Monolith Density

I’ve heard a number of people request greater mob density in Monoliths. One suggestion has been that a new modifier could be added that increases density. The problem with such a modifier is Monolith’s modifiers are infinite scalers, so theoretically a strong enough build and enough luck on modifier roles could create a scenario where an entire map is filled with mobs. This would be both a technical disaster for the devs as well as game breaking, since a build that could clear the map would have huge farming and xp advantages over all the other builds that couldn’t. It would also move the game towards PoE density levels, which many of us in the community do not want.

I’d like to suggest another option. Instead of making mob density a mod, make it built into the progression of the Monolith. For example, it could be the case that every 10 successful monoliths mob density increases by 5%, and xp gained also increases by a set amount (say 10%). Density would build upon itself (5% per 10 monos) until a hard cap is reached; let’s say 100%. Such a system would accomplish four things:

  1. It would give players who feel like the mono’s density isn’t high enough a way to increase it, but not before they have a build that is powerful enough to handle standard density.
  2. Mob density would be a smooth and predictable progression, instead of pseudo random spikes each time the density modifier is available and chosen (which I believe would quickly become higher than 5% to keep up with the difficulty level of other modifiers).
  3. It would help align Mono XP gains closer to arena, since there would be both increases in XP plus more enemies to kill per mono as the player progresses. Many people (myself included) find the near mandatory level grind in arena boring and would love to have mono as a more viable alternative.
  4. It would prevent the player reaching technical or gameplay breaking limits, and also give the devs a way of preventing the game from becoming “PoE like” where mob density can get ridiculous.

I love Mono, and there is no doubt that it is currently the top gear farming method. I would prefer to spend the majority of my endgame in it, but right now my time is about 70/30 arena, as I need to be in arena for both XP farming and build testing. However with a change like this, I could see the arena/mono ratio flip, and then I could spend the majority of my time doing my preferred endgame content while also answering the concern of players who would like to see increased Mono density.

3 Likes

I agree.

I still feel mob density should still be a rolled affix you choose, just limited to only 1 active at a time? mob density may help some classes but other classes would fail against it, automatically higher mob density without having a choice not to would be bad for some builds

Maybe you can combine these suggestions.
you could do “density-tiers”, which increase every 5 timelines. but u can just roll 1 density-affix per timeline, so u can choose from the 2 timelines what the density-increase is for THIS exactly timeline.

i hope its understandable :slight_smile:

yeah, adds a separate tier of modification to layer on top of normal choosing mods. things like this exist in other rpg games called “shrines” so applying that to this game every 5 monolith runs, a shrine could spawn, where it increases mob density, and every 5 timelines, you could choose to open this shrine to increase the mob density, and get a bigger reward or something. shrines could be spawned in game or in end of time by the monolith.

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Thanks for the discussion!

I just wanted to pop in and say that, in Patch 0.7.6, we will be both slightly increasing monster density in the Monolith of Fate as well as having the Monolith of Fate no longer offer modifiers which are already in effect. Additionally, new modifiers will be getting introduced.

I’ll speak with the team about both a (potentially very rare) monster density-related modifier, as well as having periodic increases to monster density built into the Monolith of Fate itself.

3 Likes

But sarno this totally ruins the ridiculous 3 affixes of frenzy on hit that get 200 hammers a second thrown at you. Or 3 affixes of rage at half health that make a boss inescapable. Or 3 affixes of dodge (currently the only way anything in game can get 100% dodge) Your taken away all the challenges sarno!

I still see plenty of people complaining about one shot fury leap mega earthquake slam monarch goat dudes and Rats. :stuck_out_tongue:

Appreciate the discussion all :slight_smile:

@boardman21 That’s a reasonable concern about builds struggling against higher density, but I think if a system was implemented like the one I presented, it wouldn’t be a problem for most, if any, builds. With only a 5% increase in density every ten Monos, each increase would have a nominal impact on difficulty, and the cap of 100% more mobs wouldn’t be reached until Mono 200, far out of the reach of most builds currently. At around the 50 Mono level, which is a more reasonable level for most builds, the increase would only be 25%, and if a build can get to 50 Monos it probably doesn’t have an issue with density to begin with.

Sarno, thank you for the update! I had made my suggestion considering the current way Monos work, and a system like Boardman suggested where we were limited to only one of this very specific modifier seemed to me like it would overly complicate things. However, if all modifiers are now limited to 1, then a density modifier seems much more reasonable. But it only alleviates one of the two problems, since XP would still be the same, then arena would still be the better place to level. Certainly density would increase XP gains, but the gap between arena and Mono XP gains is currently large enough that I don’t think a bit more density on its own would make much of a difference. Maybe a buff with XP gains from modifiers along with a density mod would do the trick.

No worries. :slight_smile:

As an aside, you’re welcome to tag us in forum posts if you’d like to. We ask that folks don’t ping us on Discord because we heavily use a Discord server ourselves - and so anytime we get pinged on Discord, it could be our boss with something urgent. This often leads to us dropping what we’re working on only to find someone on the community Discord was asking us whether Bleed stacks (and they’ve already gotten a response from the community). Being tagged in forum posts isn’t as disruptive, as it’s easier for us to manage those notifications.

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For the most build I play density in Monoliths isn’t a problem at all. I mostly rush the objectives and that’s it. I can’t see any reason to fight anything under mono stage 50+ so density don’t change anything from my point of view because the drops even in higher stages are rather meh.

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