Supporter newsletter 77

Issue
This is a copy of Eternal and Diamond Supporter Newsletter #77, published by Grinding Gear Games.

Hello Supporters,

Welcome to the final Diamond supporter newsletter!

We've been creating these newsletters out for a year and a half now. Originally we started this newsletter as a way to more efficiently communicate to all Diamond supporters at the same time (it was useful to discuss general issues that applied to everyone's designs). Since then we have improved our processes and introduced the [mailto:design@grindinggear.com design@grindinggear.com] email address to handle communication with content-creation supporters.

Once we ran low on unique design topics to discuss, we filled the newsletters with interesting information about our development processes. We want to move this information to the daily news so that the whole community can see it. This also has the benefit of freeing up designer time to work on the game during periods when there's already a lot of news to release (like now with Forsaken Masters very close).

If you'd like to discuss the content you're creating from your supporter pack, please email [mailto:design@grindinggear.com design@grindinggear.com]. We're looking forward to working with you on it!

For the final newsletter, I will discuss balancing for new leagues. Chris will provide the insider info.

Balancing for a new leagues

When considering balance changes for a new league, we first examine the previous one.

We achieved a lot of goals going into the Sacrifice of the Vaal/Ambush/Invasion expansion. We achieved more balance between which classes were chosen by players. We played a little more dangerously with skill adjustments, which worked out very well most of the time, but we paid for it fairly heavily when we overshot the mark.

Fire skills received a progression of long-needed buffs, which players greatly enjoyed. Burning became a little too dominant, and other elements feel more constrained in comparison.

Build variety was a little lower than in the Domination/Nemesis period. There are a few things we are looking at to improve build variety.

One of the uniques the one that affected build variety most was Crown of Eyes. While we had foreseen it being strong, it turned out the power of the multiplicative bonuses it could unlock together was far too powerful. In 1.2.0, Crown of Eyes (including existing ones) will only affect increased and reduced spell damage. It does not benefit from multiplicative bonuses any more.

Spectral Throw has proven too good compared to bows and to melee. It's a skill we love and like to see used, but relative to bows it's beating them in ranged combat, and it's a very safe alternative to melee options.

We are looking at improving bow users in a few ways in 1.2.0. We're buffing skills, the bows themselves and passives.

Spectral Throw and some of the things that support it will be slightly nerfed. In contrast some past great melee skills will see a little love. (Yes, that includes cleave).

One thing that constrains a lot of otherwise great builds is mana cost, so we have rethought mana costs from first principles. Almost every skill is affected. Our decision to do this was highlighted by looking at the one month race stats and seeing Clarity and Eldritch Battery being so highly utilised.

Casters will see a few buffs to little-used spells. The intelligence based classes, especially with passive tree changes, should see big improvements. We'll keep an eye on how this goes, as the intelligence classes tend to capitalize on changes more quickly than other classes. It would be very easy for this season to become a "season of the Witch" if left unchecked.

The already publicised removal of snapshotting mechanics should limit this a bit, but with so many changes it will be difficult to assess.

Lightning skills get some of the biggest buffs, however this is tempered by a major change we are making to Shock. The Shocked status ailment now provides a 50% increase in damage taken, but no longer stacks.

Shadows get quite a shake up in their tree. The starting area for the shadow is now divided into a physical half, suitable for physical melee and caster characters, and an elemental half suitable for your elemental melee and casting needs. It feels like a much more cohesive tree, and it isn’t such a challenge to make builds which feel natural for a mage and/or combat assassin.

I look forward to seeing what players come up with in 1.2.0. It's a pleasure to see when new builds are discovered, and it's good to see old builds evolve and survive in new environments.

Insider Info

We recently found a new candidate for the oldest ever Path of Exile screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/B9N8HkW.png

This picture was taken in late 2006, when we had an online realm working (you could log in, select a character, move around, see other players), but before we had any art in the game. It looked a little like multiplayer Asteroids. At the time this was taken, Chris and Jonathan were the only team members working on the project (Erik was on his way over to New Zealand to start the art side).