That was years ago and I no longer care about single damage. It’s not my thing! Remember, I only play characters that are Dual Damage which is a “gimmick” and what “most players don’t play”.
And that’s exactly why I was advocating the Transmuters stay the way they were and don’t change.
We each play differently.
But it doesn’t really matter in the end since I don’t think people thought about the most likely reason it was changed…
That’s it. That’s the reason the change was made, so I’m moving on.
i mean… you can still do DD builds
the transmuter doesn’t prevent that
doubt it, i’m guessing it was the overlapping recent feedback posts specifically addressing the transmuter stuff and foi (again again) - but who ever really knows why these things happen
Definitely a good point, I levelled chaos FoI recently and it actually felt pretty bad, even with good (dare I say great, seems everything had +3 FoI) item support and partial vit conversation via Father Abbadon’ts tome. So much so that I actually wondered why people even play the skill…Can’t imagine that vitality would be any more pleasant. I’m glad of the changes, tho the build diversity does take a hit and it’s a bit surprising to me tbh, but knowing Crate it will get compensated in some form somewhere.
Sure they can still be done, just not Black Flame Chaos/Vitality AAR with the Red Beam of Death from the Transmuter. It’s a build now. But we can’t say that on the forums.
Yes there was a thread from a month ago with the top20 crew (and yourself) complaining about the SR performance of Chaos FoI and how Tainted Flame (with Tainted Power thrown in) is a “relic of the past”. And how AA, FoI and AAR are “gimped” because of how enemies stack up (again, in SR + CR, not campaign or when leveling really because Campaign or leveling is not their thing) despite videos posted in other threads showing the build in question evading/movement rune into the middle of packs or not using terrain to the build’s advantage (or disadvantage of FoI’s “limited cone”).
And it turns out the Tainted Flame change wasn’t responsible for much afterall. The other changes Z made with added damage, increased cone size and turn speed had a much larger impact as shown here:
as I said, I am not against it, I think a “non-arcanist” damage that is Vitality can be supported via some Conduit mod. Vitality AAR conduit? Why not, I think everyone would be happy if it is something like 100% elemental/aether converted to Vitality + adtch + flat. And if you wanna go split damage, well, you can take this Conduit and new transmuter!
I’m fine with Conduits overall, but it is a real pain in the butt to not have access to something “build defining” until level 94. Yes, there are sets that are build defining for a lots of builds, but they can function decently with level 75 versions of the sets. If you need that Conduit to function for your exotic conversion it’s not happening for a long time and certainly not until you get the recipe!
I really wish all Conduits were level 75 (or maybe even 50!) instead, so you had some way to go with your “meme” builds a lot faster. The vast majority of players would never get to the level at which they can even equip it let alone have a clue it exists!
This, and there are times when you can’t do exactly that. So why change after 10 years??
“Sacrifice”? Conduit is one of the best if not the best amulet options you can have if your build requires it. Especially for Arcanists that are usually strapped for hp and resists. Arcanist with Arcanist conduit is a dream.
Because game is progressing and improving. We can’t be holding on to relics just because they have been there for long enough. Otherwise we would all be playing with Thermite Mines that bounce off the floor and provide only “thematical” fire/lightning -rr%. Or Menhir’s Bulwark exclusive would still be only eligible for snb, cuz traditions.
The AAR and FOI transmuters were never a proper dual damage split. The lightning portion, which was converted to Vitality, was only a small fraction of the skill’s overall damage. It came from a more idealistic era where all manner of skills had some degree of split damage (and you still see these dramatic splits on vanilla skills like Phantasmal Blades until they are converted away by gear), but this method never really worked for endgame builds and it was at best a penalty and confusing to beginners. This penalty has no tangible benefits besides some thematic flavor and doesn’t really make sense anymore (if it ever even did).
It is profoundly difficult, if not impossible, to balance dual-damage-type against single-damage-type, at least not if you want to account for all the various damage combinations. We would need to fundamentally redesign everything from mastery skills to devotions to support dual damage builds (you can’t get -% Chaos RR and -% Vitality RR on the same devotion path without making significant sacrifices for example), and we would need to be much more restrictive about what damage combinations are even supported.
