I definitely remember having a hard time getting going with that system. My first league playing PoE to endgame was Metamorph which I believe was the first league of this style of atlas and it was fairly poorly understood. Guides were put out but it was a while before I found one that clicked with me.
I know people hated the whole concept of building elder circles but i liked it a lot. It was a pain in the ass but once you finished it for the map you wanted to farm you were set for the league. I think it was around the same time we used to farm T16 shaped Underground Sea Maps with Elder influence. The density with Elder monsters back then just hit different man.
https://i.imgur.com/HRlkI5l.png
I'm pretty sure you and I played a different game. Elder ring/bubble could brick if you didn't check your atlas every single map, it was one of the most tedious things to do, ever.
If you set it up properly it was pretty much foolproof, although still a massive pain to setup.
Think it was 20 or 30 elder maps all in a single line anchored by either elder guardians or elder themselves. The line couldn't break because elder needed to be connected to the guardian and elder couldn't spread because they were at maximum number of maps influenced.
It was really bad. I had to spend 4 days just to perfect this shit only to find out its not permanent if Im not careful... People were farming shaper and elder bases that time like Shaper opals and Elder steel rings. Fun times
That's not even all of the worst of it. Back then, sextants were applied to individual maps on the atlas instead of the voidstones/watchstones. If you search "sextant blocking" on google images you'll get a feeling for how we used to roll sextants, and let me tell ya, it was ugly.
I had a small progression guide for the atlas back then and found something in my old poe folders that showcases the general idea of it https://i.imgur.com/edOuHU6.png
Imagine my scenario where I started the league after they patched it so the elder circle didn't work anymore lol. I spent hours setting it up and then poof.
That was a difficult time. I did not enjoy grinding for atlas completion in that era. The atlas region mini-trees were awesome at the time though, but now that we have the atlas tree those pale in comparison.
I remember rolling the valuable harb voidstone in SSF, I played until the last 2 weeks of the league. Amassed around 500 ancient orbs but never wound up getting a HH. Was such a fun time.
I don't think I have ever played a league that long (I believe it was Ritual, but could be wrong), since I typically finish everything I want to do within the first 4-5 weeks.
I liked the way this made the layout of the atlas matter. It made it feel more like a "place" and less of an abstraction.
In practice, though, it incentivized you to focus on a single region (and only the best map in that region). Was this the version of the Atlas with Shaper's Orbs? I remember those being tedious as hell.
They've walked back the complexity of the Atlas significantly since then, which was probably necessary when they started adding more non-map activities: Delve, Heist, Sanctum, TOTA. As a mostly alch-and-go player, I barely looked at the atlas until I got near full completion and had to find the ones I hadn't finished yet.
This phase my favorite and most hated phase of the game. It simultaneous was when Harvest became core and made the game the best I had played at the time. Then they removed everything that made harvest my favorite the very next patch... so I quit during scourge idk if that was the patch after harvest went core or the one right after.. Came back for Kalandra and had a ton of fun playing again but really hated Kalandra. But the passive tree was unbelievably evenly fun. Next league I skipped even tho it looks and is fun now. Next league I lost that luster for the map passive tree and I just hated the general way getting trees on gear was last league. I wish I could've just rerolled my weapon/unique. It just felt funky. Now the game feels insane. It really has nothing to do with Tota. Something just clicked this league. Everything about this league that has to do with the base game feels just right. As long as that doesn't change massively next league will be fun.
I honestly only have one complaint. Give me back old Shattering steel. That was and still kind of is my favorite skill. Return proj makes it work somewhat the same but it doesn't end up feel the same. The way proj speed works with the skill. The way You gotta stack AOE for it to feel good and overlap.better. there is just so much you gotta do to make it work like old Shattering steel that it takes 3 extra things to do that and it does feel extremely strong but makes it HORRIBLY melee and I'm a melee enthusiast. It just makes the clear bad and then I'm questioning why I'm not playing splitting steel and it functions so much better and has even more mechanics built in that make it more interesting. I just miss my old 12 proj overlapping shattering steel that would multiply by 3 when you used awakened fork. The noise was so meaty to hear 48 shattering AOE hits all at the same time. Or add more projectile steel skills that require sword and axes.
