Chance for 2nd Blight in map removed in 3.21 -- statement in Q&A false

I noticed very early in this new league that the chance to have a 2nd Blight encounter in a map had been disabled. Intending to create a post on this topic after having confirmed this with reasonable certainty, I noticed the topic mentioned in the Q&A thread.

The following statement was made in the official Announcements Q&A thread:

Was the ability to have a second Blight encounter in a map removed from the game?
Yes, the change was made in Patch 3.20.1.

The above answer given in the Q&A thread is false.

The ability to have a 2nd Blight encounter appear in a map remained in game through the 3.20 league, and only disappeared with the introduction of 3.21. I'll define my meaning: When a map had the guaranteed presence of a Blight encounter via agency of a scarab or a sextant mod, there existed the possibility of a 2nd blight encounter equal to the possibility of a single Blight encounter had that scarab or sextant mod not been applied. In other words, a map had the normal chance for a Blight encounter plus 1 guaranteed Blight encounter added on.

I ran an estimated 100-300 maps which included 2 Blight encounters in 3.20, up to the final days of that league.

Incorrectness of the Q&A statement aside, there remains some question as to the reason for removal of the possibility of a 2nd Blight in a map.

I recall reading, several leagues ago, that the presence of multiple Blight encounters in a map introduced issues in maps. At this time, I don't feel like searching back for the exact quotes, but my recollection is that they were vague in nature. In saying this, I do not mean to imply that there were not actual issues with Blight -- I recall that there were severe issues with Blight, and that a great deal of work was done to remove those issues; I do mean to imply that Blight functionality might have been either completely or almost-completely rectified at the time of 3.21 launch.

First, I offer that, during the 3.20 league, on no occasion did I notice (what appeared to be) even a single issue or out-of-the-ordinary oddity in any map which contained 2 Blight encounters. My sample size was not particularly large, but I consider it to have been large enough to claim that, in the maps I ran, having 2 Blight encounters in those maps did not introduce sufficient chance for an issue to warrant this possibility be removed from the game. I know that work was done by GGG to mitigate or eliminate those issues over the course of the past several leagues.

Second, I notice the long span of time between the initial revelation of issues connected with multiple Blight encounters in a map and the removal of the possibility of a 2nd at the beginning of 3.21. Considering this span of time, any remaining possibility of issues connected with the presence of a 2nd Blight encounter in a map were almost certainly considered nonexistent, negligible, or at least minimal. Had there been significant possibility for a meaningful, functional problem to be introduced by a 2nd Blight encounter, that issue would have likely warranted its removal long before it was.

The remaining likelihood, according to my experience and reasoning, is that removal the possibility of a 2nd Blight encounter at the beginning of 3.21 was (at least primarily) a value nerf to the Blight mechanic. This is interesting, and more-so disappointing. When it remains possible to have multiple Legion, Abyss, Breach (the most similar mechanics), and also Harbinger and Metamoroph encounters in a map, why remove the possibility for and 2nd Blight?

I also had 2 blights per map more than once in 3.20, and never had issues (other than good loot haul)

Although those blights never happened to be close to each other, maybe "issues" were referring to potential overlap of blight lanes. Well, that, and players getting good loot also being hotfix priority for GGG :)

Yeah they only removed it from the Atlas tree for some reason, and left it functional for other sources. So you could, indeed, still force more than 1 Blight in a map by other means during the remainder of 3.20 after they made the change. I did it a fair amount myself.

My guess is it was one of a few things.

They left the other sources functional on purpose, to test if removing it from the Atlas resolved the problems. It didn't, or didn't enough, so they blocked it from happening at all in 3.21. I didn't encounter any issues forcing 2, but that certainly doesn't mean no one did.

or

They left those other sources functional on purpose so as not to interfere with stuff like Sextants and Scarabs people had already acquired up to that point of the league. Removing it from the Atlas would help limit the problems in the short-term, the long-term fix could wait until 3.21, and doing it that way wouldn't upset players into bringing out their pitchforks.

or

Not disabling those other sources was a major oversight and they intended for it to not work by any means right off, and they didn't get around to finishing the job until 3.21.

Whatever happened with it in 3.21, it was communicated poorly. Poorly as in not at all.

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Echothesis wrote:

I also had 2 blights per map more than once in 3.20, and never had issues (other than good loot haul)

Although those blights never happened to be close to each other, maybe "issues" were referring to potential overlap of blight lanes. Well, that, and players getting good loot also being hotfix priority for GGG :)

Thanks for your suggestion. I did have many cases of neighboring Blight encounters, including many with overlapping lanes. There were no noticeable problems in those cases.