3.18.0b Hotfix 1

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CybacSenior wrote:

I think it's perfectly acceptable for some builds not to be able to kill some combinations of mods as long as they are not bosses or progression content that stops them from moving forward. Having to skip a rare/unique mob doesn't break the game, just upsets people who are used to face rolling through everything.

I don't mind skipping one or two rares a map that happen to be too annoying to kill for my build. Although it feels bad, just like you said, it's not a big deal.

What is a big deal:

* Having mods that completely disable builds. There are many of these, and they get worse in combination with each other. The game has never seen so many monster mods that outright ran a hard counter to one's build. It hurts build diversity and discourages specialization.

* Having rares that are hard counters to your build or have other kinds of incompatible mechanics in content like Blight, Delve, or Ritual. You can't skip them there. They will ruin the encounter for you. Considering how many rares are spawned by the game, they're liable to ruin the entire mechanic. That, in turn, makes a lot of content in the game frustrating to play at best and infeasible at worst, discouraging players from attempting it altogether.

* Having certain rare monsters or magic packs more dangerous than area bosses. That is just poor balance in general.

These are not a question of "git gud". A very small proportion of builds have meaningful counterplay to all of these; everyone else has to compensate by scaling their damage up massively at the expense of defenses just to avoid skipping some content completely, which really hurts the game's design space (because the opportunity cost of defenses suddenly goes up and most of them become meaningless again, leaving players unable to properly utilize a lot of what the game offers).

Then you also have to consider that not everyone plays SC Trade where you can just go full glass cannon with at least 8-digit DPS numbers on almost any build. SSF already limits your build options and hence the resulting build's efficiency significantly because you can't be expected to find all the right gear. HC also limits your damage output because dying even once is unacceptable, so every build has to have well-rounded defenses. HC SSF is having both of those limitations. We haven't even had the Hard Mode yet.

You could say those are made for people who love extra challenge so it's fine, but extra challenge is something that only has meaning if it tests a player's skill, knowledge, or quick thinking—not their tolerance for frustration for things outside of their control. It also shouldn't completely shut off some of the mechanics because the limitations inherent to these types of leagues make them infeasible in general. Back in 2012–2013, people had to go traps/mines/totems to play crit builds on HC because a surprise reflect rare could spell an instant death. It didn't feel good because a chunk of the game's design space was cut off because of one single monster modifier, and the potential frustration wasn't worth going there. And the modifier in question ended up removed because it was anti-fun and limiting to both players and developers alike.

This situation is no different. In fact, right now it's worse because it isn't just one mod: it's a whole slew of mods that could've been tolerable on their own but are disastrous in combination or in specific types of content operating on rules that didn't exist back in the day.

I think that if GGG kept the old rares from the start, that this would have been one of the most well received leagues they’ve ever put out. What a shame and a missed opportunity.

still not solved my problem with all those shock immune AN mods disabling my HoT build. Any chance you could change all those shock immune sh*t to something like unaffected by shock?

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Morimoto_Musashi wrote:

I'm having buyer's remorse for the supporter pack I bought leading up to launch - this is awful.

I like the dream of a slower, more careful game; I like your end goal with systems like these. BUT the game is not slow; the game will kill you in a quarter second while dozens of things are happening onscreen and there simply is not time or space to play out rare encounters like a mini boss fight. Give us a guaranteed zone around rares where no other mobs can spawn and forbid them from leaving that zone so you can actually see them coming and run away from them if you need to, or revert the changes.

This is the most aggravating, pointlessly painful interaction with the game I've ever seen, and I am one of the lucky exiles whose build isn't hard-countered by any of the mods.

I also regret buying the sponsorship package before the league

When the game is just for free but you are still complaining😂

Thanks for the workload you put into the fixes!
I would be happy if one thing could be done:
Please remove archnemeses mods completely out of previous league mechanics

Ty

There should be NO mechanics / mods, able to completely disable a build (like build base on full ES, full Regen, Full crit ect), its fine to have like 50-60% reduce effectiveness at least but more really put some ppl in instant death situation where its already impossible to read the 5 rares and blue mobs present one by one before interacting, is just stupid.

I think all Mobs having really dangerous stuff like almost disabling regen(mana/life/es....) or Critique or other mechanic were some build revolded 99% around it, should be really signaled from a glance, with like a specific color, aura, icon.

Also, those "Archnemesis" mods should really, really, come in Progressively !!!

Put the old "Rare and Blue" before A5.
Put the new Archnemesis mods after Act 5, then slowly introduce them like 1 mod until act 8, 2 mods until act 10 then progressing in maps with difficulty and more variety.

Its completly stupid to have some 2-3 Archnemesis Affixes rares/blue on Act 1-2 were the difficulty is already harder than low maps... , this should be reserved to maps.

Make 4-5mods if you want but reserved to the High end maps like T15+ and no more than 1-2 per map.

Also, like some ppl said, having Rare mobs 5x more difficulte and time consuming than the Map boss itself feels pretty... stupid, maybe implement more Archnem mods on Map Bosses in this case ?

But the changes are really welcomed, now its playable at least ^^'.

I think making the Archnem mods be rear and on only one Mob is needed. Make the Mob bigger and with clear visual cues. Then also make sure it drops the Loot from the Archnem league.

Now I do like the Sentinel buffing and LOVE LOVE LOVE the Loot Icons above their heads. Add this to everything that drops rear loot.

Always great to see hotfixes coming through quickly. League is feeling much better. Actually having more fun than I thought I would since my inital impression of the sentinels was that they seemed a bit boring. It's not too bad now honestly.