Atlas Changes in Path of Exile: Conquerors of the Atlas

Two questions:

1. Are watchstones consumable, and if so, do you have any information on how long they last/relative drop rates?
2. Do maps always open to whatever tier is on the atlas? Or do they always open to a specific tier, forcing you to farm up new copies of the new tier once you get your watchstone?

How will converting pre 3.9 maps to the new system work? Will guardian maps still convert?

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wonderful!

Oka got some questions about the changes.

What happens, if you upgrade one zone and then run a map (let's say a tier 15 map because you have 4 watch stones) which is in the inner bound of the zone connected to a tier 1 map. Does the adjacent tier 1 map still have a chance to drop?

what about the +1 and +2 rule of map drops?

What happens if you upgrade every map to tier 14+, and when a map drops, does it only roll T14+ maps from now on? So even if the roll of the map dropped was a T7 map, it will just become a T14?

what happens with upgrading rule (3 maps for 1 tier up). if you have 3 T13 maps in one zone and the adjacent map next to the T13 is a tier 1 map from another zone?

so without elder orb we cant comfortably farm one specific map now? and some maps cannot be t16 even with four watchstones? arent you always saying you dont want to cut off functionality and variability from anything in the game? why i cant play my favorite t16 elder map with self sustainability(or absolutely can't if it'll become t14-15 from four watchstones), what concept behind this nerf?

What will happen to existing maps? Will they all be converted? Especially since it now looks like maps can be of multiple tiers.

Also, what happens to existing Guardian maps in Conquerors? Will they stay the way they are, or will they get converted into something else?

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Soske wrote:

Most of this sounds great. The Shaper and Elder changes are awful though.

My thoughts as well, never really liked the story lore system before, just never really seemed to make much sense, but now it looks like it will even be far worse, LOL.

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jackof8lades wrote:

So as i see it we can no longer choose what map we want to run, cause specific map sustain seems not possible(though i hope i am wrong).

Well thats gonna get old fast, i want to decide what i want to run not have the game decide that for me.

Not only that, they already confirmed there will be as little as 1x T16 map in each zone, once all the watchstones are placed to raise each zone to the highest tier maps.

That means we can't even raise maps we do like to the highest tier any more, either :(

changes is good

but i just hope that:

Shaper and Elder item mods also exists in Conqueror item mods

also this is a big NERF to builds that uses shaper and elder uniques:

Watchers Eye
Beltimber blade
Arborix
Voidforge
etc...

shaper and elder uniques WILL BE SO EXPENSIVE
specially watchers eye, watchers eye is the min-max jewel of almost all builds

i really hope GGG has a plan for this