Feedback Request: Tempest League

I'm currently only in Normal, but so far the tempests have only come off as minor annoyances.

The self buffs take too long to go off and buff for such a short duration that I would rather just run through and kill things instead of waiting for a buff.

The damage dealing tempests are only annoying because I can never stand still -- especially the ones that continuously spawn enemies all over the place.

I can see them becoming more interesting/challenging in higher difficulties but for now I'm underwhelmed with the mechanic.

Edit: the only reason I'm playing tempest is because I don't like standard and I like to play the new content.

Are the Tempests impactful? -A little bit, waiting over them is a pain in the ass

Are they scary? - Nope, sometimes it can get a little harder, but it's just a 10 second thing, and you can avoid it, not nearly as scary as previous league

Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding? Not at all at least before cruel (where i gave up)

Are they better at higher or lower levels? -i supose higher levels, but i couldn't say.

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now? - Never seen it happen

Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands? -No, i'm a hc player usually

Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest? -Yes, i usually play HC, but as all my friends and i found it bad, we went to warbands.

I won't be addressing the questions directly, because I feel they don't hit the core issues of Tempest. I also made a reddit thread, so I'll just copy the text over.

I've heard some people complaining about the new leagues, and after giving it some thought, I've arrived at what I believe to be the main issue with the new leagues. This post will be aimed at Tempest mostly, but also applies to Warbands in the same way. I think the main problem with Tempest isn't whether or not the Tempests themselves are or aren't impactful.

For example, Tempests can appear in boss rooms. Depending on which Tempest, this can make the fight extremely difficult, and maybe even impossible for most builds. The solution? Wait.

The way I see it, there are 2 issues with Tempest:

One, Tempests are completely avoidable. With enough patience, you can go through the entire game without being affected by a single Tempest.

This design is not in line with any of the previous leagues, all of which had its difficulty mod applied at all times. If you wanted to progress, you were forced to deal with it. Sure, you could avoid things such as Bloodlines and Beyond by just not engaging mobs, but even doing that doesn't completely negate the difficulty like waiting out a Tempest does, and it has a downside besides wasting time.

Two, Tempests are randomly chosen for each individual area, rather than being some global modifier.

Instead of being opt-in global difficulty, Tempest/Warbands are on a per area basis. The effects of the Tempests vary wildly, and once you get to maps, there's no way to know whether or not you'll be screwed over. Get a particularly difficult Tempest in a 78+ map, and you're screwed, because that shit will follow you the entire map. Otherwise, wait an hour (and waste portals to refresh the instance), just to do ONE MAP, and this is assuming the Tempest will change after an instance is created.
Compare that to something like Bloodlines and Beyond, where the league modifier only determines how each individual pack behaves. If a pack has a bad mod, you can skip that. But if a map has a bad Tempest, and your build can't handle it, you miss out on a whole lot more than just exp. Not only do you lose the currency you used to roll it, and any item drops, but most importantly, you lose even more maps. Now that the only way to get +2 maps is from the map boss, this is a big deal. It feels like complete bullshit that you would lose so much over something you had no possible way of knowing.

So that's my view on the new leagues.

Only level 48 so far but here is what I have gathered:

Are the Tempests impactful?
Tempests are impactful, but 'impactful' is too broad of a word. They impact the difficulty of the game which leads to more 'oh shit' moments (which are GREAT), though they do not seem to add a real flavor of difficulty. I would like to compare them to Necrovigil from Bloodlines (not nearly as bad as Phylacteral Link, but still not quite right). In order for them to 'make an impact', you need to drag mobs (see Necrovigil), or stand in them for about 5 seconds, and the buffs/debuffs last only as long as you have to stand in them to obtain them.

Personally, (my opinion does not really matter) it seems like a counter-intuitive mechanic having to wait that long for a short buff/debuff. I believe that Tempests have TRUE potential but as is, they just do not fulfill what I believe GGG had in mind. Eg: No more portals on the ground, zone wide buffs/debuffs for both players and mobs. Possibly mob packs that grant buffs and/or debuffs via proximity or killing them.

