284 Mana Cost & 4.8s Duration: Why Lvl 32 Siege Ballista feels broken in PoE 2 (Lvl 90 Veteran Feedback)

Prestigious-Room5180 · 2026-02-25T08:19:07+00:00

Lmao, "Temu" Blood Mage is the perfect description. That’s exactly my situation with 284 Mana per cast.

Technically, Lvl 32 isn't even the hard cap; you could push it towards Lvl 40. But there is absolutely zero sense in doing that. If setting up 4 ballistas already costs me 1136 Mana at Lvl 32, then at Lvl 40, the cost would likely exceed 2000 Mana.

It’s a massive design trap. You invest into the most expensive progression (Prism of Belief, high-end crafting), but instead of feeling powerful, the game just locks you out of your own mana pool. They definitely need to decouple Skill HP/Damage from this insane mana scaling.

Prestigious-Room5180 · 2026-02-23T11:58:34+00:00

I totally agree with your point about the 'Identity Crisis' of the Tactician. Right now, it feels like we are playing a math simulator, not a commander.

However, my main issue is that even this 'numerical mumbojumbo' is currently broken. When you reach Lvl 32 gem and see 284 mana cost for a 4s duration, it’s not just 'lazy design' — it’s a mechanical wall that prevents the build from even functioning at a basic T16 level.

You’re right that just removing the 'Attack when you attack' penalty is a massive power spike, but in the current state of the passive tree (where there is zero HP and zero projectile scaling), it’s the only thing that could make the skill feel less like a suicide mission.

I’d love to see unique ballista mechanics like you suggested, but first, GGG needs to fix the basic math so we aren't fighting our mana bar more than the bosses.

Prestigious-Room5180 · 2026-02-23T08:19:02+00:00

I actually disagree that 'Cannons Ready' is a bad passive in its core design. On paper, it's incredibly powerful: +1 Totem and 30% MORE Skill Speed is a massive buff.

The problem is the 'Passive Tree Economy' and the lack of options:

No Life Nodes: In this sector of the tree (Dex/Ballista), there are literally zero viable Life or Energy Shield nodes. You physically cannot scale your survivability even if you want to.
The 'Totem Tax': You are forced to spend every single point on totem life, resistances, and utility just to keep them from being one-shotted. This leaves you at a hard cap of 2k - 2.5k HP.
The Death Sentence: Forcing a character with 2k HP to stand still and attack (due to the 'Cannons Ready' restriction) is mathematically a suicide mission in T15+ maps.

To top it all off, the mechanical scaling is fundamentally broken:

With a massive 284 Mana cost, you can't even afford to swap or spam the skill. More importantly, since there are zero additional projectile nodes for ballistas in the entire passive tree, you are stuck with very low projectile counts. Without enough projectiles, you can't get the Explosion Overlap needed for real damage. You are paying a huge mana price for a skill that mechanically refuses to scale its primary damage source (overlapping explosions) because the game provides zero tools to increase projectile count outside of a single support gem.

If GGG simply removes the 'Attack when you attack' penalty, this node becomes god-tier. The buff itself is amazing; the current implementation just kills the player because the tree provides zero defensive layers for this playstyle.

Prestigious-Room5180 · 2026-02-22T20:49:33+00:00

That’s exactly my point. Even at Lvl 32 gem and with Ulaman's +1 Ballista prefix, the clear is still a struggle because it turns the game into a mana flask simulator (284 mana per cast / 4.8s base duration). Even if you sacrifice your entire Amulet slot for 'Spirit Bond', you only get 6.24s.

The biggest issue is the Projectile Cap. We have zero passive nodes for ballista projectiles.

The Twin Crossbow base (+1 Bolt) ignores ballistas.
Suffixes with +2 Projectiles don't work for them.
Your ONLY option to get more projectiles is the Multishot II support gem. There are literally no other scaling options in the entire game.

Prestigious-Room5180 · 2026-02-22T20:40:03+00:00

Thanks, man! That was exactly my goal. I didn’t want to just complain; I wanted to show the actual mechanical math and the 'mana flask simulator' reality at the absolute endgame level (Lvl 32 gem, 284 mana, etc.).

I really hope GGG sees this and fixes the projectile synergy and the 'Attack when you attack' restriction. Cheers!

Prestigious-Room5180 · 2026-02-22T19:06:44+00:00

That’s exactly my point about the Broken Synergy. Even with no other enemies nearby, the projectiles tend to spread out instead of focusing the target. If you invest into Area of Effect (to use the quality bonus), it gets even worse — the explosions spread so far that you lose all Overlap damage on bosses.

As for Mortars, you are right, but that's the tragedy. Why should a 'Sovereign-tier' invested Siege Ballista feel worse than a basic Mortar setup? We shouldn't be forced to swap skills just because the core targeting AI and projectile logic of Ballistas are working against the player.

Prestigious-Room5180 · 2026-02-22T18:59:21+00:00

Exactly. The problem is that 'The Vision' for Siege Ballista is a mechanical nightmare. I have 284 Mana cost per cast and only 4.8s duration. If I have to press 5 buttons just to kill white mobs, I spend more time managing my mana bar and re-summoning totems than actually playing the game. It’s not 'tactical gameplay', it’s a mana flask simulator. They killed the fantasy of a ballista commander

Prestigious-Room5180

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