The Sorry State of Necro Settlers League (again)
Necro Settlers was released as an apology for delaying 3.26 to Q1 2025. Now they're saying it won't release until Q2 at best.
Here's the problem: This "apology event" is dead, and it's not the normal end-of-league dead. Normally the end of a league is a great time to start because everything is cheap.
Necro Settlers is the exact opposite. There is NO market liquidity. People didn't build up wealth in Necro Settlers - or if they did, they migrated to Settlers.
Trading basic materials for a grinding session takes days, or is economically unfeasible, or is flat-out impossible, even WITH the addition of Faustus.
Why? Well obviously PoE2.
But also, Settlers has been a long-running league, and Necro Settlers is just more of the same. It's not exciting. The lantern doesn't do anything novel, it just juices map drops. Anybody who built-up characters and wealth in Settlers has no reason to do it all over again in Necro Settlers.
People HAVE been bouncing off of PoE2 and returning to PoE1 this whole time, but with a dead economy, Necro Settlers is pretty unattractive. So this whole time, it has been bleeding its population to normal Settlers (or to other games entirely).
For two months now, all league-starter and build-enabling equipment has been in high demand, low/no supply. We're calling it SSF-lite or SSF-ish in chat. Need a Timeless Jewel? A Replica Unique? 100 low-tier Essences? You can't buy them.
Most people don't like SSF, so most people are migrating to Settlers where there is still some liquidity from afk hideout traders who did their farming six months ago.
If Necro Settlers is meant "to brighten up the wait for 3.26," then it has failed. And we still have 3+ months to go :(
In the long term, Necro Settlers' fresh economy and splitting of the playerbase has done more harm than good. In hindsight, I think the lantern should have been enabled directly in Settlers league, with no economy reset.
That can still be done today. They could turn on the lantern in Settlers. It seems like low-hanging fruit to me. It's still not very exciting as an event, but at least this combines the two economies.