River hags - Someone actually thought this was a good idea?

This is the kind of design that just leaves me baffled—because someone at GGG, at some point, actually thought this was a good idea.

Riverhags appear in Act 3, in the Drowned City. They’re spellcasters that use an ability called Drowning Orb—a large blue orb that spawns directly on top of you, tracks your movement, and drastically slows you if you’re inside it. If you don’t escape within three seconds, you die. Instantly. It doesn’t matter how tanky you are—it’s a guaranteed death.

Worse yet, they can spawn in packs. That means you might have four or five orbs chasing you at once, cluttering half the screen. Trying to dodge one often just puts you right into another. Its not a huge problem if you are ranged, but if you are a melee with a slow attack animation, its hell.

Is it really good design to have a white mob that can one-shot you, regardless of your build? Apparently, someone at GGG thinks so.

This is exactly the kind of design that makes people rage quit and find another game to play.

I mean....WHY?

I think the hags are good design. One of the few enemies that are memorable and dangerous, but fair. Wait until you encounter the priests. If you don't hug them, you're dead because of their perfect tracking. But they can blend with the mass of enemies so you need to be really vigilant when dealing with the Vaal undead.

I agree its a cool mechanic for a boss etc, but NOT for a white mob.

I agree that the hags shouldn't be this strong as white mobs. As rares though? Absolutely. But, I still think we need way more attack speed - mainly on warrior. It is so annoying trying to use a slam, melee, basically most warrior skills against anything (especially Hags). We already have the slowest attack speed in the game by far, and these slow abilities from monsters make us play in literal slow motion. GGG said season of buffs. Still feels like the season of omega nerfs to me!

Whenever you wanna kill a mob - they're walking inside of the darn blue orbs. So it's just pure frustration trying to just deal damage to them over and over.

poe is a game in which stats matter. this includes offensive, defensive and utility stats.
i disagree with the design philosophy that in a stat-oriented game, there is something that completely ignores most of your stats (except movement speed).
the orb should deal damage that you can mitigate. make the dmg super high if you must. keep the "killspeed" the same if you must. but please be consistent in your systems ggg.

I fought a boss one a few days ago on my warrior. It had a temporal bubble and very fast healing. I couldn't kill it. I would get it to about 30% health and then I had to retreat to avoid drowning. It would heal back close to full every time, before I could reengage.

Sometimes you run into these ability combinations that just shut you down. Mostly on warrior, incidentally.

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crystl32#5831 wrote:

make the dmg super high if you must. keep the "killspeed" the same if you must. but please be consistent in your systems ggg.

Now: This enemy aoe kills you in 3 seconds if you don't step out of it.
Your suggestion: This enemy aoe does massive damage that kills you in 3 seconds. Minion builds are unplayable against hags.

How is your suggestion better?

its another enemy in collection of "pisses off melee and barely is noticeable for ranged dps".

Yeah, I have agree with the sentiment here. I ran into a pack of these: 2 rare hags, six blue hags, and a swarm of supporting humanoid monsters. It took ages to kite them away from each other and kill them one at a time, and it was not a fun experience. River hags should never spawn in groups of more than two, and their mechanics desperately need some sort of counter-play if they're going to ignore all our defenses and resistances.

I think the river hags are amazing as a white mob. White mobs shouldn't just be brainless zombies hobbling over to you slowly.

When I first started playing poe2 I hated river hags and died a few times. But now I always prioritize killing them first and havent died to a river hag in prob 500 hours of gameplay.