3.4.3 Patch Notes

TL:DR = we heard you're having fun delving, so we're nerfing it. Enjoy!

"Encouraging players to map" => "Discouraging players from delving"

The need to map to sustain time in Delve is the least satisfying part of this league. I tend to stop playing PoE when I get to maps. I've done more mapping this league than any other but it isn't "persuading me" that mapping is great fun. I persevere to get sulphite.

Suspect that at some point - as usual - I'll just stop and so that'll be the end of delving for me and thus the end of the league. Maybe I'm not representative though?0

Unfortunately GGG'd probably have to make delving less enjoyable before they allow us to do more of it.

Drop rates are insane at the moment though. Not sure they need to be that rewarding?

"

Bex_GGG wrote:

Sulphite Deposit spawn rates in The Quarry have been decreased slightly.

you should create a positive incentive to get the sulfite from elsewhere. if you have to nerf Quarry sulphite, your other "solution" is not good enough. creating a negative incentive by nerfing quarry and "take away" what players already had is not fun and not good game design.
just balance map rewards and delve costs to be better than the rewards quarry offered so far.

Good thing i'm still skipping this league; waaaaaaaaaaay too many mayor patches, balance changes and bug fixes in short term for me. Good thing the devs are actively trying to improve it (and understandable since the mechanic had such high expectations). I'm just hoping for a new league that isn't ''don't stand still for 1 second or you lose all loot and die'' mechanic.

This patch seems to improve some party play aspects, which is prolly nice.

Incursion League

In each zone you got 1 incursion, which lasted about 30 sec and gave a large loot explosion.

After 11 of them, you got a temple run, which took up to 20 min and was worth at least 11 incursions. Some RNG aside, you got to pick and choose which types of loot and bonuses you got inside.


Delve League

In each zone you get 1-3 veins ...which could equate to 1/40th to 1 whole delve depending on level of area, length of the delve node and depth.

Loot explosions are tentatively small, with the rare occurrence of larger ones or extra chests along the path ( if you can find them ).

Loot is almost always generic ...with only the rare occasion you get a chance at something specific ...depending on the RNG of the node spawn layout and how long it takes you to travel to it. Upwards of 10 or so generic nodes are needed often before reaching a specific type ( currency, bestiary, elemental types, etc. ).

Normal past league chances ( breach, abyss, essence, etc. ) also take up node spots, and are rare occurrences rather than a 10% chance each on every node.


Comparison

Past leagues, like Breach / Abyss / Harbinger / Incursion / Essence / etc. all gave you consistent and relatively equal chance at content. You generally ran something every zone you went into, and the "rarer" content was plausible after 10ish run ins.

Delve on the other hand devalues player ability to do content at every turn; both with requiring fundamentally more zone clears per league content attempt ..as well as "rarer" content being so heavily buried that you wonder if it's even in the game ( akin to bestiary boss fights and crafts ).

Players shouldn't be required to "save up" sulphite for hours in order to do the same amount of content that past leagues allowed you to do in a fraction of the time and/or consistently in each zone you were in.

One zone should equal 1 delve, no matter what.
10 zones should equal a "rare" delve encounter with large payout.

Currently, we're collecting carnival tickets and hoping we get to trade them in at the end of the day for a cheap knockoff hat or candy cane; something you could have bought outright with cash for far less.

Do not merge my mines wtf, i ll quit.

Fix to RF circle disappearing with Area of effect supports and ascendencies linked and sometimes making the game unplayable because graphics glitch out... when?

"

JoeShmo wrote:

One zone should equal 1 delve, no matter what.

With a caveat, I think this actually IS how they've balanced it right now. At depth 300 (monster level 83 = T16 maps) the 1-unit long delves are 216 sulphite. That's pretty much exactly what you get from sulphite nodes in T16 maps. Some delves are multiple units long, but also some maps have more than one sulphite node. You do average out to about one delve a map, if you stay at the depth corresponding to the map tier you're doing.

The caveat of course is that delves let you go much deeper than 300, and continue ramping the price up, for some unknown (but doubtlessly idiotic) reason. This means the deeper you want to go (you know, for the leaderboard penis points), the worse your map / delve ratio becomes. Not awesome. We were promised a NEW way to compete and keep the game fresh for longer into the league.

The whole goddamn point was that they saw players were "done" with a league pretty quickly, maxing out their chars, completing their atlas, killing uber elder, and whatever other goals they had, generally within the first month. They explicitly said that delve was supposed to be content that would give the game more life for longer. Instead delve tries to force you to grind the same old, same old content over and over.

Honestly, I don't understand why sulphite is needed at all. If people want to spend 100% of their time in delves, LET THEM. Delves aren't very rewarding compared to maps (if you invest in the maps a little), so it isn't like removing the gate on them suddenly presents a problem with players generating too much value too quickly or anything like that.

The artificial gating is just beyond annoying. What the fsck is the point of an "infinite" dungeon that you can't go infinite in?

Why don t they just remove sulphite? I don t like mapping, never liked maps, yet they force you to do them, just let me delve.

Thanks for the patch GGG !

For those complaining, wait for the patch to be released first...
And as some players already said : the 'delving' should be a reward and not a new way to play.
I'm agree with you, pushing the crawler deeper and deeper is really fun, and I like spending 2-3 hours in the mine.
But I appreciate mapping right after to fill up my sulphite bar as well as it feels rewarding.

The thing I like with GGG is that they listen to the community and adjust the game accordingly, but they are not here to modify the game system because 50 players don't like the way it is...

So again, keep up the good work GGG and have a good day everyone :)