Water Hag is ANTI-FUN in hardcore. My only gameplay complaint after 500+ hours of PoE 2

First and foremost - I have played both hardcore and softcore. lv90+ in both, over 100 divs in both. I quit softcore because it was too easy and provided no challenge. It feels like you just win after a certain amount of hours.

So I went to the challenge of hardcore and brought a few friends with me. We are all pretty good gamers. All of us got to level 85+ (me being 92), with only 1 or 2 deaths). Post 85+, WE ALL DIED TO WATER HAG even after beating the pinacle bosses. Unfortunately I didnt record my death but it was a rare water hag. I dont know if it had Haste or not and I dont know if haste makes a difference. I honestly didnt see the bubble. I dont know if I didnt see it because I was tired, or if it was a weird scenario where it went through wall or I had a graphical glitch I honestly dont know, but its a shitty way to go out. It's anti fun. Doesn't feel like I died due to my own capabilities.

Let me tell you the problem with Water Hag. It's a 1 shot mechanic, but it's not in a boss fight. Very unusual. There is potential for graphical glitches. I noticed you guys are big on preventing bullshit deaths, like when my controller disconnects or I lag out, your game kicks me out. Love you guys for that. This is the same page as River Hag, it creates the same feeling as a death of your controller disconnecting. Also there is more:

The Water Hag’s one-shot bubble mechanic feels unfair and anti-fun, especially in hardcore mode. It’s not a boss mechanic, yet it has the power to instantly kill even well-prepared characters without sufficient warning or counterplay. This creates frustration and discourages players from engaging with hardcore gameplay. Here’s why:

1. Imagine you are a hardcore busy IRL player, and it takes you a month to get to level 80, and you die out of no where to river hag. You may NOT EVEN REALISE you died to a 1 hit mechanic. And you might die to it again next time you hit lv 80.. You literally may not realize that your deaths are coming from a 1hit mechanic.

2. Imagine you worked hard, and beat all the pinnacle bosses, then you are doing a t12 map, TRYING TO TAKE IT EASY and take a break from focusing, but you still want to have fun playing ur HC character. And you die to a 1 hit from river hag. That's anti-fun man.

3. Imagine you die to a graphical glitch. due to a rendering issue or something, or the ball being glitched in terrain. You would feel really demotivated to play hardcore again. Or the ball can even be hidden behind a larger monsters body

4. The last problem - Imagine you play hardcore for 100+ hours is it really fun, thinking for 100+ hours in the back your head, there might be a random water bubble flying around every single map that you have to dodge. That's not fun, it takes away from all the fun in the game. The game is so complex and fun, and then there is this basic dumb mechanic, that turns all your focus to it so you can't enjoy the game.

I really want this fixed when the game is fully released. I died in .5 sec in the bubble even though I had 75% evasion acrobatics, and 6k energy shield, CI, and maxed out resists and it was a basic hideout map I was giving someone a hideout. Very easy waystone. It's really demotivating to die in hardcore due to something that doesn't feel skill based. Corpse explosion, plants, and all those things feel skill based and you can raise your defenses enough to take them. But a random 1 shotting bubble in maps is truly anti fun. I've asked many hardcore players to make sure I'm not the only one with this perspective. All of them said they hate the mechanic as well and they agree it takes away from the fun.

Here is some suggestions:
Adjust the Mechanic

Reduce the bubble’s damage to a percentage of health/ES rather than a full one-shot.
Provide counterplay options, like a specific gear mod or defensive mechanic.

Clearer Warnings AND Consistent Death timer that isn't affected by Rare/waystone affixes

Add a consistent, noticeable visual or audio cue before the bubble launches (e.g., a distinct animation or ground marker).
Ensure the bubble stands out, even in busy maps or complex environments. some builds may have an extremely hard time seeing the bubble.


there are many example of situations that feel really unfair and that the human brain would have an extremely difficult time to react to on youtube of these deaths already. Here are some examples:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gqBU78I5mHA
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RwmoRgFG6BQ

there is many more - instakill shouldnt randomly be in every other map.

I honestly don't even want to play the game until the River Hag is removed. I dont want to die to a level 1 white mob by a one shot in hardcore when I am level 95 and full tank.

