01-30-2014, 07:04 PM
The new patch is upon us, and it is heavily summoner themed. As I did with the last patch, here are the notes, with a little commentary.
Version 1.0.6
Major Features/Content:
Added a new Intelligence skill - Summon Raging Spirit:
Summons a short-lived flaming skull that rushes at nearby enemies and attacks them rapidly. Enemies cannot directly engage these spirits and can pass through them.
---This is a welcome addition to a summoner's toolbox. After playing a summoner up to level 73, it got to a point where I felt like a curse bot. This will add a little more "gameplay" to the toolbox.
Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence skill - Desecrate:
Desecrates the ground, summoning corpses and dealing chaos damage to all enemies in the area.
----I'm pretty interested in this one as well. The wording leaves me curious about a few things, but it could be a lot of fun for a "new" type of summoner.
Added a new Intelligence skill - Flesh Offering:
Consumes a corpse, temporarily empowering your minions with swiftness (attack, cast and movement speed). The skill consumes other nearby corpses, increasing the duration for each corpse consumed.
----This is nice. Finally, a way to actively buff your existing minions. and fits really nice with:
Added a new Intelligence skill - Bone Offering:
Consumes a corpse, temporarily granting all of your minions the power to block both attacks and spells. The skill consumes other nearby corpses, increasing the duration for each corpse consumed.
----YES. YES. YES. One of the hardest parts about playing a summoner, is that your minions can get squishy. This is great for those scenarios where you are facing large packs, and need a way to beef the defenses of your minions.
Summon Raging Spirit is first available to the Templar and Witch from the "Breaking some Eggs" quest on Normal Difficulty.
Desecrate is available to the Templar, Shadow and Witch from the "Delving Into Sin" quest and to the Ranger from the "Lost in Love" quest on Normal Difficulty.
Flesh Offering and Bone Offering are first available to the Witch and Templar from the "Lost in Love" quest on Normal Difficulty and to the Shadow and Scion from the "A Caged Brute" quest on Cruel difficulty.
Added five new Unique items, two of which were designed by supporters.
Dying Breath A new unique Staff, that increases cast speed, mana, radius of curses and auras, and the effectiveness of curses on nearby enemies, at the cost of increasing damage taken by 18%.
Solaris Lorica Or the Poor man's Shavronne's Wrappings as it will be called.
A lot of people are already panning this as a bad unique, since it's an armor only item that gives you the "Chaos Damage doesn't bypass ES" But, it has a few bonuses for it.
1.) It's an armor based item, so rolling melee colors should be a little easier.
2.) It's low level, so you can start using it sooner.
being the big two. While I don't think it will ever be seen as an equal to Shav's, it is a nice unique not to be overlooked. Even on my badly geared witch, I can achieve 5K ES, and I'm not even in "good" gear. Definitely, a worthwhile addition to the game IMO.
Skullhead
Life
mana
+10% block for minions
+armour for minions
Life Regen for minions.
This is an AR / EV helm, so it will be a little tricky to use for some, but it offers a nice alternative to going with the +2 Minion to helm headpiece.
Snakebite
Frenzy Charge gloves, that increase attack speed, and accuracy per frenzy charge, reduce the duration per frenzy charge, and when you are at max frenzy charges, your attacks will poison enemies.
These are ES/EV gloves, and make for an interesting combo with some of the chaos damage changes that have come about recently.
Alberon's Warpath
Chaos Damage
Chaos Resistance
MOvement Speed
+Skeletons
16% increased strength.
These are really interesting boots. The + to number of skeletons leaves me a little confused, but they should be an interesting piece to try out.
Added two new cosmetic microtransactions: Lightning Skull Helmet Skin and Arctic Skull Helmet Skin.
Added two new Achievements: Band Together and Full Clear: Ship Graveyard Cave.
Added two new vendor recipes.
Minor Features/Content:
You can now add notes to people on your friends list. Right click the contact and select "Edit Note". By default, new friends now have a note saying what their character name was when you added them.
This is an absolutely fantastic change. No more trying to keep a notepad of people I'm trying to trade with.
You can now only run a maximum of two copies of Path of Exile simultaneously on one computer.
Interesting change. I understand why they would do this to an extent, but I'm not sure that it will curb the behavior that they are intending to curb.
I do hope, that if they are able to achieve what they are after, it might open up the idea of "unfixing" the portal bug that they previously fixed, to save those of us who dc.
Hillock now uses the same triggered effect that the Blacksmith does, in Cruel and Merciless difficulties. The damage of the poison cloud produced by his zombies has been reduced in all instances (including Maps).
Good. I like this idea. I'm also, all in favor of reducing the damage from the poison cloud.
The Blood Weta Pet has been renamed to the Gore Weta Pet.
The client now fetches the next Daily Deal when the current one ends.
Minion Balance:
(I said this was the summoner patch right?)
The life progression of all player summoned minions and totems has been changed. Minions and totems now have more life at lower levels (+50% at level one) and around the same life by approximately gem level 21.
The damage of Raised Zombies has been increased by around 50%.
