GGG Neglects River Hag Drowning Bug

The River Hag (normal monster) "Drowning" Water Ball mechanic is bugged, and GGG has yet to address the issue with an easy fix. While the creators of the game can technically claim that any mechanic in their virtual reality world is "working as intended," this does not justify the fairness of a design where the strongest characters (regardless of the best defenses and hp) will easily and suddenly die from "drowning" within 2–3 seconds of minimal exposure to a little ball of water—especially when the character is barely in contact with it.

While many players can simply respawn and move on from this nonsense, those who play Hardcore are severely impacted, often losing tens or hundreds hours of progress. The lack of empathy from some community members and the game's developers regarding this mechanic is truly disheartening and devastating to many players. This has ruined the game and immersion for numerous hardcore players (many have quit from it) and has neglected to be easily fixed by GGG despite multitudes of reports since week 1.

This is an extremely poorly designed mechanic, far below the quality expected in a modern game like Path of Exile 2. Even much older games have handled similar mechanics far better, offering clarity and fairness without compromising challenge.

Gameplay Info: The River Hag, encountered in Act 3, casts a small floating "Water Bubble" that follows and slows the player. It gives the impression of being a standard debuff mechanic, but it instead instantly kills your character from full hp after just another second or two after reaching you. This lack of visual or mechanical clarity makes it misleading, punishing players unfairly and detracting from the overall gameplay experience.

Potential Solution: Like any and almost all professionally developed video games out there, make the drowning effect into a damage over time that begins after the 2-3 second delay or have a much more reasonable time frame + process before someone drowns to death.

It's a pity that player's Hardcore characters won't ever be restored as a result of any fix. How sad that this continues to go on and hasn't been resolved sooner than later. If GGG decides not to fix this, then players will have to decide if they want to play an unfair game with false difficulty and "gotcha mechanics".

I understand your frustration but this is a mechanic that exists in PoE 1 as well. After logging countless hours in that game I instinctively avoid these almost without thought but, if it is new to you, I can see how it would feel extremely unfair that no amount of character strength/defenses can protect you from this mechanic.

Corpse explosions are notorious for one-shotting strong characters throughout PoE's history and often felt incredibly unfair until GGG updated their visuals/timing. Now that they are well-telegraphed, players are much more likely to notice them and have time to react, so it doesn't feel as unfair to die in one hit even when your character is very tanky.

I would argue that the drowning mechanic is much easier to avoid than corpse explosions. For better or worse, PoE is designed to be a game where certain things can kill even the strongest characters very quickly. Learning what to avoid, and how to do so, is a big part of mastering this game.

Not that this post is about what I appreciate or don't, but I do want to acknowledge and thank you for the compassionate parts of your response. That said, some of the other aspects feel a bit derailing and unconstructive when it comes to finding a solution. They seem to lean more towards enabling the continuation of the "gotcha" problem rather than addressing the core issue at hand.

The comparison to corpse explosions is interesting, but it also highlights what GGG has done right in the past—improving visuals and timing to make those mechanics more fair and telegraphed. This drowning mechanic, however, lacks that same clarity and creates an unnecessary and unfair experience for many players, especially in Hardcore mode. It's not about removing challenge, but about making the challenge consistent, communicative, and reasonably avoidable without prior knowledge.

I hope we can agree that the core issue you are speaking to is a question of design philosophy rather than black-and-white one is better than the other. I think the game is not designed to be learned in hardcore mode. All the more power to you if that is how you want to play, but getting killed by a surprising mechanic seems part and parcel of that choice.

As for telegraphing, visuals could not be clearer for the drowning mechanic and the relatively quick timing is still slower than some other deadly effects. What seems to be the more relevant issue is that nothing about your screen getting blurry/dark inherently warns you that you are about to die, so you are dead before you know that you are in danger. Without prior knowledge, most players will need to die to learn what this mechanic does.

In my opinion, that is okay, but I recognize that not everyone feels the same. Playing hardcore will mean it is a pretty stiff punishment for not knowing something that the game doesn't inherently communicate. However, I'm guessing that you will never die to this mechanic again. It is easy to avoid once you know that you need to.

I struggle to see how dying this way is inherently worse than getting surprised by a deadly boss mechanic. There are unexplained one-shots baked into some of the pinnacle endgame bosses. A perfect example is the final boss of the Trials.

Even Jamanra has the wind mechanic that killed me twice before I figured out where I could go to be safe. One of my favorite bosses in the original game makes you play a friggin memory game (without telling you that is why sections of the ground start flashing) and one-shots > 95% of builds if you fail.

