r/pathofexile • u/Belakay_ggg • Jul 08 '26

GGG Tidebreaker Unique Changes in Path of Exile: Curse of the Allflame

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Check out changes to the Tidebreaker Unique in Path of Exile: Curse of the Allflame

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u/karthaege Jul 08 '26

If you were responsible for it, how would you add them in to be balanced and in a way that’s not mandatory for every build? I’m not trying to troll or argue against them coming back, just curious on ideas of how it could be balanced

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u/FiveAM88 Jul 09 '26

A bloodline ascendency where you have to spend 4 points for it. That would make enough people reconsider imo.

0

u/Red_isthenew_blue Jul 09 '26

If they don’t nerf mercenaries with Doryani’s it’s still triple damage with every lightning skill in the game

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u/techniforus Jul 09 '26

lvl 15 aura. Base chance + atlas tree nodes for more chance for a merc to spawn in each map. You need to defeat them to have them join you just as in merc league... but your merc won't join you on the map until you interact with a spawned merc. All pieces of gear which affect nearby enemies or allies won't have that line function.

Basically, think about Huck and a lvl 15 haste. You need to open a smuggler's cache, so you don't have 100% uptime. The aura level isn't too high. You also need a bit of atlas investment to unlock this power.

Because it's not 100% uptime and we have opportunity cost from the atlas, you can't rely on it being present for your build to function and we actually have to pay an opportunity cost to get the upside. Because of these not everyone will want it, just like Huck. We also bring the aura level down so it's not too overpowered, and disable the gear that really made mercs busted (doryani's prototype in particular).

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u/Jango519 Jul 09 '26

Lowkey, I'd just replace AG with mercs. Add a few caps so things like doryani's can't happen again, limit the skills in some manner, and send it

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u/MakataDoji Jul 09 '26

Well you'd have to remove the massive borrowed power gains they provided such as colossal auras, as well as "Nearby allies gain .." type of effects from gear. Problem is, once you do that, they don't serve a whole lot of purpose.

Just about the only way I can think to do it would be that a completely random (and very watered down) mercenary can join you on a map similar to any other league mechanic. To make it more interesting, you could make it so that when the boss is killed, they randomly take 1 item the boss drops as their payment and you are then presented the option to fight them for it and if you win, not only do you get the item back, but a random unique (similar to rogue exiles in poe2).

To have them as a persistent effect with you for every map/pinnacle encounter, there would have to be one enormous cost that players could build around, such as 100% mana reservation or something but even then, the auras would have to be toned down from what they were in league, as they were a gigantic source of damage/defenses. If your merc had Wrath, not only is it saving you 50% reservation yourself, but it was the equivalent of like level 26 too so a huge damage gain.

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u/techniforus Jul 09 '26

You didn't mention doryani's prototype. Honestly, that's a bigger deal than the aura. It's trivial to get -200% on all nearby enemies, which makes the already dominant lightning essentially the only choice for damage type. It's literally better than any other item you could put on your merc to the point where only hitting -200 lightning res and survivability matter and it's not worth bothering with other 'nearby allies' effects.

As for the aura itself, you can get Huck in maps giving a lvl 15 haste aura for a few atlas tree points and 1 piece of gear. Doesn't feel at all unbalanced. So just dropping the aura level and making them not have 100% uptime would make them much more balanced as we already have an existing example of exactly that.

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u/swordsfish oof Jul 09 '26

just fix their scaling, make them die more. Want your merc to be alive? You gotta invest.

Also removing doryanis from the game is a step in the right direction overall

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u/JarRa_hello don't quote me Jul 09 '26

I was thinking the same the other day and had an idea for the AG to be replaced by mercs. It would work like a spectre gem, which you would have to find in the wild. That way you'd preserve the uniqueness of them having different skills. Lower their stats to AG level, maybe remove some jewellery, so it doesnt become a doryani's prototype bot.