It's honestly ridiculous. Hardcore is supposed to be about testing your skill and decisions, not worrying about random, invisible one-shots that you have no control over. The Water Hag mechanic feels like something out of left field—it’s so out of place. It’s not even about dodging something you can see or outplaying it; it’s just hoping you don’t get randomly hit by an invisible bubble. I can’t even imagine grinding for hours, getting to a high level, and then dying to something that doesn't feel like it was your fault at all. The whole thing feels like it undermines everything fun and the skill-based mechanics of this game. It's just frustrating and not at all the kind of challenge people signed up for in hardcore. Only reason I'm not crashing out about it is because this is beta but I will avoid certain builds and possibly hardcore overall if this glitch passes onto full release.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way, this shouldn't be in hardcore, you can't build full dps as easily in hardcore so river hags become a problem and are anti-fun

Hardcore Punishment

Hardcore players invest significant time into their characters. Dying to a random, poorly telegraphed mechanic feels demotivating.
Without clear feedback, players may not even realize how they died, increasing the likelihood of repeated deaths to the same mechanic.

Glitches and Visual Issues

The bubble may occasionally be hidden by terrain, walls, or graphical glitches.
Hardcore players rely on clear visuals, and when these fail, the death feels unfair and unavoidable.

Mental Strain and Fun Impact

Constantly worrying about an unpredictable one-shot mechanic reduces enjoyment, even during casual mapping.

Adjust the Mechanic

Reduce the bubble’s damage to a percentage of health/ES rather than a full one-shot.
Provide counterplay options, like a specific gear mod or defensive mechanic.

Clearer Warnings

Add a consistent, noticeable visual or audio cue before the bubble launches (e.g., a distinct animation or ground marker).
Ensure the bubble stands out, even in busy maps or complex environments.

Skill Issue. I think River Hag is good for the game and makes you think in otherwise mindless AoE farm.

It shouldn't be effected by haste would be my only adjustment - 3s to get out of a bubble is fine.

I also died to water hags in HC :(

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diablospawn#7952 wrote:

Skill Issue. I think River Hag is good for the game and makes you think in otherwise mindless AoE farm.

It shouldn't be effected by haste would be my only adjustment - 3s to get out of a bubble is fine.

wait i'm looking now, you dont have a hardcore character that made it to maps, so you don't even know what i'm referring to because you're playing full dps in softcore, completely different game..

After playing for 100s of hours, you can easily miss it once and die, that's not a skill issue. I beat arbitor on hardcore, pretty sure I have the skill. But I dont care, lets just say I'm bad, I'm not here to defend myself. I'm here to provide feedback and make game better. It's in every map possibly which is annoying. It probably gets affected by waystone modifiers as well.

Also - again, what if you dont know it 1 shots you because you never get hit by it. Then you finally get hit at lv 90.. And you lose everything. Thats not a skill issue.

Mechanics like this are prone to graphical glitches as well and rendering issues.

I have no problem with it being a skill issue or not. I have a problem with it being anti-fun and annoying and taking away from all the fun aspects of the game. I want to focus on dodging high damage abilities but instead the worry is all about some random one shot. Even if i'm tired and I just wanna chill late at night doing low tier waystones. I can't do that.


it really takes away from game, when you kill all the ubers ( like me ). then randomly die to a water bubble that I truly didnt see, while full hp trynna hook someone up with a hideout in a hideout map and the waystone was lower tier to make sure THEY dont die and somehow I died loool

You roll out. I've never died to a river hags bubble it's a good 3 seconds of standing in it before you die.

If you tunnele vision well now you never will again. Hardcore is meant to test mechanical skill and game knowledge. The majority of deaths in hardcore are due to becoming complacent.

also in hardcore as a melee character.. this mechanic is so disgusting it's crazy I'm dming all my friends right now and I havent found a friend that hasn't died to it yet. past lv 60. this is so sad. they all are saying they also dont know where the bubble came from

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QticaX#4168 wrote:

You roll out. I've never died to a river hags bubble it's a good 3 seconds of standing in it before you die.

If you tunnele vision well now you never will again. Hardcore is meant to test mechanical skill and game knowledge. The majority of deaths in hardcore are due to becoming complacent.

you didnt read the post because you aren't addressing any of my points, including graphical glitches and it's not 3 seconds, there are many youtube vids of people dying in it in less than a second. There are vids of deaths where the ball doesnt show up til dead.

It's anti-fun and causes undeserved deaths - just because it didn't happen to you, you have to understand that it isn't a good mechanic. It's happening to lots, and potentially could be you at any given moment.

wait I'm looking at your profile now, and all i see is standard league characters.. This is Hardcore feedback. this mechanic isn't a problem in softcore, you can build full dps and you'll never see river hags on ur screen or the bubbles..