Procrastination Changes That Are Needed (imo)

So I've been playing around with procrast for a few days right now, making builds changing stats etc, and here's my opinion about the weapon and the changes needed.

For the change suggestions go down to the bit with the points.

So first of all my thoughts on procrast: it's way too strong. Just take a look at this build https://wynndata.tk/s/a0xuk7
10.3k auras, with incredible piercing due to procrastination being super slow with immense neutral damage, and 62k EHP. It doesn't suffer that heavily from the virtuoso nerf, as the extra Mana regen isn't needed at those spell costs (I'm talking from experience) and the spell damage reduction isn't insane, so even after the nerfs it would be incredibly strong for a level 85 relik.
Compare that to an EWF Cryoseism build https://wynndata.tk/s/1wmy3v (I tried to make it tanky and have good damage, to try and match procrastination). Less damage (maybe more after the update, but by 200-300, not anything major or noticable) with the same spellcosts and half as much EHP.

Now this is not to show that procrastination is better than cryo, as procrast doesn't have a powder special (although these are Mana Regen spellspam and you're not gonna be doing a whole lot of melee for Cryo fast attack speed to load Curse, but this can be fixed by using atas) which triples the damage. Cryo definitely has a reason for it's existence alongside procrastination. The point is that a level 85 Relik shouldn't be able to do this much damage while having this much survivability.

To clarify, the problems I have with procrastination:

• The defensive sp is way too big
• Aura spell conversion is insane with it, adding around 3-4k water damage, making a HUGE difference.
• It has no Req, so it can be used in any build and immediately make it two times tankier and reduce spell costs due to the massive 22 intelligence, without a noticable damage penalty (unless you're not using spell damage % in your build).

What are the changes that I think should be applied:

• First and foremost - add -water damage % with a base of somewhere between 280-300 ish. I've done some testing and -400% completely kills water conversion, while -160% leaves a considerable amount. That would fix the water conversion to some extent, and it would still be great at level due to its piercing, but wouldn't be as good at endgame because gear wouldn't be able to buff the damage by a huge amount.

• Decrease the amount of defensive SP - from 22 Agility and defence to around 10.

• Not necessarily good, I still have to think about this one - make it have rainbow requirements. One thing that I found killing the EHP is using draoi with Cryo to decrease spell costs, making it harder for me to invest SkillPoints into defence or agility. Making procrastination have a strength requirement might make it harder ro Quad with such good damage.

Debate, Thoughts and suggestions are welcomed, this is my experience with the weapon and my thoughts of the balance it needs.

 

I would support the water damage penalty as a stopgap if not for the issue of water damage affecting Totem Heal - as you point out, water damage boost from Int alone contributes about 1k to Aura, and the power can be boosted even further using builds with water damage. Personally, I think the best stopgap would be to just decrease the base damage a bit, by about 8-10%. I definitely don't think the skill points or reqs should change - that kind of compromises the core of the item.

Of course, ideally we would see the end of spell conversion (or at least a drastic reduction in quantity), which wrecks the balance curve and would neatly fix this and many other problem items.

 

Procrastination isn't the best relik, but it sure is close to being it. I think the concept is great and while spell element conversion is really annoying (as always), the skill points are not even that big of an issue- not when you consider the weapon has about 150% baseline damage, plus base 50 spell damage %.

So I agree that while it should be nerfed, your suggested nerfs mostly take away from the item itself rather than its usability (at best I could see the skill points decrease a bit), and I think I'd prefer the very simple but very effective base damage nerf. I think setting it at 135% of the baseline instead of 15%, a significant nerf, should fix most of the issues it creates, while keeping (an admittedly hefty) amount of its power, like this https://wynndata.tk/ci/474696662

Another possible nerf is to actually double down on the walk speed and give it some stupid amount, or do something funny with negative sprint regen so you're pretty much always out of mana if you accidentally try to run. What is absolutely should not get, is a requirement or that -water damage.

 

hm sure I guess idk.. guess item team could do that... later

 

As Druser says, spell conversion is one of the main problems with procras. Tbh, I don't really see why they ever needed to exist, it seems like it was just made as a 'oh cool spells are elemental', but in practice they don't really matter, and when they do, it's almost always in the worst way possible. IMO the easy solution is to just reduce base damage a bit. I don't think making it have some gimmik is a good idea, I kinda like it as a more 'safe' option for endgame.

 

Move it to General Suggestions please