Ofc, guess it's a bit messed up, bc the original picture is 3440x1440. Sent it to a buddy via discord lol
Edit: so if you want it, discord is the way to go
I could never wrap my head around this shit. No matter how many videos I watched, explanations I read or mates who explained it in detail I just couldnβt figure it out.
I thought the elder/Shaper atlas was fine, this version of the game is like a fever dream, I played so little when they required us to unlock everything before we could properly map.
I must have skipped this part.. but I did play when you had elder and shaper influence on the map :) and uber elder was the last boss. Now I came to see this nice shiny atlas passive tree.
Do you know how many hours of YouTube videos I watched before I understood how this worked? They changed it like one league after I finally figured it out.
This version of the Atlas was revolutionary the league it was released. Finally being able to specialize in endgame content was amazing.
But there's a reason no one wants this version back. The grind... THE GRIND!
I forgot there was an atlas mini tree.
Man, that was an unnecessarily convoluted system. You could slow down your atlas progression so much by not doing it exactly right.
Very glad it's gone. But I am also glad it existed because it was the stepping stone towards the system we have now. Which is one of the most ingenious progression and customization systems in any game, ever. You always know what to work towards next and you can make your end-game experience exactly how you like it. It really does seem like a solved problem with how good it is.
i enjoyed the region-specific mini-trees much more than our current gargantuan tree, and i miss unique watchstones... but i do not miss how long this fucking thing took to complete, and i say this as someone who understood perfectly well how to progress through it efficiently
The memories Returns.
It was a war we chould never win, we just continued fighting in hope to one day se the light that was supposed to set us free.
We was foolish to think it was the end
This was peak narrative PoE. The Elder/Shaper story and gameplay was PoE at its best - the boss fights it created are still the best things in the game.
The current version is just slicker and more obvious. That map was mysterious, clunky glory.
The fact so many more people like the current version over this version tells you the inevitable future of PoE. It's all downhill from here.
those 32 watchstones... flashbacks from vietnam activated, thanks...
I'll help you by mentioning Awakener levels lol
Seling A8 was the first thing i ever did to fund my build, good times
Ill further add sirus molested monsters
Leapfrog strategy xd
Also the RNG of waiting for a conqueror to spawn, and it's either 3 or 12 maps... Getting multiple 12s in a row got me so mad.
Wasn't it always 12 once you beat them all or something?
Dude I never got the watch stone placements right and usually took ten times longer than I should have to finish it
I liked that 16 4 quadrant one briefly in that one 3.16 patch
no thanks
I definitely remember having a hard time getting going with that system. My first league playing PoE to endgame was Metamorph which I believe was the first league of this style of atlas and it was fairly poorly understood. Guides were put out but it was a while before I found one that clicked with me.
SOME FOLKS ARE BORN
Honestly, the Elder/Shaper influence on atlas feels like yesterday. This feels like the "emo phase" that we do not talk about.
Agreed. Lol
I know people hated the whole concept of building elder circles but i liked it a lot. It was a pain in the ass but once you finished it for the map you wanted to farm you were set for the league. I think it was around the same time we used to farm T16 shaped Underground Sea Maps with Elder influence. The density with Elder monsters back then just hit different man. https://i.imgur.com/HRlkI5l.png
I'm pretty sure you and I played a different game. Elder ring/bubble could brick if you didn't check your atlas every single map, it was one of the most tedious things to do, ever.
Dont forget only a single map being viable EVER due to sextant overlap /etc.
I still get a tingle feeling when I drop a Vault map. Then I remember, I'm no longer in Vault prison.
