Harbinger Content Integration

RIP Ancient orb ... you will be missed .

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JLSigman wrote:

Ah, drat, I love the Orb of Binding. Nice way to get 4-linked items, which are basically a necessity from level 25 on.

Indeed, but only in new league.

Every standard player and 2nd-3rd league character have some 4L for the purpose of leveling (usually uniques).
But for the 1st char in a new league, orb of binding was a fantastic QoL for leveling as you never have enough fusing to 4L new items every 10 or 20 levels (again, i speak as an SSF player), and you HAVE to save those fusing for a chance to get a 5-6L later.


@GGG : Orb of binding was not a success because except at the start of the league, you rarely need them. That does mean no one cares about, i'm sure everyone would be glad to have it in the new 3.1.0 league.
Orb of binding is not essential, like could be annulment for SSF endgame, but remains a GOOD QoL currency.

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Kagari wrote:

Access to old leagues through Zana is really starting to show it limits. I wonder why standard couldn't keep the league stone from legacy.

An other olution would be to give Zana a mini skill tree so we could customize the maps we open in the map device depending on her "build".

Some cool league mechanics are too scarce and other are too limited to be part of the choice zana currently offers.

From the best I can tell, the driving concept behind a LOT of content-access decisions is a simple fear that players will "hit level 100 too quickly." They saw that, for the most dedicated team of no-lifers, Leaguestones allowed for the first people to hit that cap in less than 24 hours... And even on Harbinger, it got to less than 120.

This was also the overriding reason for shelving (PROMISED) improvements to PoE's headache-inducing trading system, like cross-instance trading; (e.g, not having to leave labyrinth to trade) they consider the time spent "struggling" to find better gear when an upgrade is due to be every bit as valid as time spent challenging actual content. i.e, regardless of whether it's actual content or arbitrary filler, they seek for every minute and hour that holds a player back.

It seems that GGG is kinda stuck in their own form of nostalgia, where they were shocked when the first player ever hit 100 after months of effort, and in spite of their claimed attempts to mimic Diablo 2 (Where par for hitting 99 is also under 24 hours) want to cling to that ancient version of PoE.

Looking through that lens, this is where we see their observation:

• With Harbinger, probably the number 1 thing that terrifies them is ready access to Beachhead maps. For once, the game has something relatively compact to where MOST serious players (rather than just the streamers/NEETs) have ready access to a route to level 100 without serious pain. Once you get to them, level 100 is less than 100 hours of play away for even near-casuals.
  
  
• Similarly, the low value of Orbs of Horizon smooth over an arbitrary speedbump that GGG is pretty invested in: Atlas progression. For the most part the Atlas works fine, but it's hard to deny it relies a bit too much on RNG a lot of the time, forcing players to re-grind a worthless map in hopes of getting the right new one to drop. All the Orb of Horizons does, really, is eliminate that. The other part is that GGG was probably surprised that they were so accessible, with a value being between an alch and a chisel.
  
  
• BOTH Ancient Orbs and Mechanics' Orbs had one main end: better loot, namely Headhunter. Harbinger probably had even more HHs in circulation than even Legacy or Nemesis itself. Access to such great clear speed is terrifying to the "keep the players slowed down" meta, so they obviously had to go.
  
  
• Orbs of Binding, similarly, made gear progression early on too "easy." This is also why GGG nerfed the damage-roll crafting recipe back with 2.0.
  
  
• Orbs of Annulment didn't help at all with that progression; as inverted Exalts, their crafting use was limited in that race... And their reduced value meant they didn't even help much in the trading side, either.
  
  
• Lastly, Harbinger ENCOUNTERS (where they were found) were decidedly a bump to a player's EXP/hr, much like breaches... So they had to go. Breaches were likewise initially removed for 2.6.0, but unlike Harbingers, they were so popular it was really hard to go against the intense player desire to have them. Fortunately for GGG, Harbingers weren't as popular an encounter, therefore they can keep the average map encounter-barren.

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Ondrugs wrote:

Or will there another mechanic that will keep ourselves from another disappointment?

You DO realize said "disappointment" is their modus operandi, right? There's been numerous times that they've made it known they're terrified of players hitting level 100 with anything short of Sisyphean effort. That was the whole reasoning behind every single one of the EXP nerfs they've handed out, as well as removal of mechanics that ease leveling.

Harbinger was rubbish.

I cant believe some of you guys never bought bindings in bulk. They were so much cheaper than the alchs and made the alch+scouring map rolls so much easier. I loved them.

I loved the horizons too. Sadly there will be no more incentive to fill up your atlas. You finally find the solution to 1 map farming then remove it because it is "too easy". How pathetic.

Please think twice before you delete the horizon orbs. I just filled out my atlas only because I had them that makes the atlas more interactive without raping my anus trading all that shit. This is trully the only thing needed from this league may be with annuls. Not everyone uses horizons to run the only map in atlas. You will make the content a lot smaller for players by deleting horizon orbs. Please don't do that!

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gubaguy wrote:

Horizon orbs helped SSF fill atlas and made mapping fun, so we removed them.

Harbinger orbs allowd players to get to endgame faster and have more fun, so we removed them.

Players liked the new harbinger uniques and found new endgame builds with them and had fun with them, so we removed them.

Players who were unable to farm up currency to get GG items like kaoms or headhunter enjoyed ancients, so we removed them.

Players were too stupid to figure out that engineers orbs were OP, so we removed them.

Players were too stupid to use Bindings as alchs and for leveling, so we are removing them.

This.


I really liked the chance to earn some extra currency with Habingers. And I still havent completed the Atlas yet... not everyone plays day and night.

The most I disagree with removing the unique items, my build uses one of them and I would like to continue in the next league. I hope GGG changes their minds.

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Qarl wrote:

The Orb of Binding and the Engineer's Orb did not resonate with players, and do not fill great enough need to be added to the core game at this stage.

Maybe we've been too quiet about them, but I absolutely loved Orbs of Binding. I was trying to get three new players into the game, and having Orbs of Binding available made a lot of processes both easier to explain, to demonstrate, and to carry out. We didn't need to pool Alts-into-Jewelers-into-Fusings. We just had to pool binding shards when someone needed a 4Link.

It not only streamlined some of the most frustrating parts of trying to level up in a new league, for myself. But it also greatly improved the experience of my friends who were new to the game

Please, for the love of the new players, consider keeping Orbs of Binding obtainable.
I can only imagine the huge help they are for dedicated SSF players as well.

This is my first league, and honestly, my first time playing PoE and giving it a honest shot and I take this as truely sad news. Nothing is basically staying. I had so much fun with crafting stuff with the new currency items, not to mention beachhead maps. I don't remember it being dropped for me a single time, I'm talking about t5, t10 & T15. The only way i could acquire it was via crafting maps with harbinger orb. One of the most played maps and most profitable experience you could play. I really hope GGG reconsiders about removing everything from this league. I mean, it was the most played league so far.. would be a bad idea removing everything from it