Fate of Vaal League Mechanics with random Silverfist encounters in HC makes it not worth playing

Hello GGG,

I have some feedback for the new fate of the Vaal league. The league mechanic in HC is essentially a bad experience at all levels and in the campaign with random silverfist encounters possible.

I have 2400+ hours in the game most of it in HC since 0.1, I love this game, it's the best ARPG I have seen since D2. The team has done an amazing job. I have had many level 95 characters in HC mostly with my own builds. Save for some mistakes in my builds or pushing too quick carelessly, juicing too hard it's been a great experience with the defensive mechanics available. I wouldn't have played so much if it felt unfair or severely unbalanced.

It seems this is no longer the case. Why oh why is Silverfist a random encounter from the vaal stones? This is absolutely ridiculous. HC is essentially not playable. Most builds will get one shot no matter what, especially in early league.
We can't or shouldn't have to build around random Silverfirst encounters on juiced maps in HC. The Vaal stones trigger automatically while mapping. Why punish us for trying to play the game only to get a random one shot we don't notice while we are trying to read the name on the bar.

One of three ways I can see to play this league, all of which see like a terrible experience.
1. All gas no breaks little to no defense to get reps of leveling in quicker, if I can be one shot at any time my defensives don't really matter anyway until I have an extremely large budget and am high level.
2. Build around random Silverfist encounters - Source of slow aura, Fast hitting Ice pretty much mandatory or other similar effects that get out quick enough to slow and or freeze him before random one-shot in the wild happen.
3. Have my finger over the escape key at all times.

It seems there is reddit posts about this as well and feedback out there in the wild. It's just the Ape that is an issue at all levels of play. We want to interact with the game.

Please look into this, this part of the league mechanic is going to kill a lot of HC player's experience of what seems to be a super solid league otherwise. No one wanted random Silverfist encounters for Christmas in HC.

Thank you, please take a look at this and how many souls this ape is claiming. This doesn't make any sense.

I have to agree here, random silverfist encounters in HC seems very hard to play around.

Here's an example of how quick it can be: https://youtu.be/4GAw7nQxar8?si=TKS4TVcTz9FTn7bV&t=46

So what are some of the potential counter-plays?

"Just quit out": Let's say you are quick enough to exit and in a consistent manner, it's kind of a shame to lose a juiced map from something like this. It's also not great game design when the best option is to avoid the content. It also discourages co-op play where pausing has to be coordinated.

"Just play SC": It would be a shame to avoid something we love just because of one overpowered monster that can show up randomly.

"Build around it": This would cause the build meta to become quite limited. And frankly, I'm not sure how you can build around it other than sacrificing an absolute ton of damage for defenses, and that's not always possible in campaign.

"Git gud": Sure, there's some skill involved in avoiding one-shots, but the fact of the matter is that many high profile HC streamers die from Silverfist every league. If this was simply a knowledge/skill check, you'd think some of the top players wouldn't get affected.

I think the best solution is to take him out, but I'd even be OK with his damage or hitbox being significantly nerfed, or remove his one-shot slam in his random encounter Vaal circle version.

I agree, I play HC only and I was shocked when I found out the ways silver can appear, especially considering most defensive mechanics don't even work against his slam.

To make matters worse:

- you can be in coop and you can't even pause
- armor barely works against it
- evasion won't work
- you can't get enough ES early enough to be able to avoid the one-shot
- the vaal portals spawn in rooms that don't have enough room for you, silverfist and his slam attack.

It really makes the HC experience super silly and unfair.

Please fix it.

Bump