Indeed. This is something else I bet people haven’t put much thought into either. I was only able to stand Gem farming twice, to get 282 gems once, because I used a 3x3 hammer that could 1 shot T5 blocks. without needing potions, pies, or anything else but the hammer. If I needed more stuff? If the hammer wasn’t 3x3? If it took more than 1 hit? I would have hated it, and gave up and not done it.
The issue, I don’t think is that the game is balanced for 3x3 1 shotting hammers. The issue, is that those features have been in the game for so long, and people have in their mindset what the value, grind, worth, time investment and feeling of the game is based on that.
Then this update wants to remove that.
To put it into perspective, it’s like Playing Dark Souls for so long, then an update happens and suddenly every Shield in the game is Nerf’d so that there are no more 100% blocking shields anymore, and instead the highest shield is 1 end game shield that blocks only 75% of damage.
Instead of people making builds with dozens of 100% def shields, now that 1 shield is clearly the best, and people that liked the 100% blocking and had builds around them, no longer want to play the game.
It would be the same thing in this game. People have been so used to it, the economy, playstyle, and ‘grind’ has been defined by it. (Which is why the answer most people have for those that complain is ‘Save up 30k and buy a 3x3 Forged Gem Hammer.’). And now they are removing that.
This doesn’t just change Forging, it makes the game as a whole, and the grind in it, so much worse. For those at end game, nothing changes, so they don’t care. But those in low or mid tier, or new players, the game becomes 100 times harder. All in the name of ‘Balance’.
This is why I said to @Marrash to have them wipe the game. Wipe everything and force people to play right from lvl 1 all over again with this new change. And we will see, just how much people like this new ‘Change’ that the Devs wanted to add in. Because then it would effect everyone, and not just the new players, which it would drive away.