The substantial changes to character defences contained in the 3.16 expansion had the desired effect of encouraging players to invest more heavily in character defences besides life stacking. We’re happy with this direction, but will be making further changes aimed at making some of the most powerful defensive layers require more investment and improving diversity in defensive options. We are making a set of changes with this goal in 3.19, but are also considering further changes for future expansions and will be refining these plans based on discussion and your feedback.
(1) Problem:
Spell Suppression is intended to be mostly accessible to characters on the right side of the passive skill tree. However, spell suppression values on item modifiers are high enough that any character can reasonably reach 100% spell suppression chance through items alone, and passive skills that grant suppression are relatively weak in comparison. This results in capped spell suppression feeling like a mandatory pickup for most characters that want strong defences, rather than mostly an option to complement evasion-focused builds.
Solution:
Reduce the values of spell suppression granted by item modifiers. Increase the amount of spell suppression granted by passive skills and a few other sources.
Details:
Chance to Suppress Spell Damage modifiers on Dexterity Body Armours and Shields can now roll with values of +8–10% at the lowest tier (previously +17–20%), up to +20–22% at the highest tier (previously +32–34%). Crafted versions of these modifiers now have values of +5–7% (previously +8–10%) and +8–10% (previously +11–13%).
Chance to Suppress Spell Damage modifiers on Dexterity Helmets, Boots and Gloves can now roll with values of +5–6% at the lowest tier (previously +8–10%), up to +13–14% at the highest tier (previously +20–22%). Crafted versions of these modifiers now have values of +3–4% (previously 5–6%) and +5–6% (previously 7–8%).
The Eater of Worlds Implicit modifier on Gloves that grants a chance to Suppress Spell Damage can now roll with values of +5–10% (previously +7–12%).
The Eater of Worlds Implicit modifier on Gloves that grants a chance to Suppress Spell Damage while a Unique Enemy is in your Presence can now roll with values of +7–12% (previously +10–15%).
The Eater of Worlds Implicit modifier on Gloves that grants a chance to Suppress Spell Damage while a Pinnacle Atlas Boss in your Presence can now roll with values of +10–15% (previously +13–18%).
The Corrupted Implicit Boots modifier that grants a +6–9% chance to Suppress Spell Damage now has a level requirement of 45 (previously 1).
The Corrupted Implicit Boots modifier that grants a chance to Suppress Spell Damage while moving can no longer roll.
The small Passive Skills in the Evasion and Spell Suppression wheel at the centre of the Passive Skill Tree now grant +4% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously 3%).
The Inveterate Notable Passive Skill now grants +15% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +12%). The small Passive Skills in this cluster now grant +8% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +6%).
The Entrench Notable Passive Skill now grants +12% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +10%). The small Passive Skills in this cluster now grant +5% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +4%).
The Instinct Notable Passive Skill now grants +12% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +10%). The small Passive Skills in this cluster now grant +5% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +4%).
The Quickstep Notable Passive Skill now grants +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +6%).
The Intuition Notable Passive Skill now grants +8% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +5%).
The Resourcefulness Notable Passive Skill now grants +8% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +5%).
The Courage Notable Passive Skill now grants +15% chance to Suppress Spell Damage if you’ve Hit an Enemy Recently (previously +10%).
The Dagger Mastery that provides a chance to Suppress Spell Damage for each Dagger you’re Wielding now has a value of +10% (previously +8%).
The Spell Suppression Mastery that provides a chance to Suppress Spell Damage if your Boots, Helmet and Gloves have Evasion now has a value of +12% (previously +10%).
The Spell Suppression Mastery that prevents a percentage of Suppressed Spell Damage now has a value of +3% (previously +2%).
The Aerialist Cluster Jewel Notable Passive now grants +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +6%).
The Darting Movements Cluster Jewel Notable Passive now grants +12% chance to Suppress Spell Damage while moving (previously +8%).
The Elegant Form Cluster Jewel Notable Passive now grants +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +6%).
