For many Path of Exile fans, Bestiary maybe a failed game design, and not too long ago, GGG announced that they have decided not to retain any element of the league in the core game for now.
But in my opinion, Bestiary seem to me to be at least reasonable game design. Bestiary is a complicated league with many elements: it has special monsters, the ability to capture instead of kill some monsters, and a very involved crafting system with powerful results. Here’s the list:
1. The crafting and recipes. Lots of variety for various levels of play, and fairly well-balanced too.
2. Challenging fights, especially with how common the legendary beasts are. Everyone likes a nice slugfest against an enemy that doesn’t just fall over when you sneeze at ’em, but can actually be defeated with clever application of your skills.
3. The beast mods, these being things like Tiger Prey, not the aspect mods. They’re all very well-done and engaging, and fit the tone of the monsters they’re usually attached to.
4. The uniques and Aspect skills. Admittedly, a couple might be a touch on the wild side when it comes to balance (looking at you, Farrul’s Fur and Aspect of the Spider) but overall they’re fun to both plan to use and actually use.
5. The ability to grind specific areas for some specific mods. Admittedly, I only really did this for Deep One’s Presence monsters to refill Prophecies, but the element of being able to go somewhere specific and get what you need in a slightly more deterministic fashion is still interesting.
However, GGG said that there may be some parts of Bestiary they will use in future content, and it is possible they would bring Bestiary back for short term events.
Anyway, PoE next challenge league is coming. Let’s look forward to it. Collect enough chaos orbs poe before its arrival.