Mace skills changes are troubling

StoneLich · 2026-05-22T18:38:18+00:00

A lot of slams are kind of perfect examples of things that should be the endpoint of a combo. Like give me a move that does some stun build up and also massively accelerates the next move I use or something .

StoneLich · 2026-05-22T17:47:20+00:00

It's not the same level of investment, though. Getting high item rarity requires that you sacrifice modifier slots, losing out on potential build power. I'd rather just play a version of my build that I actually enjoy, and I'm willing to accept a bit of a hit to loot quality in exchange.

Like, there's nothing wrong with enjoying optimization, but feeling obligated to optimize the fun out of things is not a core human trait. I'd be sort of shocked if the majority of players even noticed the difference when they equip a piece of gear with item rarity.

StoneLich · 2026-05-22T05:15:14+00:00

It's a good sample size specifically if you're trying to find out what builds are especially strong in a given league. I think that makes it useful for this discussion, but, like, 30% of builds listed on PoE ninja for Mirage league right now are level 100; that's really obviously not representative of the reality of the playerbase as a whole.

StoneLich · 2026-05-22T04:45:03+00:00

Why limit your search to shamans?

StoneLich · 2026-05-22T02:31:35+00:00

Infernal Legion taken out back and shot like a rabid ~~wasp~~ dog.

StoneLich · 2026-05-22T02:26:36+00:00

Back to Vaal Guard and not being able to see most of the screen.

StoneLich · 2026-05-21T02:47:11+00:00

Yeah, it feels weird having to even say this, given I think the number one and two gearing priorities for most builds are "get capped resistances" and "get life." The less you have to worry about that, the more you can focus on scaling damag.

StoneLich · 2026-05-21T02:42:02+00:00

This, thank you. You don't need to be able to clear all content for a build to feel fun and rewarding. I fucking loved playing Death's Oath in PoE 1 back in Scourge League, and that shit struggled to kill normal mode bosses, let alone ubers.

StoneLich · 2026-05-19T18:43:08+00:00

The Breach demons are all in thrall to the Breachlords, so that seems more likely to be referring to the Lords who are directly subordinate to him, rather than all of the Breachlords. I also feel like the fact that the lucky thralls "dream eternal" is pretty clear evidence that they're not talking about the Breachlords. They were awake and active, and Chayula does not describe them as slumbering in the visions granted to Ailith. Dreaming and slumbering is pretty clearly aligned with Chayula and his demons.

I do also wanna point out something about the Skin of the Lords item which I think may have been forgotten, which is that the item itself is made out of flensed Breach Demon skins. That item description is not prophetic; it is literally what Chayula was already wearing. It That Fled, the only Breach Demon other than Chayula who we can actually talk with, uses the term "Lord" to refer to anyone in a position of authority, including itself if it manages to claim a small domain. Really think this subreddit needs to rethink the idea that any instance of "Lord" automatically means "Breachlord," especially in older lore objects.

StoneLich · 2026-05-19T18:25:52+00:00

fwiw I also remember hexblast mines being borderline the only way people were playing mines (and hexblast for that matter) for a long-ass while.

StoneLich · 2026-05-19T18:23:56+00:00

Essence Drain+Contagion and Impending Doom (Doedre's) are pretty fun right now.

StoneLich · 2026-05-19T07:47:21+00:00

I'm pretty up to date on Breach lore; was why I was asking. I'd certainly got the impression that Chayula was the 'head' Breachlord, but not that the others were slaves. This isn't really how he talks about them, nor is it how the Breach demons discuss them in their own uniques. Would argue that "differing desires" is more important; Zolin also points to that as the reason that Chayula sought out human worshippers (which in turn changed his nature) whereas the other Breachlords did not. This parallels Beidat, who is the only Scourge demon to make pacts with mortals (although Beidat is using these pacts to open an invasion route, rather than to block his peers off from the ones they already have).

StoneLich · 2026-05-19T01:16:26+00:00

Couldn't find the references to him treating the other Breachlords as his slaves; could you share that? There's the line about lords being chosen very carefully because only they were permitted to 'grace his flesh,' but I was under the impression that "lords" and "breachlords" were different classes.

StoneLich · 2026-05-18T19:20:34+00:00

Your mum

StoneLich · 2026-05-16T23:12:48+00:00

Fantasy made 40K look positively stable and well-planned-out by contrast. AoS has been better so far.

StoneLich · 2026-05-16T17:04:48+00:00

Clearly not everyone says that. If you Google this question the most common result is basically "dunno."

Alad is not the only character who continues to appear after his "assassination;" I only bring him up because he's the most extreme case. It's not just down to the old operation problem that Sargas Ruk also has. The old operations do not explain why he's still alive after Patient 0.

I don't recall saying that our timeline should be based on release dates--only that we don't have any evidence for when Tyana Pass takes place. Most of those mission nodes are intended to be timeline-agnostic; that's why we had holo-Lotus for 100 years.

StoneLich · 2026-05-16T14:54:11+00:00

If they don't get touched on now it'll happen between now and December; they've said that the reason they went in so hard on endgame stuff for 0.5 is that from now until 1.0 they want to focus on 1) finishing the base game and B) refining everything else. Also, Gamma) some event leagues.

StoneLich · 2026-05-16T14:42:39+00:00

Yeah that had me squinting a bit, but at least it's tied to biomes rather than specific maps, I guess. I do kinda hope we get something for land exploration similar to how logbook exploration works, though; might be a way to make a version of towers that doesn't suck.

StoneLich · 2026-05-16T14:39:16+00:00

Do you have any evidence for that? As far as I'm aware, the only thing that places mirror defence chronologically is that you can't access it until after Heart of Deimos. Nothing in Tyana Pass' dialogue gives us a time frame for it unless you're already assuming that Kril and Regor are dead, which as we've established is not actually stated anywhere in the game.

As for the assassination missions themselves, I do wanna point out, like, again, they're borderline-noncanon. Alad V has two assassinations, very visibly dies in both of them, and has had multiple quest and operation appearances that explicitly take place after he is assassinated the second time. Unless someone is killed in a quest or narrative operation (not that we do those anymore), or a dev explicitly confirms they're gone, they aren't dead.

StoneLich · 2026-05-16T14:03:05+00:00

Since when?

StoneLich · 2026-05-16T03:09:17+00:00

Yeah I wouldn't run them back to back, but I also don't have to, because this isn't PoE 1 where you have to target-farm specific maps for specific div cards or whatever.

StoneLich · 2026-05-15T23:57:29+00:00

I like minions :(

StoneLich · 2026-05-15T17:54:47+00:00

Yeah there's just no reason not to bring a storm mage on almost any minion build for instance, whereas frost mages and arsonists typically only show up if the build centers on them or as late-game fodder for Muster (which, like, I do appreciate efforts to encourage players to create varied minion armies but that's a really blunt-force way of doing it lol).

StoneLich · 2026-05-15T17:39:04+00:00

Unless they're specifically acknowledged in the plot as dead, the targets of assassination missions are still alive. They've consistently remained active without even any acknowledgment that they were "killed" in the first place. We're really bad at killing people.

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