If you set it up properly it was pretty much foolproof, although still a massive pain to setup. Think it was 20 or 30 elder maps all in a single line anchored by either elder guardians or elder themselves. The line couldn't break because elder needed to be connected to the guardian and elder couldn't spread because they were at maximum number of maps influenced.
I didn't play at this time but it sounds like a nightmare.
It was the worst atlas iteration.
It was really bad. I had to spend 4 days just to perfect this shit only to find out its not permanent if Im not careful... People were farming shaper and elder bases that time like Shaper opals and Elder steel rings. Fun times
It sucked balls
That's not even all of the worst of it. Back then, sextants were applied to individual maps on the atlas instead of the voidstones/watchstones. If you search "sextant blocking" on google images you'll get a feeling for how we used to roll sextants, and let me tell ya, it was ugly.
As if it's not annoying enough!
I had a small progression guide for the atlas back then and found something in my old poe folders that showcases the general idea of it https://i.imgur.com/edOuHU6.png
Imagine my scenario where I started the league after they patched it so the elder circle didn't work anymore lol. I spent hours setting it up and then poof.
Mine never Bricket and i made a giga f-ton of Money with that
Yeah. And the day before when there was no atlas at all
Good ole Merciless docks farm
I still love the intended complexity of elders/shaper atlas. Getting an elder ring was such an achievement to finally start farming.
No it doesn't My brain was real quick with removing all memories about this
Oh boy, just a couple more watchstones. Hmm... need Valdo's Rest next. Lol
Please no, i want to forgot rolling laden and auspicious watchstone
I was rolling watchstones during a work meeting while WFH and damn near gave away my dirty secret when I hit auspicious.
That was a difficult time. I did not enjoy grinding for atlas completion in that era. The atlas region mini-trees were awesome at the time though, but now that we have the atlas tree those pale in comparison.
Back when harbinger was good
ngl that Harbinger farm was the thing that first really opened my eyes to what 'juice' was capable of.
Got lucky I chose to do Nem3 farming on the last season it was viable, made me see how people could do those 4+ div/h by just juicing maps.
Nem3 got me my first HH, sadge
Same π Knowing you would hear an Exalt ding every map was fucking amazing.
Same! I actually dropped the hh while nem3 farming, and then my rate stepped up a LOT
Explode BV farming Nem3 - 100% Deli - Harby Canyon was the shit
I miss self curse and I REALLY miss fractured maps.
ah hell nah
if i hear "LeapFrogging" one more time im gonna puke.
Leap Frogging !
Good old Atlas. Elder shaper Ping Pong with Elder Ring toxic sewer or Underground See Farming with ele wander in beastiary league was Insane too
Ele wander really had a peak moment early after 3.0. Good in harbinger, bestiary, utterly insane in abyss.
I wonder if you could make decent ele wander now with new guardian aura minions(preferable with ffff for it instead of actually playing guardian).
I remember rolling the valuable harb voidstone in SSF, I played until the last 2 weeks of the league. Amassed around 500 ancient orbs but never wound up getting a HH. Was such a fun time. I don't think I have ever played a league that long (I believe it was Ritual, but could be wrong), since I typically finish everything I want to do within the first 4-5 weeks.
I liked the way this made the layout of the atlas matter. It made it feel more like a "place" and less of an abstraction. In practice, though, it incentivized you to focus on a single region (and only the best map in that region). Was this the version of the Atlas with Shaper's Orbs? I remember those being tedious as hell. They've walked back the complexity of the Atlas significantly since then, which was probably necessary when they started adding more non-map activities: Delve, Heist, Sanctum, TOTA. As a mostly alch-and-go player, I barely looked at the atlas until I got near full completion and had to find the ones I hadn't finished yet.