It may just take some getting used to, but in 99% of cases I see no reason to use the Tempests, only avoid.

Are they scary?
Some, yes. Forgot the name of the tempest, the one that speeds everything up, seemed to keep spawning next to Kole, and he's already scary as hell. That's the only scary moment I can think of off hand.

Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?
Unsure of this question. The "area contains x% more items?" If so, yes, though I believe I've read that there are actual drop increasing tempests such as "corrupting" which I have not run into yet.

Are they better at higher or lower levels?
Until cruel, they did not seem to matter much. When the Zone Wide affixes such as "Enemies have X% increased elemental resistance/Deal more damage as X Element" came into play during cruel difficulty with the increased quantity, I started paying attention and felt that this is where the actual league begins. During normal difficulty it just felt as if I was playing regular POE with some nonsense portals on the ground that do nothing (other than the ones that freeze you).

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now?
I have Global chat open 100% of the time I play and haven't seen anyone say a word about Tempests.

Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands?
Actually, Warbands (as with almost every other SC league) was much more enticing than Tempest, though I love HC and easily become BORED TO DEATH when playing SC. So I chose Tempest. Please don't take this as "this league sucks", there are fun aspects to it, and so far there is NOTHING in it that makes it un-fun like Phylacteral link did, but it is just too difficult, not in terms of actual difficulty, but to utilize the Tempests in their current state.

The only HC leagues I chose because they seemed more fun were Beyond, Nemesis, and Bloodlines. Beyond being my absolute favorite and a staple for what the balance of Fun, Rewarding, and Challenging could be in future leagues.

Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest?[/quote]
Haven't tried Warbands yet, not sure if I will honestly. As stated earlier, SC just bores me to death. Not just in this game, but any.

Some final statements:
I like the league, really no complaints other than I can see much more potential for Tempests compared to their current state. I didn't sugar coat it, but hopefully I got what I needed to say out in an understandable way.

I love you Chris, and all of the Path of Exile team. You made the best game I've ever played. Thanks

Most of these tempest mechanics would be cooler as shrine mechanics, shrines should be more meaningful and 'feel' overpowered when they scale with your gear right. The shrine that shoots arc got removed but maybe that could be added to the one that does shock nova, just combine the two.

Tempest should make all the mechanics be meaningful without being intrusive, but right now the harmful tempests AoE's are completely avoidable while the positive tempest often slow you down when you wait for them to buff you.

To solve both of those issues rework tempest AoE's to do their work over time throughout a much longer duration. Tormented spirits apply a mod to nearby monsters, just have the tempest AoE's apply cool tempest themed mods to monsters that permanently apply. (toned down to be less crazy)

To add to tempest league, make it kind of like beyond where monsters dying in the AoE's or dying while tempest buffed builds progress towards eventually spawning a pack of monsters with tempest mods and consuming the tempest AoE. If the mechanic worked like this you could have a set number of permanently placed tempest AoE's in a given instance and there would be meaningful risk/reward towards finding all of them.

Warbands: I like the Warbands league more than Tempest league, I've only played this league because I wanted to try my hand at hardcore. To be completely honest Warbands is perfect, the only thing it needs is more warband types but 3 is enough to keep enough variety until then as it's a new mechanic. I feel like the gemlings should be a 'warband'

Are the Tempests impactful?

They don't seem to be that much, as in most cases there's enough space to move around and not be affected by them if needed. If they were positive tempests then it can be nice to step into them but the issue there is the wait time needed for that, slowing progression considerably.


Are they scary?

Didn't get to endgame so can't speak for that, but otherwise nope.


Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?

Only had chance to find a transmogrifying one like that, and that was quite underwhelming (stacks of scroll fragments as rewards? doesn't quite serve any purpose)


Are they better at higher or lower levels?

Couldn't say, didn't get there

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now?

Nope, not yet it seems.

Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands?

On the contrary, Warbands seemed more interesting especially given their uniques that drop only from Warband elites. But given I prefer HC, started Tempest.

Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest?

I think I will end up getting first char to endgame in Warbands, but not sure as of yet.

