River Hags for a Harcore game

+1

"Cheap mechanics" which bypass most defences should not exist.



Some honourable mentions of these mechanics in PoE2 are:

*instant-death via "Drowning Orbs" of the River Hag (3 sec. Timer or Instant Death, regardless of any defences)
*instant-death via Zarokh's "Finger-of-Death", after the Timer has expired



Some honourable mentions of these mechanics in PoE1 are:

*"Memory Game" (solve the "game" or recive lethal elemental damage)
*"Maven's Punishment" (applied via rotating beams), which disables life and energy shield recovery for 10 seconds. (this forces ppl to play certain builds, not focusing on these defensive aspects)
*"Sirus Meteor" (run out the Maze or get smashed)
*Eater of Worlds "Drowning Orbs"
*Searing Exarch "Searing Rune", which prevents recovery of Life or Energy Shield (didn't had fun with my Boneshatter Jugg' in there...)


All these mechanics "break" some builds by bypassing or disabling a good portion of their Items/Passive Tree specs; while leaving other builds completly unharmed (e.g. a Glasscannon without liferegen).

This is very bad, because it nullifies the players decisions and desires (e.g. to get good defences).

While in PoE1 most of these nasty mechanics stem from "Pinnacle Bosses" to artificial make em "harder" (just for some builds thou);
the Drowning Orbs of the River Hag in PoE2 will torture u in some Maps and in "Drowning City" & "Cruel Riverside".

If i encounter any of the River Hags in a Map; i just log out & re-roll the map btw.
Not worth to loose a character by accidentally getting trapped in a orb.
Similar in campaign, i just "rush" through the "Drowning City" to reach the "Apex of Filth" because i dont want to engage with these mechanics. Kinda sad.


"*Thinking*":

"In Path of Exile (1 & 2), there are many mechanics that disable certain builds, especially on the defensive side.
Why hasn't GGG introduced a similar mechanic to 'cut off' player power for offensive builds, such as Glasscannon?"

Like this:



"Void Barrier" 60 Spirit
"A mythical shield, crafted from void-touched tentacles that warp reality, yet it feeds on the lifeforce of its wielder."

"All incoming damage will be processed through a 'Sigmoid function.'

Very small incoming damage will be exponentially increased,
while extremely high incoming damage will be exponentially reduced.

The Void Barrier also introduces a brief 'hit delay,' meaning the entity protected by the Barrier can only be hit once every 333 milliseconds."

This way Pinnacle bosses would be very resistant to "Glasscannon-Boss-Oneshotting" Builds; while "weaker, zDPS" Builds still do "some" damage.

Players with this Barrier would be immune to oneshot damage (but will likely die to multiple "smaller" hits now).


A very cheap fix indeed; but similar "bad" as the fixes to bypass our defences...


Best regards

ArC

They should never balance around hardcore. Its why poe1 got balanced around the logout macro and why poe2 is pausecore.

It wouldn't solve the problem, but I'd feel a lot better about River Hags if they simply didn't spawn the drowning orb on top of the player. The original mechanic didn't do this.

That small change might help alleviate many of the situations (if not all of them) where you become trapped due to unfortunate circumstances, with little or no recourse to escape the orb(s).

You'd still have situations where three hags hit you with orbs at once from the edge of your screen while you are stuck for one reason or another, but you'd at least have some warning if they spawned at a short distance.

"

Qna#0480 wrote:

Let me know when you encounter a River Hag with Temporal bubble & Shroudwalker, proper pinnacle boss right there. No counterplay beside flinch logout

- Anime steps behinds you and whispers sweet death poem for you to instantly die.

Encountered long time ago with my half-baked monk a River Hag with Freeze & Temporal Bubble combo , had to nope away & use hit & run for several minutes before i got rid of it .

Now imagine you have to fight that Rare with a Mace Warrior lmao
These builds get deleted mid-jump VS white mob river hag , what a circus

"

Zee#5446 wrote:

Legit problem.


If there was a charm of 'holding breath' to counter it I would never unequip it.

HAHAH THIS!! FUNNY and so true!!! love it man.

Can you post your characters for us please?

plenty of time to avoid it (i do play hardcore to), and lately they change the vsual so you rly can't miss it if you're caught (literaly watter around your screen)

"

Ragestorm26#0930 wrote:

Game Mode: HC SSF
Hours on Record: 483
Character: 72 Chronomancer (dead, River Hag), 55 Chronomancer (dead, River Hag)

This topic has likely been raised before, but the near-instant drown mechanic has made me hesitant to continue playing, as I exclusively play HC SSF.

First Death: At level 55, I died to a River Hag. I had no idea what the water globe mechanic did, even though I was 20 levels over-leveled (returning to kill the Lava Boss). The encounter came as a nasty surprise.

Second Death: At level 72, while mapping T4, I was killed by what I assume was an offscreen Hag near water at the edge of the map. I couldn’t see anything, just noticed my screen flash. I instantly used Roll and Time Freeze, but it made no difference—I was dead in an isntant.

I understand that avoiding the Hag’s mechanic is relatively straightforward under normal circumstances, but eventually, situations arise—like offscreen Hags or odd map layouts—that feel fundamentally unfair.

As a hardcore player, I heavily invest in defenses. A mechanic that bypasses all defenses and kills almost instantly feels counter to the spirit of hardcore mode.

Despite being hyper-vigilant after my first death to a Hag, dying again in such a way drained my enthusiasm to continue. I strongly urge you to consider changing this mechanic. Avoiding entire areas of the game because of one mechanic isn’t enjoyable. I wouldn’t mind if it dealt significant damage, but an instant drown mechanic is incredibly frustrating.

For now, I’ll be stepping away from the game until this is addressed.

I’ve always appreciated how GGG understands what hardcore, SSF, and Ruthless modes are all about—the gritty struggle where difficulty feels steep, but always fair. This mechanic, however, seems to deviate from that philosophy and feels cheap.

Have you tried not standing in the spell it works wonders

I do agree 100%, normal mobs should never owe a mechanic that just ignores all the defense you built up.

also agree. upvoting post.