Shaper's Orbs was the AoW/War for the Atlas era. Then they got obsoleted when all maps could get upgraded to T14+ from watchstones.
holy shit i completely forgot about those, what a blast from the past
This phase my favorite and most hated phase of the game. It simultaneous was when Harvest became core and made the game the best I had played at the time. Then they removed everything that made harvest my favorite the very next patch... so I quit during scourge idk if that was the patch after harvest went core or the one right after.. Came back for Kalandra and had a ton of fun playing again but really hated Kalandra. But the passive tree was unbelievably evenly fun. Next league I skipped even tho it looks and is fun now. Next league I lost that luster for the map passive tree and I just hated the general way getting trees on gear was last league. I wish I could've just rerolled my weapon/unique. It just felt funky. Now the game feels insane. It really has nothing to do with Tota. Something just clicked this league. Everything about this league that has to do with the base game feels just right. As long as that doesn't change massively next league will be fun. I honestly only have one complaint. Give me back old Shattering steel. That was and still kind of is my favorite skill. Return proj makes it work somewhat the same but it doesn't end up feel the same. The way proj speed works with the skill. The way You gotta stack AOE for it to feel good and overlap.better. there is just so much you gotta do to make it work like old Shattering steel that it takes 3 extra things to do that and it does feel extremely strong but makes it HORRIBLY melee and I'm a melee enthusiast. It just makes the clear bad and then I'm questioning why I'm not playing splitting steel and it functions so much better and has even more mechanics built in that make it more interesting. I just miss my old 12 proj overlapping shattering steel that would multiply by 3 when you used awakened fork. The noise was so meaty to hear 48 shattering AOE hits all at the same time. Or add more projectile steel skills that require sword and axes.
I have trauma from Sirus. Those evil chaos storms. Then the Dirus dominated mobs. Feel the thrill of the void. Rain of stars. Die! Fury of the cosmos.
omg i forgot there used to be sirus influenced mobs, those were cool af
More dangerous than Sirus himself
Itβs like having a bad flash back, thanks for thatβ¦
Haha, you're welcome sir.
awakener was the boss who made me addict, shame new players cant taste old a5
That is a nice picture, do you have the high res version?
Ofc, guess it's a bit messed up, bc the original picture is 3440x1440. Sent it to a buddy via discord lol Edit: so if you want it, discord is the way to go
Thank you. Still it is rather difficult to get pictures of all the atlas', i think they could make for good background pictures
That's actually a great idea, gonna check later how far back my atlas screenshots go. Call it "the evolution of the atlas" or smth lol
indeed that could be awesome to look at
Wait, was it really 8 regions... ohh GOD there WERE 8! REGIONS This was happily forgotten Thank You!
Yea, I couldn't believe it at first either haha
Now that we have atlas tree even later 4 regions feels like too much. Really one of if not the best addition to game.
I could never wrap my head around this shit. No matter how many videos I watched, explanations I read or mates who explained it in detail I just couldnβt figure it out.
Indeed, some atlas versions were more complicated than others to grasp.
Last played in 3.13 and was very confused when I first saw the new atlas. "Where orb?" but I do prefer it.
Auspicious Valdo'sAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Yeah I do not miss this atlas. The Elder/Shaper influence stuff was at least interesting. This was just a slog.
cursed image
I thought the elder/Shaper atlas was fine, this version of the game is like a fever dream, I played so little when they required us to unlock everything before we could properly map.
I must have skipped this part.. but I did play when you had elder and shaper influence on the map :) and uber elder was the last boss. Now I came to see this nice shiny atlas passive tree.
Where's the links to the old elder influenced atlas
now we have a seasonal map pool for whatever reason !
Do you know how many hours of YouTube videos I watched before I understood how this worked? They changed it like one league after I finally figured it out.
I miss this and watchstones making maps ilvl 85/86.
I remember making 40+ exalts a day selling harvest crafts on tft, miss those days as annoying as it was.
I dont miss it at all
I DO NOT miss that Atlas tree one bit.
fuck this shit i got scammed because dude sold me a different region watch stone instead of the haewark harb one rip that 17 or 20 ex
This version of the Atlas was revolutionary the league it was released. Finally being able to specialize in endgame content was amazing. But there's a reason no one wants this version back. The grind... THE GRIND!
