Standard vs. Affliction

Hello guys, casual lurker scrub.

I have played PoE occasionally from back when piety was the final boss. I would play a league then quit for 1.5 years and play another league. While affliction definitely looks fun, the time requirement seems too high for me to enjoy the league. I work full time and have to do everything by myself around the house so my playtime is limited. Every league I would start a toon, and hope that maybe this league I can get to end game content but never got to a point where I could do high delves, juiced maps or uber bosses because the league would just end before I got there. So I was thinking maybe standard is more appropriate for me? My only concern is that the general consensus seems to be that standard is a general graveyard socially and economically, does anyone play standard who can share their perspective on this and their general experience?

Thank you.

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Ael00 wrote:

standard is a general graveyard socially and economically

Thats not true at all.
On Steam alone there were over 90k players online the last 24 hours.

You find much more and better items in standard than in league.
And despite league items for a much better price.

The only thing you would "miss out" is the league mechanic,
which only the top players really benefit from anyway.

double post

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LoTharios wrote:

"

Ael00 wrote:

standard is a general graveyard socially and economically

Thats not true at all.
On Steam alone there were over 90k players online the last 24 hours.

You find much more and better items in standard than in league.
And despite league items for a much better price.

The only thing you would "miss out" is the league mechanic,
which only the top players really benefit from anyway.

Saying that 90k players on steam has nothing to do with standard though.

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Ael00 wrote:

... Every league I would start a toon, and hope that maybe this league I can get to end game content but never got to a point where I could do high delves, juiced maps or uber bosses because the league would just end before I got there. So I was thinking maybe standard is more appropriate for me?

POE is definitely something where you need to match expectations to time available. Deep delves and seriously juiced maps do require seriously geared toons, and it takes time to generate the currency, whether you're buying or crafting. Playing Standard won't change that, and will probably make it more difficult. But someone who plays regularly in Standard can comment better.

Another approach is to play SSF, or even Ruthlesss, and just enjoy the journey. See what drops for you and accomplish what you can with it.

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Deep delves and seriously juiced maps do require seriously geared toons, and it takes time to generate the currency, whether you're buying or crafting. Playing Standard won't change that, and will probably make it more difficult.

Why would it make it more difficult? From my understanding its the exact opposite since there is no time restraint and it doesn't matter if you get there in 3 months or 7 months.

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Ael00 wrote:

Why would it make it more difficult? From my understanding its the exact opposite since there is no time restraint and it doesn't matter if you get there in 3 months or 7 months.

My experience with Standard is a bit out of date, so take this with a grain of salt, but ...

Items were generally more expensive, which is only a problem if you don't already have a ton of currency moved into Standard.

Far fewer people were playing there (about 5% or so of the player base), making it harder to buy things.

The current league often has OP stuff that can make it easier/faster to max out your toon. Most of that gets nerfed before it ever gets moved to standard.

Builds that are meta (or at least very solid) when you start them will often be nerfed at some point along the way, and can suddenly become very mediocre (= not nearly as scalable, which is what makes OP builds possible.)

But yes, there is no time constraint, so that is one advantage as long as the build doesn't get nerfed too badly! You can always try advancing one of your old characters and see how it works. You should have a free passive respec on everyone.