Why do y'all revere the atlas so much?

I haven't been playing PoE for that long, started about 3-4 years ago. With PoE 2 coming out I've seen so much feedback on the bad endgame system in PoE2, and so many comparisons to the PoE1 atlas.

I see people say "the poe 1 atlas was perfect", "I just wanna skip campaign so I can get right to the atlas", and "completing the atlas is fun and gives such a good sense of progression".

And I just don't get it. Am I the only one who finds completing the atlas really boring? I hate the feeling that there's 115 checkboxes I now feel like it's mandatory for me to check, by doing really repetitive gameplay where the sense of progression almost grinds to a halt because I find filling the atlas tree really boring.

Don't get me wrong, I still prefer it over the PoE2 endgame, but I just don't understand why people revere it as this perfect endgame progression system. I usually want to quit whenever I get to the atlas, and I only start having fun again when I'm done with the gigantic chore of completing the atlas.

So, can someone enlighten me? Why do you guys want to complete the atlas? Why do I seem like the only one who'd prefer to skip it?

Personally, I love that there is all those checkboxes infront of me. It's constant mini-progress to go through. It always feels like there is something I need to still do.
I usually quit a league pretty early on after 2 voidstones, because almost all the checkboxes are gone by then and it feels like I'm doing things just for the sake of doing them.

It's min-maxing the end-game. Before, we had to do this mini-game where we had to push influence around on a map. It was a bit more like POE2 in that regard, you had to run certain map layouts to "box in" the influence so you could run the guardians. If you EVER had to run that version, holy shit dude. You'd love the Atlas too.

You want to complete the Atlas because of the points it provides. They are WAY more impactful here than they are in POE2 (gross). The points then allow you to juice your favorite mechanics. So, the reward or the purpose of the Atlas is ultimately to get all of the potential farming power for whatever you want to do. You don't necessarily NEED to complete the Atlas but if you're going to be doing some end-game farming, you'll definitely want that power.

Furthermore, it's a sense of progression and the more you do it, the less it seems like a mountain and more like a hill. Completing the Atlas, at least a portion of it, are usually in the challenges for a league's MTX rewards.

Now the real kicker... Old scarabs + Sextants were even better than what we have now with new scarabs. It was even more granular control and without weird mechanics like grabbing a wisp while you're in a Ritual... which is just really fucking stupid.

So, current Atlas isn't THE BEST iteration of "The Atlas", that was before they removed Sextants in my opinion.

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AlexiaRP#4088 wrote:

Personally, I love that there is all those checkboxes infront of me. It's constant mini-progress to go through. It always feels like there is something I need to still do.
I usually quit a league pretty early on after 2 voidstones, because almost all the checkboxes are gone by then and it feels like I'm doing things just for the sake of doing them.

I do get that, usually I love those kinds of things too. I think I just don't feel rewarded enough for completing one. I don't find the atlas points to be too impactful on their own, their impact is more cumulative. And there isn't really any challenge to it, and I don't feel like my character got particularly much stronger either.

Before the Atlas, I really didn't get into mapping. It just seemed like a repetitive grind to justify finishing Acts. The Atlas provides for exacting customization of what content you encounter, and, while it can still be a tad repetitive, it is both engaging and profitable. =^[.]^=

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Raycheetah#7060 wrote:

while it can still be a tad repetitive, it is both engaging and profitable. =^[.]^=

It's even less "repetitive" once you get to spend more (or mostly all) atlas points into the atlas customization, open up different interactions between league mechanics, be able to pick between the entire map pool of what you want to play without being stuck in the white map jail, and of course get access to all the games content :)

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Pashid#4643 wrote:

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Raycheetah#7060 wrote:

while it can still be a tad repetitive, it is both engaging and profitable. =^[.]^=

It's even less "repetitive" once you get to spend more (or mostly all) atlas points into the atlas customization, open up different interactions between league mechanics, be able to pick between the entire map pool of what you want to play without being stuck in the white map jail, and of course get access to all the games content :)

Well, while different sets of map mods can certainly mix things up, there are a finite number of base maps, and even a favorite can pall after so many runs. Still, the Atlas is a surprisingly versatile mechanic. =^[.]^=

Hmm, I don't feel much wiser, but I will say that I'm very happy for y'all. I'm glad it works for you!

I hope I can get to like it as much in the future too. I also hope the PoE2 endgame gets better, as I'd love to love every part of both of those games :P

from what i recall each map would be analyzed by the community to figure out linearity of the map, how likely it is to spawn the mechanics, mob density etc and then each person could pick w/e it suits them. vast majority would hone into one map since it provided the min-max loot or mechanics the current league needed. so people could just look up what map to run that league, and run it. forever. for max rewards/unit of time. this is not a hyperbole, each aspect of poe1 would be min-maxed like this so there would be leagues that people would run defiled cathedral, or haunted mention and any other map would be discarded as 'trash' not worth running because it was not min-maxed juicing. so the 'atlas' itself was mostly ignored after the initial completion stage to get all your points.

A micro progression system that gives some value to every untouched map, encouraging wider play rather than just hammering the same map over and over, combined with a system that allows each player to sculpt what sort of experiences they want?

What's to dislike?