How Skill Balance Could Be Reworked in PoE 2 – A Concept Based on Animation-Centric Design
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Another thought...
One thing i like about ARPGs is the constant optimization decisions and pivots. - which skill/build is best for 20-20, 20-30, 30-40, bossA, bossB, etc - which class/build is best as an early mapping league starter, vs pushing gigh levels with specific hard to get items - when a great unique drops (esp ssf), what pivot can i make in build or weapon ir class to maximize use of it POE2 has some of these elements, but somehow it feels like it has *less* of them than other ARPGs, including POE1 and LE especially. Why? - attribute requirements and support limitations making builds rigid - long campaign making an opportunistic reroll less attractive - stupidly overpowered 1 button meta builds making time spent in build creativity feel wasted (at least before T10) - very low crafting determinism making progression power more dependent on rng and grind time (aka rng attempts) than problem solving Probably out of all of these, the last one is the worst. I've actually had very good luck, and I'm good at managing the cranky rng to get good items, but the system doesn't leave me feeling like it was ME.. it feels like "phew, i finally got that RNG roll i needed to move on". The are not enough, we need something like essences working for more affix rolls than the first, or a way to use expedition upgrade haglling on our own items.. or anything more deterministic. |
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" glad to hear your thoughts Pal, Regarding your concern about being able to change elements multiple times via infusion — I never said anything about removing the other support gems. The idea was simply that all skills would become universal and only tied to their animation and base attack. Here’s how I see it: you have a skill that deals base physical or non-elemental damage. You socket an infusion gem (let's say Cold Infusion) — your base damage becomes cold damage. BUT then you add another support gem like Fire Infusion, and your damage splits — for example, 75% cold, 25% fire (similar to how it works now, though I think there’s currently a -40% penalty to other elements, I don’t remember the exact number). I’m also not excluding additional damage from weapons or rings — those would still be added on top of your total damage, but wouldn’t be affected by the elemental conversion (which is how it already works now). I didn’t quite understand what you meant by “gem tiers”? Are you suggesting scaling skills based on attribute inflation instead of attack damage/spell damage? Attribute requirements are a core mechanic in any ARPG — if you want to equip a stronger item or use a more powerful skill, you need the stats to do so. Otherwise, everyone would just grab the strongest skill from any class (imagine an attribute-stacker with 1500 Intelligence — what would that do?). Personally, I like how attributes work in PoE — as both a stat requirement system and a source of base stats (mana, accuracy, life). Yeah, I don’t really like the specific attribute requirements for green/blue/red support gems, but it’s a relatively small inconvenience that helps prevent completely broken builds. [img]https://i.ibb.co/HDhPxJkY/GGG.png[/img]
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" Honestly, it kinda sounds like you're just salty about some one-button builds being viable. But hey — let me cheer you up a bit. I’ve never played meta builds. I started my whole PoE2 journey by trying to prove to my friend that I could create a build from scratch that would outperform his. And I did. I made a Deadeye with a crossbow during the first or second week of Early Access and kept improving it — I cleared almost all content with it, except Arbiter and T4 Delirium. Nothing stopped me. Meanwhile, my friend was building a Spark Mage for a ton of divines. And I didn’t stop there. Once I hit a wall with that build, I moved on to making a Stormweaver using Lightning Warp, trying to really understand how spells actually work. Then I wanted to try an Infernalist build, but I really hate minion-based builds. So I first experimented with a CWDT setup, tried playing with Burning Enscription, and ended up with Infernalist with -104% mana and 5 cast on minions all packed comets. Now i know everything about meta skills and how they work, how work decrasing ailment treshold on enemys, how actualy Eldrich Battery works and so all these tech stuff. Of course, now all of these mechanics have been gutted by GGG. The issue isn’t that LS Amazon or Spear deadeye exist — it’s that almost nothing else does. They killed off so many skills and mechanics that actual build variety is close to zero. BUT — I still have some ideas for you, my friend: a Flicker strike Gemling/Invoker, a crossbow/bow Chaluya build fully converted to cold, a poison/blood Pathfinder/titan with a shield... There are still paths for buildcrafting, even now, in this wasteland of nerfed skills. So don’t give up — there’s still fun to be had. [img]https://i.ibb.co/HDhPxJkY/GGG.png[/img] Last edited by ShaDarkLord#6528 on Apr 17, 2025, 3:51:08 PM
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