3.17 - Disappointed in the huge increase in grind, atlas + bossing bad design

I loved the new bosses but the game increased the grind in an insane way and is way less rewarding if u love to boss like me. There are good changes and bad changes to the atlas, i will be focusing in what i think is bad. (TLDR at the end)

Overall it is a shame that current 3.17 design increases the ratio of maps/boss needed with no option to greatly decrease it other than a poor 10%. If u focus/spec bossing we now rougly need 12-13 maps vs 4 maps per boss during 3.16 sirus 5 bosses cycle.

1. Much grindier to get max tier maps:

Before 3.17 u would get increased tiers by killing the 4 conquerors and repeat cycle for 8*4 total of stones.

Now we only need 4 voidstones but it is much grindier and harder to get them, unless u buy it. In my experience you will need at least 3/4 voidstones to consistently get t14-16 maps.

1.1- Before 3.17 the hardest content to beat to max all map tiers was whatever conqueror hardest for ur build (mine drox) at t16, didnt even need to kill sirus

Now, besides killing the new bosses which can be comparable to conquerors+sirus, you have to kill uber elder and Maven which requires much better gear and grind.


2. If you want to focus bossing, this patch is horrible, they increased the ratio of maps needed to get a boss fight by alot, and removed previous league watchstone modifiers that would let u greatly diminish number of maps to unlock a conqueror, all we have is a flat 10% faster chance with all new bosses having a static 14/28 maps requirement.

2.1 - First, the new bosses that replace conquerors only appear in high tiers, so you will start seeing them much, much, much,..., much, i think u get the point, later.

2.2 - Second, we have 2 bosses/28 maps base ratio, with 10 % passive for boost, lets be lucky and be 2/25 maps, this is a much lower boss/map ratio than 3.16 wih 4 coquerors + sirus - giving us 5 bosses and with the option to roll watchstones to make it muchfaster and 25 % passive for faster progress

2.3 - New bosses much less rewarding, if u look at the eater of worlds cycle for example, the mid 14 maps boss doesnt drop anything of value in the market, while conquerors could always drop something of value, we effectively have a cycle in main league for 28 maps for a chance at a boss that drops something.

2.4 - I am putting this at the end cause they are rough estimates to put into perspective if in 3.16 you would need around 30 maps for a sirus cycle of 5 bosses, u could spec for 55% faster progress so lets say 20 maps for 5 bosses gives a ratio of 4 maps per boss. Now with a 25 maps / 2 bosses thats 1 boss every 12,5 maps.

TLDR:
As conclusion pls change this design:
C.1 - too long cycle before you get to first major bosses
C.2 - Give us passives that lets ppl that love bossing to greatly diminish maps to get to them
c.3 - If u focus/spec bossing we now rougly need 12-13 maps vs 4 maps per boss during 3.16 sirus 5 bosses cycle
c.4 - Do not gate easy farm of max tier maps behind much bigger gear check bosses, maven and UElder


P.S. Would be nice for some major atlas passives like Deadly nightmare to be fixed for maps like beacheads t15^^, neither mobs are getting buffedand neither xp

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In my experience you will need at least 3/4 voidstones to consistently get t14-16 maps.

Nope. I run tier 16 maps constantly with 2 voidstones and only going for the map boss.

It's INSANELY easy to sustain maps without any juice or scarabs if you get all the increased map tier drop chance. If you want atlas sustain, then you have to spend points for it. This is coming from someone who literally ignores all mechanics except for grove and bosses. I have more T16s and bought/traded 0 maps to get here.

My experience with getting to and maintaining red maps is also practically the opposite of what OP describes.

I've never had a quicker-to-tier-16-maps league than this one. The Atlas "strategy" is drop-dead simple with no more leap-frogging and wondering where to put the next stone.

The two new bosses are easy to get to and relatively easy to beat, and although I'm nowhere near meeting Maven or Uber Elder, my Atlas already has 48 maps as Tier 16 with the two stones.

Toss in the freebies from Kirac, and it's never been easier for me to sustain high tier red maps.

You're literally complaining about "grind" to a game company that has "Grind" in its name.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

You're literally complaining about "grind" to a game company that has "Grind" in its name.

It's not because the name of the company has Grind in its name that the Grind has to feel like complete shit most of the time.


If you had read more than the title, you probably would have noticed that this is what his rant is about.

I can't imagine complaining about a key feature of a game's genre and expect people to take me seriously.

What is this?

My experience is that the grind is SO much more streamlined now than it used to be. I have only two voidstones and have no troubles sustaining T16. It's MUCH easier to juice your maps, and the fact that you don't even have to think about regions or doing bosses before you decide to, is a godsend.

You NEVER have to do a boss. You can save all of your invitations and just map on for days - without losing anything. Then, after saving up a heapload of invitations, you can do some bossing for a while - which is perfect with the new atlas tree, as respeccing into some boss nodes is worth it if you have a lot of invitations collected.

And if you don't WANT to farm all those maps, you can even buy the frags needed, something you couldn't do with the conquerors or Sirus. Choices = good.

There's only one negative about the new atlas, and that's the fact that sextants are being gated too late in progression. I also have some troubles dropping them.

The new atlas is far simpler , far easier to sustain on , and far more enjoyable.


OP you have an opinion but i disagree with it heavily.

You also left out how the new atlas passive tree gives us access to exactly the content we want to play. My maps are so juiced just from my tree , throw in dirt cheap scarabs ( or easily farmed for PoE vegans from the league mechanic) and this is one of the best mapping leagues in several years.

I have two voidstones currently and i have so many t16 i will never be able to run them all and i am barely spec into any extra map nodes on the tree. I have also been able to delve as much as i want which is one of my favorite mechanics. As well as getting a huge boost in damage for putting niko on every map from the special node for delve.

Also elder and shaper guardian maps are dropping more often for me and ive already been able to run several.

I think maybe you're just one of those people that cant handle any change because you got used to a certain way of doing things and you dont adapt well.

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Johny_Snow wrote:

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In my experience you will need at least 3/4 voidstones to consistently get t14-16 maps.

Nope. I run tier 16 maps constantly with 2 voidstones and only going for the map boss.

the sustain is the same with 0 voidstones too. i have all 4, i have 0 socketed because the favourite map system doesnt work if you use voidstones, its more important to me that i play a few of the layouts i want, theres 0 upside to socketing stones in terms of drops.



i get the bossing thing, its now roughly 13 maps between the new bosses the guys right in what hes saying here. thing is tho u can still run sirus and the conqs, they drop as maps now. so you got shaper, elder and sirus miniboss maps dropping that are also boss encounters and sac frags with a chance for mortal frags now and the new kirac missions offer way more miniboss things. youve also got maven 10 ways.

i think while the new core bossing mechanic is less bossing theres more side bossing available if you invest into those passives on the tree.