Since the release of the FoA DLC, this belt has become something of a “jack-of-all-trades”—much like the helmets from Ravager and Callagadra.
While it was an item that sacrificed some defense for offensive gains, this was always an interesting and justifiable trade-off for damage-focused characters.
However, the item recently received an additional, quite aggressive nerf: a 25% reduction to total attack power (occurring periodically), on top of the existing debuffs to defensive stats.
And here’s my point: if I—someone who really likes this belt—have decided to put my builds (that don’t yet have a set belt) on hold until it receives a definitive adjustment, imagine how those who aren’t as fond of it must feel.
In my view, there are three ways to address this situation:
Remove the recently added attack debuff.
Halve the item’s stats—keeping only the “+1 to All Skills” bonus intact—and remove all other debuffs.
Remove the item from the game entirely. Given the current state of the nerf, that might even be a viable option.
What do you think? Which of these alternatives would be the best approach?
Edit:It feels like I’m experiencing déjà vu. The nerf never actually happened; it was there the whole time. The tricky part is that I even talked to friends about it, but I never took a screenshot of the item back then to prove it.
Still, I think the concept behind the item is far too interesting to just let it die due to a lack of proper balancing.
But if that’s how it has to be, then so be it.
very curious what recent added debuff you refer to - chains of anguish always had its penalty ever since it was epic/pre FoA, and was why we always cautioned levelling players/beginners to not get bamboozled by its +1 skill
Nor do i see any new nerfs in ptr changelog for it ?
The point here isn’t about which patch the item was released in, or whether the previous debuff was larger. The issue is that the item that preceded the FoA ended up being completely ignored precisely because of those debuffs.
The adjustment proposed in the second option is based on a logic of balance: you gain +1 to all skills, but in exchange, you forfeit the belt’s active/passive effects, as well as any additional attributes that a different belt might offer.
The idea is to create a fair trade-off. After all, we are talking about an item that is already extremely strong in terms of base stats; granting +1 to all skills without a significant trade-off could make it completely unbalanced.
The problem is that, with these nerfs, the item becomes irrelevant once again. Honestly, would you use an item that increases your damage by 5%, but—20% of the time—reduces your damage by 25% and lowers key resistances against the game’s toughest bosses? And we’re talking about vital resistances here, especially physical resistance.
It makes no sense to make an item so punitive that it negates any advantage it provides. The goal should be to strike a balance between the benefit of +1 to all skills and the cost of giving up other advantages—not to create a penalty that causes the item to be ignored all over again.
it didn’t get ignored, it’s been used in a bunch of builds including top ones
“what nerfs”, you keep bringing up nerfs when there have been none to the item, it’s been the same for years, the debuff is the tradeoff to the +1 because it’s powerful/always been the power penalty/payment
it doesn’t, that’s the point, you can build around it but don’t get it for free… you get a 6sec debuff, that’s slightly above 20% of the time you feel the cost, the rest of the time you have the full bonus.
heck “backwhen” it got penalty increased/altered because a bunch of builds was kinda freely using it from not getting impcated by the debuff (trauma etc)
Yeah, it feels like I had a flash of a memory that never actually happened—I recall using this item back when it didn’t have that -25% debuff; it was great for “glass cannon” builds. After patch 1.3.0.8 or 1.3.1, I noticed the debuff and stopped using it. It’s a shame that an item with such an interesting concept—one that could have been a “best-in-slot” (BiS) piece, much like the helms from Ravager or Callagadra, or certain amulets—has ended up like this.
Chains of Anguish have been used in countless glass cannon builds for years, and continue to be used for the risk/reward spikes (get it?) they provide.
Would it be possible to reduce the stat bonuses provided by the belt in exchange for removing that -25% debuff? This way, the item’s core concept could be preserved without compromising the game’s balance too much.
Alternatively—if the goal is to remove all the debuffs—we run into a problem: the item ends up losing its original identity, which is the trade-off of sacrificing defense for attack.
Since this approach removes all negative effects, it would be practically the same as creating a new belt.
And you don’t want that, right?
Glass cannon builds don’t really care about the debuff. Because they kill things quickly so it’s not likely to be active when actually fighting.
For less glassy builds, you have things like Nullification and Ulo devo proc that can remove the debuff.
The item has never been designed to be a “Jack-of-all-trades” or “BIS” item for every build like the 2 helmets mentioned (Especially given the slot it uses which unlike helmets and amulets doesn’t conflict with most sets)
It’s always been a very powerful item, with a drawback (That was increased to further emphasise this) that you have to play around.
Anguish is not of much interest as I don’t like things that threaten survivability, but I’d like to see more niche things, like critical damage -200% but max speed +20%.
On a similar note, I would love to see something that trades pet stats for player’s or vice versa though it needs to be something that non pet builds can’t abuse.
I agree. Since I’ve seen that the forum community doesn’t want any changes made to it, I’d rather just implement a rule prohibiting the use of this type of trap. Let it remain limited to the 1% or less who don’t realize how bad it actually is in the late game.
When I create builds, I follow a rule: I forbid the use of questionable items. Since there’s no prospect of them improving, I ban them from my builds. That’s what I meant.Some people will use it frequently, and that’s fine, but I prefer something with consistency.
- chains of anguish always had its penalty ever since it was epic/pre FoA, and was why we always cautioned levelling players/beginners to not get bamboozled by its +1 skill