Recent Topics from Community Podcasts

The Problems with Path of Exile

It feels to me, as a player since Harbinger league, that our community consists of several levels of player 'skill'. For simplicity, I will refer to these levels as novice, intermediate, advanced and 'professional' (by which I mean not only the streamers but those that also play at that level of 'skill'.).
For the purposes of this discussion I would consider myself to be an intermediate player bordering on the advanced level for some things but by no means all.
Recent changes, and to a large degree many previous ones as well, have both failed (IMHO) to achieve the devs objectives (in any way but short term) and have garnered considerable condemnation from a large part (not necessarily the majority) of the player base.
I for one have no issues whatsoever with balance, slower pace, power-creep reversion etc.. I do however have issue with nerfs for the sake of nerfs, or because it is an easy fix to larger issues.
With the above in mind, I would like to make some personal observations that might improve the state of the game for many whilst also achieving what appears to be dev objectives.

1) The game is far too complex to resolve build issues with simple nerfs. The wider problem is mod/skill interaction. As such nerfs should not be made to mods and skills but to their interactions.
For example the devs clearly wanted to slow the game, but did so by (amongst other things) nerfing quicksilver flasks via a reduced charge recovery. Whilst this indeed had a slowing effect it was felt most by the novice and intermediate players, slightly by the advanced players and barely at all by the 'professional' players. The advanced+ players simply combine quicksilver flasks with tailwind, passives, mods etc and still achieve more than enough speed, whilst the novice/intermediate player is punished the most. However if the nerf came as say a diminishing return to +movement options the speed changes would be lesser on the novice/intermediate player and greater on the more skilled player whilst still offering some benefit.
Whilst this is just one, currently hot-topic, example the same could be applied to a lot of unpopular nerfs that have occurred both recently and historically.

2) Flasks and flask charge recovery. Whilst I understand why the devs wanted to stop pianoing and over flask usage, the way they did it was inefficient. Flask charge recovery could have been reduced globally but with the same sources as before rather than removing a source of charge recovery. Furthermore if it was true that pianoing was the thing the devs wished to remove from the game then a simple and short global flask cool down would have achieved this. The new flask crafting currencies are a good idea, but they shouldn't be limited to just utility flasks, they should be able to be used on all flask types but with restrictions to what outcomes can be obtained based on flask type.

3) Passive tree refunds/resets. This is something I read about today and found interesting.
The novice and intermediate player tends to either not have the expertise to make informed choices whilst leveling, or is restricted to following a guide.
If the devs want to grow their player base (which will be done with novice players) and at the same time encourage diversity then perhaps one way is to offer 'free' passive tree resets.
Perhaps a 'Flask of Amnesia' could be introduced that would completely reset the entire passive tree including any spent ascendancy points. This of course would be abused if it was unlimited so, to limit that, perhaps it could cost 5 regrets and a mana flask until first Kitava kill, 10 regrets and a mana flask until second Kitava kill and become disabled once you achieved level 75 or full ascensions (which ever came first). This would allow a pseudo unlimited method for novices to learn about the passive tree whilst also offering some protection to the game from abuse in endgame.

4) The campaign is fine as it is and there is no need to allow players to bypass it. Whilst it can be a chore to those that just want to play the endgame it is also a buffer to that endgame.
Having said that, perhaps there could be a shortened path through the campaign (maybe no quests just zoom the areas to the final act objective and get the full campaign reward (skill points) when you kill the act final boss) for additional characters once your first league character has completed the full campaign.

5) Currencies. League currencies and 'bread and butter' loot (such as scrolls and maps) should be auto looted at all times. League currencies should be looted to a league stash directly so as not to fill up inventory and scrolls and maps to the inventory, so they can be discarded if they become an issue. The advanced+ player will say they dont need scrolls in late endgame, and they'd of course be correct, but this could be resolved by significantly reducing the rate of drop of such items in late maps as the transmute vendor recipe would cover the needs of wisdom and portal scrolls efficiently by then.

