Elder retreated 9 maps from just doing one

You don't run maps that will potentially break the elder influence chain.

Got the lab situation all over again, eh? The current shaper/elder atlas thing is bullshit and GGG know it. So what they do about it? Make it so you must participate otherwise you don't get shaped maps. If shaped maps were put outside of the stupid war way less people would even bother trying to do "strategic" mapping.

Been away from PoE since breach. Currently continuing in Standard on my half completed atlas, not even sure how the spreading works or how to influence it. I did read the wiki but i guess it still hasn't sunk in. All i got was to not let shaper influence stop elder influence from spreading, how does one do this correctly?

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nononononono wrote:

You don't run maps that will potentially break the elder influence chain.

WTF does that even mean? The least superstitious theory I've heard is that Shaper can just randomly take over ANY Elder-influenced map behind your back. If that map happens to bisect your Elder blob, then *POOF*, there goes half your Elder influence work, right down the drain.

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RogueMage wrote:

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nononononono wrote:

You don't run maps that will potentially break the elder influence chain.

WTF does that even mean? The least superstitious theory I've heard is that Shaper can just randomly take over ANY Elder-influenced map behind your back. If that map happens to bisect your Elder blob, then *POOF*, there goes half your Elder influence work.

You predict where he cuts it off basically it's all on you.

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I_NO wrote:

You predict where he cuts it off basically it's all on you.

"Predict" WHAT?! If the white knights have it right, it's all RNG, there's no predicting ANYTHING.

You can control some of the RNG to a degree you can predict quite well.

Especially at the cut off points.

In my terms I call those stand off points.

The maps where he could possibly eat the area and I have predicted a lot of them especially when I was doing my T15 memory grind.

It's literally using your head I don't know what else you want me to tell you.

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I_NO wrote:

It's literally using your head I don't know what else you want me to tell you.

NONE of that makes any practical sense. My 15-map Elder blob that was chopped down to 7 in one fell swoop was at least 3 maps wide in every direction. There was no single map whose loss could have cut it into two disconnected blobs. (That's why I'm personally skeptical of the Shaper sneak attack theory.) I have a simpler explanation:

The Atlas Influence system is NOT just gated by RNG, IT IS BROKEN.

Elder/Shaper conquer continuous stream of adjacent maps connected by lines on the Atlas.
If you allow Shaper get back the only map that connects both halves of the stream, you lose one of parts.

The worse part is that only dropped map can be from the adjacent map that you are running.

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RogueMage wrote:

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I_NO wrote:

You predict where he cuts it off basically it's all on you.

"Predict" WHAT?! If the white knights have it right, it's all RNG, there's no predicting ANYTHING.

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. As I, I_NO, Nishrek, and probably others have tried to explain, the behaviour is predictable and follows a relatively simple set of rules. If a map changed influence randomly, and bisected your Elder influence, it was not "three deep"; that doesn't follow the observed and documented rules.

You can legitimately claim that to be untrue, but without proof it is much more likely that user error is involved. For example, that you had three maps "next to" each other on the atlas with Elder influence, but that a single actual atlas connection existed as they were not all directly connected.