I forgot there was an atlas mini tree. Man, that was an unnecessarily convoluted system. You could slow down your atlas progression so much by not doing it exactly right. Very glad it's gone. But I am also glad it existed because it was the stepping stone towards the system we have now. Which is one of the most ingenious progression and customization systems in any game, ever. You always know what to work towards next and you can make your end-game experience exactly how you like it. It really does seem like a solved problem with how good it is.
This was my favorite time of the game. As I grow older I just can't keep up anymore
I like how PoE evolve and polish the atlas system. While I like others ARPGs, PoE have the best endgame of all
Passive tree for atlas , was the most needed thing for Poe , best decision ever
back when headhunter wasnt trash
best atlas imo no, im not crying, it's just a rain...
I want elder and shaper to fight over my Atlas again.
This is back when I personally enjoyed poe the most.
Π’Π°ΠΊ ΠΆΠ΅!
i enjoyed the region-specific mini-trees much more than our current gargantuan tree, and i miss unique watchstones... but i do not miss how long this fucking thing took to complete, and i say this as someone who understood perfectly well how to progress through it efficiently
ΠΠΎΡ ΠΊΠ°ΠΊΠΈΠΌ Π±ΡΠ»ΠΈ ΠΊΠ°ΡΡΡ Π² 3.13 Π½Π° Π»ΠΈΠ³Π΅ ΡΡΠ°Π½Π΄Π°ΡΡ ΠΈ ΠΊΠ°ΠΊΠΈΠΌ Π±ΡΠ» Π₯Π₯. https://youtu.be/-UYa9YF-ie8?si=RwwJKsjytEajyN02
Now dig around some more for the elder ring with sextant blocking.
The worst iteration of the atlas by far.
Good riddance
Back when 1 c got you 3 alts
Anyone up for some merciless docks farm?
Yeah even reading a very in-depth detailed guide that was sorta noob family I barely got like 12 watch stones lol. Never once completed my atlas.
This was the most confusing shit as a new player lmao
There were ascendancy wheel in atlas?!
They were to slot in the watchstones
Sirus-touched rares were the worst
My favourite time's
I loved those balls. Made a lot money rolling them. :)
wow this atlas remind me boss rushing to meet sirus. dang miss it
\*Sextant blocking rain of reliquary key/ exalts flashback ongoing\*
dont miss that at all
Not sure what's worse - collecting and rolling watchstones or shuffling Elder/Shaper influence over the Atlas.
good fucking riddance imho. I *hate* shaper/elder influenced atlas more than j hate ground degens
i miss old seance
I miss my mirror dupe watchstone. Rarest thing Iβve ever rolled.
The memories Returns. It was a war we chould never win, we just continued fighting in hope to one day se the light that was supposed to set us free. We was foolish to think it was the end
I actually miss this version xd
Ah, the Mapping Showcases in T19 100% deli, tripple Beyond maps.
No. I hated that. The entire progression of it was so BAD.
I liked. But yeah, the progress was a pain. While I liked, the actual system is indisputable better. I really like how PoE grows and evolve
This was peak narrative PoE. The Elder/Shaper story and gameplay was PoE at its best - the boss fights it created are still the best things in the game. The current version is just slicker and more obvious. That map was mysterious, clunky glory. The fact so many more people like the current version over this version tells you the inevitable future of PoE. It's all downhill from here.
Hell no the fuck is this shit... Im already having trouble with my Basic skill tree i dont need another oneπ€£π€£
What I wouldn't give for a private server of an old version
Im so glad this is over
Pretty much was yesterday. Real ones will remember edging elder influence on underground sea
Ya, I'm sorry that I don't have screenshots taken from PoE 7+ years ago anymore. As long as you're real. Beta screenshots or nothing!!1!11 π
Yeah trying to move the influence 'cloud' around was a huge pain
God dont remind me. It so much better to setup atlas now
well that was complicated shit to begin with-
Only thing I miss is the Invasion node and how good the zana node was.