Elric Galad

Unbreakable is per encounter, Providence is not. With a party of 5 SC paladin with also Divine Retribution, every knockout remove 3 zeals from the knocked one and give back 2 zeals to all others. This sounds close enough from an immortality combo for me. Currently, only injuries limit it (or at least it costs you many potions). So Providence not causing injuries is not possible for me. Unbreakable is more questionnable. Not sure how balanced it is. Maybe limited to Tier IX upgrade ? Also technically speaking I don't know any effect that cause a Knock out to not cause injuries. There's the Survivor Tusk effect, but it removes all injuries. But it is more or less equivalent for a per encounter ability (especially since you an't unequip it).

I'm not that sure. There are indeed a handful of combos that break the game in PoE2 that couldn't be identified by the devs (or they simply didn't want to remove), but we have tracked them down on this forum during the last months. Honnestly, it seems that once Wall of Draining and Salvation of Time are excluded, the whole system feels pretty game-breaking free (strong or OP abilities aren't the same as gamebreaking). I think PoE2 ruleset is quite robust in general.

Or the "Boring Rectifier" I haven't been paranoid enough with my checking recently . I changed my mind, because we have neglected something : the initial tick ! For passive effect it doesn't matter but for Ancestor Memory, making it 6hp/6s will basically make the initial tick give +5hp than now. +5hp per phrase is huge, especially with Brisk recitation. For sure, hp per tick can be tuned down to compensate, but I think it's too much tweaking for a minor concern. Also I start to think that adding PL scaling for passive/modal/phrase Healing is a bit unecessary. Exalted Endurance and Ancient Memory are good enough as they are, constant recovery is going to be tweaked anyway and other Healing effect are self-rez more than healing (providence and unbreakable). Only one that seems necessary is Soft Wind, but more because it is a drain than a Healing effect. I had more concern for damage abilities, mostly because of PEN, but adding damages and acc scaling still feels appropriate.

I was thinking about it too. It would make scaling and MIG bonus clearer. Zealous endurance has 3s ticks by the way.

OK, so same values as before, tick slowed to 6s, infinite duration. And I will still add 5% scaling per PL. Sure, Memory trouble, I suppose.

Yeah, I had a Moon Godlike Rogue once, and it was even worse than what you described given the low HP pool + massive burst of self-heal. I get the point about interaction. My current Jacket aims at getting the Broom so he can clean the annoying Recovery of ennemy fighter. However, I think that Fighters already have many self-buffs that can be interacted with. Refreshing defense can be cleansed, Unbending can be suppressed, not to mention the offensive self-buffs. You already need some kind of dispell to get rid of fighters, and it is not really because of constant recovery. That's why I think that having a reliable defensive ability that doesn't get dispell could be nice. Also I'm really annoyed by the fact that you can't choose the moment you trigger Constant Recovery, especially when facing thoose arcane dampening wizards... This is a really weird design for me.

Another idea : I have always been dubious about the fact that Constant Recovery has a limited duration, especially because you can't choose the moment you activate it. In PoE1, Constant Recovery used to be Infinite, then they decided to limit Infinite healing (which wasn't technically possible because of the health system) so they added a duration. Then PoE2 and Herald happened and Constant Recovery was left in the dust. How the Signature Ability of the Physical Tank Class could be toped by what Support Classes add to the whole freaking party ? Nowadays, even Bloodmage has Infinite self heal, but Fighter, nay. My idea is to bring back Infinite healing for Constant Recovery, add the 5% PL scaling and tune down a bit the values. It could be seen as powercreeping but given the number of Fighters that the game throw at you, I guess it would help ennemies too. So my proposal : - Constant Recovery 4 HP / 3s - Rapid Recovery 4+2 HP / 3s - Black Jacket Constant Recovery 2 HP / 3s - Black Jacket Rapid Recovery 2+1 HP / 3s - All Infinite Duration - 5% more per PL beyond 0.

I agree with this. Also makes Doru regen through fire damages less significant. I understand the idea, the problem is that I don't know where the AI behavior is scripted for now. I'm not sure it's feasible. If anyone knows... Changing the trigger delay is possible though, I have just checked the files.

Now I'm a bit dubious about the HP tweak. The reason is that the initial issue was that my mod made solo megaboss harder. If HP are nerfed, it means that I have to increase some offensive ability. Even if Doru HP are halved, this would only made the battle shorter, not "easier". The possibility to kill a megaboss does not really depend on the duration of the battle. "If it can bleed, it can die". On the other hand increasing offensive ability (including movement speed) would lead builds previously working to not work anymore. I guess Doru fire damages are non significant for solo since you can itemize against them. Increasing Doru fire damages could be a valid route to follow, but I'm unsure about the consequence on "Party PotD crowd" which is a larger audience than "Solo PotD elite". Also there are some new builds that works in Solo with my mod even if some builds are out. For example, Single Class non-Ghostheart ranger has Infinite duration Nimble from Vengeful Grief which enabled kitting forever. And Bloodmage can still kite forever too. Fighter may be able to Unbending tank infinitely through Toughened fury (tactician can probably crit itself with a caster Multiclass). Now I'm wondering if tuning down Doru (and possibly Hauani) HP down WITHOUT other changes could be seen as a measure of public sanity, and could be seem as a compensation for removing most cheeses. Doru is the most cheesable Megaboss anyway due to its unability to dispell or add injuries beyond BDD. Maybe it's not needed to tweak them up. Edit : the issue is also that I'm a "small indie company" so the changes I make have to be somewhat conservative. I lack testing capability to ensuite a change does not break the game. Simply reducing Megabosses tedious hp can't really break the game. I can include this in the nerf package of my mod since this is meant to compensate cheese purge.

