Betrayal : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Disclaimer :

Becarefull of the incoming wall of text

I play Path of Exile since 2013. The opinion expressed here are mine and represent my point of view of a veteran player of PoE that have never completed the end game cause of bad RNG and not game learning. I learned how to play the game and understand its mechanics.
I only play solo SSF or with friends but do not rely on their generosity (pride of accomplishment)
All what is said here is subject to fair criticism and debate but not trolling or memes.
I played 189 hours in this league (Betrayal) at the date of this writing.

TLDR :

Betrayal has introduced fun mechanics like safehouse raiding and intel gathering but needs a tune down in its grind to get access to the mastermind and still needs a lot of rework and debugging. (Section I A & B)
Server stability was a problem in this league (Section I C)
Map Atlas has flaws that needs tweaking to be able to sustain map pool without relying on player trade. Zana’s daily quest to refresh her map pool should be reintroduced.
Maps should have one 100% garanted +1 tier on bosses
Maps should be degraded in lower tiers (for specifics see section II)
A bunch of suggestions for alternative ways of leveling up alts and map sustaining pool (see Section III A and B)
Suggestions of what should stay in game (Section III C)

I) Betrayal : The good, the bad and the Ugly

A) The good

Betrayal for me is a well thought out idea to get rid of a clunky and annoying system that was the Forsaken Masters. Yet, i’m still triggreed why they betrayed us, but the new veil system and the new crafting system is way better.
I like the idea of raiding safehouse quarters to get riches and at last stabbing in the back arrogant masters like Vagan or Vorici. I’m not sure the nemesis system was the way to go for it, but the raiding idea should be introduced in some way in the game (see suggestion section for that)

B) The Bad

First bad thing of this immortal syndicate is the grind associated to gather the intel to raid a safehouse and the more grinding needed to get the intel for the masterming of the syndicate. Again, i think it is partly due to the nemesis system introduced with the immortal syndicate.
Seecond bad thing of this immortal syndicate is the balance of the syndicate encounters. They ranged from super easy to getting one shot with a 4.8k HP build, 20k+ armour and 17k+ evasion rating on Tier 8 maps and 5% life leech.
Thrid bad thing and this one is a big one is removing forsaken masters also removed Zana’s daily quest that was a breather to maps with the daily refresh of her map pool. This is must be reintroduced in some way.

C) The Ugly

First ugly thing this league was for me the server lag and instability. I had no problems last league, but this one, oh my, i died multiple times with 2k ping latency spikes.
Secondly, on some maps, syndicate encounters / forts were out of map, bugged out ( i see you Riker double that i still can slash when the real waits for its judgment.
I saw more bugs this league than the previous ones, but duee to sheer amoiunt of changes mades through the game it was in some way expected.

II) The Atlas flaws

The atlas is designed around player trading, thus the system does not work when you play SSF or solo with friends but don’t want to rely on theeir geenerosity to get the maps to run them. The sustaining of the map pool MUST be achieved by playing solo with no player trading in mind (see suggestion section for more on that)
Maps are too randomly looted. One map can yield you 5-7 maps and one othe none of them. This league, i had the lengthiest map running streak whithout looting maps of 10 maps runned with no return on investment. So, as a test, i runned 9 tier 5 maps with alchs and chisels. My atlas at this point says i have 60% chance to have a +1 tier map in loot. I looted 17 maps, but only 3 were T6 maps, resulting in a 17.64% return of those maps.
In my opinion, maps should have a guaranted 100% loot of a +1 tier map on the boss of the map.
The only good addition on the Atlas was the daily masters found on specific maps showed.

The TLDR here is maps loot pool was not sustainable for me and stayed 5 weeks in T5 / T6 maps.

III) Suggestion section

A) Alternative way to level up alts

I, muyself only play one character in a league because having to go through all 10 acts again with a second character is annoying. What i would suggest here i shaving a second alternative to level up alts when you first kill Kitava in the act 10.
Lore wise, it can take the form of an Ancient Vaal Civilization contraption (like the Labyrinth) filled with traps, trials but that can be a way to level up to the level 68. It can take the form of a dungeon / tower that reshapes itself each time you die in it. The only two things that are mandatory with this type of system, is at one point have some bosses to tackle, and two of them around level 35/40 and 65/68 shoud give you the same elemental resist debuff that kitava gives you.

B) Map sustaining loot pool

Maps are the end game of Path of Exile and it should stay difficult to finish maps and the Atlas. But not being able to go forward for 5 weeks because you have a bad RNG vibe (like myself for the 20 past years) it makes more and more difficult to play Path of Exile even when i love the game. Betrayal league for me was my best league in terms of what i have accomplished, but being stuck at T7 maps at level 89 is frustraiting. For the sake of players that play SSF, or solo in regular leagues and have bad luck, the map loot needs a better balance.
What form could that take :
- +1 tier map garanted loot on the map boss (limiting the atlas % chance roll to a second or third roll of a map)
- The possibility to degrade maps in a lower tier (linked to it) with either a scouring orb of a map rewriter device and should be 1:2 ratio. ( I.E : Atoll map is linked to Iceberg and Arid lake, i should be able to downgrade and iceberg map or an Arid Lake map in 1-2 Atoll maps based on the rarity of the T+1 map)
- The possibility to loot map fragments (that are common like « Ruined map caches ») that could be assembleed in a map writer / recontructor device, and should be limited to white and yellow maps.

C) What shoulkd stay in the game (Personnal opinion only)

The immortal syndicate as a whole need a rework to fit more in the game but the intel gather aspect and investigation board to raid their headquarters should stay. The intel fragments could be scattered in all wreaclast and would point to specific members of the syndicate, what branch they belong to and what are their relashionship with one eachother. The grind needed to be able to fight the mastermlind must be tuned down by giving more intel in the raided heeadquarters.
The scaracbs and different workbench provided by the syndicate should stay as well and would provide easier access to past leagues mechanics or those to come in maps but should be limited in their usage to one slot of scarab with probably more powerfull effects. The map deevice could be modified in that purpose and provide a scarab slot that enhances the scarab effect accounting its quality (rusted /polished/guilded)

"

Azarhiel wrote:

My atlas at this point says i have 60% chance to have a +1 tier map in loot. I looted 17 maps, but only 3 were T6 maps, resulting in a 17.45% return of those maps.

Um... you're aware that tier restrictions still apply even with atlas bonus, i.e. you can only get T+1 maps from magic/rares, and T+2 from boss only, right?

I am well aware of that. I only run my maps in rare. and get one very 10 bosses and one map loot every 2/3 maps run and it is 80% of the time a tier downgrade.
And the more you complete, less the +1 tier you loot.

Let's rephrase that :

I do know th restriction of magic/rare packs of monters and uniques in tier upgrade. But for me, when i loot a map (every 2-3 run on a pack and every 10 boss on average) it is 80% of the time a downgrade of tier.

And with going forward, the low tier map pool increase thus getting more and more trash maps...
Like it took me 1 week to have a conservatory map to finish T7 maps.