I just realized, experience is more broken than I thought.

SSF

Broken as in bad.

I've always had an issue biting at me. Why do I get absolutely dogshit experience(xp) in this game, yet I'm always under pressure of death. Always.

For instance, if you're in Final Fantasy and fighting lower level mobs- you annihilate them... and they do no damage to you. You also get no experience, no rewards.

In poe, the mobs still do massive damage, and you get no experience, no rewards. Sometimes even at content your level, haha. :(


I think that we as players naturally expect dangerous content to provide the usual things that dangerous content USUALLY does. Upgrades. Progress.


Then layer maps onto this. So now we have low level content, with possible rolls of +x% damage, multiple times, + crit mods, + straight damage mods, rares themselves can also roll + damage mods... low level content in this game can not only kill you- it can vaporize.

The experience gained doesn't increase, regardless of all of that extra threat. So you may die much more easily and lose x% exp, however you have gained nothing in exp for the risk. AH, that is a MASSIVE issue.

Exp should scale not off of mob level, it should scale off of mob threat... or something along those lines, dmg, something. All you'd have to do is modify exp gain by +x%dmg. Fixed.

I'll take +x%dmg rolls if I'm also getting a decent amount of exp for it, hell yeah, lets go.

I don't know why it took me forever to notice this.

i levelled one character to 96 this season but it was a nightmare and took forever. in comparison in poe1 i can level to 96 in just a few hours. and thats just with mapping no 5 ways or anything

exp is really bad in this game. even if you dont die you barely get any xp

Agreed, it adds to the unrewarding feel the game has taken on.

PoE2 from the outside seems like a heavy customization looter, but it plays more like a meta focused MMO with strategically placed roadblocks.

The drops feel unrewarding, customization half your passives or gear feel wasted on basic sustain. And then you add your point... Progression both in Map Tiers and Character levels feels non-existent. There's risk but no since of reward.

The more we highlight the issue of it not being a joy or fun experience the better chances we have someone will listen to reason.

the upper levels might be worse from the mlvl gap, but 94-95 took me only about a day at 4-5% a map, and 95 isn't looking that much slower, 3-4%, since my gear's better and I'm running denser maps.

I would say it's both build and outlook dependent though. My friend has the outlook where he's a literal glass cannon (5k es, no eva, no armor) and frequently dies because of it, but somehow still expects to level. On the other hand I built way more defensively but have less top end dps (also more conditional). I still get deleted from time to time but I can usually see it coming. I get to be less careful about the maps I run = less resource issues.

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For instance, if you're in Final Fantasy and fighting lower level mobs- you annihilate them... and they do no damage to you. You also get no experience, no rewards.

That's the same here? Like you go back into a campaign zone and they're going to tickle you. PoE's always been a game of "tick off these checkboxes" in terms of resist cap, defensive layers and status immunities. You can get reduced damage from critical hits on gear/tree, reduced chance to be critically hit, 200% armor vs crit hit, take no crit hits while parrying, etc. - many options. Rolling maps is a thing in PoE so I'm not sure why this is different? I would like to see T15s 3:1-able though. Not being able to alt/scour means you hit dead ends (or have to run sketchy maps sometimes) and running XIVs to generate more XVs feels bad.

As for xp, there's quite a lot of it on tablets and some of the corrupted zones have -rarity +% xp, like ~1/3 of an Untainted Paradise.

I do think SSF doesn't have enough tools to have an overall enjoyable experience though, trade patches a lot of the deficits.

If you go for only leveling it is reasonably fasat unitl level 97, then it slows down a lot.

Best way to do all of it is getting all of your corrupt nexus Atlas Points, then gear everything to Pack size, run pakc size maps and look for corrupted nexuses that give + to experience. And for untianted paradises.

Then look out for experience tablets to use on the corrupted maps.

The only actual issue with experience i see is the EXP Penalty. Sometiems oyu just die without even knowing what killed you.

SSF

Interesting, a lot of decent responses. Usually I just get trolled, haha.

I realize there are ways to get exp, if you know exactly what to do. I would offer that these things are not obvious at all for a new player.


Additionally, the main point wasn't gaining exp, it was gaining exp relative to threat.


As hqDM mentioned, yes, going back to mobs that are half your level will not touch you- and be squish. I was intending to reference endgame, where mobs will be 10 levels lowerish, pretty commonly, and still be able to vaporize. I also do not run glass cannon. Even building defensively, with the wrong map mods, and bad rng on rare mob rolls... and so on- mobs can get TONS of damage boost. TONS. Especially if you add in expedition and other extra content rolls/stuff. Defenses simply do not keep up.

I argue it makes the game feel... unpredictable. You have to check mods on rares as you're trying to fight them- it also forces you to play... safe. Because mobs do have extra damage, say chaos(oh boy), and the map already had additional damage- you need to be very much on your toes.

I would even offer than newer players are going to run into these things and be VERY confused why they've died. Not realizing they just hit a rare mob with a double +x% damage mod. Suddenly they just get hit by a truck, when nothing else was hurting them... they, for sure, are going to be saying what the fuck and turning off the game. Its simply not clear.

I don't think you need damage logs or anything, just- if something has extra damage or is more threatening- it should have clear indicators of this. For instance haste- you know when you're about to get fucked up and a mob is going to be a fast as fuck boy, its glowing red.

Additional damage should have similar indicators. There should be an overall threat gauge on a mob, and visual indicators to reflect it. More ice damage their hands glow blue, something.

Back to the main point.

Against all of this additional effort/threat, you're not gaining additional reward. Exp is a piece of this- likely the most tracked piece by your common player. There aren't many things to track endgame, exp is also very visual and easy to track.

You can die with the simplest mistake, which is completely fine with me- actually I WANT that; but if that is the case, I argue I should be getting something in exchange. Gear, exp, currency, something.

You will only get these things from higher level maps. Where the damage feels roughly the same, the mobs feel pretty much the same. Just for some reason now I'm getting exp.

Overall I feel like the risk to reward balance is quite off. Miles off. Its pretty much, you can die in a blink, and you'll rarely ever actually get anything. When you do, it'll roll poorly and you'll sell/disenchant the gear.

I think the game should be far more designed around fun, having a decent amount of resources to try gear- get to top, beat the game. Start over on another toon because it was a blast. That will keep people playing.

I've already played a couple different characters, which is not normal for me- so I think its already most of the way there. However I'm not an average gamer, I don't think its there for them yet.

This is just a small piece of the puzzle.