3.20 Balance Manifesto: Eldritch Altars

Some good stuff, some not so good stuff. My 0.2$

* Not much in here about the downsides. Previously, you pretty much wanted to play a build that is able to not care too much about the downsides. With more altars, that might be even more true.

* Reading these while mapping, with monsters coming at you from all directions, was already troublesome and annoying. Adding in more altars won't help. It sounds like there's more different things to read, too? Soulstone Survivors got this right, with a pause happening when you receive a new mod/skill, so you have time to read and decide. Ultimatum had this too. Why is this still not a thing, and the game is trying to force you to read stuff while also punishing you for reading?

* By and large, I think the new version of eldritch altars as I understand is is mostly just... more bland and boring. There was something cool about stacking up a lot of the good mods if you got lucky with altars. All these rewards just sound kind of generic and not very exciting? Even getting 3 divine orbs on the boss isn't super exciting if you ask me.


I don't want to focus on the negative stuff alone though. Props on the scarab upgrading change, making/keeping rusted scarabs accessible, removing the need to do boss first, and trying to bring Maven influence more in line with Eldritch (but again: wish it didn't come at the cost of a more bland Eldritch farming experience)

Reducing the scarabs from altars was a bad idea if the rusted ones do not drop like candy from an average red map. Altars were one of the few things that still felt good loot-wise after the 3.19 disaster. The new scarab vendor recipe is nice if rusted scarabs are in abundance.

I like the concept of more altars, less boss rushing, fewer crap drops from influenced monsters, real rewards for maven influence and not being forced to go both sides on the top of the atlas skill tree. Execution, on the other hand, makes me worried.

Still waiting for a HARVEST manifesto. You are not going to just let it remain dead, are you?

"NOW THAT HARVEST CRAFTS ARE TRADEABLE" (tm)

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Ivanovv83 wrote:

They will try with league N4.

What did you mean with this?

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mrpibadi wrote:

After Criss and the company were sold to a Chinese conglomerate for $ 100 million, it is clearly visible how Criss absolutely did not care about future games. Do you know why? A man with 100 million in his pocket doesn't need to play games, he's fine as it is. Hence the main problem - those who make leagues and updates - play 5 hours at most for the entire league, the rest of the time they go about their business while Criss spends Chinese millions on his life (he has the right).

100% incorrect. The main reason on why GGG, Chris, and PoE has gone like this for years (WITH or WITHOUT Tencent involvement), is because there is almost no competitor in the ARPG market right now that able to challenge PoE throne. GGG can do whatever it wants with the game and playerbase. When the PoE sucks, where even the playerbase gonna go and invest at ? Diablo 3 ? Torchlight infinite ? Lost Ark ? Undecember ? Nay. Players gonna suck it up, inhaling copium and keep playing. This has been the case over and over again since Bestiary.

Look at WoW direction since Wrath of The Lich King ended, Activision Blizz can do whatever they want and can get away with it, since back then there was so little competition in MMORPG market. And even now, no matter what people say like "WoW is dead, FF14 is the best, go play GW2, go play gacha MMORPG", WoW still up and running, still one of the most sought MMORPG in the market. Although there is more variables to be included, such as ; age-demography, country, player behaviors, etc. , market competition is one of the most deciding factor for game direction.

After all, these online-games are made by a company. A company exists solely to make and maximize profits. So when a company sees it's product have so little competition, to the point that the consumer will just keep consuming the product no matter where the direction it goes, the company can do whatever it pleases with the product and still able to make profits. And this is the case on what happen with PoE. Chris and GGG can do whatever they please with PoE, be it enforcing their own "vision" on the game and on how the game "should" be played, or listening to their playerbase and keep in touch with the community back then. So again, GGG and Chris can do whatever they want and get away with it, because where will the playerbase that already hooked on PoE will go ?

As much as I dislike PoE direction back then and now, as someone that already hooked on, there is almost nothing that can compare to PoE in the ARPG market right now for me. So I just suck it up and inhaling copium, just like the rest of us that still playing the game regardless the complain and disappointment, that we have on our mind and talked with our gaming-friends. I'm just glad they haven't pull out some actual pay-to-win BS in PoE global, but I feeling that it will be here someday.

The reason we didn't do Bosses with altar influences remains unchanged.
The altars scale bosses way, way too hard for what they offer. That remains unchanged.
Having the boss do 2-3 times more damage for 3 vaal orbs or giving them twice the ehp for a scarab just doesn't make sense.

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vToose wrote:

Aram ? ;)

+1

Anything that has "is currently too rewarding" makes my teeth itch.

It's a game where you are supposed to be a god killer and loot to the nth degree, there is no such thing as "too rewarding", unless you are a masochist of course.

Finally We Can farm Maven-witnessed maps THAT IS HUGE!!!!
3.20 HYPEEE LES GOOOOOOO!!!!!

Seems like exciting changes for casual players or people who don't/can't fully juice maps.. Well done!