Q&A with the Developers!

I have three questions - one's a suggestion, but whatever.

1) P-Link was removed in 2.0(?) yet remains in the game exclusively on the Excavation boss(es). Have you reconsidered this or thought of alternate mechanics for this specific boss fight? My issue is that for someone who isn't familiar with P-Link or has never done Excavation before, they would be going into one of the hardest boss fights in the game and have absolutely no idea what's going on and why they are un-able to deal any damage. On top of this those bosses hit very hard and before you get a chance to understand the fights mechanics you'd likely just die. It's a bit absurd to remove a specific mechanic from the game but keep in a known difficult fight new players or even returning veterans would have never experienced before.

2) How are map bosses balanced? The Crematorium Boss (Magnera [spelling?]) hits EXTREMELY HARD and can often 2 shot me with her Firestorm with a 5K health pool, yet the Shipyard & Arsenal bosses who both also use Firestorm hit for maybe 20% of her damage. This fights seem grossly unbalanced by comparison especially when one is of a higher map 'tier' than the other. You'd imagine things get progressively harder yet there are some bosses with massive damage spikes in comparison to others even of a higher tier.

3) Revisiting old League mods - or rather adding new ones. This is something I've been thinking about for a while. Even since I started playing back in Ambush I can only remember older league mods being removed from the game and none being added. An example of this is the Firestorm & Arc shrines have been removed from Domination and the ThornFlesh Bloodlines mod was removed. Ambush is one of the few that's been updated but really only new drops being added to their tables (divination cards, etc.). Anarchy has received the most updates via new Exiles but even then in the last 20 Exiles per-zone event the game only had 19 (22 now IIRC). I would really like to see past leagues revisited and have new content added for them.

Here are a couple examples:
1) New Nemesis mod: "Harbinger of the Void" - Summons a random Beyond Boss on death
2) New Nemesis mod(s): "---- Scout" - Upon death players are notified a Warband group has raided their instance. Their could be one for each Warband type giving a total of 4 new Nemesis mods with this suggestion alone.
3) New Ambush Box affix: "of The Invasion" -- Contains/Spawns an Invasion Boss
4) New Ambush Box affix: "The Grandmaster's" -- Contains/Spawns a Grandmaster from the Grandmasters Hall map.
5) New Nemesis mod: Thorns -- Working similar to reflect, but dealing much less damage the thorns mod works similarly to Lightning Thorns (which is a very rarely seen skill) and reflects a set range of damage back to the player. I.E. 1-250 for Lightning, 60-150 for Fire, 35-215 for Cold.

I know it's not a question, but hey a guy can try right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Everything will be nerfed before release just like you did with talismans?

As a Russian-speaking player who does not trust Garena, will I ever get a chance to enjoy a Russian translation within the official client? 'Ever' as in 'ten years later when Garena ceases to exist' is fine.

Now that the Searing bond totem + Ancestral Bond allow to have three totem, should the Ancestral Power achievement change to require four active totems?

ETA on PVP-only characters being able to reach Sarn Arena from the hideout?

Will Ascendancy bring new weapon base types into the game?

Regarding trading system, are you happy with some of the functions (such as creating player markets) performed by third-party software (Acquisition / Procurement) or do you plan to incorporate those functions into the main client at some point?

what's the highest number of stash tabs on a single account (not counting 'remove only' tabs)?
what's the highest number of character slots ona a single account?
no names needed ;)

Any plans for a low graphics setting? I know that turning off MTX is a non starter but being able to turn down particle effects would help lower-end PC owners be able to play without serious frame rate drops (and deaths.)

Who let the dogs out?

Are there currently any development plans to improve trading? If so, what are some ideas?

Will it be possible to have an ascendancy "enchantement" and a corruption implicit at the same time on gloves, boots and helmets? Also, will we be able to enchant corrupted items?

Why is the trail of ice different in the storm cloud arctic armour MTX video? I bought it expecting my trail of ice to look like that, but it didn't change it.

In this post, https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1488901, you guys talked about elemental attack leech coming in 2.1. We didn't have any in the tree. Did you guys change your mind, or is it planned for ascendancy?

Thanks!

A lot of recent changes have been received negatively by the community as being "poor balance." From your perspective, is there anything as the community we can't see that is inducing these changes?

Originally curses were a shallow mechanic that offered large boosts in power for little investment. (Essentially if you could find a slot you had a curse ).

Back then it made sense to have an equally simple mechanic to counter curses in the form of curse immunity.

However over the years curses have evolved to requiring a considerable level of investment to really work well...

their base stats were nerfed.
their effect vs bosses was harshly reduced
Bosses that out right punish you for using curses were introduced...

And now there are build enabling uniques and passives associated with curses. uniques that otherwise have bad stats ..Curses now require investment

My question then is: is it still reasonable to have curse immunity in the game countering a mechanic that you need to invest no small amount in ? We are long past the days where all curses needed was a slot in your armor too work.

I feel like i either need to just toss curse immune maps or avoid mechanics like Atziri just because curses are unfairly ineffective against them.. with no real methods for curse builds to overcome this resistance like there is for many other builds.

Are you planning on reevaluating curse immunity/ resistance/ reflect as mechanics?