Ideas on reworking Breach so it fits with PoE 2 vision.

Despite all the memes and insult and toxicity toward "The Vision", which is a long-running thing from Kalandra league, I am confident that both PoE 1 players and new players want PoE 2 to be actually good, to be actually meaningful and tactical in combat and action, and to do that I am going to propose ideas on how to make a content from PoE 1, which is breach, to be fit into PoE 2 vision.

Breach currently is the antithesis of what PoE 2 campaign trying to achieve. The only method and tactic to clear Breach efficiently in PoE 2 is to just play like PoE 1 which is zoomy build with one-tap AoE clear. And those that don't play that kind of build, will have bad experience in playing the content. To make breach fit more into the environment of PoE 2 visions, I would like to present ideas on how to rework breach :

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1) Make it like abyss in PoE 1.
Abyss can fit very well into the design of tactical and methodical combat that PoE 2 try to achieve. You follow a crack on the ground, while you following the crack, there are small mobs that spawn and when the crack stops, the fight begin. The pace is, I dare to say, perfect for almost all builds that currently people play in PoE 2 since it's not suddenly a circle that expand in all direction and spawning mobs from Algeria to Bostwana.

A slower build will have less pressure to just run left and right, chasing time and kill counts to extend the breach time. And a fast build will get less to no impact at all in term of clear-speed. The key idea here is to accommodate builds that can't run at 10mach speed while shooting projectiles left and right to your neighbor monitor screen, to still be able get the maximum benefit in playing Breach. Clasped hand spawn can be adjusted to whether it will also spawn while the cracks moving, or only when stopping, or when the crack finishes. The Abyss Trove can be replace with Breach Trove and it opens many idea for new base item type like exclusive Breach Jewel and Breach Belt. You get the idea.

2) Make it like Scourge league + Affliction league Wildwoods / Delve
I'm not talking about the loot, but about on how their mechanic works and combining them together. Scourge mechanic is just simply you press a button and get transferred into alternate reality and kill stuffs. Wildwoods or Delve have one thing in common of exploring darkness and monsters spawn when you are moving toward a certain direction or into a PoI. The idea here is to combined those mechanic, with the core idea of exploring alternate reality with a "cart" or "lamp" or whatever it is, in which the "cart/lamp" will guide you to a certain PoI to close the breach.

While following the cart, you'll fight only the breach monsters in the way of reaching the PoI, while also some clasped hand may spawn. However, there will be much much less speed + time restriction than the current breach design. You follow the cart into a PoI , you fight the monsters at your pace without getting stressed of having to move in all direction. After you reach the PoI, you'll fight some rare monsters or even can introduce a new "miniboss" like Xoph, Esh, Uul Netol, etc. as tougher enemies when you reach the PoI. Once you finish the fight, various clasped hands will be spawned as additional reward and when you close the breach, you'll get back to the point where you open the breach.

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The core ideas of these 2 points that I wrote is that to completely scrap contents that was made based on PoE 1 foundation of clearing screen and moving with speed of light. Breach is originally a PoE 1 content, and to introduce it into PoE 2 as is right now, is a huge oversight into the premise of making the game much more meaningful in term of combat and action. In the current state of the game, where resource acquisition efficiency is key to success, playing breach with a build that barely able to move fast and clear easily, is inefficient and can be, or is, a waste of investment in tablets / waystone.

PoE 1 have various alternatives to grind resources needed to progress your character no matter what is the speed of your build is, but its not with PoE 2. It has long way to go to reach that level but it needs to start now or every changes and balance decision will be designed around speed and clear, and in the end, PoE 2 will just become a clone of PoE 1. And everyone will be sad.

Just kill the vision instead, since it's pretty much obvious no one wants vision itself. The game is already dropped to 10% of launch numbers, which makes it clear that if GGG keeps "meaningful combat", most people will cease playing the game.

Improve clear speed, remove "meaningful combat", bring back Heralds and movement abilities, and the Breach can stay as one of actually fun mechanics.

I enjoyed Breaches in 0.1 on Temporalis Autobomber.

One actual improvement to Breach could be that loot drops after clearing it in single point, so no "looting splinters".

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bewilder2#0356 wrote:

I am confident that both PoE 1 players and new players want PoE 2 to be actually good, to be actually meaningful and tactical in combat and action

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or every changes and balance decision will be designed around speed and clear, and in the end, PoE 2 will just become a clone of PoE 1. And everyone will be sad.

A note on this premise: agreed that there will be players from PoE 1 and new who want this game to be good. What fraction of them want that is widely open to interpretation. What they mean by "good" is even more ambiguous. It's important to recognise that some players don't want fun combat, they only want fun loot. Ultimately that means PoE 2 development should not sacrifice PoE 1 development. Don't try to get the EA done in a year, take it slow.

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bewilder2#0356 wrote:

The core ideas of these 2 points that I wrote is that to completely scrap contents that was made based on PoE 1 foundation of clearing screen and moving with speed of light. Breach is originally a PoE 1 content, and to introduce it into PoE 2 as is right now, is a huge oversight into the premise of making the game much more meaningful in term of combat and action.

I prefer the Scourge idea, even if it doesn't involve travelling to a point of interest. Throwing the player into an alternate dimension with a fixed number of monsters per breach hand and a nominal timer so a player can retreat if the encounter is too much.

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Hornsent#1110 wrote:

Just kill the vision instead, since it's pretty much obvious no one wants vision itself. The game is already dropped to 10% of launch numbers, which makes it clear that if GGG keeps "meaningful combat", most people will cease playing the game.

lol love the vision and been loving poe 2 since launch.

You are free to play poe1 if you want a thoughtless game without any threat cuz you bought a build that deletes anything automode.

I enjoy poe2 i got the warlords upgrade and next patch i ll get the last upgrade to support the game and the current vision, because that is what makes poe 2 great

Breach definitely needs to be toned down and especially the timed boss, its ridiculous that you have to kill things fast enough or you waste your breach stone