Thorns / Reflect got Gutted in S4

Primalist
1

Spriggan Form
Thorn Shield grants 40 damage reflected to attackers (from 50) per stack.
Briar Shell grants 20 damage reflected to attackers per point (from 30).

Thorn Shield
Old: 50
New: 40
Change: -10
Percent nerfed: -20%

Briar Shell
Old: 30
New: 20
Change: -10
Percent nerfed: -33.3%

The “of the Briar” suffix on small Weaver Idols decreased damage reflected to attackers from 50-150 to 50-100.

150 → 100
Change: -50
Percent nerfed: -33.3%

Thornshell now grants 3-6% increased flat damage reflected to attackers per Attunement (from 5-9%).

Before: Each point of Attunement gave +5% to +9% increased flat reflected damage
After: Each point of Attunement gives +3% to +6% increased flat reflected damage

Percentage-to-percentage nerf of roughly -33% to -40%, depending on the roll.

Thicket of Blinding Light’s damage and blinding effect now has a maximum range of 8 meters (from 12). Its damage is now based on distance, scaling linearly from 10% at 8 meters up to 100% at 4 meters away.

Old: 12 meters @ 100%
New: 04 meters @ 100%
Change: -8 meters
Percent nerfed: -66.7%

Estimated overall build change:
About a 30% to 50% damage nerf overall, even before factoring in the range/falloff change.

G U T T E D! :dizzy_face:

Maybe this build could have used a little balancing but instead, in typical ARPG balancing fashion, the devs used an overly heavy hand and completely wrecked it, destroying everything that made it fun.

I guess I’ll keep playing Path of Exile, and try out the new Blade Vortex Minion Pact build, or stick with a Righteous Fire build for this type of build play-style.

On the bright side, the $90 I spent on a PoE supporter pack feels more worthwhile now, and it saved me from spending more money on supporter packs here.

Maybe Season 5 will look better… a year from now.

(I posted this in the patch note thread but think its better in the Primalist section)

2

Nerfed for good

3

This build is going to go from “can’t even see the enemies before they’re dead” to “S tier clearspeed.” I’m having a really hard time convincing myself to play something else, and not just do the same build I did last season (paladin using thorns for clear and consecrated ground spam for single target).

4

yah as much as i loved the build, I was playing this build on stream to my buddies and they went “wow last epoch is kinda shit huh, you literally are killing the entire game without doing anything from off screen”

RF and bladevortex rely on, on kill explosions to clear screens. I also happen to play those archetypes as well. And generally stuff like DO, or RF have really shit single target.
Why this matters more so tho, is that when chain explosions happen, there is visual feedback of the mechanics you are using happening. This build in LE is just invisible mega aoe pulsing nuke that deletes the screen with nothing happening lol.

Reflect not only killed the whole screen, but reflect spriggan had a 3-4 minute uber. reflect in one patch went from meme, to the best farmer and one of the better uber slaying builds. thats insane.

And imma be real bro, if you are interested in shit like minion pact BV, you are the reason this genre sucks ass. Enjoy your broken legal hacks I guess?

5

Do you have links to both of these builds and did you use them in HC?

6

It was just a single build, a hybrid of regular consecrated ground spam and reflect, using mostly reflect idols (a single 2 tall idol for frailty that next patch won’t be necessary thanks to corrupts) and stacking attunement (which scales both the flat and increased damage of consecrated ground).

7

ok, sorry about your friends but this (Poe HUGE AOE) is > 4m + fun.