[Act 3] River Hags are overtuned

You are phrasing the 1shot as if its an instakill, it takes time for it to kill you and is probably the most telegraphed skill in poe2

What he means by 1 shot is that no matter how much life/es you have, after 3 seconds, it instantly goes to 0. We are used to react when we see our life drop, so this one is counter intuitive. It's like a boss slam. With all that happen in your screen, it can be easy to miss if you encounter a rare or blue pack of hags and other mobs.

Also, the lack of checkpoints in that gigantic map is annoying as hell.

This particular enemy was really hard to learn. Initially I thought it was way over powered and seemed to be a giant step up in enemy given the region. After realizing every one felt the same way... I actually disagree now. They should be the attack focus or the run and hit until enemies are gone type of foe. Well done. I think this enemy is perfect.
I would argue that a one shot implies a fast attack. 3 second delay is not fast. If it takes 3 seconds to get insta-killed that's on the player for not moving. You can kite the orbs away from he hag and all is good.

This enemy is made even more frustrating when you consider that mobs can push you around. You don't have freedom of movement in this game, and even the phasing you get with dodge rolls won't always save you. If there are enough enemies that you'd end your roll ontop of one, you'll just roll in place instead of phasing through them.

They also appear to slow the player, and numerous times I've found 3 seconds is not enough time to get out even with perfect reaction time.

Just encountering them now please bring them down playing melee with these is just brutal especially when there's more than 1 or they are elite enemies. Orbs flying everywhere and the slowdown is just way overtuned

Honestly I haven't had much issue with them. They're annoying, but I actually kind of welcome it. Keeps me alert.

My problem is that when I DO encounter a river hag, the game's janky targeting system prevents me from hard focusing the hag and I end up deleting an enemy beside it instead of the hag. I usually have to run away and come back around to avoid getting drowned when that happens.

I'm not a fan of basic white mobs getting skills that ignore all player defenses. IMO it's not about cooldown, not about delay - it's the principle. We build those defenses for a reason.

Yes, drowning orbs are very easy to avoid - in a vacuum. One - on - one hags are a joke. Ability in itself is also OK - when used in controlled environment (like a boss fight). The problem is how it interacts with other mob abilities, making them infinitely more lethal. Given how much random stuff can happen in the game, it's very easy for it to go into "unfair" territory when given to basic mobs.

These orbs should do lots of damage - but it should be subject to normal resistance/hp check.

As it stands, mechanics like this (are they going to add more in future acts?) only make the "kill everything before it kills you" principle more pronounced, and I'm not in favor of that. It also conflicts with their declared approach to PoE2 combat.

they make me not want to play the game at all when i get to act 3 zig
the effect is unavoidable in melee, yes its very easy from half a screen away as ranged users keep telling melee but there is no defense against it and there is no cooldown on the skill
they just spam the spheres over and over and there is no resistance or way to avoid the damage in melee

it is a complete bullshit mechanic and needs to be changed

Playing as a Warrior here, and I get squashed in this zone at level 45. Or maybe I a noob.

They are so tanky it's idiotic. You destroy practically everything else with a shatter, but these hags, no they survive, no problem. They're just annoying.