This will be an aggregator topic for overperforming things in the endgame, whether it’s a piece of gear, a mod, a set, a skill, an interaction - on the player side, - or on the enemy side - abilities, spawns, scaling, etc. Will also include underperforming (UP) section, but for smth obvious to keep the topic tight.
It will be based mostly on SR30+, Crucible 181-200 and Ascendant Mode challenges/target farm. It will be structured loosely at the start but I’ll try to have some order as we go. Will add new things and scrape the old if they are irrelevant.
The new expansion eradicated the previous game’s balance and vastly increased the scope of the game, so we need as much data as possible. If you want to submit an OP thing, try to support it with clear evidence, same for UP things, or when contending an entry point.
The topic will be, of course, heavily affected by personal opinion and experience of myself and my fellow toxic swamp members, including but not limited to @afanasenkov26 @grey-maybe @mad_lee @nofika4u @romanN1 @x1x1x1x2 . You will have to agree or disagree and get mad, everyone is welcome.
OP THINGS
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Form of the Beast.
Provides a ridiculous bonus. This bonus alone makes a lot of non-AA builds pointless without wearing a furry suit. Even if your build focuses on the dmg type or is built around a set that is not supported by Berserker, you often end up breakeven or better off taking Berserker for Form of the Beast alone. Chillwhisper Veilwalker is on par on dmg and better on tank compared to Reaper, despite on paper having half of the build cut off.
Tbh I really don’t like that beastform can use any abilities, it doesn’t look right when a mighty wolf starts spitting out grenades or spinning around in a T-pose with EoR. I think beatsform should focus on the beast abilities, and Form of the Beast should only buff them, not act as a cheatcode that makes humans inferior to furries.
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Zakull's set has completed a full circle.
We had a dedicated cold SS set, Morgo, produce the fastest build in the fame at the beginning of FG, and now Zakull has made the same in FoA. The set gives full SS conversion, charges, 5(!) onslaught stacks for free, doesn't occupy the weapon slots to allow you to get your cdr. The result is obvious - by far the fastest build in the game is Zakull's Reaver or Spellbreaker (no TSS involved).
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WD multipliers stacking for AA builds.
When I forst looked at all the %chance for WPS among the ascended mods, I thought that's just absurdly OP. But having it marinated a bit, changed my mind. I don't think that allowing the player to stack up to 100% of one WPS itself is OP, and multiple build I've done already prove it. What is in fact OP is stacking high chances together with very high WD% multipliers. When you have a 200% WD attack and manage to stack your WPS for average of 300% WD on DW build, you effectively get 1200% WD each autoattack. The best showcase for it I probably have so far is [Jarldin Archon](https://youtu.be/BUzp3B4W86c) that sports 155% WD * 1.15 * 1.18 * (290% * 2) = 1220% WD worth of solo output spam, making a competitor Avenger Archon obsolete.
Side note. Now I really don’t want to see %chance for WPS in ascended modes nerfed. They seem like overall in a good spot providing a very good bonus for a very high price. But a lot of %WD bonuses from the mods and from the new equipment do need to be trimmed down. What needs to happen is the review of the ascended modes lineup overall. There are some comically low bonuses, like there’s a 8% bonus to Cadence on the magic armor pieces that you would not even want on a Cadence build. What kind of a jest is that?
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Ice King Reaver
Probably, a result of chasing that promised player-pet hybrid, the set was sso overstacked for both non-pet masteries, it now performs far better than any other pure wolf or raven with just Feral Claws. Current Feral Claw hardcap seems to be at a good spot which is shown by other wolf based builds. But this set provides too much stats, flat, rr and a whooping 50% WD to Feral Claws on top. Needs a nerf in player stats and a decent buff to the pet stats.
Side note: we need more affixes, augments and devos fully supporting pet-player hybrids. There’s no reason not to do it, and no reason to have all those purely pet affixes and augments. Any possible player-pet hybrid will have a mountain to climb because of how many skillpoints it would need.
