EDIT: Atlas is saved.

I used to be able to pick the maps I enjoyed and run a shaped map strategy with maps of any tier between 3 and 16 where I could basically force only one map to drop per tier. The new atlas offers nothing even close to this, as we have no control over which maps drop within a region, and we cannot prevent adjacent maps from dropping. There are only a small handful of maps which can be made to be the only map on their tier, but none of these are layouts that I want to run.

It seems the intended endgame now is to fully awaken your atlas and run pretty much all maps as T14-16, kill conquerors to spawn Sirus. Kill Sirus, repeat. Well, I never played PoE For the boss fights, and frankly I am miserable in this new atlas. The RNG to encounter conquerors feels terrible. Not being able to move influence around like old elder influence feels terrible. High tier maps feel terrible in general since the monster life/armor/resist buff. Very few builds can even handle bosses in T16 maps now, so I'm forced to play a build I don't even enjoy to be able to tackle this content.

I'm actually really surprised at how incredibly bad this new atlas feels compared to the old one. I didn't think an atlas rework could suck all the joy out of the game like this, but apparently it can.

If we're not given better tools to manipulate map drops and run alternative atlas strategies I will be skipping all future leagues until the next major atlas rework.


EDIT: Since this thread has a very negative tone, I've come up with a positive suggestion on how to fix the biggest issue; the lack of control over unwanted map drops:



This new and improved cartographer's seal would allow players to decide which maps to block from dropping, allowing for vast multitude of different atlas strategies when used in conjunction with watchstones. Here are just a few example strategies:

1. Fully awakened atlas with all watchstones socketed, but seal the maps you absolutely hate to run, or maps that your character's build doesn't work well for. For instance if you're running a character that clears well in indoor maps, you could block a bunch of open outdoor layouts or vice versa.

2. A more traditional "shaped" atlas strategy where choose a tier range to run, e.g. tiers 11-13 and have only one map droppable per tier, using a combination of watchstones and seals to make sure that only your favorite maps are droppable on those tiers.

3. A hybrid strategy where you awaken some regions with maps you like to run, and seal all the maps you don't want to run, allowing just a few nice layouts to drop per tier.

4. A one map strategy where you pick one map you wish to run, and completely block all other maps of that tier, plus a tier or two above it to ensure maximum single map sustain.


P.S. Bring back Gorge :(