Path of Exile

Yeah no leech on maps replaced blood magic (for some reason) which was also extremely rare. Spent 30 regrets today swapping inquis to assassin and now i'm debating spending 15ish more to get a lot of dps according to pob. Not positive yet tho since i'm going to lose a decent amount of mana which means I won't be able to stack up more than probably 10 blades before i'm oom (can get 16 atm, and 18 with a 0.5 second wait for the last cast) and probably going to lose 250ish hp (from 5400 to 5150).

Fit a near perfect Carnage Heart into my 2h build

Can't play without extra Gore after this. What a fun SC pixel. You really get to ride the lightning with it.

Pyros said:

Post about some more future changes: Forum - Announcements - What We're Working On - Path of Exile
Notably making Harbingers better, again. Also very interesting they mentionned next big patch should be around the first week of december(obviously subject to change) and it's an "expansion" instead of a more minor challenge league+balance change patch. Meaning it's likely it'll have fairly large mechanics changes/additions. Obviously not Fall of Oriath big which are major expansions, but more like Ascendencies and Atlas of Worlds updates.

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Not sure how item balance was previously, but I can tell you as far as Harbinger goes it's out of whack. I'm level 89 now. I have seen ONE exalted shard drop, which is the exact same number of exalted orbs dropped. The funny thing is the exalted shard dropped super early for me, in one of the first 4 acts, before the new acts. I have run so many maps at this point and have not since another exalted shard since. Mathematically you would think the shard should drop 20x more frequently that the orb itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case, or even close.

In this whole time, I have also never had a divine vessel drop. Not sure if bad luck or if it really is just that stingy.

For now, whenever I see those harbinger guys I just try to avoid them, they take too long to kill for what the rewards are, so it's just not worth if for the few alchemy and alteration shards that usually drop. Sounds like the changes will address some of these issues, but will have to wait and see the implementation.

Mizake said:

Not sure how item balance was previously, but I can tell you as far as Harbinger goes it's out of whack. I'm level 89 now. I have seen ONE exalted shard drop, which is the exact same number of exalted orbs dropped. The funny thing is the exalted shard dropped super early for me, in one of the first 4 acts, before the new acts. I have run so many maps at this point and have not since another exalted shard since. Mathematically you would think the shard should drop 20x more frequently that the orb itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case, or even close.

In this whole time, I have also never had a divine vessel drop. Not sure if bad luck or if it really is just that stingy.

For now, whenever I see those harbinger guys I just try to avoid them, they take too long to kill for what the rewards are, so it's just not worth if for the few alchemy and alteration shards that usually drop. Sounds like the changes will address some of these issues, but will have to wait and see the implementation.

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If you thought Harbinger would double exalt/chaos/mirror drops, you are a bit naive.

I think the expansion will be Atlas of Oriath, it's pretty obvious FoO had some corners cut to make the launch, the pantheon system is pretty bad, endgame was completely untouched and the later acts could use a bit more polish. The map system could use some randomization to prevent the shaped strand meta, what they changed for 3.0 was just nerfing the shit out of it, which doesn't feel very good. The trading will also probably see some changes, but I don't think people will like them.

Mizake said:

Not sure how item balance was previously, but I can tell you as far as Harbinger goes it's out of whack. I'm level 89 now. I have seen ONE exalted shard drop, which is the exact same number of exalted orbs dropped. The funny thing is the exalted shard dropped super early for me, in one of the first 4 acts, before the new acts. I have run so many maps at this point and have not since another exalted shard since. Mathematically you would think the shard should drop 20x more frequently that the orb itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case, or even close.

In this whole time, I have also never had a divine vessel drop. Not sure if bad luck or if it really is just that stingy.

For now, whenever I see those harbinger guys I just try to avoid them, they take too long to kill for what the rewards are, so it's just not worth if for the few alchemy and alteration shards that usually drop. Sounds like the changes will address some of these issues, but will have to wait and see the implementation.

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Complains about no exalted shards. Avoids Harbingers. Hmmm....

Harbinger and Horizon shards are fantastic end game currencies as they make getting shaper sets a lot easier. Silly to skip them. PS: It took me 192 levels before I got my first exalt. I

Also I hope the expansion in december updates the masters and gives us more vaal skill gems. And gives us new maps using the new bosses from Oriath.

