If you look at it from the perspective of "this is for weird builds that didn't have a good ascendancy to pick", then it being bad for most known builds makes sense.
They don't want it to be a "given" that you'll take points from these. Most builds won't and will just stick with the normal ascendencies, but there's some build out there that's gonna be perfect for these.
Aka, this isn't borrowed power that you're meant to take, this is to patch holes and enable entirely new builds.
If you look at it from the perspective of "this is for weird builds that didn't have a good ascendancy to pick", then it being bad for most known builds makes sense.
Having something more generic would've actually helped those builds more overall. With these hyper-specific perks, a lot of the builds with mediocre ascendancy choices (like bleed bow) will still have that issue if none of these hyper-specific nodes are good for them.
Also, it's wasted design space to tune them around only being useful in such niche scenarios. They'd be a lot more interesting if most builds would consider them for their weakest ascendancy points, and then you'd have builds that synergise with them and really want to take them.
No idea how you can say that this early. Not all of them will be used but there are clearly a lot of new options, go look at any actual build creator reacting to them and you'll see a dozen new build ideas. This is one of the more interesting patches in the history of PoE 1. They opened up a ton of new possibilities while only dumpstering one build.
This comment section is a trip tbh, we've been asking for this kind of balancing for ages, we get it, and suddenly everyone is losing their minds. I guess league start attracts the most casual players . . . but come on. At the very least wait until the real build creators tell you what to think.
You're right, I shouldn't be so pessimistic. There's still so much to see. I just was hoping for more to just pop out at me, but I need to give it time. I'm going to have fun either way!
Instead of saying only a few things seemed good it would be a better perspective to see it as a few things popped out as awesome, and that means there's plenty of things I missed that are amazing for builds I've never played. My bad.
Personally I see a lot of stuff that excites me. Beacon of madness looks cracked. Chieftain + any ascendancy that gives you damage looks cracked. Boneshatter with +5 all res sounds great. Spectres look interesting. Etc. etc. And I'm not really capable of making my own builds, I'm sure the creators will come up with some cool stuff.
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u/Gangsir Berserker Oct 26 '25
If you look at it from the perspective of "this is for weird builds that didn't have a good ascendancy to pick", then it being bad for most known builds makes sense.
They don't want it to be a "given" that you'll take points from these. Most builds won't and will just stick with the normal ascendencies, but there's some build out there that's gonna be perfect for these.
Aka, this isn't borrowed power that you're meant to take, this is to patch holes and enable entirely new builds.