The Hit and Run Cluster Jewel Notable Passive now grants +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage if you’ve Hit an Enemy Recently (previously +6%).
The Untouchable Cluster Jewel Notable Passive now grants +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage (previously +6%).
(2) Problem:
Arctic Armour does not grant enough defensive power to compete with other defensive reservation skills, particularly since the majority of its protection is only granted when the player is standing still.
Solution:
Substantially increase the amount of damage reduction while stationary provided by Arctic Armour. We will likely continue to explore more efficient defensive options for characters that spend a lot of time standing still in future content updates.
Details:
Arctic Armour now grants 11–21% less Physical Damage taken from Hits while stationary at gem levels 1–20 (previously 8–13%), and 11–20% less Fire Damage taken from Hits while stationary at gem levels 1–20 (previously 8–12%).
Labyrinth Helmet Enchantments that grant increased Arctic Armour Buff Effect can no longer be obtained.
(3) Problem:
Flesh and Stone is not powerful enough to warrant 25% mana reservation. Slight improvements to Blind investment outlined below will naturally help it to some extent, but just a little more power is needed to make it a competitive option.
Solution:
Increase the damage reduction from distant enemies that Flesh and Stone provides when in Sand Stance.
Details:
Flesh and Stone now causes you to take 11–15% less Damage from Attacks from Enemies that aren’t nearby while in Sand Stance at gem levels 1–20 (previously 9–11%)
(4) Problem:
Defiance Banner provides a substantial percentage increase to armour and evasion, on top of other benefits for a low investment. It therefore grants all characters a way to further scale the large amounts of armour and evasion granted by the Determination and Grace skills. It also disproportionately benefits characters that do not have easy access to armour and evasion scaling on the passive skill tree, and when combined with Determination and Grace allows these characters to use aura effect to scale armour and evasion almost as effectively as characters directly investing into armour and evasion bonuses. This has led to the combination of Defiance Banner, Determination and Grace feeling near mandatory for characters in hardcore leagues, and very attractive elsewhere.
Solution:
Substantially reduce the armour and evasion granted by Defiance Banner.
Details:
Defiance Banner now grants you and nearby allies 15–24% increased Armour and Evasion Rating at gem levels 1–20 (previously 30–49%)
Defiance Banner now grants nearby enemies 30–40% reduced Critical Strike Chance at gem levels 1–20 (previously 20–29%)
Anomalous Defiance Banner quality grants you and nearby allies 0.25% increased Armour and Evasion Rating per quality (previously 0.5%)
(5) Problem:
The Wind Dancer keystone’s drawback of taking 20% more attack damage if you’ve been hit by an attack recently is too risky to make the keystone feel like a worthwhile trade, even for characters with substantial investment in evasion, as it is too likely that you will be hit again during that time.
Solution:
Change Wind Dancer to be less risky for characters with large amounts of evasion by allowing a high evasion rating to more effectively mitigate its drawback.
Details:
The Wind Dancer Keystone Passive Skill no longer provides 40% more Evasion Rating if you have been Hit by an Attack Recently. Instead, it now provides 10% more chance to Evade Attacks if you have been Hit by an Attack Recently.
(6) Problem:
The Arrow Dancing keystone’s penalty to melee evasion chance feels too punishing, even for characters with substantial investment in evasion.
Solution:
Change Arrow Dancing to provide a less extreme penalty to melee evasion but a less extreme bonus to projectile evasion.
Details:
The Arrow Dancing Keystone Passive Skill no longer provides 40% more chance to Evade Projectile Attacks, or 20% less chance to Evade Melee Attacks. Instead, it now provides “Evasion Rating is Doubled against Projectile Attacks”, and “25% less Evasion Rating against Melee Attacks”.
(7) Problem:
Ward is a relatively niche defensive mechanic, but currently is mainly strong when paired with the Olroth’s Resolve unique flask, and not worth investing in otherwise.
