Why Even Drop SoW any more?

I *liked* Scrolls of Wisdom. And not because gamba. There's something visceral and connective about having to use Scrolls of Wisdom and click to identify items. It's already plenty easy with holding shift while clicking through them.

Unfortunately, now they're pointless. And now that you opened this box, it's not getting closed again, and I'm sad. Just talk to Helena (or others) and *poof* everything ID'd for free. It didn't even come by a single NPC who had a quest like Cain in Diablo 2.

Why even drop items unidentified in the first place, just identify everything when it drops. We know you have the tech for that from Lockboxes.

It's such a small thing to 'fix', and has such a big impact on feel of the game. I truly would love to have been a spider under the table for the developer discussions that led to this.

At this point, why even have Scrolls of Wisdom in the game? Heck, why have Portal Scrolls? Just give everyone the portal spell inherently and cut the cast time to 0.

i think it all has to do with coming from a different time.

one of my biggest complaints of poe is its ultra stingy with crafting currency.

the reality is actually crafting is a benefit given to players. the game was originally meant to mimic diablo 1/2.

back in those games a good magic item can be much better than a rare with six random but shitty mods.

also rare items were noob traps.

during those times, we picked up even magic items as they could be valuable.

but that is not the same in poe.

i remember when i was younger it took me literal days or even weeks to finish the campaign for d1/2. we didnt need to follow builds to do so. we were very unoptimized but for the most part there was a lot of organic growth.

in poe TODAY. we have people hitting level 100 on DAY ONE league start.

the game is much more faster. i only ID gear that i think has value. else the id scrolls are more valuable.

also, trade is much more accessible.

at level 14 i get shiversting

at level 22 i get edge of madness

at level 44 i get rigwalds charge

at level 51 i get terminus est

all these uniques cost what? 1c- 3c? some people sell them for even less. having one of these uniques makes my 2 h melee experience progress so much easier. i literally do not pick up any weapons anymore let alone ID them.

so yeah. id scrolls are a relic of the past. and if i m being honest, TP scrolls too.

during league start, if you were in my guild you would see me and my guildies constantly quitting to login screen and back.

why? its cheaper to do that to get back to town rather than eat a portal scroll.

but once later in game we eat portal scrolls casually once they become abundant. on std i have so literal thousands of ID and portal scrolls. i have minor OCD as i value items that drop. even 240 ID scrolls could be sold for 1 chaos.

there was a time that i used to do chaos recipes too. unid items were the best.

we really do not need scrolls today and should not need them. its a relic of the past

I'm a bit undecided if I want them to stay or go.

One thing I think is good about them is it causes the player to have an active role in hunting for gear, rather than relying 100% on a loot filter.

I leave 99.99% of rares on the ground. Only ones I grab are of specific base types I use for my build, amulets if I'm not feeling lazy, or fractured items. Most get tossed back on the ground right away. Same kinda thing happens with unidentified uniques, but the icon is enough to judge by.

If everything dropped identified that process would get eliminated. Which could be better and maybe im just being a stick in the mud stuck with an older mindset.


*also if you're low on scrolls, vendoring 1 stack of transmutes gives like 4 stacks of scrolls

I completely understand that feeling. The Scrolls of Wisdom were more than just a click—they were a little ritual, a moment of tension and curiosity. Automatically identifying everything is smoother, yes… but it’s also a bit colder. These little frictions were part of Path of Exile’s DNA, and their disappearance makes the experience smoother, but less vibrant.

Items dropping identified ruins the loot experience when loot filters are a thing. You would just disable everything that doesn't have the exact mods you want and then you'd basically never see anything drop which removes all excitement from the game. There is a dopamine hit to seeing a bunch of potentially useful items popping out onto the ground after killing something, even if after going through those items you don't end up using any of them.

That said, scrolls are now essentially useless junk and might as well be removed from the game. In theory there is a limit to how much you can carry off a map, and using scrolls on the map and dropping bad items on the ground would allow you to carry more out. In practice, nobody is doing that, it's an absurd waste of time.

At this point they should just remove scrolls, both wisdom and portal. Let us ID items in our inventory for free or at bulk from the NPC, and give everyone a free portal ability. Portal scrolls were never "limited" past act 1 anyway, and wisdom scrolls were just a tedium cost that nobody is going to engage with anymore.

Sometimes you might want to sell an item unID’d so automatically IDing everything is not the way to go. If you don’t want to see scrolls just hide them in the loot filter or make it so only large stacks are visible.