To be more generic, I would say "do they need tweaking to be beatten without cheesing" since most of my mod's nerf are about cheesing. I don't think Auranic and Belranga need tweaking. Their HP pool is huge but appropriate for their "puzzle". I wonder about reducing Hauani 2 first form hp by a third and raise their attack. They feel more tedious than dangerous.

Yup. But Community Patch nerfed resonant touch and my mod nerfed SoT + blade cascade. That's the problem it's a fight that more or less require cheesing to win. So if cheese are nerfed, how to do ? That's the difference with other megabosses who don't require it. They're grindy but not that much.

Probably. But anything involving poison is dubious as a main weapon.

For reference, all Megabosses HP (based on Gamedata files, +/-1 because I'm not sure about rounding, but it doesn't matter) : Dorudugan : Normal : 13 450 PotD : 16 825 Belranga : Normal : 5 504 PotD : 6 880 Auranic : Normal : 2 457 PotD : 3 072 or 2 572 (Auranic is a Kith who has probably normal HP for a lvl 28 Wizard. She benefits from a status giving her 2 000 additional HP. Since "Tough" ability is coded the same, I assume these 2 000 hp doesn't benefit from CON but I don't know how this interacts with PotD +25% HP. Sigils : Normal : 1 250 PotD : 1 563 Hauani O Whe : Normal : 7 201 PotD : 9 002 Gigantic Black Ooze : Normal : 3 746 PotD : 4 682 Agreed. This would completely change the nature of the fight. I'm not sure. Dorudugan is already denying many player's ability, and this would deny its ability to react. And it won't be easy to balance. Still interesting to consider.

I think the same Mechanics should also be true for Combusting Wounds

Megabosses have been discussed a lot for being too different from other encounters. And overall a bit tedious. This is not that they are simply harder, it's that they rely too much on sustainable/renewable builds and often deny a whole bunch of abilities or builds. Therefore, they only favor few tactics. Many of them are cheesy ones that I nerfed by my balance mod.I know that Phenomenon (one of the author of Community Patch) wanted to tweak Megabosses for less HP. After a feedback about my mod, I now wonder the same. If only a few builds can beat them it might be annoying, especially for Solo runs (people tend to be completionnist you know). That's why I wanted your opinion about the subject. If I lower their HP, I might consider buffing them in other ways (More Accuracy, PEN, new effects ?). My goal is to make them more interesting, not simply easier. Dorudugan might be the most critical case. Not sure there is even a problem with Belranga, Auranic or Hauani O Whe (even if less HP can make them less tedious). For Dorudugan, I think the following could be nerfed : 1) Less HP 2) Resistant to Perception instead of Immune. 3) Only 32 RES (-66% negative effect duration instead of -75%) 4) Can be interrupted. But I'm not sure what could be buffed to keep him challenging. Maybe something to counter summons spam more easily ? What is your opinion about this ?

I think I've figured what is happening. What remains true : A) Each tick heals for 15% of received damages (20% for unbending trunk). B) Each time damages are received, an Unbending charge is added, for base 5s increased by INT and PL. What I've found : 1) All Unbending charges tick simultanneously. 2) Each time damages are received, a tick happens. (If no additional attack is received, the next tick will happen 3s after) Because of 1) + 2), each time damages are received ALL ACTIVE UNBENDING CHARGES HEAL FOR 15% OF THEIR CORRESPONDING DAMAGES. That's why when one take of lots of attacks with Unbending active : each attack that doesn't do more damages than 15% of the sum of previous attacks with an active charge (including itself) will heal the Fighter. As an example, if Unbending charges last 9s, they will heal 15% from original attack + 3x15% for each 3s tick = 60%. But if the Fighter is attacked every 1s, the Unbending charges will heal 15% from original attack + 9x15% = 150%. (multiple attacks such as Blunderbuss only count as 1 attack because they are simultaneous and don't proc multiple ticks) Yeah ! I suspect similar mechanics happen for other DoT / HoT with multiple charges. For example Bleeding Cuts, Spiritshift boar attacks, or maybe even deep wounds. I guess it is the reason why the Bleeding Cuts + Blade Cascade combo managed to kill Dorudugan that fast in a video published on this forum.

