Act 3.x monsters and game balance

Hi GGG,

Since you seem to be reworking some of act 1 content, I thought it would be a good time to give my experience about the content of the game.

Since release, I feel a huge gap between the monsters you added to the end of act 3 and the rest of the game. Not only do they deal more damage, but they also have really specific mechanics. I specifically think about the avians, devourers ,evangelists ,porky-pines and even frogs.

While I like those mechanics,I really feel the balance is really off from the gardens to the end of the scepter of gods. And as if it wasn't enough, you also give these zones a higher level than the nex difficulty zones.

The result while leveling is the feeling that when you are strong enough to ascend the scepter of god and kill Dominus, you'll be able to just faceroll the content until the end of the act 2 of next difficulty.

Another consequence is that the presence of these mobs in a map make that map significantly more difficult, regardless of the map mods.

Once again, I really like having specific mechanics to face specific mobs, but having all af those centered in one half of one act makes the rest of the game feel trivial.

Hope this feedback can be useful, and thank you for the amazing game GGG !

PS: after re-reading my post I realize that avians are in act one and devourers in act 2, so the problem might just be the zone level and the fact that all of those difficult monsters are in the same spot.
Last edited by Renahud on Jul 29, 2014, 11:09:17 AM
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I've always felt that act 3 mobs are overtuned. They do more damage and have more difficult mechanics than the other acts. It seems act 1 is being redone as you pointed out so maybe this will change, but I still feel act 3 cruel is harder than the majority of merciless.
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Dominus needs some love too.
He is deadly. He has shitty mechanics like blood mist. And lacks optimization.
Add a Forsaken Masters questline
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2297942
The Dominus fight is a thing of beauty and a masterwork of encounter design. It just has some higher-than-average system requirements to run properly. Outside of perhaps some graphical performance tweaks, purely to help with FPS drops, the fight shouldn't change in any way.
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Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Jul 29, 2014, 1:38:16 PM
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
The Dominus fight is a thing of beauty and a masterwork of encounter design. It just has some higher-than-average system requirements to run properly. Outside of perhaps some graphical performance tweaks, purely to help with FPS drops, the fight shouldn't change in any way.


Perhaps a little more delay between some of his special attacks when he's in his first form would be nice too. When he keeps spamming them back to back, it can make it very difficult for a pure melee character to even have a chance to attack him. Other than that though, yeah it's a well-designed fight.
I hate making new characters, use to love it because i LOVE act 1-2, act 3 has nice things, like piety runs are fun, dom runs SUCK because getting to him is in a lame closed laggy area that's just...boring layers AGAIN feels in no way like im going to a boss but just walking up to jump off, the mobs going there...undying...evangeli...yeah no need to talk about the #1 specter, period, by far the most BIS mob in the game lmfao, there Damage is retarded, all of act 3 damage is retarded even with max res and hp... only thing i like....is the bosses...rest feels like its beta as fuck.


:(
hit me up @sarrow lets have fun :D
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
The Dominus fight is a thing of beauty and a masterwork of encounter design. It just has some higher-than-average system requirements to run properly. Outside of perhaps some graphical performance tweaks, purely to help with FPS drops, the fight shouldn't change in any way.


I didn't know how to counter the bleeding in that time. The game doesn't screw you with bleeding until that moment in any significant way. And...it was really slow (<10FPS?) to have finer reactions and survive with life flasks.

That thing is my minor grip with the battle design.
Add a Forsaken Masters questline
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2297942
Last edited by NeroNoah on Jul 29, 2014, 2:27:39 PM
Yes, I have been saying this since day 1 of act3x


I can't believe its still like this >.<
S L O W E R
Dominus is not the real problem for me. He is really difficult, but it's alright cause he's the end game boss. And you can learn a lot to make him more manageable, like the other act bosses.

My concern is more about the areas that lead to him, their monsters and their level. What I might agree, is that if they were balanced, dominus as he is now could feel a little overtuned. But again, this wasn't the main purpose of this thread.
Would agree that there's a few of the new monsters in act 3x that could fit in much better in the overall difficulty curve, I do hope their revisiting of older content isn't just limited to Merveil and Brutus. I'd say both the entirety of Act 1 in later difficulties and Act 3x in all difficulties need some attention.

On top of that I'd very much be in favor of a nerf to normal Dominus, and only normal. He introduces a whole load of new mechanics and attacks, I'd say he's a bit overtuned and it'd be to the overall benefit to make him more manageable at that level.

Both for new players still learning the fight and for experienced players to have some more freedom while leveling up when it comes to builds and tactics, you often don't have all the tools you plan for at that level. I think the Dominus fight, especially in normal, is a contributor to the trend of levelling up with pretty much the same build (Searing Bond for example) much of the time. He should be beatable with a build that hasn't come into it's own yet at that difficulty, the challenge is still there in Cruel, Merc and maps.
My vision for a better PoE: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/863780

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