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Analyzing The Impact Of New Skill Gems And A Significant Nerf In Path Of Exile 3.24 Necropolis

Mar 20, 2024

The latest teaser from GGG for Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis introduces intriguing new skill gems that automate skill usage, alongside a notable nerf. This article examines the potential implications of these new gems and explores the ramifications of losing left-click instant skills for certain builds.

Analyzing The Impact Of New Skill Gems And A Significant Nerf In Path Of Exile 3.24 Necropolis

Automation

Automation is an intelligence-dexterity hybrid blue gem that serves both as a skill and a support. 

When paired with instant spells, Automation bestows the Automation skill, which can be activated similarly to a reservation skill. When activated, Automation automatically triggers all supported instance skills as they come off cooldown, rendering manual use of linked skills impossible.

Call To Arms

On the other hand, Call to Arms is a pure strength red gem that operates similarly but for Warcries. 

It functions as both a skill and support gem. When combined with Warcries, Call to Arms grants the Call to Arms skill, which can be toggled on. 

Once activated, it triggers all supported Warcries upon cooldown, preventing manual use of the linked Warcries. Additionally, this setup causes all Warcries to share cooldowns.

Path of Exile 3.24 Call To Arms

Initial Thoughts

Upon initially viewing these two gems featured at the start of the teaser, I took a moment to carefully review them. I found the concept quite appealing as it provides players with additional options, which I consider advantageous. 

However, the teaser concluded with a notable statement: "We've removed the capacity to bind any instant skill to left-click as a result." Indeed, this implies the removal of the ability to utilize instant skills via left-click.

Community Reaction

Approximately an hour after the teaser's publication, the Reddit post became untraceable as it had been heavily downvoted. 

Consequently, moderators were compelled to pin the thread to ensure its prominence on the Path of Exile subreddit. 

Similarly, the cross-post for this teaser elicited a predominantly negative response, with almost every comment expressing discontent over the alteration to left-click instant skills.

Potential For Comprehensive Changes

In all honesty, I've found myself undecided when faced with similar community uproars in the past. This time around, I've invested considerable thought into the matter.

I've pondered the potential rationale behind this change in the context of POE 3.24, contemplating the possibility of a comprehensive overhaul to a specific system or perhaps viewing it as a smaller adjustment within a larger framework. 

However, I've yet to find a satisfactory explanation. Unless significant developments are in progress, I remain uncertain about the implications of this alteration.

The Implications Of This Shift

Currently, our best course of action is to analyze this change within the context of the game's current state.

Here's how the change impacts most builds: If you previously employed an instant spell or Warcry on left-click, under the new system, when linked to Automation or Call to Arms, Warcries will trigger automatically upon cooldown without any manual input. However, this change comes with drawbacks: increased cost, slower cooldown recovery, and the need for an additional gem slot due to the link with Automation or Call to Arms. This means you have to spend more POE Currency.

Path of Exile 3.24 Automation

Let's consider the pros and cons realistically. While the automatic triggering of skills upon cooldown may seem beneficial, it's crucial to note that this isn't always the case, especially if you weren't continuously holding down left-click. The increased cost and longer cooldown are definite drawbacks, although they raise questions about the potential benefits of the automatic triggering. Additionally, sacrificing an extra gem slot is a significant disadvantage.

However, these implications primarily apply to builds utilizing left-click instant skills. What about builds employing damage abilities on left-click, such as General's Cry, Corrupting Cry, and those utilizing Detonate Mines

In the absence of macros or similar solutions, these builds face reduced damage potential, as they now require Automation gems in their primary link, or they must adjust to using an additional keybind, impacting their playstyle comfort.

Macros

However, in the realm of gaming, macros exist as a reality.

Over time, GGG has progressively reduced the necessity for macros within various aspects of Path of Exile gameplay. They've generally shifted away from design choices that encourage players to rely on macros. However, this specific change is poised to significantly increase the adoption of macros or similar tactics to address this issue and revert to previous gameplay dynamics.

There are already numerous posts on the subreddit outlining methods like the NumLock trick to effectively replicate the functionality of the old left-click instant skill. These posts are receiving widespread positive feedback and upvotes.

Positive Response To The Gems

However, if we set aside the widespread discontent, it becomes evident that many players actually responded positively to the introduction of these two new skill gems. 

Nevertheless, their strong aversion to the elimination of left-click instant skills has overshadowed this positivity.

Unresolved Skills?

Additionally, there are unresolved edge cases to consider, such as the Focus skill or the Necromancer's Bone Armor, which cannot currently be supported by Automation.

Effectiveness Of Call To Arms

I find the concept of Call to Arms supporting quite appealing, so let's briefly delve into it.

An interesting aspect that may have escaped notice in the teaser is that this gem simultaneously triggers all Warcries, rather than sequentially. For instance, in a slam build, you could allocate a four-link setup with Call to Arms connected to three Warcries. With some investment in Warcry Cooldown Reduction (CDR), you could eliminate the need for manual activation of Warcries in these builds, which would be truly beneficial.

However, it's worth noting that the mana cost and reservation multiplier associated with this gem are excessive. At level 20, Warcries already incur a substantial mana cost of 19 without any additional links. 

Therefore, adjusting these parameters is imperative for this quality of life enhancement to be viable.

The Cost Of QoL

The fundamental problem lies in the implementation of both these new gems. 

Their excessively high cost in the pursuit of quality of life renders them counterproductive. Attempting to integrate them into your build would ultimately detract from, rather than enhance, your gaming experience.

Brand Recall

Indeed, Brand Recall is also a factor to consider.

It's conceivable that they might introduce a slight casting delay to mitigate potential exploits in this regard. Since the Automation gem triggers linked instant skills, it has the capacity to activate Brand Recall. Consequently, this scenario resembles builds that slot Brand Recall into a trigger weapon or rely on triggering it with Spellslinger

However, with Automation, there's no need to initiate the trigger or reserve Spellslinger. It consistently triggers without any player input, which could lead to absurdity with Saboteur triggerbots.

Conclusion

On the whole, I must express my appreciation for the conceptualization of these new skills, which I find to be quite commendable. 

However, their execution leaves much to be desired. If the intention was always to eliminate left-click instant skills, then the solution should have been more refined, especially considering the reliance of entire build archetypes on this mechanic.

In my view, sacrificing a bit for the sake of improved quality of life is often justified and tends to benefit the majority of players. However, in this instance, the sacrifice is far from minor, and true quality of life would only be achieved if left-click instant skills had never been part of the game.

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