Feedback Request: Tempest League

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Chris wrote:

Are the Tempests impactful?

Sort of?
The buffs tend to favor the monsters over the players.
Proxy shields effectively stonewall a player away from a pack because of the overlapping shields.
You don't want to wander too close to a pack with a crit buff etcetera.

The player has to slow down to use the buffs. And they're generally too short-lasting to be worthwhile. But the player will notice those effects on monsters simply because of the sheer number of packs he encounters.

Likewise, using a malus against mobs does happen, but I very rarely do so deliberately, rather I mostly focus on keeping out of them and try to play normally.

Clear speed matters more than waiting a few seconds to game an effect.

Anectdotally, it was amusing to watch Dominus chase random skeletons around. While it drew a lot of aggro throughout the fight, it was a rather noisy and hectic experience. Not dangerous, but equal parts annoying and useful. However, I was willing to put up with it since Dominus will Touch of God some weaksauce skellies.

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Are they scary?

Mostly when they interact with hard-hitting bosses. Merciless Brutus with added % elemental damage comes to mind. A very very bad idea to fight him then.

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Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?

Transmogrification is useless.
The scanty amounts of alt and alch shards are not worth it when I am potentially losing rare/unique drops and currency. I don't want the game mindlessly vendoring everything for me. I wince at the scroll fragments because I know that might've been a chaos orb or something.

Refining is nice, but as mentioned above, you really have to slow down to use it. And the only worthwhile quality drop is a gem.

The chances that the quality will drop on a yellow item you actually want is nil. And the currency it takes to max out a yellow item is negligible.

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Are they better at higher or lower levels?

Neither. The dynamics listed above remain pretty much the same either way.

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

No, I just check the map or poke my nose into the next unexplored zone. If I don't like what I see, I take a break or grind elsewhere.

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

Hardcore leaguer.

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

see above

I'd just like to point out one thing about Tempest league. It's mostly done right in terms of difficulty and challenging the player except.


A. Abyssal Tempests are absolutely stupid, even after you 'fixed' them.
B. The always crit Tempest is another stupid one that I wouldn't even attempt.
C. Tempests cause crazy lag, one of them still Vaal Ice Novas.

In order:

Are the Tempests impactful? - Yes and no. Sometimes I'm in and out of an area so quickly it doesn't matter at all. Other times Kaom is buffed by lightning and almost one-shots when he hits. Overall it's an interesting mechanic for the game but I'm not positive that it's really adding to the gameplay. It takes the game in the direction of "map all the time" (similar to Invasion) which I personally do not enjoy.
Are they scary? - They can be. Watching a boss catch a lucky buff and deal explosively high damage is definitely on my do not repeat list. Also, there seems to be a tendency for them so spawn and go off with stronboxes. This has happened enough that I question the "randomness" of it and overall I would say this should not happen. Having (2) "pop" effects happen simultaneously seems too tailor-made for lag spikes and subsequent player death.
Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding? - So far no, not at all.
Are they better at higher or lower levels? - A little more annoying at higher levels. Ice on the ground everywhere? Come on, no one wants to play with that. It doesn't add anything dynamic or entertaining to the game when you add 10,000 ways to slow down gameplay.
Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now? I frequently play solo with chat off so I can't weigh in on this.
Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands? - HC or bust. I hate SC and subsequently don't play those leagues.
Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest? Of course not. Invasion was the only HC league I ditched out of and I stopped playing it to play HC perm-league.

Are the Tempests impactful?

I feel like they are, yes. Spooky when rare mobs jump at you with a full set of frenzy and power charges, and some of the damaging ones hurt.
That's cool and all, but the "summon skeletons" one and simialar are not to my liking. They slow down the gameplay too much. You can't avoid them the same as for example a lighting tempest that at best hits you once and you're done with it.
The one that turns your loot into it's value currency is interesting in a good way - makes you try to dodge the tempets even more so you can get that sweet gear. It's a challenge more than "meh, got hit by some fire, no biggie".

Are they scary?

See abvove I guess, but yeah soome can be, but that's probably mostly gear dependant on your own part / build. Because if you cap out on resistances, hp and damage mitigation they won't do as much.


Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?

I only come across the one that truns loot into currency.. and the animate weapon one if that counts? Animate weapon one is fun and all, but none of these two feel all too rewarding.

Are they better at higher or lower levels?

No real difference would be my first thought, but I need to play more late game to say for sure.

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now?
Not that I know of.

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

What little I know about Warbands sounded interesting, but I lke to play Hardcore over Softcore. The adrenaline rushes you get when you're close to dying is what makes me choose hardcore over softcore. What league feature it is haven't been an issue for me so far.

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

I feel like I answered this above. However I will try Warbands too, just for fun :)

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grant_m wrote:

Chris, you forgot to ask the most important question. "Is tempest league fun?"

That's a good one! But it' probably a bit too straight forward to come from GGG.

However, I'm having fun in Tempest League - but The Awakening expansion probably plays the biggest part.

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Heisendonger wrote:

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grant_m wrote:

Chris, you forgot to ask the most important question. "Is tempest league fun?"

That's a good one! But it' probably a bit too straight forward to come from GGG.

However, I'm having fun in Tempest League - but The Awakening expansion probably plays the biggest part.

I'd rather play permanent hardcore at this point.

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Dan_GGG wrote:

We're also going to make the shards from each item stack when they drop to reduce screen clutter.

Thank god. I still don't know if I would have preferred the "reward" of that tempest in the higher zones—the risk of losing potentially useful stuff is real, and i'm not particularly sure it's worth the few extra alts you'd get from running that zone.

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haste wrote:

Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?
- no.
- the one that makes them drop the items for their vendor reward is completely awful and is worse than not having it
- quality one will only be good for gems or maps but at that point it's such a short duration and small aoe that you have to be extremely lucky to get something useful out of it

since i've experienced most of the 'rewarding' tempests at this point, I have to go back on that general 'no' first impression and say that the exiles everywhere and tormented spirits tempests are very very fun. they're making me check http://www.poetempest.com every hour around the 20-30 minute mark to see if there's one running, regardless of the map level. i've made quite a bit of currency running them with about 100% IIR, even it meant i only managed to fit in 2 maps into the time window.

they're fun gameplay as well - fighting multiple exiles at a time is both risky (today, even though i'm level 87 and played an exiles everywhere Channel 69 map, i got bear trapped by one exile, charged by another, and igna phoenix and magnus were raining down spells on me, so i had to logout real fast) and mechanically fun. same goes for the spirits everywhere - trying to run them over big blue packs or multiple ghosts into a single rare mob or map boss is great fun.

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Dan_GGG wrote:

Abyssal tempests haven't been changed on live so I'm not sure what you're referring to here. They will be though.

that's good news. atm i'm paranoid about running into this tempest when the map doesn't have any info listed on http://www.poetempest.com, because it means i lose the map because it's way too risky to run which is a devastating prospect now that i'm running high level maps. would be great if the change to this tempest significantly reduces the risk and comes soon