Atlas Changes in Path of Exile: Conquerors of the Atlas

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matty20uk wrote:

if we choose to farm a specific to 14-16 map...

now i could draw very wrong conclusions but
https://www.pathofexile.com/exilecon/two
shows no "uncompleted map" (uncompleted as "undroppable";
atlas bonus smt else of course)
which could be just for showing the atlas,
or could be they trying to get rid of the "one-league-one-map"-thing....

wouldnt be surprised if you cant farm one map only anymore by 3.9+.
and in the best case there will be no reason anymore to farm just 1 map over and over.

Mostly hyped for this.

Please consider having some chance to receive Shaper Guardian Maps as tradeable items however - I suggest being able to get them as corruption outcomes (T15 maps sometimes corrupt into 4-6 mod Lair of the Hydra, T16 sometimes into 8 mod Lair).

Samurai's Eye card too the moon.

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Nepenthess wrote:

It almost sounds like the map will drop blank, with no associated tier

wouldnt that destroy the current drop balance?
plenty lows, fewer high maps?
because "player progression to quick" and stuff?

id rather expect your map stash to become a black hole with endless tabs XD

Though I have a concern, given that Elder and Shaper are going to be rare events now. It means that both Starforge and Voidforge will skyrocket in price, any plans to have the Conquerors drop weapons to replace those in terms on 2 handers?

These we shove everything into Zana Mission's mindset seems kinda dangerous.

I would have liked to see Voidzone's/distorted Voidzone's (similar to Corrupted Area's) rather then another Zana Rng Factor her Mission choice gets kinda cluttered lately I mean we have untainted ,Synthesis ,Unique Map's and now Shaper and Elder Map's.

Otherwise the changes sound great !

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ScootaLewis wrote:

Can you confirm or deny a little story detail for me?

I'm interpreting the new atlas story as having the conquerors be random characters unrelated to the 7 playable exiles, instead being entirely separate characters that Zana recruited before the plot of Path of Exile takes place.

This replaces the storyline where we fight the Shaper and Elder, with those characters also being part of the new background lore.

This all means that the "plot" has been retconned such that the seven playable exiles never fought the Elder or Shaper, with the new access essentially being windows into the past.

Other people, however, maintain that the Conquerors are somehow related to the playable exiles beyond us having played through the story they now belong to.

Can you clear up which is true? Are these Conquerors entirely new characters, or are they intended to line up with existing exiles?

What makes the most sense, at least to me, is that some of the playable exiles spent too much time in the Atlas, and went mad from the Elder's influence. Just like Zana's father, the Shaper did. The hints towards this come from a combination of three of her dialogues:

Interacting with Zana, she sometimes asks:

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Zana wrote:

Still sane, Exile?

Picking her dialogue option on "Shaping", she tells us this:

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Zana wrote:

My father once told me that there is no greater evil than ignorance. The fact that we're stuck here, thanks to fanatics that deliberately burn and suppress knowledge, tells me he is probably right.

But we are both guilty of this crime. Ignorance of what is happening beyond Wraeclast. Ignorance of the foul hand that shapes the lands that lie through my map device, populating them with twisted monstrosities and maddening visions.

It's a mystery that begs unraveling. I fear that to pull back the veil is to slip into the same madness as its source. But the alternative - that we let the shaping continue, that it grows and swells and spills out into this world - is far scarier.

And finally, from her dialogue option on "Corruption":

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Zana wrote:

My father's writings frequently references the work of other researchers. In particular, the heretical belief that the environment can influence a creature's form. In Wraeclast, we see the effect that corruption has on beasts, humans, even the dead.

Through my device we see the same thing, but there is no clear source of the vile changes that have turned the pristine landscapes that my father wrote of into the abominations that lay before us. Is Wraeclast's corruption seeping through? Or is something else shaping the development of life out there? And what effect, if any, is it having on us?

The first dialogue reveals that Zana is clearly concerned for the mental state of the exiles she is sending into the Atlas.
The second and third dialogue reveals where that concern stems from: the madness that lurks within the Atlas, and how the environment can affect those who inhabit or travel it.

Going into 3.9: Conquerors of the Atlas, we are seing a situation similar to Betrayal. A handful of trusted friends, and former heroes of Wraeclast have turned towards evil. This time around, however, it is some of the playable Exiles. Not all of them, mind you, but a select few, who co-existed with the rest of us, but we never interacted with (to not villify any player characters). Seing this, Zana locked them away in the Atlas, but they found a way back.

The timeframe between Zana locking them away, and them finding a way back, is unclear, and the only part I cannot find hints of anywhere.

My own take on it is this:
Time moves differently in the Atlas than it does in Wraeclast. At least in some parts of it. We already know that (limited) time-travel is possible in Wraeclast due to the events of the Incursion league. Other forms of time-manipulation can therefore also exist.

Because of this it is totally possible that the locked away exiles have spent decades, if not centuries, amassing power, while slowly going more and more mad, until eventually some of them found a way, or became powerful enough, to open the Atlas portal from the inside. All the while only a few days passed on Wraeclast.

I was hoping the Elder/Shaper content would be integrated in a broader way, so as not to make them so incredibly rare. Unlike a temporary league, where we all know up front that the league content may not ever stay in the core game, the War for the Atlas has been with us as part of the endgame for a while. Many of the Elder/Shaper items and mods have come to be build-defining.

Knowing that PoE2 is going to be giving us more 6-links and a mana reservation reduction gem, along with 19 new ascendancies does ease the sting of this for me -- I am excited to see more build diversity and not just seeing the same Elder/Shaper stuff being required for popular builds.

But I was hoping for some adjustments maybe like...

* Elder/Shaper influence as sextant mods possibilities
* Guardian Maps being able to drop as any map would, but as either "Shaper" or "Elder" white items. Shaper Guardian Maps would be the Phoenix/Minotaur/etc as the boss; Elder Guardian Maps would be Eradicator/Constrictor, etc.
* New Sets of Fragments -- so there'd be dedicated Elder Set and Shaper Set, and facing either Elder or Shaper could then reward you with an Uber Elder/Shaper fragment... like the two tiers of Atziri fragments.
* Make the Shaper Orb and Elder Orb a currency instead of Quest Item, like an Alchemy Orb or Horizon Orb that makes a white map rare and have Elder/Shaper Influence. Or like I guess... the new Conqueror Exalted Currencies in the 3.9 expansion.
* And then Elder/Shaper chests, Delve nodes, etc. that currently exist.

I like the possibility of the Guardian Maps still appearing as possible Zana Missions, too.

Guess i will never get a "Celestial Hideout", oh well...

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MarboroMan wrote:

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Nepenthess wrote:

It almost sounds like the map will drop blank, with no associated tier

wouldnt that destroy the current drop balance?
plenty lows, fewer high maps?
because "player progression to quick" and stuff?

id rather expect your map stash to become a black hole with endless tabs XD

The progression will be by upgrading the region on the atlas instead. There will still be progression involved.