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By the time you reach the endgame of POE’s latest content, you’ve probably faced a good share of chaos, crashed your game once or twice, and collected more roses than a florist during demon Valentine’s Day
POE currency. But when the final boss-aptly named the Incarnation of Dread-arrives, Blizzard throws everything at you: mechanics, illusions, voice lines, and moments of complete system failure.
So, was it worth the hype? Was it as climactic and punishing as a final Diablo boss should be? Here’s an in-depth breakdown of the experience, the design, the bugs, the loot, and the lingering philosophical whispers of “The Eye is Everything.”
A Cinematic Start: Roses, Memories, and Melancholy
POE has always leaned into brooding atmosphere, but this time the devs dialed it up to eleven. The final sequence begins not with a fight, but with cryptic monologues about memory, purpose, and the fragile line between perception and madness.
You’re guided into a surreal chamber filled with shifting visuals and narration that teeters between ominous poetry and straight-up cryptic nonsense. The boss arena feels more like Path of Exile meets Metal Gear Solid-and yes, the game even throws in lines like “Memes to an end,” which can’t help but feel like a tongue-in-cheek moment of self-awareness.
Before the battle even starts, the tone is clear: this isn’t just about DPS-it’s about unraveling something darker.
The Boss Mechanics: Slow, Tactical, and Glitchy
The Incarnation of Dread introduces multiple mechanics that are simultaneously intriguing and janky. Let’s start with the good:
Volatile Purple Orbs: These look like mini-shapers from PoE and explode in large areas if not handled correctly. Positioning becomes critical.
Frozen Time Phase: The boss becomes temporarily invulnerable. You’re trapped in a suspended animation that feels like a puzzle, but with unclear instructions. This is when many players reported being completely confused-or worse, like in this experience, crashing outright.
Rose Mechanics: You’re tasked with collecting red and blue roses during specific DPS phases and delivering them to the boss. These mechanics seem built to extend the fight while forcing movement and strategic timing.
Learning Curve Moments: The eye visual cues, safe zones, and arena-wide explosions all feed into the idea that this boss is more about reaction and recognition than sheer brute force.
But here’s the kicker: it’s buggy. Between lost portals, crashes, and visual freezes, many players are left wondering whether they died due to a mechanic or just a broken client. There were even moments when you couldn’t make portals or resume the fight correctly due to server desync.
Narrative Interference: Lore vs. Gameplay Flow
What POE gains in emotional resonance, it occasionally loses in pacing. Just when you think the fight is over, the game dives headfirst into a cutscene-heavy epilogue where characters like Sana and Venarius exchange monologues about memory, power, and sacrifice.
In a vacuum, this is some strong world-building. The dialogue reveals layers of obsession, betrayal, and desperation as one character says:
“There are some truths we cannot know. Some realities we cannot allow.”
But after a high-octane boss fight, many players just want their loot-not a philosophical debate about the Atlas or the power of memory strands. And if you’re expecting a big “You did it!” moment? Not quite. Instead, your map gets deleted, and you’re left wondering what just happened.
Still, for lore junkies, there’s gold here. The narrative hints at a deeper cosmic imbalance and the idea that this was just one chapter in a much larger war. There may even be an Uber version of the boss later on, with “number go up” difficulty scaling.Loot & Rewards: Mixed Bag of RNG
The real endgame question: Was the loot any good?
One of the final rewards was an amulet with item level 85, which wasn’t particularly exciting in the current meta. Despite completing what should be a top-tier endgame boss, the gear felt underwhelming. For example:
Memory Strands: The amulet had only six, which is considered garbage-tier by current standards.
Stat Rolls: While one item rolled okay evasion, it lacked the necessary percent evasion affix, which essentially bricked the item.
Prefix Glut: Many of the items were bloated with unhelpful prefixes, leaving little room for builds that need specific suffixes to shine.
You can’t even portal out of the area freely, meaning you have to manage your return trips carefully if you’re still sorting through gear. In a loot-focused game like Diablo, this kind of post-boss sequence needs a bit more polish-or at least a guaranteed exciting drop.
Final Thoughts: A Boss Fight Worth Remembering, If Not Repeating
Despite the glitches, crashes, and loot disappointment, the Incarnation of Dread boss fight stands out as one of the most unique in POE to date. It’s part performance art, part bullet hell, and part brain teaser, with the occasional existential monologue thrown in for flavor.
Total: 6.6/10
If POE wants to retain its endgame community, fights like these need polish and payoff. But in terms of atmosphere POE orbs for sale, experimentation, and ambition, the Incarnation of Dread makes a strong case for Diablo as art, not just ARPG.