Feedback Request: Tempest League

Ive only played to level 27 so far but here are my early thoughts

Are the Tempests impactful?
What Tempests?

Are they scary?
Nope

Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?
Havent come across any yet that have made a noticable difference

Are they better at higher or lower levels?
im really hoping they are more impactful at higher levels

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now?
not that i have seen

Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands?
I played because im a HC player at heart

Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest?
I have played both so far, and im enjoying Warbands so much more

I ripped at 64 either to freezing or poison tempest (or both). I was hunting tempests on my armor/life/fortify totemer in a2m and instaripped. There were poison clouds and one of those ice golems in the vicinity. Kind of frustrating after soloing cruel malachai: Felt like a massive cheapshot.

Apart from that I was extremely ambivalent about tempests. I feel the duration doesn't make them strategically worthwhile for your character to take although if the intent was to make mundane mobs/areas deadly then mission accomplished.

I also detest the tempest that converts items into to shrapnel currency.

-Tempests duration buff on players seems to be very short, by the time i get the buff i might be able to reach a pack of mobs in time to reap the benefits. Granted, they spawn randomly, so u may get on eto spawn while u are fighting a pack, but that seems very rare.


-Having to run towards a tempest storm and having to stand in it or running towards it to only just miss it, is highly annoying, to the point where it seems to be not worth it to constantly have small breaks on your runs.
i

-I understand it is very difficult to design ,develop, and test a new challenge league every 4-6 months and to make each one unique ,challenging, compelling and fun. Perhaps in the future we can have both HC and SC mods on both leagues so players don't feel like they are missing out on content.

Tempests become noticeable and impactful past the Normal difficulty.
Some Tempests are very scary.
Transmogrifying Tempest needs to drop shards in stacks; no experience with other item Tempests.
Tempests are better at higher levels.
I have not seen sharing of info regarding active Tempests.
I am playing Tempest because it seems interesting; but not more so or less than Warbands.
Actually I played Tempest when I normally would have played Warbands!

P.S. There needs to be a controlled method of tagging/activating a Tempest. Waiting around for a Tempest to activate discourages efficient gameplay. Great league so far Chris/Dan!

I just finished normal, so I have only a narrow view, but here goes.

I especially like the ones that summon monsters (like the fire one that summons totems / fire golems) or the ones that spawn aoe damage (like the lightning one that casts lightning storm or creates shocked ground) that make me wary of where I step while I'm playing and keep me on my toes.

Other "buff" tempests like restoration feel less impactful because waiting around for them to activate on me, then only lasting a few seconds, is not as cool.

Overall, though, the league is amazing!

I played a single session in tempest league from Twilight Strand to Malachai (I died to lack of attention).

Tempest is pretty underwhelming in normal difficulty.

Most mods don't reward you with anything and the ones that does you have to go out of your way to grab the buff. Sometimes, you have to wait 5 seconds for a tempest to "explode" and give you a buff that lasts between 8 to 12 seconds, which sometimes is not even enough time to get to the next pack and even if you do, your momentum instantly drops because the buff ends either way. It should be like killstreaks where you can build up momentum and keep going.

The worst part is that when a tempest affects a zone it doesn't affect the whole zone unless it is a sufix. If it is a prefix, all the tempests in the area are going to be the same tempest so the decision making required to deal with all the packs for that zone are going to be the same.On a game that is about randomness on itens, currency and many other things, this is the opposite of what a player expects.

I was expecting different tempests to pop up in a zone but the current way it works is way less chaotic than that. It is stale and boring because I can look up a zone and I know that every tempest in that area is going to have the same result. For example, you can predict that every tempest in a area will have the freeze effect and then grab a freeze immunity item and completely ignore the league mod or perhaps even waiting an hour for it to change

It would be way more interesting if zones could get only 1 affix affecting the entire zone and then multiple(EDIT: RANDOM) tempests also popping up inside any zone (even the ones that are not currently marked on minimap).

Also, having the tempests shuffle around every hour is a bad idea because it makes so that players already expect when to check for tempests or to go out of their plan and farm while they wait an hour to pass. It should be more chaotic and change at random intervals of time so that you actually have to interact with the league mods rather than ignoring or choosing the ones you want to play.


Looking from another perspective, playing against it can be fun.

Some of them you really don't want mobs to step inside and that is nice because it requires previous knowledge to deal with the situation (much like Nemesis or Bloodlines mods) but the experience a player have with it can really vary depending on how fast he clear a zone.

If a player has slow clear speed he will interact a lot more with the league than if he had high clear speed (where even if a tempest appeared on top of a pack, the pack would die before buffs affected the monsters). I think this is bad because a challenge league should require constant attention from a player and previous leagues had that aspect (especially invasion, nemesis and bloodlines).

This league feels like domination except that the buffs don't last enough for either players or monsters to consider it worthwile. Even monsters don't care about tempest and sometimes run out of them because they are more interested in attacking the player instead.I think monsters out of anything should show any interest on tempests

Yo Chris,

i love Tempest but there are several Times.

1. Tempest feels unrewarding (besides the very rare Rarity Tempest )
2. 10 Seconds for the buffs are a bit short
3. TEMPEST SHRINES ARE A NO GO IN BOSS AREAS !!!!!!!! ( kaoms with haste wtf )


just my 2 cents

After reaching act 4 merc, I do consider most tempest effects being way too simple. I hoped for some more interesting tempest mechanics like a conversion trap effect instead of just adding some elemental / chaos damage around the area (regardless if its a buff or just the damage type of tempest).


Also regarding the duration of tempest-buff effects, when I first read about tempest I thought the duration would be a bit longer and it would be possible to stack up on buff effect, like every circle giving you 20 seconds of a buff, and getting into another tempest circle while already having the buff it would stack up to about 40 seconds. This would make gameplay alot more interesting.

Are the Tempests impactful?
For a Caster like me (Firestorm) they arent impactful at all (for my character). most of the time i see buffs that scale with my nonexistant phys dmg. Most of they time they feel like a small map mod that almost only benefits the enemies.


Are they scary?
so far only in boss rooms

Do the ones that affect items feel rewarding?
had none so far

Are they better at higher or lower levels?
no idea

Do people share information about what Tempests are running right now?
no idea

Did you play Tempest because you thought it was more interesting than Warbands?
no, because its the Hardcore League, warbands seems way more interesting for me...

Did you play Warbands when you normally would have played Tempest?
no

The Buff Duration is way too short. Was happy about the Soulstealer buff but it ran out everytime because i couldnt find any tempest... 20-30secs wouls be nice or a unique that increases the duration or interacts with them.
The activation time is too long for me, 1sec after stepping on one (enemy or player) would be nice for a smoother gameplay.

edit: I think most of the players play tempest just because it is the hardcore league. Warbands seems to be more interesting and rewarding. Players like more monsters and things that spawn them (ambush, beyond, invasion etc).
Tempest can possibly stop you progress if bosses get specific tempests which is no fun. Its the first League that can affect existing bosses (not spawning)... well maybe the ghosts in very rare situations... which is not so cool atm

Played it because it was the hardcore temp league. Warbands sounds more interesting. So far the effects are not really intuitive, lighting one is a buff but the ice one damages you... Thought its be a buff too. Didn't do much damage just didn't really make sense. They are more annoying than anything. Having to kill a bunch of skeletons and raging spirits for 0 xp over and over is irritating. I have not seen any yet that modify drop rates but it seems like another case of "avoid it whenever possible" either because its dangerous or just annoying... so mission accomplished I guess?