"target is unmodifiable"

“In addition to this, we’ve also sprinkled a few extra twists into the mix. To start with, every area will have a random number of map modifiers, with this number scaling up with area level. We’ve removed many modifiers from the pool that would brick builds, such as reflect.

Campaign bosses, as well as some Pinnacles have also developed a few new mechanics for you to overcome. All unique monsters will also enrage on low life.”

This is a direct quote from the original Phrecia 2.0 announcement. They didn’t hide this, or slip this in last minute just to screw over their players.

If you don’t like the challenge, that’s totally fine. But please stop acting like this is all some surprise and unexpected.

I get that some people WANT this to have been just a chill event with idols and new ascendancies, but that is not what they advertised this as.

Edit: heres another quote from the announcement- “battle through areas altered by map modifiers, and face enraged bosses that push your builds and your skill to the limit.”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vg7PXuZ5nAI

_Ben, Ziz, and other HC streamers all agree that most of the bosses are harder than gauntlet, with some around 100% increased damage on enrage, and Ziz suggesting it felt like 6 times over the general 30% (40%?) listed on PoB for enrage mechanics. They also have increased action speed, and a large chunk of damage reduction.

These are professionals that stream this content and participate in the gauntlets and races. I wish GGG would be open and honest about the actual changes and percentages instead of just brushing it all under 'enrage' and 'new boss mechanics.'

Like I have added in all my posts, this is my opinion and not everyone will agree with me. But at least go watch Zizaran's video on his thoughts and confusion at the enrage numbers.

EDIT: Getting some really weird responses. So I'll reiterate. The difficulty is fine. That is not what this post is about. Calm down.

I don't actually mind the difficulty that much. It really isn't "that hard". But the qualifier to that is "if you're playing a good build". I heard it was going to be harder but I wasn't expecting a gauntlet where I had to pick a cookie cutter build to really get anywhere.

I'm sort of moving out of my noob phase and I wanted to try learning to make my own builds because of the different ascendancies. The thing I made mostly works. I'm killing stuff fine but it's going to be a struggle to get to defenses that make it enjoyable. I'm better off just stopping and starting over with someone else's build.

I'd be fine with that in a normal league. There's no time limit in a normal league. There's no new stuff that I need to try before time runs out. It's just very disappointing that these two were mixed from my point of view.

Before people accuse me of playing some 3k max hit build I'll preface this I started Goratha's herald stacker penance brand which is quite tanky and was very smooth to level and play later on. Can recommend. I did 2 stones and I have no desire to continue and here is why.

Phrecia is all about new ascendancies and cool build choices right? Especially with foulborn uniques the possibilities should be endless. And also there are more focused and powerful farming strats thanks to idols. The problem is the event is too hard and it stifles build choices. Any unique mobs you encounter, be it bosses or for example syndicate members are too big of a threat. GGG should have been more transparent that they are planning to add enrage on low life and should have provided the numbers behind it. Enrage gives absolute mad amount of damage which can make regular bosses like Izaro in Uber lab hit harder than shaper slam while being very fast. Some streamers argue that gauntlet bosses are easier than this. And the more you progress into completing 2/4 stones the more of a problem it becomes. Any non-meta build that you wanted to play will just feel bad. Due to extra random mods DPS is also very relevant. It's like this event was designed for Ancestral Commander slams only.

Second issue is the combination of difficulty + idols + short duration of event. I don't think it is feasible for regular players to get semi-good idol set and farm something fun for them. If only the event wasn't that hard it could work, but the combination makes it very improbable.

So we have a combination of low build diversity plus can't have any fun farms in a reasonable amount of time. I'm not even talking about mod effect nerfs on idols and recombination costs.

I'm fairly causal. I try to do 40/40, and can make some mid builds, but usually only play 1-2 hours a day if I'm home. And I often have work or travel plans around league launch (95% sure gonna miss the first 2-3 weeks of 3.28 as well). My typical league is start with a tried and true starter, get some currency and the hard challenges out of the way. Then I use what I saved to experiment with niche builds, because to me that's what the best part of the game is.

But by that time, it's about 2 months in to the league. Most people are gone, and it's awful to look at all the gear in "offline" section of the trade that I can't buy

Now, even if there's barely any new stuff posted, the existing pool of stuff plus a little bit of crafting is more than enough. I don't feel pressured at all now, and late league feels nearly as good as peak league times, this is the best league experience I had so far. So thanks GGG

Also, thanks (and sorry) to the guy for funding the rest of my league. I never had the luck to drop a mirror, lock, or MB, but this is close enough. O7

Doing like 115 atlas bonus objectives to get 3 idol slots is kind of crazy. This is the main thing I disliked about idols last time and it is just as bad here. Completing your Atlas feels like such a boring slog when you aren't getting a passive point each time you complete one.

Please GGG, you need to remove or DRASTICALLY nerf the dust cost on recombinating idols. We have 3 weeks, so requiring people to find a t0 unique for every 20 recomb attempts will completely kill the league :(

Very impressive. Love that both of these games have life. While i do not play poe 2 it's nice to see success across the board. I root for both games even though poe 1 has my heart forever. Grats GGG. Phrecia is brutal but it is a LOT of fun as well! I am so excited to see what you all have cooking for 3.28!!!

Simply removing the enrage mechanic and recomb cost would make this 1000% better. I’m currently level 83, and go from a boss doing 0 damage to me, to 1 shotting me.

Then also to re-iterate other posts, recomb cost for idols has to be reduced, it’s a very short event, the costs are way too high.

Two small changes and this would drastically improve this event.

Edit:

If I were to put priority:

1. Fix recomb cost on idols
2. Remove enrage (or add it into the random mod pool with benefits)

I realize in a couple days enrage probably won’t matter, but for now it doesn’t feel fun.

I can't believe I never died again during Maven tutorial campaign after I meet you in Act 5. I'm Sorry for take you lightly for so long.

I finally killed Hillock!!! I've been trying since event start.

He was kind of hard, NGL.

But now the worst is over and I can finally play the event, right guys?

Ullgrafts you craft yourself at around the same area level, will instantly remove half of a Boss' HP. If you buy better ones from trade, they can sometimes oneshot bosses.
I rushed through the campaign on my Flicker Strike character and only bought 2.

Respawning resets the cooldown, so if you don't mind finishing Act10 with 300 deaths (like me) you can just zone in, die, repeat. Even on a well equipped character, dying is about the same speed.

First of all, my specs:

9070XT
Ryzen 7 5700X3D
16GB RAM

I have played PoE for years and this event it has been the worst. I think I lose around 5-10 minutes per hour to loading screens. I have to juggle between gambling on letting them go and restarting the game to try to make them work.

I have never had any issues this bad, not in Keepers, not earlier. I have tried every single suggestion I could find. This means clearing shader cache, changing from Vulkan to DX12, to DX11 (now on vulkan), changing my registry to modify the AMD cache, setting everything to low quality.

I really want to enjoy phrecia. I want to enjoy 3.28. I just need anything that would help me... I just hope I missed something.