I’m with you on the idea that it’s nice to start playing the character as intended before level 94. I did raise the idea in a recent GM and got an answer from big Z which is essentially about progression and that you shouldn’t get too much power before reaching the real items.
At least the MIs have been alleviating that problem a lot recently, I like it. The complaints I had around 2019 about high conversion values being impossible to find before late game were mostly addressed by those. You still don’t get global high conversion values but you get it as low as level 20 or 30 on the skill that matters to you so that’s good.
I’ll settle for the exploding Thermite Mines from ages ago. That was !
That and the Energy Leeching CoF. Man, those were the days…
Absolutely, the intricate details of the game and the various interactions are enough to drive somebody insane. I appreciate what you have done for this game (and continue to do!) over the many years now.
Thank you for the reply and your thoughts on the matter. It’s a rare thing to have devs that speak their thoughts on changes and give some inside info on why things happen.
Yes, the game has seen quite a large number of improvements over the years. Buffs >>> nerfs with each patch.
You know, resistance reduction sources aside, that reminds me of ancient times where items had separate bonuses for direct damage and DoT damage. Eventually you just slapped DoT bonus damage to every item that already had the direct bonus damage of the same type and nowadays we can recognize the “specialist” DoT items because they include flat DoT, %crit, and skill modifiers explicitely helping DoT. It works fine that way. I have seen a few “thematic” Fangs of Asterkarn items giving cold/frostburn/bleed for example.
I don’t worry at all about dual-damage support. It IS largely supported. It’s only important for people who want to kill Ravager in 12s.
speaking of PB (even if it’s not really related to the OG topic), could they get some… pass too? Like at least moving the vit conversion to a dedicated set, or maybe reducing the damage type numbers? it’s the skill that hadn’t been looked at for literally years I think (since Spite was nerfed, I think) and it fell off behind the meta really bad.
also the transmuter fucks up the skill really hard.
A funny story for you: before conduits were a thing, I made an aether PB Spellbreaker (Necromancer wasn’t a thing either) and it took every item with conversion to achieve it.
2 Decrees of Malmouth for elemental (cold) to aether.
2 Albrecht’s Duality for chaos to aether.
Vestments of Agrivix for some vitality to aether (the vitality from Heart Seeker, not the one from the transmuter which isn’t convertible).
Then this conduit was added which helps with vitality and piercing damage but the blades are shot in circle so I’ll probably not use it because it changes how the character feels.
We have different effectiveness measures. Which is funny, because I do bench my shit against high SR - but for me the question is “how high can it clear without player dying of old age”. I don’t really time those runs, unless said time becomes obviously uncomfortable. Because ultimately this isn’t POE, clear speed difference of 1-2 minutes isn’t a dealbreaker.
And within those metrics, DD builds are doing fine. Dagallon purifier is the best it has ever been (and it’s my waifu build, please keep the buffs rolling). An old “swamp witch” conjurer build with mostly even vitality/bleed split is working fine. An old mageslayer/Nex&Ortus spellbreaker build is doing fine. Hell, I’ve run a full trielemental mage hunter at the peak of the notion “elemental builds are terrible”, and it still remains one of the most comfortable builds I’ve ever played in the game. Hence why I dislike that transmuter change, especially since this is the second time it happens. People making an argument that “arcanist isn’t a vitality class” - yeah, like chaos support is a thing on arcanist…
Now, the DD builds aren’t top20 material, obviously. But they don’t need to be, and I find the notion of trying to unify EVERYTHING and bring it up to the state of the current nightblades absolutely unneeded. On that note, complaints that “ranged is subpar because it doesn’t deal circular damage in the middle of the mob pack” are ridiculous - and yet they are popping up after the second top20 went up.
I respect the work you and the rest of theorycrafting community did on both top20 lists, I had a blast with couple of builds from there. They shouldn’t ever be considered norm, and I feel they affect your collective perspective a bit too much.
- but who ever really knows why these things happen
build now. But 
we can’t say that on the forums. 
was 
!
