So i think i figured out how the devs have build around the game in order to make it balanced, and before i state my thesis, i think its an ingenious way, there are some issues but most importantly i would love a response from the devs confirming or denying it!
All the powercreeping after getting to end-game and monolith/arena runs is about survivability and survivability alone, DPS dont really matter all that much, you are going to mow down everything pretty much easily.
The reason that is happening because survivability is universal across all classes/skill sets in one way or another, whilst damage can come from a hell ton of different places and ways.
In my reasoning, in order to make almost every build “end game viable”, the devs have turned way down the HP of the mobs but have made the damage way too high.
Now, this has a few bad complications though:
Builds end up looking pretty much the same gear-wise, as of right now, 3 of my characters all use the same gloves, boots, rings, amulet and catalyst with really few minor changes.
In many cases and with some specific mob types (soul cage im looking at you), you hit a wall that one-shots you.
People that wanna play glass-cannon builds (which i believe are many) simply put, can’t.
People that wanna face-tank end-game (which i also believe are many) simple put, can’t.
Set and unique gear pieces, although i can understand their intention (to have a single or max 2 build-changing uniques and the rest rare, crafted gear), cannot most of the time be used because you need to pump everything in survivability! This is especially true with gear sets.
and last, in my humble opinion, people want to be able to do a shit-ton of dmg usually and take out spongy creeps -eventually by gearing up- easily and fast, more than be afraid of insta-death.
The end game is generally about avoiding the big hits (be they the Soul Cage, the undead chicken champion’s necrotic aoe, the profane flesh’s big hits, etc), which I don’t think is entirely unreasonable, most games are about avoiding the one shots (with some of PoE’s super-tanky builds being the exception that proves the rule).
I would also argue that most games have certain thresholds you need to meet to get through end game - PoE needs capped resists, D3 has 50% crit chance & 500% crit multi.
I’m curious if one could do a ranged glass cannon build & do “well” in arena (ie, get into the high 200s / low 300s).
Ismt both the soul feast and glacier builds glass cannon ranged builds that can both do 600 waves plus
Literally 1 shot from a boss wpuld kill them thats why there always running away
Your points are logic, but I am not 100% sure if they are right.
This is not the case for me. There are build types that benefit from the same items. For ward builds on Sorcerer, Spellblade and Lich you would use Exsanguinous. Also Plague Bearer’s Staff is a little OP right now so it may be used on many builds. But I am using many different items and mechanics on different classes.
As Bear Druid you can facetank very good. Don’t have one on higher levels but when watching streams there are some in high arena.
I ran a FG build that could facetank almost everything until Arena lvl 120. Did not have to move in combat. And it’s not that I hit a sudden wall. The higher I went the more often I had to use a potion and walk out of aoe pools.
Sadly i can’t get myself to min/max a single character. Everytime I make a build that can go above arena lvl 50 I despecialise 1-3 skills and try something different. So my gear is far from optimal on any char. This brings me to the next point.
What is endgame?
I personally doubt that the goal behind all this is running Wave 400+ Arena runs. It is boring as it is right now. It’s the only way to measure the performance of a build (skill and item wise) actually. But only because there is nothing else. I don’t see me playing this game and progress to get the max out of my toons to just sit in the middle of a pit and beat endless waves of enemies.
So just because glass cannon build can seldom do high arena waves doesn’t mean they have no place in endgame. There will be more modes later that scale different than arena.
At the end I think most of the things you point out not to be possible are possible. They can only be done after hundreds of hours of playing and learning the mechanics. But they can be done.
I am not able to create 300k dot ticks on the dummy. But there are people that can. So it is possible and can be a long term goal that keeps you coming back.
Imo a good arpg shouldnt have viable glass canons or face tankers, its just very bad stereotypes. And LE has a good spot in this balance right now,the problem isnt enemies and their dmg, the problem is protections, life and ward, which still have a lot of flows and need hard rebalancing
P.S. Also you are wrong about facetankers, there are plenty of builds that could facetank anything except poison stacks(not aoe dots) but those are easily avoidable
You are wrong about arena being boring, it is boring for first 300 waves, after that its very interesting and dynamic cause you have to think and fight strategically
No it’s not, that’s a problem with poison, not the staff.
True, my build got up to wave ~28x face tanking everything except the big telegraphed hits towards the end & the reason it didn’t go further was due to player stupidity (& a lack of will to grind through the preceeding waves).
That’s true. But the staff is the tool to utilize poison in so many different classes. And the topic was items that are used very often. That is the staff.
True, but the only reason the staff is used in so many builds is due to the strength of poison itself. If poison didn’t get the % increased damage per stack it’s use would be a lot less rampant & people wouldn’t be saying the staff is “overpowered”…
So I take your point, but it’s really not because the staff is some bonkers overpowered item.
I had a thought. If Plague Bearer’s staff is “OP” with up to 270% chance to poison, why isn’t Morditas’ Reach concidered OP with it’s 500% chance to proc Frostbite on melee hit? Given that Frostbite does damage (can’t remember how much off the top of my head) & applies a similar effect to Poison’s increased damage per stack (though at a much lower effect).
But you have to admit that when you replace plague bearers by Morditas that most of the builds would not work anymore. This might be because one weapon is OP and the other isn’t…
…
I knew it would only be a matter of time. I had to force me to not mention Morditas in my previous post because it would have screwed my argument in the first place.
You are right for Lagons sake: It’s not the staff, it’s the ailment it procs that is op .
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