The additional damage bonuses at higher levels of the gem have been removed.
The mana cost of the Summon Skeletons skill has been reduced at all levels. Summoned skeletons now do around 40% more damage at all levels.
The Animate Weapon skill now adds a flat physical damage to the weapon. The animated weapon has had its innate elemental resistance values increased.
Added five new minion passive skills, added additional stats to existing notables, and updated many minion passives to include Minion Attack and Cast Speed, Minion Life Regeneration, Minion Life Leech, Minion Elemental Resistances, Minion Chaos Resistances and Minion Block Chance.
All of this is a great step in the right direction. Some of the changes towards the end of Closed beta really hurt summoners until they were in truly end game quality gear. I'm hoping that this will make some of the changes more palatable.
Duration Balance:
The Increased Duration support gem duration bonus has been reduced from 50-83% (depending on level) to 45-64%. Its quality bonus has been halved.
Understandable, based on some of the things that were achieved with the gem, that were unintended.
Immortal Call, Blood Rage, Conversion Trap, Animate Weapon and Frost Wall have had their base duration increased by 25%.
Seems reasonable given the changes.
Firestorm, Poison Arrow, Ice Shot, Arctic Armour, Arctic Breath, Curses and Smoke Mine have had their base duration increased by 10%.
again, in light of the changes to the support, seems reasonable.
General Balance:
Poison Arrow's damage has been increased at higher levels. It now does roughly 35% more damage at gem level 15.
This should make the gem more viable, given the added support of chaos damage.
Desecrated Ground, created by the unique Lightbane Raiment and the new skill Desecrate, now deals flat chaos damage per minute rather than a percentage of life as chaos damage.
The damage of the bombs of the Undying Incinerators and Undying Alchemists has been increased.
Not sure that I approve of this change.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed some issues with the DPS display on attacks linked to offensive trigger gems.
Fixed some optional dialogues required for the All Ears achievement.
Fixed a bug where Necromantic Aegis did not correctly give base block chance to minions.
Fixed a bug where the drop audio for Wheel of the Stormsail was for metal rather than wood.
Fixed crashes with some skills when they were echoed by the Echoing Shrine.
Fixed a bug where Righteous Fire was not correctly supported by the Item Quantity or Item Rarity support gems.
Fixed a bug where monsters that use Puncture would not use it if the target was cursed.
Fixed a bug where no icon would be displayed if Conversion Trap was used on you.
All in all, another high quality patch. I really am pleased with the direction that the game is going, and I think that the 1.1 release in March is going to be a very interesting time, as they have previewed a new monster type, and also the new short form leagues.
Version 1.0.6
Major Features/Content:
Added a new Intelligence skill - Summon Raging Spirit:
Summons a short-lived flaming skull that rushes at nearby enemies and attacks them rapidly. Enemies cannot directly engage these spirits and can pass through them.
---This is a welcome addition to a summoner's toolbox. After playing a summoner up to level 73, it got to a point where I felt like a curse bot. This will add a little more "gameplay" to the toolbox.
Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence skill - Desecrate:
Desecrates the ground, summoning corpses and dealing chaos damage to all enemies in the area.
----I'm pretty interested in this one as well. The wording leaves me curious about a few things, but it could be a lot of fun for a "new" type of summoner.
Added a new Intelligence skill - Flesh Offering:
Consumes a corpse, temporarily empowering your minions with swiftness (attack, cast and movement speed). The skill consumes other nearby corpses, increasing the duration for each corpse consumed.
----This is nice. Finally, a way to actively buff your existing minions. and fits really nice with:
Added a new Intelligence skill - Bone Offering:
Consumes a corpse, temporarily granting all of your minions the power to block both attacks and spells. The skill consumes other nearby corpses, increasing the duration for each corpse consumed.
----YES. YES. YES. One of the hardest parts about playing a summoner, is that your minions can get squishy. This is great for those scenarios where you are facing large packs, and need a way to beef the defenses of your minions.
Summon Raging Spirit is first available to the Templar and Witch from the "Breaking some Eggs" quest on Normal Difficulty.
Desecrate is available to the Templar, Shadow and Witch from the "Delving Into Sin" quest and to the Ranger from the "Lost in Love" quest on Normal Difficulty.
Flesh Offering and Bone Offering are first available to the Witch and Templar from the "Lost in Love" quest on Normal Difficulty and to the Shadow and Scion from the "A Caged Brute" quest on Cruel difficulty.
Added five new Unique items, two of which were designed by supporters.
Dying Breath A new unique Staff, that increases cast speed, mana, radius of curses and auras, and the effectiveness of curses on nearby enemies, at the cost of increasing damage taken by 18%.
Solaris Lorica Or the Poor man's Shavronne's Wrappings as it will be called.
A lot of people are already panning this as a bad unique, since it's an armor only item that gives you the "Chaos Damage doesn't bypass ES" But, it has a few bonuses for it.
1.) It's an armor based item, so rolling melee colors should be a little easier.