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Potion mods, mainly TDM
Customizable potions is a neat idea. But having them turned into another two buttons you have to press for big permanent buffs - is not. Especially when these buffs are basically mandatory. Yes, TDM received as a downside is significant. But the endgame has always been about killing things before they kill you as the best strategy. It's not very healthy, and these new permabuffs don't help. I personally want to see potions as defensive and utility tools, ideally with maintaining the status of "on demand" usage. -
Ixall's null in Crucible
Basically ruins the new 20-wave. It's just not fun. There's no clear telegraph, the model is small, the boss is fast, has two phases both of which have null, and if you magically dodged the null in all that 200th wave mess, be ready for Valdaran to teleport you back into it. And if you have a very high dmg build and try to focus Ixall from the wave start, the 200th wave can spawn two of them. There's just no justification loot-wise in playing the mode compared to Ascendant with anything but 10-20 builds, when this Ixall's null is in it. -
Onslaught
WD% is a little too high. 210% at hardcap can be reduced to 180% at least. There's a good amount of support for the skill, it doesn't need to have superior %WD to other AA. One potential way of tweaking it further would be to split cold flat between chaos and cold at 60-70% of the current value both, and then turn the transmutor into a TDM for 2H. Most 2H AA builds are still in an eternal climb to match the power of double WD of DW builds.
I say every single AA replacer needs a TDM for 2H, ideally just baked into the very mechanic of AA, and get rid of Savagery and FS TDMs on transmutors. All those sporadic huge mods for 2H weapon to enable AA builds is a neverending balance hell. Let’s just give all 2H AA an integral 15% tdm and be free from it.
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Onslaught stacks
There's not a ton of OP builds with them yet, but each time smth works it destroys the game. My opinion: 15% tdm for a stack is just simply way too much and another headache to balance. I say make them 10% and add more onslaught stack across the board, including generic items. Each time you make a build involving a 2+ sec cooldown skill, you look for onslaught stacks cause they are too strong. And with how limited their sources are, it starts limiting your optimal building options too much. -
Dranghoul Savaged blade
I really like extra arcs to AA but pierce AA Berserker (Reaver) was one of the last on the list of needing it. Move it to other weapons that support Berserker with some alien dmg type, like vit or aether. -
Cold and pierce Reavers
Partially mentioned in the other bullet points. There's overall a little too much synergy for these two platforms, including items like Night'e Embrace, Slithscale Legwraps and Windwalker's Eye. Probably doesn't require an immediate action, more have both on the lookout and see how targeted nerfs impact them. It's just far too many times when i think of a build i go "why not make a Reaver". Blademaster is a class that probably suffers the most. Just completely outclassed by the new guys in town. -
Charges and %chance to reduce cd on attack/crit mechanics
These two new toys right now go to extremes, multiplying your dps by 2-4x. Grenado, Canister and Aegis went from below mid to top tier skills because of extra charges. Burst dmg is extremely strong in the game that has most dangerous enemy abilities tied to initial cd to use. Zakull with charges to SS is a league above than any other build in the game.Then %chance to reset make basically any Cold Snap build top tier because a supposed nuke constantly resets itself. Physical Leap conduit can be used for any dmg type besides pierce to turn a 3 sec cd skill into a semi-spam. These are extremely powerful mechanics, and each cd skill that doesn't have access to charges or resets is left behind in the place of 1.2 balance point. Both mechanics need a big pass: either most cd skills need access to at least one, or they need to be somehow restricted (like inner cd on the reset chance).
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Oneshots from inflated numbers in regular/proc attacks on select new bosses
I myself asked several times to buff regular attacks of bosses before FoA. But some of the new additions go over the board. Shriek, Nyarlathon and Prodromus auto attacks have huge hitboxes, are hard to dodge and can oneshot 20k hp. Vinn Ozmald poops out extremely devastating pools on attack and on being hit.Dangerous bosses are good, but when most danger is hard to avoid oneshots, it's a little boring.
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Plaguebearer prefix. And general flat RR problems
26 flat RR on hit is too much for a price of one 1H prefix. It should be lowered to at least 20, and stay the same for 2H maybe.Flat RR on hit became a staple of a good build, Mark of Dreeg is probably the most used component in endgame, Malediction became the best phys relic, every good flat RR on the weapon immediately elevates a build. New expansion danger only prompts "kill before killed" playstyle, and flat RR on hit is a big part of the success formula
Flat RR devotions are very outdated and are skipped anywhere possible. Skeletons need a cleave for RR application (maybe at a cost of dmg). Manticore needs the chance bumped to 25% minimum, but ideally to 35%. Scales is the worst of them, super outdated, works very badly, its sustain became irrelvant with the modern phys and pierce devo routes. Only is taken when you can't do anything else to get flat RR. Needs much higher proc chance and are on hit, at a cost of dmg.
