Descent - Why is Desecrated Shrine a 26 zone?

In my race earlier today in Descent, I had the gear to go onto Desecrated Shrine and being level 20, as well as being used to every zone being +2 monster level, I went in, expecting a level 25 zone.

Instead I got a 26 zone, which meant I got 75% xp instead of 94%.

This really threw me off in the race and meant I was getting way less experience. Perhaps this is intended, but it's the first zone to go +3 so I'm not exactly sure why this was done in the first place. It doesn't help that it's also a Merciless area, which means your resists are super super down into the negatives.


Now into the math:

At level 20 with a 1.0 xp modifier using PandaMajere's old formula (base monster xp = 1.02*level^2.2)

At level 20:
25 zone: ~1144 xp per white mob at a 1.0 base modifier (94.29% of full xp)
26 zone: ~955 xp per white mob at a 1.0 base modifier (75.64% of full xp)
23 zone: ~990 xp per white mob at a 1.0 base modifier (100% xp)

I personally see no downside to having it be a 25 zone, simply because it seems like the zones are designed to be +2 for each and there's already a huge risk going into Desecrated Shrine as it is Merciless. Just wondering why the sudden change in level.

Where can you see the bonus exp you earn in what more/less level?
PS: sorry the english xD

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macarrony wrote:

Where can you see the bonus exp you earn in what more/less level?
PS: sorry the english xD

Game Mechanics
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/11707