Dawn of the Hunt end game appreciation post and answering Marks question from the interview

First off Mark asked in the interview how the new progression feels like in the end game and I just want to say that for me it's been a huge improvement. I did not have any problems with sustain in the previous patch but honestly I didn't love the randomness of the dropped waystones, always getting the same tier you are on feels much better. Also last patch it didn't really feel like there were any objectives outside of gunning for the citadels so the addition of the corrupted nexus has been really cool. I've currently just been hunting those down and then trying to clear the purified maps around them and it's been feeling way more rewarding.

In my first encounter with the corrupted nexus I saw:
1. A delirium mirror (completion of which rewarded me with a precursor tablet, nice touch!)
2. A gambling strongbox which I got transmutes, exalts and a level 19 gem
3. An azmerian wisp
4. An essence that was actually a fun fight
5. And of course the new corruption boss at the end

I'm not gonna lie that one map was the single most fun I've had with the game so far, I constantly felt like I was running into cool stuff by accident and had a really wholesome sense of discovery. I can really see how the "multiple axes of randomness" are already coming into play and I'm really hyped on the full release after seeing how much more fun just these few mechanics have made the game.

I honestly have a lot of positive feed back so I'm just going to use bullet points:
* The bosses are MASSIVELY improved, last patch the bosses honestly felt like extra rare monsters that you had to kill. Having to actually fight the boss for some time is a huge improvement, the specific boss checkpoint is very helpful and I could swear that the boss intro animations in maps have been made better now.
* The combat feels much more active. I really feel like I have to think about positioning and ordering my skills when playing as the huntress as opposed to just keeping my buffs up and left clicking. I'm currently on lightning spear but watching Woolie makes me also want to try bleed huntress.
* Last patch I could progress to tier 15 waystones almost immediately, it almost seemed to me like tiers 1-14 had no point to them, this season I feel like the difficulty has been ramping up gradually! I think it also helps that you have to defeat a boss in that tier before being able to do the next tier.
* Strongboxes were a waste of time in the last patch, the new unique strongboxes are some of the most fun random encounters I've had this patch.
* There seem to be way more naturally occurring essences now and the monsters actually fight back. I feel like having more access to essences is a huge boon to crafting because you have two chances to get specific mods on your gear now, last patch I didn't really dare to use them as they were so incredibly rare.
* The updated corrupted monsters are much better and less boring. I can't even quantify why that is but they just feel more fun. It could also be that the huntress is just more fun.
* The cleanse mechanic is incredible. I love the contrast between the corrupted and cleansed monsters and having to do them back to back brings some nice variety. I also love the random modifiers that they add to the map, especially ones like Mounting Greed which actively push you to play in different ways.
* I love how the number of portals represents how many times you can die. It seemed really random to me that portaling back to the hideout to trade would use up one of your portals in the last patch. I also love how dying in a map doesn't instantly lose the entire map anymore, just feels way nicer this way. The visual representation of portals matching your "lives" just feels very natural to me.
* I like how clearing a mechanic now gives you some dialog and a precursor tablet. I love the fact that I can hunt down one breach map and one delirium map at the start and then just start running those mechanics immediately after unlocking my first tower!

I'm also extremely excited for the update to show all the rares on the map from the beginning as well as the atlas bookmarking functionality!

I do have a couple of points of criticism as well:
1. I've NEVER had a talisman drop from the wisps. From watching the trailer I got the impression that you'd always get a talisman when you kill the rare monster at the end so I was quite dissappointed when they haven't been dropping even in maps (not to mention the campaign).
2. Since we have randomly added modifiers in maps now it would be incredibly useful to have a similar regex search for the atlas as we do in the stash, vendors and the passive skill tree.
3. Edit: the mana siphon monster mod seems very oppressive, especially on monsters that are as fast as you are.

I can't wait to see what new mechanics get added in future leagues, for now though I'm going to start hunting those new unique maps!