UP THINGS
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Inquisitor seal
The game has evolved, and some skills fell off because of some inherent properties. Even max seal doesn't save you from chunky hits. And standing still inside the seal is sometimes more dangerous than moving around without any absorb. Needs a big buff/qol pass or even an entire rework. -
Inquisitor... period
Quickly becoming the weakest mastery, unfortunately. 1) Seal is bad 2) Runes are awkward and, again, require a lot of standing still to get the most out of 3) Box is a joke, probably the worst "main" skill in the game, beating SoC and Reap Spirit to the title 4) Censure is the most frustrating exclusive in the game. And with plethora of dr sources, it keeps losing value.Wild thought but what if seal is reworked into an ele rr source (with bigger radius but still poses an interesting gameplay challenge) and Censure is just a massive defensive exclusive with several properties and bigger dr.
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TSS
Weak dmg, no sustain without mods, hard to use, blocked by terrain, skillpoint hungry. -
Cadence. And melee Soldier in general while we are at it
Ceno has a good topic on Cadence. The skill itself is not among the worst but its falling off highlights the gap between the "old" skills and the new toys. As for melee Soldier in general, I like some of Markovian and Zolhan fresh mod additions. But they aren't nearly enough. Soldier quickly became outdated as a bonking mastery, and it shouldn't.I think the mastery needs a flat source that's not tied to Cadence or restricted exclusive. Pretty much every last row passive of Soldier is weak and outdated. Give Decorated Soldier some phys flat and move slow res to Scars. Nothing will become broken, trust. And will resolve some of those Cadence problems.
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Retal defences
To my so far limited experience retal is the squishiest build type in the game. Sounds strange but i think the main reason is low DA. You want enemies to hit you, and most retal devos, gear and augs have little to no DA for a reason. But DA became an ultimate defence in the game. And now you just get killed with 2500 DA retal build.Kingred has brought up lack of phys res on some shields. It is indeed a problem, but in my experience big phys res doesn't save you. I just played a 45% phys res, 3.5k armor acid RtA build and kept dying. Then played it with 33% cdr and Obelisk. And still died like a 14k HP Witch Hunter in the days of yore. Obelisk does nothing where it matters, similar to seal. Just all around terrible experience. Retal needs some heavy rework across the board to bring back the tank it once had. Maybe the technology has finally evolved to make block do smth?..
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OFF, Blade Trap, Blade Barrier
These skills are still extremely niche/leveling/meme tier. The first two need to get some use outside of short windows of completely disabling the enemies. Maybe massive slow on the second node, potentially with -max slow res, that works outside of the main node? Blade Barrier I don't remember last time even seeing it used. You stand still on one spot doing nothing and collecting dangerous ground effects under your character, great. -
Reap and Tear
Considering how many things about serker are OP, this one is almost laughably bad. Low WD% number, doesn't do DW, only 200% movspeed, clunky Vire template. Cold Snap is miles above it -
Wind Devils, Grasping Vines, Reap Spirit
Also somewhat niche skills that should have the potential to do dmg, but they do not.
There's a lot of Devils support in items, yet the skill is never worth investing into. The numbers on all 3 nodes are very low, and Maelstrom has some jank in it the way it procs. Even if the skill is a passive aura, it needs to incentivise the player to invest into all 3 nodes. The only (partially) Devils build that worked was top20 player pet conjurer. It got 2 Devils removed from the weapon this patch, for some reason. Back to square 0.
Grasping Vines got themselves another retal support, and with retal values they actually do some dmg. When you look at direct dmg, there's one set where they work. It gives 200% TDM to vines. So in order for the skill to work, it needs tripple the dmg it has. Plain and simple.
Reap Spirit is extremely outdated. Long cd, single target, the dmg output is less than one WPS hit. This skill is probably the biggest mised opportunity for viable interesting gameplay right now. It worked once, as a small help to the aether Diviner's Devastation. That's it. I tried modifying nofika's BH Spellbinder with the new amulet that supports player scaling Reap Spirit. It made the build worse. Player scaled Spirits do little to nothing because they are super slow without pet stats affecting their speed
