Since time immemorial, this has happened. People in GD have always felt like they’re being personally attacked when their build loses 0.5% damage output. It’s nothing new so don’t act like all of a sudden players are forced to keep things hidden.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to see it, who the fuck even cares? You can keep your strong builds to yourselves and 99.99999% of the playerbase will be none the wiser of your holding out on them. Or you can crawl out from under your rock, enjoy some time in the sun, and then enjoy needing to be creative again when next the nerf hammer falls.
Edit: Does the nerf hammer fall or the nerf bat swing? I really have no idea.
No, this is wrong. It has never happened as long as I’m here. All the people I know were always happy to share what they got with everyone. Well, they still are happy to share what they got with everyone. Just not with you, guys.
It happened in 2014 when I joined the forums, in 2018 when you joined the forums, and it’ll happen in 20XX when you rage quit the forums.
Someone will always have something they think they’re a genius for coming up with and will fight tooth and claw to defend their honor from the evil playtesters.
Edit: truth be told, though, people didn’t really blame the praets back in the day. That didnt seem to start until I joined the team. GUESS I’M DOING SOMETHING RIGHT
Edit 2: I’ll have a serious, actually constructive reply for you when I’m not on my phone. Alas, I can only do so much with a digital keyboard.
It’s an endless cycle. New “elites” join the forum and they either get butthurt or they try to be constructive. Some of them became Praetorians. Some moved on. Some are still here as regulars.
Players have been playing Grim Dawn for over 6 years, dude. You think we’re in some new era? Look through the old patch notes. I’ve lost track of how many times the game was dead and how many builds have “died”. And yet the game is more popular than ever.
Make ya praetorian then. So there’s different phase in hierarchy? From critic to tester. I always thought that the phases are:
You start as fresh guy, ask questions, give thanks to “elites”
You start to visit often, post constructive feedback / build. You act nice and try not to offend someone.
You became little burned out from the game, start to play rarely, only super builds end game content.
You become annoyed with each patch changes. You think each Nerf is specifically aimed towards you. You pour negativism to your feedbacks and demand to stop with #deadbuilds.
Oh @Ceno, you were one of us and then you have turned to the Dark Side. But you don’t even realise that you are just being manipulated by Palpatine-Zantai!
I’ll ridicule criticism when that criticism is of me or my colleagues, or is otherwise batshit crazy (which is how most of your criticism reads). But if you want some more concrete, grounded replies based in the reality we live in, let’s take a few steps back…
You mean the Censure nerfs that the Crucible crowd so desired for and that I ardently opposed (and still oppose?)
This trend really continues for much of your list of nerfs. So next time you wanna blame Praets for all the “bad changes” that have ever happened in the game, feel free to take a look back on things and see which part of the community is really getting things nerfed.
Now, as to AoM; the
would be Nightblades making humanoid enemies evaporate. Suddenly Iron Maiden and Fabius are once again the bane of glasscannon makers everywhere. Since people can no longer outright ignore their mechanics by obliterating them in half a second, they finally pose the threat they’ve always meant to. Sounds like everything’s working as intended.
AoM’s racial damage was brought in line with FoR but is still better than Steel Resolve. Something very obviously overpowered has been fixed. If Nightblades proceed to struggle in certain areas after this, there are plenty of ways to adjust them, either in mastery, devotion, items, or even on the enemy side of things.
Communicate with me on a build that’s “dead” or “extinct,” and I will happily work with you on getting that fixed. But right now, 170 posts in, this thread hasn’t produced more than some blathering about some numbers being cut down.
I have to defend myself/get accused as someone whose build “suffered” (I hope, everyone here sees the 2 “”!) a lot more than the “poor Nightblades” sometimes mentioned here.
How much Racial Damage against Humans did a 6/12 AoM-Nightblade loose? 8 to 10 %? Perhaps even 15 %? Well, my build lost a total of 32 % of Racial Damage against Humans since 1.1.4.1. Fun Fact: I even wrote Crate a message that changes to Guthook belt hadn´t made it in 1.1.4.1.
