A lot of the recent nerfs felt needed, but personally I think that the underlying problem is being missed.
Every broken build I have seen so far has had one thing in common, and that is:
- Chosen gem with viable condition to increase enchantment effect
- *Important stat* increased by X% of durability
- Increased durability by X
Applied to one or more pieces of equipment.
The problem is that this causes tremendous scaling due to double-dipping. The chosen important stat is increased based on durability that partly comes from another enchantment, and both the stat increase itself and the durability it’s based on are increased by the gem, aka double-dipping and causing the stats to skyrocket, especieally when also exalting those enchantments.
Cutting the gems increased effect on enchantments was a good decision regardless of this interaction imo, but it’s still not close to fixing the problem that breaks game balance. Personally, I think a step in the right direction would be to either take away the “increased durability” enchantment from the game (I highly doubt anyone would prioritize that enchantment ever, were it not for this broken interaction), or to change it so the “important stat” is instead based on maybe item weight, armor or base damage. Maybe different stats should be based on different equipment values instead of them all scaling on durability alone?
This one interaction is responsible for every (that I’ve seen) build that has been immortal facetanks, one-shotting endgame bosses, had unlimited use of runes with battlecry ring and skyrocketing healing effectiveness, among others. Changing one or more of the elements enabling this combination would likely fix that. Many of those builds I’ve seen do use different weapons, runes, gear, stats, there’s a lot of variety in those areas, BUT the combination of these enchantments and gems are in every single one of those builds.
Just an ending note, I love this game and I admire all the work devs put into it, I love learning the “dance” of combat and building different characters, thank you so much for all the hard work you’re putting in to make this game come true and be amazing! <3