Shaper/Elder Influence INFURIATING

Mapping is already RNG, and then this is another layer of roll the dice added on top of the dozen existing close your eyes and throw darts.

I have read the poe wiki and watched (or at least tried to get through) several youtube "guides" about how to spread influence. I have beat uber elder and was farming t16 underground sea for a bit before i decided to switch it up and change my elder map to spider forest and go for a headhunter card, this is where the insanity begins.

-Get rid of elder off the map and try and get him to respawn in the area I want instead of pushing across the map

-From what I have read you do 4 shaper maps and then the next map you do determines the tier of map he will spawn on, however after doing 4 shaper maps and then spamming the map I want, no luck. I do a shaper map on the tier that will hopefully spawn close. Don't get it. Top right corner.

-Start Making my way down to spider forest.

-NO SHAPER INFLUENCE AROUND ELDER INFLUENCE SO I CANNOT SPREAD.
I have to continually run shaper maps away from my elder and hope shaper spawns next to my nodes to spread. WHY????

-Shaper influence finally appears around my elder, start moving south.

-SHAPER INFLUENCE SPAWNING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF WHERE I WANT TO GO.
what do I do now???? I dont want to spread my influence in the wrong direction on maps I dont want to run only to have to trim them off later.

-Of course the 1 tier 13 map you need to spread is the only one you don't have. Get on PoE trade and hope one of the dozen people you message for a map responds.

-My favorite is double ticking the map because you killed most of the mobs in the map which ticks but you dont know that happens until you kill the boss, get out and see your atlas is sideways now and you can't figure out why until you google it and read youtube comments.

-1 hour later still not even half way and basically stuck going around in circles.

This is insanity. Why cant we just run the maps if we have already completed them???

And on a side note, why do i have to scour off my T16 guardian maps to ensure I can continue to sustain my elder maps??? This is assuming I can completely sustain which I cant despite a full atlas and sextants/quantity/zanamods investment. ABSOLUTELY STUPID.

You guys make a system thats high value for players by us needing to run influence on our maps to get the most value, and then make it unbelievably difficult and random to get it to where we need it to go.

If maps are all about shaping, why am I so completely not in control of whats going on?


TLDR Map End game is decent, execution of elder shaper mechanic REALLY SUCKS, as well as people having to purposely make their atlas incomplete to get to where they need to be.

Next league should be less focus on mini games like delving and more on the CORE mapping of the end game. Right now it just feels like a zoo.