Much has been said of the increased difficulty in Fangs of Asterkarn (FoA) and Ascendant mode. I'd like to add my thoughts on the increased difficulty in Shattered Realm (SR) and Crucible (CR). I am assuming farming Soul Echoes/Fragments and Ashes of Awakening is the new endgame farming goal, and am approaching this issue from that perspective.

Prior to FoA, I had 4 geared out endgame characters after over a 1000 hours of play. They were what I considered strong, capable of doing SR 30-31 within the timer and CR wave 150-170 with extra spawns. Without exception, all of them feel significantly weaker in patch 1.3.

These characters can no longer complete SR 30-31 within the timer. Either they die to one shots from new FoA Skulls, or they spend more time running than fighting in the new FoA maps for SR. The only 1 out of 4 still capable of running SR 30-31 within the timer is my strongest character, a chaos pets conjurer who pushed to SR 52 solo in patch 1.2.1.6. The conjurer also feels weaker, as it can no longer complete SR 35-36 (as was previously possible) within the timer depending on if the run gets the new FoA maps.

The CR situation is better, as 150-170 with extra spawns still feels doable. However, only my conjurer can do wave 180-200 with extra spawns (not all runs guaranteed success), and my other characters struggle with CR 180-200 without extra spawns.

Now it seems for SR rewards, one only receives Ashes of Awakening and Soul Echoes from the extra chests from staying within the timer. This makes failing the timer much more punishing than before. In CR, it seems one receives Ashes/Souls for only completing wave 200, but extra spawns is not required. Again, failure to reach the final wave is nuch more punishing than before.

My question is this, are SR snd CR intended to be obsolete for farming now and Ascendant mode is king?

Possible solutions are to either tune the difficulty to be lower for SR and CR, or make Ashes/Souls drop without completing the timer in SR or before wave 200 in CR. I think one of the features of an enjoyable ARPG is the ability to build characters that feel powerful, this is less the case in Grim Dawn after FoA. I can still live with the increased difficulty and accept that beating the SR timer is now optional as a reward for excellent piloting, and the same for reaching CR wave 200. However, then these conditions should not be mandatory for receiving Ashes of Awakening and Soul Echoes/Fragments.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this. I appreciate it and would like to know your thoughts on the matter.