Is it hyperbole to say today's Manifesto might be the single most important one ever?

So while we wait for the AN Manifesto, let's speculate on how significant this could be, and acknowledging it could go either way. We have no clue.

AN is prevalent in every aspect of the game. Every league mechanic, every zone, every map, from level 1. It cannot be understated how important it is to get this "right".

The 3.19 changes to loot and league mechanic mobs drop rates meant that AN mini bosses (loot goblins) got wildly out of balance comparatively. Now GGG has said they wanted a feast / famine drop situation to make drops feel more impactful, but the loss of loot consistency from what players were used to was shocking. It quite literally changed the game.

I think it's not outrageous to say if they dont get this "right", it could mean some pretty bumpy times in the near term from a player perspective. It's that vital.

Edit: Manifesto out. Looks good.

Since many people seem to be extremely bothered by AN for one reason or another it's probably going to be a very important manifesto for many people. That said, i don't expect any ground breaking changes. Some minor tweaks here and there and that will be it.

i hope they buff ah mods too all heaven :D

I think it's impossible for them to get it right.

Some players are loudly advocating for a slower game with more tactical fights, while other are loudly 'asking' GGG to bring back the old rares, because they don't want any resistance from the game outside of uber boss fights; both sides are are using "fun" as a reason, as they have some sort of monopoly on what's "fun".

So when some people aren't happy until AN is removed, while others aren't happy until they make it as punishing as it was in the beginning, it goes without saying that they can't "get it right" for everyone. Now, should they shift the balance of AN towards what the majority wants? Should they keep balancing it until "both sides" can "tolerate" it? Or should they keep balancing it until THEY find a balance between everything THEY are happy with?

The main problem with AN as I see it, is loot. To make "challenging rares" feasible, the amount of them need to be VASTLY reduced, especially in old/new league mechanics. And with a noticeable reduction in rare monsters, it goes without saying that the loot balance will take time to be "on point".

Personally, I think we've power creeped away from the old rares - and that we needed a new system. The old rares were just white mobs with a little bit more HP that dropped more items. That said, the implementation of AN was horrendous, the amount of so-called "easily recognizable mods" was a big fail - both the amount of mods, and how "easily recognizable" they were.

Again, personally? Have a maximum of 20 challenging mods where a handful is really dangerous, make easily recognizable sound effects based on the mod when they enter your screen - and make NO mods build crippling. "Start" there, tweak, win.

Edit: Or maybe they should just bring back the old rares - and introduce another higher rarity of monsters on top of that - that can only spawn in non-league mechanic scenarios.

Maybe its the builds I play but I only even notice AN mods when Im in pretty bad gear, after a certain DPS threshold they are no different than rares before AN.

If you nerf AN you still need the same builds to beat the high end content, so not sure what would change really.

Nerf or remove AN -> more builds can farm T16s easily. But same build charactistics needed to beat pinnacle bosses, so.... you've opened up some hipster farming builds??



I dont know, Harvest manifesto got 500 pages for a reason.

Go down a path of gambling, slot machine mechanics and call it crafting. Or have actual crafting in the game where you work toward a goal. Think that was bigger.

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I agree with Phrazz, more limited ANs, with a few specific interesting ones with very clear notification. I also think you should run into a semi rewarding AN every 3 maps (obviously balanced way down from loot goblins, not saying 81 divines).

Doing 20 to 50 maps without good rewards just feels so trash.

GGG blinked.

"In our upcoming 3.20 expansion, Archnemesis will be replaced with a system that is more similar to the way monster mods worked in the past."

No hyperbole imo. This is the manifesto of the year, possibly of the game's history, though beating the first harvest manifesto is quite a challenge.

The thing the manifesto has to confirm imo is the removal of loot goblins.

The second thing I'm looking for is how they plan to balance AN modifiers vs build viability, if at all.

At the very least, I'm hoping they stop messing with it - post-patches Sentinel put AN into a decent place. Post-patches Kalandra also put AN into a decent place. But if there's another rework, odds are they will be, for the third time in a row, overblown at the start and all league patches will be dealing with will be re-balancing AN modifiers for the 4th league in the row.

They listened and tried to adapt. Cool.

Time will tell if they replaced AN with hidden modifiers like "Take 90% less damage and do 700% more damage" but even if its not perfect, got to give credit for responding to the criticism and working on a solution.

Kudos.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3322245

Hmm, so I managed to miss the manifesto before posting here earlier.

And tbh, this manifesto is fabulous. Much better than what I hoped for.

"

trixxar wrote:

Maybe its the builds I play but I only even notice AN mods when Im in pretty bad gear, after a certain DPS threshold they are no different than rares before AN.

If you nerf AN you still need the same builds to beat the high end content, so not sure what would change really.

Nerf or remove AN -> more builds can farm T16s easily. But same build charactistics needed to beat pinnacle bosses, so.... you've opened up some hipster farming builds??



I dont know, Harvest manifesto got 500 pages for a reason.

Go down a path of gambling, slot machine mechanics and call it crafting. Or have actual crafting in the game where you work toward a goal. Think that was bigger.

__

I agree with Phrazz, more limited ANs, with a few specific interesting ones with very clear notification. I also think you should run into a semi rewarding AN every 3 maps (obviously balanced way down from loot goblins, not saying 81 divines).

Doing 20 to 50 maps without good rewards just feels so trash.

Part of it is that they reduced the ability to get lucky and find an upgrade to improve your build significantly.

Finding upgrades in path of exile is just bad, but the further that upgrade can take you the better your odds are. If you needed to find the top of the mod pool every map it's basically not going to happen.

I'm still very worried about these tactical mods in situations that already have something. Like you can't do a tactical fight in delve because the tactical addition is the delve content, and pretty much the same with other league content.