Challenge League Post-mortems

Really interesting to read..Thx for sharing this infos with us

Thank you for sharing. Interesting info.

This sounds awesome. I like the idea of similar but slightly different leagues, but i think that a shop for things like the shirts or other things (a map of wraeclast as poster maybe) should be added to the website so people can buy poe merchandise since the shirts arent available any more.

This kind of posts is one of the things that make GGG unique. Thank you.

Looking forward to the new leagues. I am definitely enjoying the randomness that the past leagues added.

This was a very nice and educational read! Thanks to Chris & GGG for continously supplying so much information and openness about your thought- and work process; many other devs/studios should take a piece of you in that regard.

Looking forward to the next challenge leagues, hopefully i'll also have more funds to spend by then ;)

Actually quite glad you are finally ditching the shirts. I've always like the idea of mtx better. I probably like my Ambush Ritual Horns more than any of my shirts.

SC and HC finally having similar leagues and MTX as rewards.

I feel like I am dreaming. This is the best news !

Great post, the more info and insight you can give us as to your thinking on PoE development in the past leagues and changes you have made in subsequent leagues based on previous league feedback and statistics the more we can understand your dev. thinking processes for future leagues. With more information from you (GGG) we can try to provide better feedback for a better synergy between the devs and the players (at least in theory).

So based on my time limited (not a casual but not an elite with unlimited time) playing of PoE since CB PoE I will add my 2 cents of feedback:

Anarchy (Standard, June 2013)
1. Rogue exiles was a great addition to PoE.
2. They were set appropriately tough to kill.
3. Newbie players needed more wiki kill strategy info as they died a lot.
4. Some rogues were over-tuned for the player/zone level.
5. Low encounter frequency was a problem (should have been 10% chance).

Onslaught (Hardcore, June 2013)
1. Upping monsters by 20% with no extra rewards was failure for most.
2. I'm not an elite but I'm sure elite top ladder players loved it.
3. Seriously needed Lockstep then as faster = higher desync = max frustration.

Domination (Standard, October 2013)
1. Shrines were another great addition to PoE.
2. Poor graphics engine meant major frame rate drops in shrine mobs.
3. Having an extra shrine skill for a while was super fun.

Nemesis (Hardcore, October 2013)
1. Extra monster mod added variety and challenge.
2. Some mods on rare or champion led to over-tuned must skip monster.
3. Tougher challenges should always provide better qualty drops. This has always been and still is a huge failure of GGG, ramping up monster difficulty (Nemesis Mod) with no extra quality added to drops. This failure works across the whole game with very few exceptions. Classic of this failure to provide better quality drops for harder content was when I watched a video of the Hall of Champions map. He took like 35 minutes to very carefully kill all player crafted enemy and drops from the end chests were no better than ordinary large chests.

Ambush (Standard, March 2014)
1. Strongboxes, another great addition.
2. Desync deaths were all to common as all mobs came out.
3. Later change to stagger mobs coming out helped some. (D.L. was needed).
4. Strongbox mods added nice variety to what would have been same old drops.

Invasion (Hardcore, March 2014)
1. Over-tuned invading monster and under-tuned drops killed fun.
2. "Guest" monsters did add welcomed variety to otherwise boring zones.

Rampage (Standard, August 2014)
1. Kill streaks sounded good on paper but failed in real play.

Beyond (Hardcore, August 2014)
1. Beyond monsters were an extreme challenge for top elite players to enjoy.
2. More loot instead of "spikey" higher quality (but less loot) was a big disappointment.

Torment (Standard, December 2014)
1. Tormented creature was HUGE failure.
2. Tormented creature had no fun AI (blindly attempting to run away from exile).
3. Tormented creature should have had much better quality (but spikey) drops.
4. Tormented mobs increased challenges in fun ways (mostly).

Bloodlines (Hardcore, December 2014)
1. No comment, did not play.

Warbands (Standard, July 2015)
1. Roving rogue bands is the best addition to PoE creatures.
2. "tag team" style of these bands attack AI is very fun and challenging.

Tempest (Hardcore, July 2015)
1. No comment, did not play.

I´m glad that you figured out that Warbands made little to no sense until you reached the later part of the game (maps) and as a Result was really boring (Big Tanky mobs with no drops while lvling...).
Also I think it is (for me atleast) the least fun league there had been in terms of new gameplay.

I´d love to see the old leagues be implemented way more impactfull into the core game i.e More Shrines etc. in the areas as from time to time you tend to forget about things and suddenly an exile 1shots you (or me atleast :D) in a courtyard and you are like "Oh yeah I forgot about these".
For me the new Challenge league was what I at first imagined the game would develop to be when I started playing in Domination.
Nevertheless I love the way you made this Hack n Slay game work and continued to upgraded it in all aspects, keep up the good work.

May RNGesus be with all of you.