The tempests don't really feel scary, or even relevant for that matter. They're just random stuff that happens without that much of a significance.

An alternate design for the tempests could improve things a bit. What if the tempests were more alive, moved around, grew and shrank in size etcetera. There could be tempests that cast spells like the ones there are now, but they wouldn't disappear after casting that spell.

All in all the tempests feel like an afterthought; there are so many ways to improve upon the idea.

For example, tempests could be like this:

At first, as the tempest spawns, it could be inactive. Then, gathering in size and strength, the tempest could gradually grow into a truly magnificent storm before finally activating and beginning to move around and casting spells. Some tempests could have auras that affect all players and all enemies in the area by slowing them down, speeding them up, making them more resistant or more vulnerable to certain types of damage in addition to casting the occasional spells. Then, as they rage on, they'd grow and shrink following some dynamics of their own. Maybe completely random, maybe killing or casting spells might weaken them or strengthen them.

You could even have a skill specific to the league that would spawn a random tempest. Or tempests could spawn naturally due to player and mob actions; relentless casting of lighting spells in close proximity might cause a thunderous tempest to appear, while a massacre could cause a bloody vaal tempest to spawn. The use of chaos and summoning magic could spawn a tempest that conjures up a stream of undead monsters.

Like I said, there are so many ways you could have tempests interacting with the world more. Having a lot of tempests all over the place is a lot less interesting than having a truly spectacular tempest every now and then.

Are the Tempests impactful?
R: Yes they are, much more for monsters than players in my opinion. Specially when you are confined with a bunch of blue mobs and can barely move.

Are they scary?
R: They are for two reasons, first being: it causes some lag, i have a strong computer but somehow path of exile seems to run inneficiently on it, and the tempests causes fpd drops. Second is what i've mentioned before, confined areas, and of course bosses.

Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?
R: No.

Are they better at higher or lower levels?
R: Higher, at low levels you are just throwing a bunch of elemental stuff on unnequiped characters, the result is obvious to me.

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now?
R: No.

Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands?
R: Absolutely not, the softcore league seems A LOT more interesting, tempest just happened to be the hardcore league, unfortunatelly.

Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest?
I'm really considering it.

My feedback is only reflecting my experience in Act 1 Normal so far.

"

Chris wrote:

Are the Tempests impactful?

They are impactful enough for weaving them into my combat movement pattern. It's fun to use them against enemies with good positioning on my side.

"

Chris wrote:

Are they scary?

Scary enough for making you retreat if a pack of strong mobs gets buffed. The wrong Tempest can one-shot you in the Shores.

"

Chris wrote:

Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?

Only encountered the (kinda pointless) transmogrifying one. Can't comment on that.

"

Chris wrote:

Are they better at higher or lower levels?

Can't comment on that.

"

Chris wrote:

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now?

Currently no guild. Global shares this information only if it's about bosses being buffed by tempests, ruining their progression.

"

Chris wrote:

Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands?

Yes. After my first RIP on Tempest I tried Warbands and thought it to be boring compared Tempest. I prefer the positional play of Tempest over the HP sponges of Warbands.

"

Chris wrote:

Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest?

No but I consider having a second character at hand if the progression of my main one is hindered by a tempest + boss wombo combo.

"

illundreal wrote:

I'm currently only in Normal, but so far the tempests have only come off as minor annoyances.

The self buffs take too long to go off and buff for such a short duration that I would rather just run through and kill things instead of waiting for a buff.

The damage dealing tempests are only annoying because I can never stand still -- especially the ones that continuously spawn enemies all over the place.

I can see them becoming more interesting/challenging in higher difficulties but for now I'm underwhelmed with the mechanic.

Edit: the only reason I'm playing tempest is because I don't like standard and I like to play the new content.

QFT.

I've worked my way up to A2 Merc and so far, Tempest = Minor Annoyance League. Unless a rejuvenating tempest (or whichever one refills HP) hits a boss area, then it's a major annoyance. Couldn't progress past Cruel Voll for an hour because I would whittle him down to <50% and then one of those wonderful pink storms would send him right back to full health.