Solution:
Reduce the base ward restoration time, which is already bypassed by Olroth’s Resolve but a limiting factor for ward’s usefulness in other cases. Allow builds to invest further in faster ward restoration if they so desire.
Details:
Ward is now instantly restored after 4 seconds (previously 5 seconds).
Added 5 tiers of a new Suffix modifier that can roll on Ward base types, granting up to 58% faster Restoration of Ward.
The Faithguard Unique Helmet now has 40–60% faster Restoration of Ward (previously 20–30%). Existing versions of this item can be updated to the new values with a Divine Orb.
(8) Problem:
The Grasping Mail modifier that provides 100% increased global defences provides too much value to a build heavily investing in defences for a single mod slot.
Solution:
The prefix modifier that can roll on Grasping Mails which provides increased Global Defences now has a value of 50% (previously 100%). Existing items can be made worse with a Divine Orb.
(9) Problem:
The Gravicius Veiled Modifier on body armour that grants a percentage of your maximum life as energy shield adds a huge amount of survivability to many builds for the low investment of a single bench-crafted modifier. Granting energy shield to life-based builds was often not valuable in the past as those builds would not have a sensible way to recover energy shield in combat, but the recent addition of Ghost Dance and Divine Shield, among other changes, have made obtaining a relatively small amount of energy shield on a life-based build very valuable. The Gravicius modifier trivialises this.
Solution:
Rework the Gravicius’ Veiled Modifier to instead grant a percentage of Physical Damage taken as Fire and Lightning Damage.
Details:
The Gravicius’ Veiled modifier on Body Armours that grants 12–14% of your maximum Life as Energy Shield has been replaced by a modifier that grants a 8–9% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage, and 8–9% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Lightning Damage. Crafting bench versions of the modifier provide values of 3–4% and 5–6%. Existing items are unaffected by these changes.
(10) Problem:
Passive skills that grant blind effect do not adequately reward investment in them.
Solution:
Increase the values of blind effect found on the passive tree.
Details:
The Silent Steps Notable Passive Skill now grants 40% increased Blind Effect (previously 30%). The small Passive Skills in this cluster that provide Evasion Rating and Blind Effect now grant 15% Blind Effect (previously 10%).
The Blind Mastery that grants increased Blind Effect now has a value of 40% (previously 30%).
(11) Problem:
Mind over Matter, and builds that heavily invest in mana in general, have been left in an underpowered state by various balance changes and the increased power of investing in reservation skills.
Solution:
As a first step, improve the base power of Mind over Matter and pull that power out of body armour mods. We’re aware that this change does not solve all problems currently facing mana builds, and are considering exactly what further changes to make for future expansions.
Details:
The Mind over Matter Keystone Passive Skill now causes 40% of Damage to be taken from Mana before Life (previously 30%).
Damage taken from Mana before Life can no longer roll as an Influence modifier, Synthesised Implicit modifier, or Eldritch Implicit modifier on Body Armour.
The Cloak of Defiance Unique Body Armour no longer has 10% of Damage is Taken from Mana before Life.
The Veiled modifier that grants Damage taken from Mana before Life while Focused now provides values of 18–22% (previously 28–32%). The crafted versions of this modifier now provide values of 11–15% (previously 21–25%).
(12) Problem:
Fortification is too difficult to gain for some melee builds, and too frustrating to use for many others.
Solution:
Make fortification easier to gain and longer lasting.
Details:
Melee hits that can Fortify now generate roughly twice as many Fortification stacks as previously, based on damage dealt. Fortification generation against magic and rare monsters has been further increased.
The base duration of Fortification has been increased to 6 seconds (previously 5).
The entry small Passive Skill in the Steadfast cluster that provides increased Fortification for Fortifying Hits now has a value of 30% (previously 20%).
The top of the Steadfast cluster now consists of two small Passive Skills that each provide 40% increased Fortification Duration (previously one small Passive Skill that provided 20% increased Fortification for Fortifying Hits).