LOL, The game is more Path of Life Nodes than ever before.

Initial thoughts on this patch: misfire at best

-You are able to spec into something other than life nodes though its not to a great degree unless you have koams
-Armour is still worthless unless you are running level 71 blue maps.
-Reflect is about as deadly (20% to 18% is laughable)
-Lightning thorns UNCHANGED
-Auras (inner force) nerfed heavily and I'm not actually able to use my andvarius with 6 less resistances. Yes, i was min maxed to have barely any overstacked.


The 3 biggest reasons for the life node meta was
1) monster damage - which has been toned down noticebly but life nodes are also nerfed by 2%.
2) reflect - mostly the same
3) thorns - exactly the same

Has the patched created opportunities for new to emerge? Yes
Will said builds be viable without koams? time will tell
Has the patched significantly improved gameplay, balance and enjoyment? Not for me at least (except footprints)


On a side note, the sparkly footprints are awesome and I purchased to support GGG it even with my reservations about the patch.

Here is a radical idea:

IF life nodes are going to be so controversial and hard to balance, what would everyone think if they were simply removed from he game?

Make life based on level and strength only, and scale accordingly. I think it would make melee impossible for any non-str or non CI build, but what are your thoughts? If the basic life bonus per str point and level were increased could it off-set the lack of health nodes altogether?

Granted I don't have a character over level 45ish so I have no first-hand experience with how end-game has been altered by the patch (never even seen a map) so take my suggestion with several grains of salt ;)

I'm more of a casual player, but the biggest issue with life nodes for me is that it's a defense that covers everything. Physical damage, elemental damage, attacks, spells, stun prevention, freeze prevention. Life keeps you alive against everything.

Compare that to the other defenses. Armor: Defends against all physical damage, does nothing against elemental. Resistances: Defends against elemental damage, does nothing against physical. Evasion/Block: Defends against attacks, does nothing against spells (except spell block).

There is so much variety in defensive stats...and then you have life that covers it all. It's obviously too late now since the game is designed in a completely different way, but I think it would have been a far more interesting game mechanic if physical damage took away life, elemental damage took away energy shield and you died if either one reached 0. You would actually need to balance things then (like you have to with the defenses) instead of just dumping everything into 1 stat.

there is on stat thats better than life... moving-speed.. if u get the fuck out of a bad situation early enough un dondt need any more life.. im on tabula rasa 2,2klife with bm-auras but can run like hell.. use molten shell 24/7 and the best totem in the game.. rejuvenation totem.. this baby is pure life.. 107 or so life regen, i do insane damage with 12%lifeleech.. the only danger is that i play to reckless. but a lil safety-first and run like hell if the shit is cooking hig works nice.. and i still jump kamikaze in the crowds..

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thepmrc написал:

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RogueMage написал:

...since mana costs have not gone up, leech should continue to provide at least as much life recovery for BM users as before.

Except life/mana leech is also based off your max life/mana as well as damage....

How do you figure that? Life and mana leech are based on a fixed percentage of your damage, not your max life. If anything, the overall reduction in HP levels should make leech relatively more effective.

The leech rate IIRC is 20% of your total HP/ES

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SL4Y3R написал:

The leech rate IIRC is 20% of your total HP/ES

Everything is tied so deeply to your health pool and until the meta game becomes less about getting instagibed by burst damage , reflect, thorns path of life nodes will still be ideal way to play.

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krassi3000 написал:

there is on stat thats better than life... moving-speed.. if u get the fuck out of a bad situation early enough un dondt need any more life.. im on tabula rasa 2,2klife with bm-auras but can run like hell.. use molten shell 24/7 and the best totem in the game.. rejuvenation totem.. this baby is pure life.. 107 or so life regen, i do insane damage with 12%lifeleech.. the only danger is that i play to reckless. but a lil safety-first and run like hell if the shit is cooking hig works nice.. and i still jump kamikaze in the crowds..

This, so much this. It's an amazing feeling when you can outrun charging rhoas, haha.

regarding the regen thing , i see it like this:
option :
a- Keystone BM
b- Support gem BM
c- Mana leech
d- Regen from gear
e- regen from High mana pool and a bit from gear (EB builds)

a: is good when you use just 2 or 3 aura.

b: is good if you want all aura and dont wanna spend any talent on manaregen (bm support on everything tho or most of the skills)

c: is good only with some talent to regen faster and if your manapool exeeds a bit you mana cost.(you cant leech 100 if you have 100 mana only available intime before you need it again, you should have at least 200 mana if you skill cost 100 with manaleech so you can use it twice and meanwhile leech new mana and regen a tiny bit from gear or some talent)

d and e: can be mixed , you do this if you start from the witch or intend to go take EB.

I have a lvl 60+ char for every method above , and they are all viable with the right skills and gear. CMOOOOON ;)

I made a mara with a focus on 1h damage, armor and block.

I'm close to having 60% block and over 80% DR with endurance charges.

I have 9% life leech on gear and I use warlords mark. I may dabble with blood rage.

I put my 2 attacks on a BM gem and run auras on my mana. I also curse and enduring cry on mana. With that combo my mana is always full besides the reserves for auras and I have so much leech that BM on my attacks don't take my health down.

I also use regen. SO my survivability went up a ton from armor and blocking and leech and regen. Instead of all the health nodes I took damage nodes. So far so good.

Im almost ignoring the health nodes now.