Hot take... but idols would be a great addition, with some changes

I know this might be a controversial opinion, especially considering the negative views on the idol system, but I actually think it could be a great addition to the game. Yes, there are concerns with map sustain, but that's where the Atlas Tree could come into play. Maybe we could have both? The Atlas Tree could handle map sustain, allowing for better sustain and even specialization, which would keep the tree more compact. Meanwhile, idols could be used for specializing in specific mechanics. This would make it easier to swap out mechanics and add more idols for better specialization and blocking certain mechanics.

I know, it's a hot take. But honestly, I feel the density has been much better during the event.

no keep this op boring sht out of the game, we have atlas passives and that's more than enough

I think there are a lot of upsides to the idols as an atlas metaprogression system, but I think I preferred the Atlas Tree more simply because the entire Atlas tree gave us only one thing to stockpile and worry about: orbs of unmaking.

I've already got an entire stash tab devoted to the things, and I'm not even halfway through the Atlas. By the end of the month they'll be occupying half of my stash space... this is Talisman all over again XD

The only way that Idols make sense is in a Private League. This is because the only way to have any actual fun with Idols is to play in a cabal, where you share all drops with your comrades and get to line up powerful combinations very quickly. While you could operate such a cabal in a Trade League, no solo player in their right mind would play past level 80 - they'd drop out as soon as they got their event MTX, because there's no hope for them to achieve juicing in a timely manner, unless they stop investing in their character and invest in Idols instead, which is so much worse than before. This means that there's really no reason for the cabal to play this system in Trade - it's just them and a handful of other cabals waging price-fixing wars on each other, which sucks for everyone.

GGG doesn't have to make any changes to Idols at all - they just have to remove them from the main game and put them in Private Leagues only.

I made a thread about this idea over here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3728052

I dunno, I can't stand the idols system. It's random, it's all over the place. I forced to have content I don't like on my maps and the content I like is gated behind rng or trading. I want to test my build, but it's so boring to run maps rn. Idols altar upgrades are basically gated behind t14+ maps, so it feels so useless to complete maps prior to that.

Idols are fun at the very beginning, then they quickly become boring until you spend hours trading and recombing them. And then you want to test new startegy, oops, you're fucked.

Idols is yet another mechanic that rewards sitting in the h/o instead of running maps. Soon content creators will find new crazy strats and certain mods are gonna skyrocket in price.

Idols can be implemented like jewels in the passive tree. Like, some power from the Atlas tree can be transferred to them, to make a mashup between easily controlling content you want to run and having some rng and excitement from drops.

When GGG announced idols they said: "On the other hand it adds a layer of excitement".

And my reaction was like, fuck no, it doesn't. Turned out it really doesn't add any excitement to me to get an idol dropped because I know it will be something like 1 mod "+X to the mechanic I like" and 3 mods to some random shit I don't want to have on my maps.

If Idols had replaced scarabs instead of the atlas tree this would have been a banger event. But alas, it is not. Finally, a pcoc build that is not made of paper, thanks to the new ascendency, and we have to use it in unjuiced content. Scarabs are already way overvalued, with most people not even in red maps now.

The entire game is balanced around the atlas tree as being the "base." Removing that base was such a bad idea. They really need to stop designing literally everything around 18-hour-a-day players (I am one sometimes). It just makes it so the game is feast or famine, and meaningful progress toward anything is dependent on outright lucky drops instead of sustained grinding with a decent reward to the time curve.

Not everyone can play 18 hours a day; not everyone wants to play the most meta-op build. The rest of the game and builds shouldn't suffer permanent creep because of this. Just Nerf Trickster already, and move on. Instead of constantly adding more damage layers you have to build around.

Maaaaaaybe as a scarab replacement. That's about it.

Even though the idols give some interesting combos; they also make some scarabs obsolete. For example all the base scarabs adding a mechanic, you simply don't need them anymore because you can easily get multiple mechanics above 100%. Thus giving for example always legion, abysses, delirium, blight, harvest, etc.

The lack of crafting them makes it also harder to get/find the exact combo of the content you wish to play. (compared to the atlas tree)

Map sustain could also be an issue; even though I personally haven't noticed it yet... (but fixable)


That said if it were ON top of the atlas tree adding more interesting stuff similar to scarabs, that could work. Or perhaps make them work like (cluster) jewels in the atlas passive tree... to further enhance and specialize your tree.
Of course that would require them to have vastly different stats then what they have now though.


One thing for sure; it should never replace the atlas tree. Even Zana wouldn't stay sane if they take the choice of content we play away lolz.

I quite like them personally and I think its a good change of pace from the same thing every time.

The atlas tree.


That said though the tree is pretty much perfect.



What I really enjoy about the idols though is finding combo's and figuring out what scarabs I can use/sacrifice as I already am guaranteeing or getting X effect somewhere else.

And then getting just free loot from some other mechanic I would not have otherwise.

One of the advantages the idols would serve, could be to make the atlas tree less reskill heavy for me.

Having some key nodes on idols, instead of the atlas tree, reducing the time spent customizing and optimizing the atlas tree.

But at the same time the changing of the atlas tree can be fun, but not if you notice "oh crap, i actually need to change to Mechanic X" and dumping multiple divines into orbs of unmaking.

I think its a cool experiment and maybe some interesting things can be pulled from it.

Similar to beast and harvest, which were more indepth gameplay mechanics when they came out, but got simplified to fit better to the gameplay loop.