How is this an upgrade?

[Syrin]

Rift nova does 75% less damage? The numbers reflect it as well.

[WallaceTheSane]

Hear me out... This recent balance patch is based around the future of the 200 legendaries, and the next 20 levels. I could be wrong, but I feel like we're getting nerfed so we get to feel stronger when we get unlocked to level 100, and get our last end game area with the last boss. If we went off being able to do 10's to 100's of millions of damage would make all of that future content negligible, and that would just feel awful.

I felt kind of bad immediately after this recent patch, but I am starting to see the endgame in the eyes of the devs.

[Peredur]

I believe you're talking about the Back to Basics upgrade? You should say so, it would be easier to make people understand what you're talking about instead of having them guess. ^^'

Anyway, there are two things to keep in mind:
- by default, the damage of Rift Nova is divided between the enemies hit
- Back to Basics reduce the damage BUT every enmy hit receive the full damage

For example, if Rift Nova deals 100 damage and you hit 10 enemies with your cast:
- by default, each enemy receives 10 damages (100 divided by 10)
- with the upgrade, each enemy received 25 damages (25% of 100)
And if you double the amount of enemies hit, you now deal only 5 damages per enemy without the upgrade and still 25 with it...

If you hit less than 4 enemies with Rift Nova, the upgrade makes you lose power (the less enemies, the more you lose)
If you hit exactly 4 enemies with Rift Nova, the upgrade does nothing
If you hit more than 4 enemies with Rift Nova, the upgrade makes you win power (the more enemies, the more you win)

If you pick the upgrade, make sure to have a second skill more dedicated to kill single foes (like bosses) and to improve your aoe size to hit as many enemies as possible

[ninakoru]

Pederur explained it well: Rift nova has a huge base damage, but at the cost of sharing the damage when hitting multiple enemies. Is a great boss killer, but a worse AoE cleaner.

If you want to use nova to clean enemies effectively this upgrade makes the skill a true AoE skill, but you'll lose on boss damage. Definitively worth the slot in the forge, and to a less degree on expeditions.