Zaphid said:

If you thought Harbinger would double exalt/chaos/mirror drops, you are a bit naive.

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Seriously? Even if it did exactly that it would still be a far cry from what past leagues had as their gimmick.

Intropy said:

Complains about no exalted shards. Avoids Harbingers. Hmmm....

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I never skip them and after 91 levels I still only have 2 shards. And 2 regular exalt drops. Avoiding Harbingers is dumb, but he's still right about how shitty their rewards are even after the first round of changes (which did practically nothing in my experience).

Kiroy said:

Ya I hope they use stats on map popularity to jigger with some sort of global increase / decrease in IIR/IIQ based on how many times a map is ran. Or some more eloquent solution I can't think of.

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I want to see them randomize the atlas and map tiers.

Loving the game so far, first time I've hit 60+. I also love the PoE basic tech support, very quick to respond and help.

What I don't like it the PoE support that deals with money/purchase issues. I accidentally purchased a pack instead of upgrading and its been a week now of back and forth. For some reason they can't do basic addition when all my receipts go to my PoE inbox and I can clearly see what I spent. Quite frustrating.

Kiroy said:

Problem is some players will hit the lotto re their atlas

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Dont think they would be able to do it for each player. It would only be league to league.

Zaphid said:

If you thought Harbinger would double exalt/chaos/mirror drops, you are a bit naive.

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Yeah you're right, doubling the drop rates would be too much for the economy, still the drop rates should be improved somewhat, it's way to anemic as it stands imo.

Part of the issue also is the mechanic of harbingers. It's like a built-in time sink with crappy rewards; I have never seen harbingers drop anything besides shards. What ends up happening for me at least is I blow up the adds, then I have to wait for the harbinger to summon more adds, and then I have to repeat this 3-4 times until the harbinger dies.....only to drop a bunch of shards for things I *mostly* don't need. In that same amount of time I could have popped flesh offering and cleared 4 regular packs and like 10% of a map. Granted I'm skipping packs because it screws up with my clear speed, so I'm not getting as many shard drops, but I'm also clearing maps faster which I think nets me more in the end. Hell, if I want an annulment orb bad enough I can grab one off of poetrade for like 2 chaos.

The whole idea of ARPGs rests behind the concept of intermittent reward schedules, like slot machines. Shards just don't do it for me. I wish the harbingers would occasionally drop whole orbs or uniques, which would make them more worthwhile to spend the time on. Maybe they do drop items, but if they do the drop rate is super crappy, because I've never seen it....it could be the reason I've never seen a divine vessel yet.

New harbingers are definitely better than they were before, but they could still use some tuning in higher tier maps at least. Red map harbingers shouldn't be dropping 6 alch shards and 4 alt shards total, that should be lower level drops. I've gotten 5 exalted shards so far and 2 exalted orbs. Like Zaphid said, expecting harbingers to just double your wealth is silly. Harbinger orbs sell for 4c a piece last time I looked, horizons I think are up there too, ancient orbs probably are as well. I've found 11 or 12 divine vessels so far I think (brine king and lunaris fully upgraded, along with 5 minors for the challenge).

They are addressing a lot of the shitty currency drops and the delay in add summoning in a near future patch. A lot of transmutation orbs huzzah.

I'm fine with the amount of exalted shard drops. I've made one exalt this way... which sucks, but I realize this is also in addition to the regular crap I've been finding. Granted I have had shit luck with exalts this whole league, I'm still able to make good money just by playing the game. 20% of the way there to my headhunter :>

zombiewizardhawk said:

I've found 11 or 12 divine vessels so far I think (brine king and lunaris fully upgraded, along with 5 minors for the challenge).

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Are divine vessels a world drop or specifically a harbinger drop? Because I have never seen one drop, and you have gotten a dozen or so. Makes me think my loot filter (Neversink) is maybe omitting them.

Nah i'm using neversink too, the standard version and I doubt he'd filter those on strict. They're a world drop, not a harbinger drop.

The drops on them have been wierd. I got 4 of them between my first 5 maps and 1 zana mission, then I went over 150 maps (I think it was more like 200+ but I dunno, I just guessed based on map bosses killed challenge number) before seeing another one, and got 2 or 3 more real close together, then another long gap then 3 in 2 maps.

Jonkimble, all you get from now on are transmute shards until I get a beachhead map from one of my orbs.