Multiclass Barbs don't have Dazing Shout, but Witch has Mind Plague instead if one want to go the AR stacking route. With Beguiler refunding, it won't be that expensive to cast.

Yes, maybe. I will probably need more feedbacks from other players before starting to tweak encounters. In particular, I would like to know if the main issue is with Dorudugan or if other megabosses are a problem too. Auranic feels OK to me, Belranga seems manageable and even Hauani O Whe is more about preventing the merges than pure stats cumberstop. All of them require sustainability, but not that much more than Survival Aspect fights.

Thank you very much for your feedback. At least this confirms that my mod avoid the usual mod powercreeping tendancy ^^ That said I think that the issue is that PoE2 is a party CRPG and that the rules are overall balanced for playing with a team. Solo play is a kind of perversion in the freudian sense, a deviation from normality (What is the Ultimate then ?). Of course, it's fun (perversions are fun, nay ?), but the ruleset is not meant to be robust to it. Some classes are better for Solo play, and some just don't fit. Solo play relies quite a lot on various cheesy tactics, and my mod just cuts a lot of them, so it's expected to have more consequences on Solo than Party runs. So my question would be : if we leave the question of Megabosses apart, how did Solo feel with the mod ? Is the general experience was better or worse ? If it was worse, I may consider adding a warning about the nerfs package for Solo play. If it was better, then we have to speak about Megaboss. Megabosses have been discussed a lot for being too different from other encounters. This is not that they are simply harder, it's that they rely too much on sustainable/renewable builds. I think it has been said several times on this forum : the ruleset is not very robust to megaboss, since it favors few tactics (and many of them are cheesy and nerfed by my mod). Also the issue is a lot about Dorudugan itself since it is so hard to beat by conventionnal means AND has no way to dispell gamebreaking combos. Auranic and Hauani O Whe have some dispells and I believe that Belranga is more manageable than Doru. I know that Phenomenon (one of the author of Community Patch) wanted to tweak Megabosses (maybe not simply nerfing them ? What if Doru could summon fire elementals in exchange for lower HP or less immunities ?). I think this could be a better solution than de-nerfing broken combo. That's why my question about how the rest of Solo feel is quite important. If it feels good, I would sort of confirm that the problem is about Megabosses.

Damage shields don't scale for active abilities (Llengrath's Superior Elemental Bulwark, Beetle Shell) so I think it's unecessary. Her Courage is good enough for a brisk Troubadour and Protective Soul is Tier IX so wouldn't scale much.

Community Patch Poll suggested to make chant scaling with PL. I'm wondering about it. For version 1.2, I added a PEN scaling to rooting pain. The reason is that passive abilities do not benefit from scaling (they do get bonus PEN based on their ability level, but not through PEN scaling). I think an ability without scaling PEN is a problem. When it does a fix amount of damages (or Healing ?) the absence of scaling is also a bit meh. The same could be true for modals. Duration scaling for passive/modals/chants could also be suggested, but I think it could mess with balance and there are already abilities (rays for example) for which duration doesn't scale. What do you guys think about passive/modals/chants scaling ? For my part, I think : - PEN should always scale. Not scaling PEN is incredibly annoying at high levels. +1 PL -> +0.25 PEN, as for active abilities. - Fixed damages (such as brutal backlash, rooting pain, dragon trashed, wildstrike) should scale as active abilities. +1 PL -> +5% damages - Healing effects should scale as fixed damages. This is important to make Come, Come, Soft Winds of Death consistent with its damages part. +1 PL -> +5% damages. But I have a concerne abou Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance because they are already quite good. - Duration should not scale, especially because linger duration scaling would mess with chanter subclasses (and chanters chants are powerful enough as they are) List of targetted abilities (leaving apart duration) : - Exalted Endurance - Providence - Come Come Soft Winds of Death - Dragon Trashed (CP rising damages from 4 to 5 per tick could be unnecessary with an added scaling) - Ancient Memory - Wildstrike Frenzies (they are high level so don't need scaling that much) - Rooting Pain - Brutal Backlash (could also be buffed a bit) - Unbreakable / Unrelenting - (I think Constant Recovery already scales) Am I forgetting anything ?

Polishing mod files should be lower on the list, as described in the installation instructions

Maybe +2 are for "hazardish" spells ? I remember that Prone Seal also gets +2 ???

My mod add a cap for SoT effect : Blade cascade (or any other effects) can only have its duration doubled by my version of SoT. It's very strong, but less than normal. Blade Cascade is extremely strong by itself anyway.

I'm happy to announce that the mod has reached its 100th download (from actually different users) on Nexus. Apparently, it has been "hottest" PoE2 mod from its release (appears first on Nexus for PoE2 because of number of recent download, I suppose). Once again, thank you for your support ! I advertised for it on Steam forum but got a single "I-would-have-done-otherwisish but vague" comment (my favorites ). However, it received a much warmer welcome on reddit. I don't know how much this contributes to diffusion, but I wanted to share this experience.