Improving Delve Rewards and Endgame Scaling
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Good morning
Last week we had the post regarding updates on Keeper of the Flames expansion https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3874760 In that we had " One of the those areas that need special attetion is Delve. In a pre-launch interview of 3.26, Mark said it was interested in working a bit with Delve. Therefore in the past few days I started collecting feedback from delve players. A special thanks to the content creators: https://www.twitch.tv/onemanaleft https://www.twitch.tv/jorgen_gaming https://www.twitch.tv/turdtwisterx Which helped to provide some to the feedback. Below you will find a collection of that feedback. Delve Feedback and Rework Suggestions Things That Are Really Good Right Now • Delve area modifiers only affect monsters, not the player. There are almost no “build-off-button” modifiers. • It has a relatively easy level of access, and this should not change. • Nodes are fast to complete, and the combat encounters are straightforward without obscure mechanics. • The bosses are all fun and fair, every one of them can be done hitless with enough practice, unlike many newer bosses. • Delve pushes builds to their limits and forces heavy investment into your character. Things We'd Like to See Change Scaling • Item quantity should go up with depth (even just slightly would help). • Azurite rewards should keep scaling with depth. • Node types should gradually get weighted toward rarer ones as you go deeper (this already happens a little bit but could be improved). • Difficulty should scale faster — depth 2000–3000 should feel like current depth 6000. • Once the HP cap is reached, difficulty should keep scaling through something like toughness (but implemented carefully so it doesn’t break mechanics like leech). Builds • Deep Delve builds are expensive, which is good, but there are only a handful of viable options. GGG should be more open to allowing new high-investment builds instead of deleting them every time something competitive appears (examples: Divergent Boneshatter, Reverse Snapshot Archmage, Manaforged Arrows). • The depth you can reach should depend on how good your build is, not how many hours you play per day. • Currently, depths around 350–500 are achievable with moderate investment and many build options, while 500–600 marks the point where most builds start to fail. More mechanics are needed to help builds transition past that point. • We need more Delve-specific progression mechanics; things that promote life recoup or archetypes similar to Defiance of Destiny. Boneshatter was dominant because of trauma stacking and sustain, but after recent nerfs many builds flatline at around depth 600. • ZHP builds should be reconsidered for Delve; think back to “iceless mines.” These aren’t viable anymore because of unavoidable hits (like flicker spiders). Evasion should once again be a meaningful defense layer in Delve. • Elemental penetration becomes extremely potent at high depths, since those builds have 90% resistances, turning penetration mods into ~120% more damage taken. This interaction should be reviewed or reduce its effect. Rewards • Delve modifiers should be more interesting. The old Physical Damage Taken As mods were great and deserve modern equivalents. Many current modifiers could use adjustment. Some legacy modifiers (Sentinel, Necropolis, Mercenary-type mods) could return at extremely low weights. • Special chests for fractured/synth/influenced/high-quality bases should be more common with depth. • Item level should eventually scale up to 86. • Kurgal and Ahuatotli need better loot pools. Please also let Kurgal drop the unique jewel with his name! • Aul amulets and Precursor rings should be reworked. They’ve been power-crept by Heist bases. Many Aul amulets are worthless, while others lose value over time. Adding aura effect or depth-scaled stats could help. • Delve should be able to drop Tier 17 maps, possibly other league-specific high-tier items as well. • Gold rewards should scale strongly with depth, or specific gold-focused nodes could be added. • Special modifiers (like “Monsters have a 1% chance to drop a Fossil”) should become more common, especially at greater depths. • Cities should contain more unique reward chests, e.g. Vaal Vessels in Vaal cities, Abyssal socket item chests in Abyss cities. • Currency nodes should feature special chests (e.g., scarab drops). • Fossils behind fractured walls should drop in larger stack sizes, with fewer filler rewards. • Fossil and resonator chests should be more common overall in Delve, while fossils/resonators should be reduced in other league mechanics (Simulacrum, for example). The Azurite atlas node changes in 3.27 show this direction works well. • Jewellery, armor, and weapon nodes should be removed, weighted down, or improved with depth, for example, increasing the chance for special chests (Fractured, Synthesized, Influenced, or high-quality base chests with 20%+ quality). • Add new nodes tied to modern leagues (Ritual, Ultimatum, Kingsmarch (Ore), etc.) for better integration. Specific Things • The Harbinger node takes too long and drops too little. Do we even know if it can drop Fracturing or Mirror shards? • Add horizontal coordinates to the Delve UI, or even a bookmark system for returning to specific nodes later. • Introduce a Delve-themed hideout, extremely rare and only found very deep (ideally non-tradeable or impossible to sell carries for). • Add hideout decorations showing your maximum depth reached, similar to totem poles. • Soul Eaters in deep delves are a bit too overtuned. • Generator upgrade Azurite costs are too high at higher levels, especially since effects like Darkness Resistance and Light Radius stop mattering past medium depth. • Increase maximum Sulphite storage, or reduce Sulphite costs. (Even if storage remains 16-bit limited, balance could help.) Add more upgrade tiers if needed. • A duo/group ladder for depth could be interesting, though it might be hard to balance around carries. • Niko’s fossil prices are far too high given their rarity. • Allow Pantheon changes at the Delve encampment. • Mine cart pathing is sometimes buggy, especially when moving faster than the cart. Additional Ideas (For a More Profound Delve Rework) • Allow Atlas Passives to influence Delve itself, not just sulphite gain. Other mechanics (like Heist) let players influence content generation, but Delve doesn’t, this might require a larger rework. • Smuggler’s Stash nodes could use less frequency and a refreshed pool of rogue exiles,fighting the same ones repeatedly is boring. Tie them to the node type so you can’t reset spawns easily. Rework Orra Greengate, currently she’s the only rogue that truly threatens players. • Add more mine cart functionality. For example, buffs when near it, or collectible upgrades that enhance it (similar to Heist trinkets). • Add new node and biome types: – Gold Hoards – Ore Deposits – “The Deep Cartographer” a construct that expands your reveal radius, similar to towers in PoE 2 • Add “The Tunnel Warden”, a roaming monster that can appear in any non-city node beyond depth 400. Rewards could include fossils, fractured items, or unique belt enchants (like old Uber-Uber Lab ones). • Add a character-socketable item like a torch with its own modifier pool, active only in Delve, to further customize the experience. Last bumped on Nov 12, 2025, 12:20:41 PM
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All of these changes would improve delve massively and make the game far more enjoyable!
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Love it, like & subscribe etc. Delve is great, but it is true that quite a lot of it is rather outdated. I do have one question / comment, though:
" ... Shouldn't the conclusion be "rework all the others"? Orra is annoying, but at least she's dangerous. I would have thought that's a good thing. |
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Commenting to help the cause. #makedelvegreatagain
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#MakeDelveGreatAgain
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turdtwister how do you twist a turd?
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The korean mmo pro is coming for you Stif
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nice :)
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this message is approved by Jorgen and his staff
#MakeDelveGreatAgain |
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