Visual Clarity and the Affliction League

Since I started playing way back on and off, one of the things that was problematic with ARPG's is the fact that they are struggling with visual clarity. And that is also the case with PoE. With stacking special effects, a dark moody atmosphere, etc. I can understand to a certain extend the inherent problems with working around these issues.

When I look at the latest league, I sometimes get the feeling that basic principles of game art design is forgotten when trying to create eye-catching effects.

High/low Contrast - Making things that are less important have lower contrast and important things have higher contrast to make objects, enemies clear against the terrain. Where you can or can't walk must also be clear, terrain borders with higher contrast compared to walk-able terrain.

Noise & Detail - When adding details, for example ground textures, what must be clear is when you are adding noise or when you are signalling important details and it comes down to how eye-catching it is. Noise should always be low contrast to allow signalling to be clear.

Affliction
It the dark forest three special effects are happening.

The first is the border of explored forest; if you walk towards the border, more of the map is revealed and bugs scatter everywhere as a 'cool' special revealing effect.

The second is the fairy light ring around the player that indicate the radius the player can use to reveal the map. When you move the lights blur a bit into thicker white noise that lies over everything.

The third are the wisps the player can collect hovering at the border of the revealed areas.

All three effects are problematic.

The bug effect has high contrast, covers a large area, lingers for a decent time and obscures enemies coming from the darkness. It is not important and makes it difficult to see what is happening. It is noise. Please reduce the uptime and/or width of this effect.

The fairy ring around the player obscures the view, makes it harder to see the wisps and I would argue is unnecessary. Players should within a short playtime have a feeling how big the radius is. The reason people say that they feel blind, or can't see the blue wisps is because of this. Please remove it.

The wisps are lost in all the noise of the bugs and the fairy ring and you can't see where you should go. Reveal the wisps a bit into the darkness beyond the border to make it easier for the players to see where they should/could go.

This is all I would suggest.

Edit: Another thing. Because the fairy ring and bugs move around, it distracts the player. Another thing to keep in mind.