I recognize that this is a matter of opinion. You are not alone among the community in thinking this kind of thing is unfair/undesirable but I believe you are in the minority. I can confidently say that the head designers at GGG feel differently than you do. Mechanics of this nature are a long-running debate within the PoE community and the devs consistently err on the side of deadly is good, and generally balance the game for softcore play.

They treat hardcore as an optional challenge, not what should guide their design decisions. In the leadup to Early Access, Jonathan Rogers said in multiple interviews that learning the game should not be done in hardcore, even if that is what you typically enjoy and how you intend to play most of the time. I'm not saying you should not be doing it, I admire the balls it takes, but the nature of the game sometimes means you can only learn how to survive by dying.

It's clear that you continue to approach this issue from a position of personal bias, downplaying the numerous reports and concerns raised by players about this mechanic. While philosophical debates about design are valid, dismissing the broader feedback from the community as a matter of opinion undermines the legitimacy of the issue at hand.

We've seen this pattern before with mechanics like after-death explosions, which were heavily criticized until GGG themselves acknowledged the problem. Many of the same people who dismissed the complaints later reversed their stance once changes were implemented. History has a way of showing that sometimes, feedback perceived as "minority opinions" highlights genuine design flaws.

You keep drawing comparisons to boss mechanics, which misses the core point being raised. This isn't a boss mechanic—it's something that simulates one outside the context of a boss encounter. That distinction is precisely why it feels unfair to many players, especially in hardcore mode. A non-telegraphed, near-instant death mechanic that doesn't communicate imminent danger inherently (not a BARELY wavy screen for a moment) undermines the learning process, particularly for those who value playing cautiously and avoiding trial-and-error deaths.

Ultimately, GGG will do what they believe is best for their game, and that includes weighing feedback like this. If they choose to leave it unchanged, players will adapt accordingly. However, dismissing reasonable concerns as just differences in opinion doesn't foster meaningful discussion. If nothing changes, so be it—but undermining valid critiques only delays potential improvements and dismisses the impact such mechanics have on the player experience.

I'm not trying to be dismissive, I was explicitly trying to explain my point of view without dismissing yours, I'm sorry if that failed to come through in my writing. Regardless, we clearly feel differently about this, and that is okay. As you say, GGG will ultimately decide what is best for their vision of the game.

I'm not trying to discourage you from providing feedback. You'll likely find it generates more/better discussion in a different forum. Nothing about it is a bug, it's just designed in a way that you would like to see changed.

Yeah, I'm glad to hear u weren't trying to be dismissive, that's kind of you to convey.

I’ve also noticed that when talking to a lot of really experienced and dedicated "POE 1" players, the default reaction often seems to be defending any and all designs that resemble the original game (or an opportunity to express how they know better), rather than acknowledging potential flaws. This can be especially counterproductive in a beta environment, where constructive feedback is crucial. It sometimes feels like expressing concern over a feature gets tied to ego—as if pointing out something isn’t optimal or well-designed is taken as an attack on the original POE 1 or the person’s prior experience with it. For example, the mentality of "Oh, it’s always been like that... YOU just have to get used to it and aren’t experienced enough somehow (clearly you could know better)" tends to dominate, rather than focusing on what could be adjusted for the better. It will be nice if genuine concerns don't get derailed.

The issue with the water bubble is exactly that—it doesn’t make sense that it kills you instantly after a few seconds. It's not a super critical boss or something. Is it a massive problem? Not necessarily for players who don’t encounter it in hardcore mode because it’s easier to brush off and move on in softcore—it doesn’t happen often. Sometimes people can play for a long time and it just so happens when they try hardcore mode they die to it for the first time. But just because it’s not as immediately impactful and predominant as something like after-death explosions doesn’t make it any less valid as a flaw. Mechanics like this still deserve proper attention, especially when they disproportionately affect certain playstyles. It can be equally as flawed.

I found additional prevalent references on Steam feedback highlighting numerous users experiencing the same issue and expressing similar concerns, please see the link below:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2694490/discussions/0/598513524566678003/?ctp=5


Edit:
Is anyone from GGG reading these?

All dmg from drowning orb bypass my energy shield in a CI build ( chaos inoculation )

I died too with by the Drowing Orb from created by the River Hag mob.
I had a Invoker lvl 95 in HC
I had CI with 15000 energy shield and the damage bypass all my energy shield .
Resolt :

- 0/1 life
- 15000/8000 Energy shield

This is very unfair because you doesn't realize what it is happening in some situation because there are a lot of mobs or you are in fron of the mob in a melee istance .