New league mechanic in Act 1

From the teaser and patch notes, it looks like the league mechanic in 3.27 will be introduced more aggressively than in the past. Players will have to deal with it as early as Mud Flats. While they still have basically no gear and no power (unless they are seasoned veterans).

Please make sure that this mechanic in Act 1 is super gimp and easy. Otherwise you risk instantly losing a lot of players (and potential MTX sales).

I still remember the worst league launches ever, like Bestiary or Delve. I wasn't even a new player back then. But I kept getting roflstomped by insanely overtuned monsters from those league mechanics at low levels. Can only imagine how many people just quit the game right there.

IIRC Chris mentioned in one of the interviews that Delve was the worst league launch to date. They couldn't understand why and eventually decided that it was just bad timing - the start of a school year. I'm pretty sure it was because interacting with the league mechanic at low levels meant certain death.

Please don't make this mistake again!

Most of the sale numbers have already gone through with the launch of the new supporter packs, or will happen in the next few days, so they aren’t going to be affected much, even if players quit as early as the first zones.

During the reveal, they absolutely crushed the encounter, and it looked effortless. It won’t be any more difficult than taking down regular enemies in the same area.

Rather than being game-breaking, it's actually be nice for the campaign to feel different, not massively different but it's better than nothing, with league content being introduced and taught through forced player interaction. In the previous league, the passive setup, mercs just standing around waiting for your interaction, fit their the theme perfectly. But the new league is the complete opposite, it’s not your friendly Trarthan neighbor. It’s a spreading threat, moving across Wraeclast, and an imminent, forced encounter actually reflects that sense of danger, reinforces the atmosphere, and naturally introduces the league mechanic.

Just as I feared, the new league mechanic in Act 1 is severely overtuned.

Upon entering the Mud Flats at lv 3, I was greeted by a magic pack of ranged breach monsters with Extra Projectiles. RIP.

Trying to do the mechanic in Mud Flats = certain death for most classes/builds. At lv 3 you don't have any power yet, or barely any gear. Fight 5 waves of overtuned monsters? Good luck.

This is just stupid. Skipping the league mechanic, running thru it and hoping that you don't get 1-shot is the best strategy at low levels until you get powerful enough for AoE fights.

Yep, I instantly got swarmed by like 50 breach mobs in Mud Flats at wave 4 or 5 and just died repeatedly while trying to do the egg quest lmao

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VoidWhisperer42#5989 wrote:

During the reveal, they absolutely crushed the encounter, and it looked effortless. It won’t be any more difficult than taking down regular enemies in the same area.

I also remember a reveal where they were using 1000 dps white daggers. They “cheat” a lot in those.
And yes, as expected… they don’t play their game.

Almost all leagues starts in Mud Flats. It is the reason why it is considered hardest area in game.

I was excited for this league, but after 2k hours of PoE 1, I still got insta-gibbed in the mud flats. Helped me remember why I stopped playing.

Love mapping, love the end-game, but I ain't dealing with going through acts again when the monsters continue to be completely overtuned. Not even just the league mechanic, even the standard monsters are such a fucking drag to fight through I can't be bothered.