I am really annoyed about the course this thread has taken. When I made it (Yes, I tried a separate thread but Medea and me did things on the same time, so it got a little bit messy ) I just wanted to discuss if there is a possibility to gain something of a compensation for the nerf on AoM like Guthook Belt got. In a god damned sensible way.
But what happened? I even got head-to-head with Zantai because I had the impression that only the loudest outcriers are “heard” and people like me and others who made proposals or gave feedback on testing are overlooked. And now this thread is again at this point and I am frustrated because I don´t know why it is impossible to deal with nerfs in a sensible discussion.
But I see what I made wrong in the past. I should have been a real pita everytime Bleeding Damage is nerfed. Maybe I would be a praetorian now.
Edit:
06:00 am on a Saturday morning and I am posting here. I will repeat myself: Strange times.
Fun aside, could we bring some more complexity back to AoM? Not necessarily frontload everything into a 1p+skillers passive if possible, to make different types take different amounts of it. Especially ultimate levels, where which build gets how much are “easy” to control through gear. (So maybe melee infiltrators won’t delete nemeses, but cold caster saboteurs get some extra out of it. Yes, I’m playing a cold grenade saboteur but whatever. It was an example.)
(08:15 On a Saturday morning, insomnia gang strikes again)
Totally unrelated: Shouldn’t Alkamos, the … you know, Lord Executioner, have Anatomy of Murder at max ultimate level (scaling up to it)? Murder was his life, and even his unlife.
Hm, had time for tests and see the problem now.
AoM nerf hit only acid&cold builds really
Because bleed and pierce builds don’t have human enemies with high pierce/bleed res
However, acid builds have Alex, the cold - Fabius
Then, I think, it would be fair to revert Lethal Assault nerf. I know that the nerf was pretty negligible, but those numbers can make a big difference
Quite right, but Pierce for example has Iron Maiden and not to forget Vitality with Dravis.
Just from the absolute numbers, Vitality/Bleeding lost the most from the nerf because they invested many points in AoM (~20 %). But, as you say, the impact offensive/damage-wise was perhaps harder on Acid/Cold builds.
So, it seems the solution (if anything is planned to be made) has to be in 2 places. Perhaps like you said Lethal Assault for Acid/Cold/Vitality and some flat Health on AoM. Vitality would profit double but Vitality Nightblades aren´t really OP, so maybe not a problem.
Bleed&pierce benefit a lot from % cunning
Iron Maiden has only 56% pierce res
Dravis is an undead also, so you benefit from racial damage in Revenant devotion
So, yes, the acid&cold builds feel AoM nerf harder
Edit: not a real drama, but some compensation is welcome, especially after multiple nerfs on masteries and sets
As far as I remember LA nerf was mostly in the upper couple of ranks. So only a couple of top-tiers and greened-out builds would benefit.
Sure, but cold and acid that had 25% at 6/12 or 30% at 9/12 now have 7% at 3/12. Pierce got Blades of Wrath devo, and still invest till 11/12 or softcap (or more) for the cunning. Vit got PB which the best spam cast (or was - hard to keep up with the nerf race). It’s hard to say who lost most the most. Cold maybe. But I say the whole mastery lost a ton in terms of its thematic value, uniqueness and how it can attract new players. For endgame, Venomblade can live without that ~20% racial, and Deathmarked was shelved by most people long before this nerf. Cold dw works best with Chillhearts now, and Seeiers, and road to Seejere was nicely buffed. But for how long? Chilhrarts might be next on the chopping block. Or nightblade wps (they’re not in line with masteries who don’t have them yo! )
So there’s different phase in hierarchy? From critic to tester. 
I always thought that the phases are:
) I just wanted to discuss if there is a possibility to gain something of a compensation for the nerf on AoM like Guthook Belt got. In a god damned sensible way.
)