6) Map 'tokens'. Once endgame is reached the most important item is maps (the tokens that drop to enable the player to continue playing). These drops need to be balanced.
For the purposes of this section I will refer to map sustain as being maps that drop at the same level as you are playing (i.e. +0) and map progression as being maps that drop at a higher level than you are playing (i.e. +1 or +2).
Current map sustain is too low by far in white maps, inadequate in yellow maps and about right in red maps (although personally I wouldn't mind a tiny bit more). The novice/intermediate player doesn't have the expertise (or for that matter the currency) to 'juice' up maps mods to maximize map drops, they shouldn't be punished for this with insufficient maps to keep playing.
The advanced+ player has the experience and resources to get more than enough sustain, perhaps even an excess, and can sell any excess to make nominal profit for themselves and give adequate and cheap trade sources for the novice struggling.
Map progression, given that the devs seem to want to slow the game down a lot, is too high. In white maps its about right but from yellow maps onward +1/+2 maps should be rarer than they currently are (slightly rarer in yellows and more so in reds). Given that map sustains would be improved a bad rng spell of progressive maps would be negated by the 3:1 map vendor recipe anyway.

7) Monsters. IF challenge is a desired effect the devs wish for the game then bosses could be more complex and tougher (from act one onward). However trash mobs should not be able to one shot a build no matter how many rare mod iterations they give each other. There is a measurable number of players asking for a 'death log' and the reason is, to some degree, that a player at any level at any time can be killed by something that was unseen and unavoidable. NOTHING should be able to do this in game, a death should always be avoidable through either player skill or defence. I for one would take a 1000 'meteor' (pre nerf when it could one shot you) deaths because I failed to avoid it than a single 'off-screen unavoidable white mob one shot'.

8) Loot. Whilst the diversity of loot mods is fantastic and diverse it is too much. Picking up a 1000 rares to not find one that is of any use to anyone is annoying, but at the same time we shouldn't get quick and easy upgrades either.
Crafting should be more deterministic, mods rolls more tailored (so say dex cant roll naturally on a int base but can be crafted onto it if needed). This of course would be too enabling to players so as a counter-balance to this 'buff' mods could roll as only lower tiers and then required extensive crafting to boost those tiers incrementally.
So, for example, I want an item with life, mana and energy shield then this should be far far easier to achieve but with poor tiers. I could then with significant investment boost those tiers, without risk to the mods themselves, slowly over time to get the item better and better and finally craft the rarest mods onto the item for great expense as a final step.
Harvest wasn't popular because of how 'broken' it was (and there is no doubt it was) but it was popular because players could make deterministic crafts that might take a long time to make but progress was being made. Fine it was too deterministic and too quick and cheap but the principle of having an objective that was obtainable and progressive was its appeal.

Whilst this is by no means an extensive list of the issues I see discussed on a daily basis it is a start. It may not be perfect, it may not be feasible and it may not be what everyone wants.
Time will tell.

Thanks, that was a good summary for those who didn't follow the lives and all the discussions about the upcoming updates.

You're so great folks, peace and health!

SOUTH AFRICAN SERVERS yay!

When it comes to items, please also consider Harvest uniques to be possible to be chanced and not be boss-specific. Especially since the encounter itself is rare af.

"We don't want the game in a playable state, so we will further nerf defences"

OK

I like that I won't need to pick up those breach splinters in stacks of one lol

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archzilllla wrote:

It's cute that harvest isn't even mentioned once, Chris must truly hate it.

I've never had more fun than harvest league, deterministic crafting is what the game needed. It's sad to see you doubling down on shit gamble crafting.

Indeed...

Hoping to see a comeback to Ultimatum and Ultimatum uniques (even if only obtainable from div cards) in 3.16

Some of them were very interesting and truly "unique" to build around, I had a lot of fun with those and I was sad to see that they were not able to obtained in 3.15.


Fortify nerfs look concerning already (especially since GGG only mentions "self-casters" in that context), hope they get it right.

I am actually "scared" when they talk about "usual balance adjustments" => people don't want the usual adjustments, those gone wrong terribly in the past sometimes as we know: rather than balancing and adjusting OP builds mostly entire skills got basically unusable.
I wish GGG would put a greater focus on nerfing problematic mechanics and interaction used in OP builds, rather than just gutting skill and support gems.

Getting communication about nerfs out early and gathering is a great approach - we will see how it goes and if GGG will actually listen.

just my 2c


EDIT: Oh, Harvest not even mentioned at all? Players want to know what GGG is going to do about Harvest Crafting. Nerfing it further would result in a massive uproar. Especially since GGG is planning to add new mods to items/deluting the mod pool further, which makes it even harder to get a good item.

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adding additional Jewel mods to the regular jewel mod pool that allow for mitigating ailments.

Diluting the crafting pool sounds like a nerf to crafting good jewels.

Very little hope for the future of this game. Poe2 looks good. But if its the same crap with onely better graphics nvm... i might be realy done with this game. They have lost their touch and control over this game. At least it feels like that. They don't know wtf.