In the great talent matrix of Path of Exile 2, there are numerous talents that come with both advantages and disadvantages. According to some players, the developers are overshooting the mark here and ruining great talents with too severe negative effects. Is that true?
Which talent is sparking the discussion? Reddit user lane4 refers to the talent “Utility Ordnance” in their criticism on Reddit, which grants the following effects:
- 40 percent increased cooldown recovery rate for grenade skills
- 80 percent reduced grenade damage
lane4 comments on this talent as follows:
This obsession with the downsides has to stop – This downside is crazy and makes no sense. If it’s meant for utility grenade skills that do no damage, why are there small nodes next to it with ‘increased grenade damage’?
Utility grenade skills refer to abilities that primarily do little or no damage but are meant to weaken or control enemies – such as through oil, a flash of light, or gas.
The trailer for the new update of Path of Exile 2:
Frustratingly wrong or exactly right?
How does the community react to the accusation? With 1,400 upvotes and more than 250 comments. Many players agree with the original poster:
- AIButthole sees it similarly on Reddit: “The obsession with artificially increasing difficulty has been so annoying in the last patches. The decision should be: Do I take it or not? That’s it. We are already limited by points/gem slots/equipment slots. We do not need arbitrary disadvantages slapped onto everything.”
- Ok_Potential359 adds on Reddit: “I want to feel powerful, but instead, I feel like these runs are more about a test of patience. For me, that’s not entertaining game design.”
- DCDTDito understands the downside even less on Reddit, as the buff itself isn’t supposed to be that good: “As far as I see, there is no grenade that desperately needs a cooldown improvement to the extent that it would accept an 80% reduction.”
Others suggest that such talents can also be useful in certain situations and that a broader perspective should be considered:
- NYNMx2021 writes, for example, on Reddit: “The reason for the downside is that the node is bad for certain grenades. If the grenade were to deal damage as well, it would be overpowered. It is balanced concerning the build meant to take it.”
- greyy1x counters on Reddit: “This node is a damage gain in many grenade builds since you have much more ‘increased damage’ than increased cooldown recovery rate. If you remove 80% from a total of 400% increased damage, it doesn’t destroy the build, but the cooldown recovery rate will definitely improve it significantly.”
Various other players also point out that “80 percent less damage” isn’t as harsh of a downside as it may seem at first glance. Psych6VZZ calculates it on Reddit in an example that shows: Even if the damage per grenade will end up being slightly lower, the overall damage increases due to the significantly faster firing grenades.
In summary, it can be said: The talent system of Path of Exile 2 is complex, and seemingly bad talents can be really good in certain situations. However, due to the high level of difficulty, some players would wish for weaker downsides for the talents. Do you feel the same way?
The current heated discussions in the Path of Exile 2 community are due to the new content pack that has just been released for the action RPG, which includes Act 4: Path of Exile 2 brings a big update and players say: “The Third Edict” feels like a completely different game
