suffix.
I’m not sure it will be worth the investment.

With the increase of T6/7 bonuses (all, not only block), another look on crafting would be much appreciated.
Affixes present on drop are more important than affixes we craft.
A minor fracture on an item with low tiers affixes means the item can be thrown away.
A minor fracture on an item with a T6/T7 affix means the item is still pretty good.
Making minor fractures less punishing by moving the impossibilty to craft the item to higher fractures while taking tiers of affixes already on the item (increase of instability indexed on sum of all affixes tier for example) would improve crafting a lot imo, making more fair between low level and high level characters.

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also one more question from rereading minion section.
the last quote why do minions that have inherent health regen become even more regen than necromancer minions who dont have it to begin with. your making bears etc even tankier while our necro pets will still lag behind in tankiness. is there a reason for this thanks alot for everything.

There will most likely be usefull shields don’t get your excitement tempered :D. I just think some niche stuff shoul’d be there to make stuff more exciting. For example do you guys know the good old buckler? Yeah the very small shield that is useable with a twohanded weapon? Just asking you propably know what I’m up to.
I don’t get excited for a shield that might deal additional 12% more throwing dmage with 15% block chance if I can have a shield with 30% block chance and something useless on it like 5% fire resi.
I think after the implementation and more feedback on the topic there might be more changes. I like the fact that there are more differences in shields to begin with but still a blocked hit is more valuable (in almost all cases) then 50 more dmg on skilluse.
There is this funny unique Items - Last Epoch Item Database called “Close Call” and oh boy it is unique. Then again it’s bad compared to crafted shields because it’s by far not good enough even if it brings something special to the table.

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I like what I’m seeing, ready to test it out.

Thank you for the continual improvements!

Feeling this in play. It feels too low. I think 15% would be a nice spot. Also, it should be noticeably higher than the other two masteries for sentinel because it’s one of the staple identities of a Paladin. If you like playing sword and board characters you should WANT to go Paladin. As it is, just a 2% difference doesn’t feel ‘noticeable.’

EDIT: Although it’s highly possible I’m talking out of my butt.

Very exciting, and happy you’re not afraid to keep experimenting with general gameplay mechanics and balance even “so far in”.
The game only keeps getting better and better, keep up the great work !
(No comments on the changes, as I believe that’ll require some testing before having useful feedback :slight_smile: )

Thanks for work.

Sorry for asking here, but i m new to this game. Finally, do minion stats depends on intellegence? Ty :thinking:

Depends on the minion, hover over the skill & hold alt to see what stats scale it.

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Just a heads up.

‘‘This latest Developer Blog focuses on the ability to dual wield weapons in Patch 0.8.’’

This is what’s in News post about this Dev Blog on Steam client.

This is an incredibly good patch. Trasochi has restored my faith in his understanding.

Overall I really like the patch, but I’m not too fond of removing some minion affixes from weapons. While you describe this as:

We have moved minion damage affixes out of the way of player defense and crucial weapon damage affixes

While that’s done to help hybrid builds, it makes it harder on pure minion builds.

My main is a shaman which tried to use a minion built. There’s a few things I’m having problems with:

  • My weapon: I really had no idea what to put on it anymore. I wanted to go full blown minion but there are simply not enough options to put on it that are worthwile.
  • At around arena lvl 100 I quite frequently have moments where my storm totem lives for less than a second. Wolves and sabertooth with health and armour talents also seem to die more than really do anything helpful.

I’m aware I can use affixes that give my minions more defense, but when I’m trying to get my own defense up and my minion damage up, there’s not much room left for anything else. I admit I didn’t take the health options for totems as they’d still die too quickly and it’d gimp my dps too much.

Originally my plan was a totem build and since that is mostly a minion build, I added in sabertooth and wolves. I’m now switching to more of a hybrid build because I noticed wolves and sabertooth die like flies anyway at higher arena levels. I guess people would argue that I should never have picked them as a shaman anyway but should have gone beastmaster.

I’d suggest adding more options for shared damage as prefixes and also to add passive skills that allow minions to share some of your defenses, like for example endurance.

Permanent minions really need an AI and movement speed upgrade.
Sadly this has not changed in two years.

If you play regular minions you notice they often lag behind for two reasons.

Like mentioned the slow movement speed and the fact that they fight enemies to death no matter where your current player character is.
They should move with your char regardsless and only attack enemies in an attack radius around your character and not the WHOLE zone.

You’re forced to spam A in the current iteration (patch 0.8.1e).
EHG hopefully you can solve this issue in the near future (6 months?).

How does the wolf feel in comparison to the others? It has a different AI.

Hi Mike.

I tested Wolf Vs Skeletons (which i used in my initial test in this post).
Made sure i dont have movespeed from skills or items.

Result:
Wolf is about 12% faster than Skeletons
Wolf comes back to character way earlier when you prioritize enemies with A and run off-screen. Which means skeletons fight enemies while you’re 2 screens away and wolf comes to you when you’re about 3/4 or one screen away after pressing A (for minion attack).

I also noticed both minion variants have a quite huge enemy chasing/aggro radius.
Wolf/skeleton aggros enemies when they are about 1 wolf-length from the corner and stay as long on enemies as shown in first screenshot.
If you would move a tiny bit left they would come back.

You could reduce the chasing/aggro radius slightly so minions are near you so players are less likely to get cornered while being unprotected.
The current chasing/aggo radius could be unlocked via passives for more aggressive playstyles.

https://imgur.com/a/5kYWTcK

The second screenshot shows an issue when your minion gets stuck in terrain.
It does no teleport to you and stays there even if you’re multiple screens away.

I know the mechanical differences between them.

How do you feel about the wolf? Does it feel any better or worse to you?