My thoughts on Bloodlines and Torment

Since the current temporary leagues are comming to an end I would like to give my opinion on bloodline mods and tormented spirits.
I played a fair bit in both leagues. I originally intended to play mostly Bloodlines, but went to Torment to complete some of the challenges. In the end I spent more time on Torment than on Bloodlines, because I underestimated the time commitment necessary for some of the challenges (which is not a bad thing at all).

Tormented Spirits

I am really happy how Torment turned out, especially after the AI change which makes the spirits a bit more attracted to monsters. The forums are full of complains against these spirits and how the behave, but I think they are fine. I consider a Spirit a success if they either possess a rare/unique monster, touch 1 complete blue pack or touch at least 2 normal packs of monsters. At first my success rate was about 33%, but with a bit of skill and experience i now consider 75% of spirits a success, which is a fine rate. I have worse luck with Stronboxes than with spirits. My only complaint is, that they could last a little bit longer before disappearing.

The amount of loot a got from spirits in Torment was just ridiculous. Which leads me to the negative side of things. Due to mechanics like master crafting, spirits or strongboxes it is as easy as never to get loot. I always liked the extremly sparse loot density of this game. If loot drops often it doesn't feel special anymore. theat's what drove my away from D3 in the end. I hope GGG manages to rebalance the rates of league specific spawns in the core game to counteract drop inflation. I know a lot of people will disagree with me here, but my point stands.

Which tormented spirits should be imported to the core game? In my opinion: all of them, except one. The one that needs to be rebalanced or removed is the Tormented Martyr. I don't mind the spirits ability itself and I don't mind the possessed monsters ability to spawn Alira's Marty's. But the touched monsters explosion on death does WAY to much damage.

Bloodline mods

I was a bit sceptical of Bloodlines at first, since mods on magic monsters are nothing new. But after playing the league I am a huge fan of them.

Bearers of the Guardian
It's a little bit boring, but completly okay. For me this mod just means that the packsize is increased by one. I never had any problems with this mod and it never gave me any kind of special gameplay feeling. Completly neutral to me.

Bond of Chaos
I like it, because it makes one consider chaos resistance a little bit more. In general I like mods like this which literally connect the monsters of a pack. Makes me feel like fighting a pack instead of a group of individuals. Never had this before in PoE.

Corrupted Bloodline
I am probably one of the only people who really liked Corrupting Blood. Naturally I like this mod too, but not as much as it's Nemesis counterpart. The good thing about the Nemesis mod was that it punishes a mindlessly fast clearspeed and slows down the game. The Bloodlines mod fails a bit in this regard as the amount of stacks you can get is limitd by packsize. But nonetheless a solid mod.

Cult of the Elements
I am a bit torn about this one. I kind of like the effect itself, but it really isn't a pack related mod as it only affects the individual mobs itself and not the pack as a whole. The problem is that it affects melee a lot more than ranged attackers or casters. I am not one of the people who think that melee is underpowered, but a melee playstyle is riskier than staying at a distance. Mods like this emphasize this difference and I don't think any further emphasis is needed.

Flame/Frost/Storm Bearers
Again, not really a mod that affects the pack as a whole, but a neat little mod which adds a bit to the gameplay. Makes you think of positioning a bit more and may block off some areas for a short duration. Everything that makes you think before you kill something is good in my opinion.

Flaring/Rime/Static Pulseblood
Finally a real bloodline mod that affects the bloodline pack as a whole. In my opinion it doesn't add that much to gameplay, but is a nice addition.

Heralds of the Obelisk
One of my favorite things in Bloodlines! I am sure most people will disagree with me on this, but i love them. Obelisks can make portions of the map completly unaccessible. That's why other players hate them and that's why I love them. You have to actually THINK where you want to kill monsters with that affix to not block off anything important. That means you have to slow down and actually read the affixes first and then maybe even kite the monsters away to some place more appropriate before you kill them. In my opinion this game needs a lot more of thngs like this. But sadly I am almost alone with this opinion. i hope GGG won't listen to all the complainers who just want to hodl down buttons and obliterate everything without stopping, thinking or reading anything.

Keepers of the Trove
This mod is stupid. It just emphasizes what I wrote in the Torment section of this post: loot inflation. From a mod like this I would at least expect it to be as rare as an Echoing shrine or a Carthographer's Strongbox. The only thing this mod does is diminishing the rush I get when items with higher rarity drop, because there are now so many occasions on which they drop.

Legacy of Vigor/Zeal
Another solid but unspectacular mod. I like it.

Living Blood and Voidspawn of Abaxoth
Both mods basically do the same. they summon a "Boss"-like monster upon death of the pack. I don't like it. I think boss fights should be something epic and a climax to a zone, but not something that just happens just alongside the road. I don't have a problem with any of the unique monsters that can spawn from those mods itself, but with the concept of boss fights being used inflationary.

Mark of the Cannibal
Again a solid mod. It makes the fights last a bit longer, which I consider a good thing. PoE already has enough things that just die to one or two right clicks.

Necrovigil
One of the community most hated mods and again one of my favorite ones. You have to actually slow down and kite the monsters away from the vigil circles or employ some sort of corpse destroying skill. A much needed change of pace in this game. I hope GGG ignores the whiners and incorporates this into the main game (and more mechanics like it in the future).

Order of the Frozen Sky
I slightly dislike this one. The ice rain just happens without the monsters really casting them. It breaks my immersion somewhat since it can be used even by fire guys in the crematorium for example.

Otherworldly
To me that's one of the most deadly mods out there. I like it a lot since it makes the fights a bit longer and thus more meaningful.

Phylacteral Link
I am used to having dissenting opinions, but I guess most people here want to burn me alive for saying that I really like this mod and hope GGG puts it into the core game. You have to actually stop and come up with a strategy. Do you chase the one with the disc or do you kite the mobds that are next to you until one of them gets the disc? But I guess everything that is not mindlessly fast is not what most players who are active in this forum want. But I find it important to say that not everyone dislikes this. Some of us really want to see this in the core game.

Shared Boon
Solid but unspectacular. Should be kept.

Shrouded
I really hate the visual effect. The cloud just looks stupid. I don't know what i should think about the effect though. I consider PoE to be a game of knowledge. You have to gain knowledge about what is dangerous and how to react to it. Then you employ that knowledge to beat the game. This mod somewhat counteracts that principle as it hides information. I am a bit torn and will hold off with my opinion for now.

Spirit Walkers
I don't see the point of this. Why not just make the variance in pack sizes larger?

Union of Souls
i like the fact that a pack gets stronger when members are killed. But I think it needs some scaling with pack size. If you encounter a Union of souls pack with 5 monsters in ti, no problem. If you encounter a pack with 25 monster sin it, the last one can be basically unkillable without anything you can do to prevent it from happening (like kiting a Soul Eater Nemesis monsters away from other mobs to not give him souls to eat).



I had tons of fun in both leagues and I am very excited for act 4. Keep up the good work GGG.

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Chaos156 wrote:

The one that needs to be rebalanced or removed is the Tormented Martyr. I don't mind the spirits ability itself and I don't mind the possessed monsters ability to spawn Alira's Marty's. But the touched monsters explosion on death does WAY to much damage.

I agree on this, if you are unlucky and melee you will just oneshot yourself.

nice read

while I havent played bloodlines, I agree with you on the living blood/voidspawn pack, from what Ive seen. having boss encounters that are supposed to be rare and exciting into a routine, is a bad idea imo.

So, wait. You actually like loot starvation?