[2022] Archnemesis Rare Changes (Part 2)

After making some numerical balance changes yesterday, we are now making a functional change to how Archnemesis Modifiers spawn on rare monsters. Previously, rare monsters you encountered generally had two Archnemesis mods, but could spawn with as many as three or four. Now, they will default to one modifier, with a chance of having two or three. Update: We have deployed this patch as a serverside hotfix.

Archnemesis mods are designed so that certain pairs are very challenging to overcome. And we are generally pretty happy with the difficulty of those particular encounters if they occur infrequently. However, modern Path of Exile is pretty liberal with spawning rare monsters, and with a default of two modifiers each, these intense encounters were occurring far too often.

With this change to a default of one modifier, the complexity and difficulty of rare monster fights will be lower. You'll still occasionally encounter modifiers that provide a bit of difficulty for your build, but it'll be far less often. And the intense combos of 2+ mods won't be happening on every screen anymore (or at all in the early game).

To be clear, we're also going to keep applying functional and numeric changes to specific mods as needed. Those will come after the weekend as we get more developers back in the office. In the future, we may make further changes to the number of Archnemesis modifiers spawning on monsters once we feel that they're individually in a really good place.

We're aware that this change is an implicit nerf to the Headhunter unique, so we will find a way to counter-buff in the next few days. We don't intend to reduce the power of Headhunter as a result of this change. We'll also investigate the challenges that requires you to kill monsters with five Archnemesis mods.

Thanks for your continued feedback about this system, Sentinel League and the new endgame content! We'll keep you updated throughout the week with our thoughts.

Update: We have deployed this patch as a serverside hotfix.

After making some numerical balance changes yesterday, we are now making a functional change to how Archnemesis Modifiers spawn on rare monsters. Previously, rare monsters you encountered generally had two Archnemesis mods, but could spawn with as many as three or four. Now, they will default to one modifier, with a chance of having two or three. Update: We have deployed this patch as a serverside hotfix.

Archnemesis mods are designed so that certain pairs are very challenging to overcome. And we are generally pretty happy with the difficulty of those particular encounters if they occur infrequently. However, modern Path of Exile is pretty liberal with spawning rare monsters, and with a default of two modifiers each, these intense encounters were occurring far too often.

With this change to a default of one modifier, the complexity and difficulty of rare monster fights will be lower. You'll still occasionally encounter modifiers that provide a bit of difficulty for your build, but it'll be far less often. And the intense combos of 2+ mods won't be happening on every screen anymore (or at all in the early game).

To be clear, we're also going to keep applying functional and numeric changes to specific mods as needed. Those will come after the weekend as we get more developers back in the office. In the future, we may make further changes to the number of Archnemesis modifiers spawning on monsters once we feel that they're individually in a really good place.

We're aware that this change is an implicit nerf to the Headhunter unique, so we will find a way to counter-buff in the next few days. We don't intend to reduce the power of Headhunter as a result of this change. We'll also investigate the challenges that requires you to kill monsters with five Archnemesis mods.

Thanks for your continued feedback about this system, Sentinel League and the new endgame content! We'll keep you updated throughout the week with our thoughts.

Update: We have deployed this patch as a serverside hotfix.