Development Manifesto: Breach As a Core Game Mechanic

Happy you guys decided to keep Breaches! :)

my personal experience with breaches: they punish greed and i ever failed to that.

didn't read the manifesto yet but hopefully you put them into labyrinth only.

Rip price for chaos breach items in standart... atleast make blessings drop rate like 1% from 50%

I like breaches, bring 'em on.

I love it!
To the haters: suck it up. Breach finally had an amazing balance between risk and reward and it's awesome that they decided to make it a core mechanic! Also, it's been the most successful league of all time, so...

FWIW, this has been my least favorite league and also the main reason I quit playing regularly.
The main issue I have with the Breach mechanic is that they are not avoidable as earlier leagues. For example, Prophecy could be completely ignored and Pernadus' chests seemed to be avoidable most of the time.
However, with the Breach league, time and time again, I would find a blocking breach in an essential doorway or part of the map that could not be maneuvered around. I had to trip it if I wanted to continue along the main quest line; not cool! After awhile, it became a not-so-funny joke that I could look for breaches to find the exit to the Ledge or the Upper Prison, etc.
If Breaches are to be carried forward, I ask that they be _completely_ voluntary (and hard to generate). I like the idea of a map affix, a Zana mod, or something similar. If they appear randomly in the main storyline, even if only rarely, the initial problem still exists.
In addition, I think that Breaches only benefit the "clear-speed" meta players; just another step down the path of power creep.

Breach was the worst league in a long time for me, simply because of the horrible optimization and performance. If that gets fixed somehow, I can see myself enjoying some breaches during other leagues.

Oh come on, it not only kills lower quality computers but it also promotes boring meta quick clear builds even more.

Now almost every new league = core league.
New items/gems = OP so ppl would play it, then nerf.

I know why you add breach to the core league. Simply because you had so much work and theres so much contanin, but think twice.

Zana mod is fine for me.

In every news post touching on Breach prior to this (and several that didn't), I've seen people saying they love Breach and want it added to the core game. Now GGG actually does that and suddenly the handful of Breach haters get all vocal. Where were you guys before, huh? -_-

As for me, bring it on! I'm all for Breach being added.

To the hipster-build fan, you're free to make hispter builds but they're expected to be able to handle the game's content. They don't have to be optimized, but they do have to be capable. I mean, how're you even progressing in the game if you can't handle a couple blue packs and some rares?

To the "Breach caters to the max clearspeed meta" whiners, I've played Breach primarily with a Scorching Ray character. SR is hardly a clearspeed-maxing skill, yet it works fine enough for Breaches. There are mine builds and summoners who can handle Breaches just fine, so, really, your case is void. Even I feared that (along with many others) when Breach was announced, but as it turns out you only need a certain level of clearing ability (which is achievable with pretty much any build) to deal with them, not a max-clearspeed character.

To the "there's too many past leagues in the game already" curmudgeons, I'd actually say there's not enough. I'd love it if they brought back Talisman and Tempest into the core game as well (Breach largely supercedes Invasion, Warbands, Beyond and the Perandus packs while Rampage was just terrible - and still available if you just wear a Rampage unique). It's optional content plus the spawning rate is considerably reduced anyway. If you don't like it, don't engage with it. One of the stated purposes of temp leagues was to test out new ideas for the core game and so asking GGG to drop a mechanic they've put the effort into making and that has largely succeeded is just...silly. Some prior leagues (Rampage, Invasion, Beyond, etc.) weren't added because they bombed, but Breach, as far as I know, has been welcomed by many players (despite many being apprehensive about it to begin with) and so it qualifies for being added.

To the "Breach has performance issues" guys, go check out some of the threads on Perandus league. Breach has been smooth as silk by comparison. Yes, there are still issues, but most players seem able to handle Breaches. Moreover, performance issues are no reason to not add a league into the game unless said issues are fundamentally tied to the league mechanic, which doesn't seem to be the case here given the number of players (who can't all be running top-of-the-line systems - I played Breach on a laptop, btw) who seem able to handle Breaches with little/no problems. It just means that those issues need to be dealt with, which GGG does on a constant basis. As for servers, same thing - that's a general game issue, not an issue with Breach.

I think that deals with all the categories of problems I've seen mentioned in this thread so far. Good day, ya'll and, as ever, thanks for all your work, GGG! :)