2.) It's low level, so you can start using it sooner.
being the big two. While I don't think it will ever be seen as an equal to Shav's, it is a nice unique not to be overlooked. Even on my badly geared witch, I can achieve 5K ES, and I'm not even in "good" gear. Definitely, a worthwhile addition to the game IMO.
Skullhead
Life
mana
+10% block for minions
+armour for minions
Life Regen for minions.
This is an AR / EV helm, so it will be a little tricky to use for some, but it offers a nice alternative to going with the +2 Minion to helm headpiece.
Snakebite
Frenzy Charge gloves, that increase attack speed, and accuracy per frenzy charge, reduce the duration per frenzy charge, and when you are at max frenzy charges, your attacks will poison enemies.
These are ES/EV gloves, and make for an interesting combo with some of the chaos damage changes that have come about recently.
Alberon's Warpath
Chaos Damage
Chaos Resistance
MOvement Speed
+Skeletons
16% increased strength.
These are really interesting boots. The + to number of skeletons leaves me a little confused, but they should be an interesting piece to try out.
Added two new cosmetic microtransactions: Lightning Skull Helmet Skin and Arctic Skull Helmet Skin.
Added two new Achievements: Band Together and Full Clear: Ship Graveyard Cave.
Added two new vendor recipes.
Minor Features/Content:
You can now add notes to people on your friends list. Right click the contact and select "Edit Note". By default, new friends now have a note saying what their character name was when you added them.
This is an absolutely fantastic change. No more trying to keep a notepad of people I'm trying to trade with.
You can now only run a maximum of two copies of Path of Exile simultaneously on one computer.
Interesting change. I understand why they would do this to an extent, but I'm not sure that it will curb the behavior that they are intending to curb.
I do hope, that if they are able to achieve what they are after, it might open up the idea of "unfixing" the portal bug that they previously fixed, to save those of us who dc.
Hillock now uses the same triggered effect that the Blacksmith does, in Cruel and Merciless difficulties. The damage of the poison cloud produced by his zombies has been reduced in all instances (including Maps).
Good. I like this idea. I'm also, all in favor of reducing the damage from the poison cloud.
The Blood Weta Pet has been renamed to the Gore Weta Pet.
The client now fetches the next Daily Deal when the current one ends.
Minion Balance:
(I said this was the summoner patch right?)
The life progression of all player summoned minions and totems has been changed. Minions and totems now have more life at lower levels (+50% at level one) and around the same life by approximately gem level 21.
The damage of Raised Zombies has been increased by around 50%.
The additional damage bonuses at higher levels of the gem have been removed.
The mana cost of the Summon Skeletons skill has been reduced at all levels. Summoned skeletons now do around 40% more damage at all levels.
The Animate Weapon skill now adds a flat physical damage to the weapon. The animated weapon has had its innate elemental resistance values increased.
Added five new minion passive skills, added additional stats to existing notables, and updated many minion passives to include Minion Attack and Cast Speed, Minion Life Regeneration, Minion Life Leech, Minion Elemental Resistances, Minion Chaos Resistances and Minion Block Chance.
All of this is a great step in the right direction. Some of the changes towards the end of Closed beta really hurt summoners until they were in truly end game quality gear. I'm hoping that this will make some of the changes more palatable.
Duration Balance:
The Increased Duration support gem duration bonus has been reduced from 50-83% (depending on level) to 45-64%. Its quality bonus has been halved.
Understandable, based on some of the things that were achieved with the gem, that were unintended.
Immortal Call, Blood Rage, Conversion Trap, Animate Weapon and Frost Wall have had their base duration increased by 25%.
Seems reasonable given the changes.
Firestorm, Poison Arrow, Ice Shot, Arctic Armour, Arctic Breath, Curses and Smoke Mine have had their base duration increased by 10%.
again, in light of the changes to the support, seems reasonable.
General Balance:
Poison Arrow's damage has been increased at higher levels. It now does roughly 35% more damage at gem level 15.
This should make the gem more viable, given the added support of chaos damage.
Desecrated Ground, created by the unique Lightbane Raiment and the new skill Desecrate, now deals flat chaos damage per minute rather than a percentage of life as chaos damage.
The damage of the bombs of the Undying Incinerators and Undying Alchemists has been increased.
Not sure that I approve of this change.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed some issues with the DPS display on attacks linked to offensive trigger gems.
Fixed some optional dialogues required for the All Ears achievement.
Fixed a bug where Necromantic Aegis did not correctly give base block chance to minions.
Fixed a bug where the drop audio for Wheel of the Stormsail was for metal rather than wood.
Fixed crashes with some skills when they were echoed by the Echoing Shrine.
Fixed a bug where Righteous Fire was not correctly supported by the Item Quantity or Item Rarity support gems.
Fixed a bug where monsters that use Puncture would not use it if the target was cursed.
Fixed a bug where no icon would be displayed if Conversion Trap was used on you.
All in all, another high quality patch. I really am pleased with the direction that the game is going, and I think that the 1.1 release in March is going to be a very interesting time, as they have previewed a new monster type, and also the new short form leagues.
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