The Harbinger League Challenges and Rewards

1337 :P

I'm glad the rewards are finally something different than foot+weapon+portal, but wow. You aren't supposed to let unpaid interns get their work into an official game. Did you guys run out of time or something?

I seriously hope the new packs are not of this quality.

The ancient Roman style music in act 5 is sweet and the challenges look interesting, but the MTX are crappy imo and don't incentivize playing the league at all, alongside the annoying extra inventory clutter. Though fighting the harbingers itself etc sounds cool.

Yeah, guess I should've made a bunch of Reddit sock puppets, THEN you'd have listened. this list of challenges is mostly pretty terrible. Also, where's the challenge for Vaaling uniques? :V

"Complete these endgame grinds" is the laziest and most asinine possible challenge there is. You're literally just asking us to SPAM the same encounter over and over and over again. There's NO challenge in it.

I'm sure this will get loads of white-knighting replies from chuckleheads with numbers like "24" under their name. Truth is, when it comes to that subject, I think only those who've gotten to 37 at least once have any room for discussion; the rest of you folk aren't even bothering, so you're not affected.

To give a bit more brief feedback (I'll try posting a thread with something more in-depth)

• Trivial: 23 challenges
  There are 23 that I'd consider "inconsequential." They're stuff we've seen before, and will naturally come by the time someone gets all the way to the endgame. They don't require going out of your way at all. A first-time player should be able to get them in an hour a day or less; a fraction of that for an experienced player. I'm including all generic-seeming Harbinger challenges that appear that they'll "Come naturally." expect the first 24/40s to start popping up by the end of the weekend. (Barring, of course, 3.0 bugs that make the game unplayable to some degree)
  
  
• Mild: 5 challenges
  Finding Vaal bosses, leveling masters, upgrading a Pantheon power, and bothering with a Pale Council and Breachlord encounter aren't hard, but they won't be AUTOMATIC. One of these will likely be most players' 24th.
  
  
• Map checklists: 4 challenges
  TBH, these (UnID'd/8-mod/twinned/unique) have been some of my favorites, as a "completionist." Simple, but fun; the flexibility prevents them from being economic bottlenecks. Why can't more challenges be like these?
  
  
• Trading economy breakers: 3 challenges
  3 (T8 essences, currency item usage, Encounters III) will be ones that are deceptive, but for most, will largely devolve into EXPENSIVE trading challenges, each for a different (lousy) reason:
  
  • Unless Perandus is part of the core game, finding a TROVE is going to require spamming Perandus mod, and then charging others an exalt to come share it when you finally find one.
  • Claiming all essences will also be shared for money. Expect the price of Remnant of Corruption to skyrocket.
  • Anyone remember when using an ETERNAL orb was required as a challenge? Problem is, Harbinger Orbs were ALREADY going to be high in value, worth, at minimum, the difference between a T16 and T15 map. (currently 15c or so on SC, or a bit less than a divine) Once you gate a challenge EXCLUSIVELY behind it, expect the price to skyrocket. Don't be surprised if Harbinger Orbs are worth more than exalts JUST for that league.
  
  
  
• Hard encounters: 3 challenges
  Uber Atziri and Shaper are the marquee boss fights of Path of Exile. Hard, but doable. And of course, expect a lot of trading for them.
  
  The one I'm REALLY interested in is the special-boss-challenges; I have two sides to what I see. For one, good on GGG for trying to come up with something new! Granted, the downside is that it seems VERY build-gating: melee, for instance, can't do the Rek'tar. Also, bad on GGG for only counting T15 Rigwald, and not T13; gating it behind really-high-end maps will make this a trading challenge! Also remember that all the OTHER bosses are only T13/14. Still, this could be fun to do, at least.
  
  
• Defeat 1,337 map bosses
  I have this separate because, well... I'm not quite sure what to say. This likely involves more maps than I've bothered with a league, but I also am not sure if they intended that wording: would, say, a twinned Courtyard count as 6? In which case, this gets downgraded to "mild," but with a chastising that "leet" stopped being funny over a decade ago. It's 2017, GGG, not 2004!
  
  
• Complete these endgame grinds
  Do you never learn, GGG? I mean, seriously, the best ANY SSF managed was 38/40 last league, when you had 2 extra months. This is the DUMBEST challenge, and I don't think there's ANYONE who's ever gotten a 40/40 that will tell you it was a great idea. No, people who did it just did it because they HAD to, as it was what was keeping them from 39/40 to 40/40. I KNOW you're trying to keep your handful of pro streamers on your game longer, but this is NOT the way about it.
  
  Seriously, you should always pass your proposed challenges by someone who knows the endgame, like Neon. Casuals should not be deciding what non-casuals should be doing; imagine if you approached balance by just listening to what the low-skill newbies said?

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this_name_already_exists wrote:

Are there some major overhauls in prophecies? 100 pale councils? U w0t m8?

GGG doesn't play their own damn game.

So yeah, that's 1,000 prophecies in THOSE FOUR CHAINS they're expecting us to do. It's technically as few as 50 pale councils (as if you do the part V of the prophecy, you kill them there BEFORE the council) but still absurd given that you'll get a DOZEN of each council unique; easy way to see how absurd that is.

A more interesting alternative would've been "Complete X number of prophecy chains."

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Zaraxia wrote:

I'm looking forward to the league even though I might have to settle for 36 this time cuz of RL getting in the way.

TBH, their reliance on BS stuff like the "Endgame grinds" challenge is why I didn't make a character at all from Prophecy onward. They REALLY need to have a good look at themselves. They need to learn two facts:

• Barring Neon, none of them really play their own game to the degree of their most-devoted players.
  
• There's thousands of us that aren't 24/7 no-life streamers who make money by playing the game.

Getting 40/40 should cap out at only requiring a few hundred hours. That last challenge adds several times that onto the list, especially if you actually play the game rather than spend your time on the flip-and-trade-for-challenges metagame.

What I really dont like is that "Complete following Encounters" forces us to complete maps that we might not want to have unlocked on the atlas. Doing this challenge and then sealing the maps away will cost upwards of 160c. -.-

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TheMonstercat wrote:

Worse MTX this far. Worse than Prophecy

Imdeed... +1

New rewards looks like chip crowns from burger king, or even worse...

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Priz wrote:

Oh wow, the boss kills with certain precautions is kind of cool!

They realized melee may be too playable so they want to guarantee you don't play it.

Worse MTX ever. I not play this league and probabily like me many do the same.Enyway in this ritm in my opinion game go to a dedly end coz alredy lose player every day and this is a fact we all know(friend list empty day by day), with this new incoming nef special on es for sure permanent leave process gone be much faster.

The challenges are doable, and decent i'd say. The MTX's I don't like except the Eyes. The crown and character effect are super dull and look rushed TBH.

Hopefully the supporter packs are better.

Other than that though I am totally stoked for FoO and Harbinger. Seems like a unique league. A single dull set of MTX rewards will not make me quit PoE lol.

If you play PoE for the mtx rewards then wtf are you playing PoE for. I play for the endless amounts of monster slaying and loot finding.