500k+ to Less than 80k players in just over a month, Impressive.

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Groby#4334 wrote:

I'd play the PoE 2 SSF Standard right now, but that is not an option!

Not even campaign? I don't think i've quite enjoyed any arpg as much as this one playing with falling thunder monk. The animation for that skill and how it scales with powercharges is so good. Plus monk is super well balanced in campaign, so i highly recommend giving it a shot. The difficulty is juust right to really make u sweat, so learning the bosse's moves feels super rewarding.

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Groby#4334 wrote:

POE2 didn't even release yet...

The game looks downloadable and playable to me. Must be hallucinating again. Going to have a talk with my dealer.

Guarantee the majority of players left after reaching end game and realizing how astoundingly ass it currently is.

I pray GGG changes their stance on the current state of "crafting" because it's nearly 100% responsible for how bad end game feels.

The focus on RNG at nearly all stages of crafting (excluding essences) ensures you have to spend hundreds of resources to craft a single item. Which requires divs and whittling omens or you're going to be spending even more currency on each craft. Unfortunately these two currencies are so rare the vast majority of players don't see their first div till they hit 150-200 hour mark not to mention the additional 50 hours they have to spend before they see their first whittling omen.

This pushes players to engage with trade, which is made intentionally obtuse to push them away from engaging with it too much. Which is unnecessarily confusing and contradictory.

Unfortunately the crafting issues worsen the natural inflation boom that happens as more and more players reach endgame. Exalts become nearly worthless and whit omens become unaffordable for average players, again pushing them to engage with trade rather than the "crafting" system. Which again gets even worse if they fall behind the ever ballooning inflation.

All of this results in a grueling end game for people who aren't willing to engage with or are unaware of the many 3rd party resources the community has put together to make up for these shortcomings.

I like the game, but I'm a power user, I've put in 500 hours since EA started (which isn't even that much compared to other power users). I just can't imagine anyone that isn't hardcore into this game specifically coming back if things stay the way they currently are.

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Reaucat#1569 wrote:

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Groby#4334 wrote:

I'd play the PoE 2 SSF Standard right now, but that is not an option!

Not even campaign? I don't think i've quite enjoyed any arpg as much as this one playing with falling thunder monk. The animation for that skill and how it scales with powercharges is so good. Plus monk is super well balanced in campaign, so i highly recommend giving it a shot. The difficulty is juust right to really make u sweat, so learning the bosse's moves feels super rewarding.

I did finish the normal campaign (3 acts) and even ascended a witch. I did see what the game is all about. Despite all of the flaws the game might have, they are not what stops me. I just don't want to grind for nothing, play some mystery early access league only, that might be wiped completely at a later date anyway... I play SSF, so finding good items actually matters to me. I'm simply waiting for an official release of a "full" version, whatever it might be. What matters to me is playing an SSF "Standard-like" league, that will be still accessible years down the line.

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GorboMcDuggins#5744 wrote:

This pushes players to engage with trade, which is made intentionally obtuse to push them away from engaging with it too much. Which is unnecessarily confusing and contradictory.

OH cmon now, care to support that with anyhting more substantive than "they could have done better"? In what ways is it "unnecessarily confusing and contradictory"?

I'm sorry i just don't see it. It took a single yt vid to figure it out. and thanks to the horde of content creators there's sooo many of them out there.

Speaking as a new player, who got to t15's just as the dupe bug got patched, on the weekend when ex started tanking. Even with that it wasn't too hard to continue investing into gear.

And inflation isn't so bad, the only strata of players that is affected are those stuck in the "i got a good weapon, but not quite good enough for it to appreciate in pace with inflation". Looking at you, q-staff sitting right on that 740 physdps borderline.

Everyone else is literally unaffected.
Those below the line get access to increasingly more powerful gear for decreasing prices (due to increased availability and people outgrowing their gear).
And those above the line have their gear appreciate at the rate of inflation and simply sell a piece, add a few divs, and buy the next upgrade.

People always talk about how stuff gets more expensive. but nobody talks about how very decent gear (that will easily take you to middle of lategame) becomes dirt cheap.

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Groby#4334 wrote:

I play SSF, so finding good items actually matters to me. I'm simply waiting for an official release of a "full" version, whatever it might be. What matters to me is playing an SSF "Standard-like" league, that will be still accessible years down the line.

Oh i see, that makes sense then. Yeah you're probably gonna have to wait a while then. And 100 %, as someone who's done the grind, it's not all that worth right now. I just REALLLLLLY like playing my monk, so it didnt feel grindy at all. Plus i had a friend to compete with. Finally clapped him when i got 2 ingenuities from my first 2 audiences.

There are only three acts, 6 characters and 2 ancestries per character, there is a lot of content and improvements missing in the endgame, it is normal for it to deflate after two months without news.
Poe loses 50% of its players in just three weeks from the start of each one, and it does not reach a peak of players as high as Poe 2 has. People come in and do what they want and leave until the next league or patch with content, it has always been like that. For my part, I have played more than 700 hours and I have completed all the content that exists in the game and I have a team of more than 500 div, I have nothing left to do here until the next league.

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Reaucat#1569 wrote:

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GorboMcDuggins#5744 wrote:

This pushes players to engage with trade, which is made intentionally obtuse to push them away from engaging with it too much. Which is unnecessarily confusing and contradictory.

OH cmon now, care to support that with anyhting more substantive than "they could have done better"? In what ways is it "unnecessarily confusing and contradictory"?

In the very obvious way that it's contradictory. GGG has outright stated they don't want players to engage with trading without it having friction (i.e. annoying) because they don't want the game to be trade focused. All the while they push players to engage with trade because the crafting system is worthless.

"

Speaking as a new player, who got to t15's just as the dupe bug got patched, on the weekend when ex started tanking. Even with that it wasn't too hard to continue investing into gear.

You're not the type of player I'm talking about. You, like me, ran through the entire campaign in a weekend. Average players are not doing this.

"

And inflation isn't so bad, the only strata of players that is affected are those stuck in the "i got a good weapon, but not quite good enough for it to appreciate in pace with inflation". Looking at you, q-staff sitting right on that 740 physdps borderline.

Everyone else is literally unaffected.
Those below the line get access to increasingly more powerful gear for decreasing prices (due to increased availability and people outgrowing their gear).
And those above the line have their gear appreciate at the rate of inflation and simply sell a piece, add a few divs, and buy the next upgrade.

People always talk about how stuff gets more expensive. but nobody talks about how very decent gear (that will easily take you to middle of lategame) becomes dirt cheap.

Prices have stabilized now after the majority of players have left. However, that's because demand has dropped massively. Prior to the demand drop prices were increasing due to the ever decreasing value of exalts.

Regardless none of this justifies the abysmal state of crafting or how badly it feels being forced to engage with trade to progress in end game.

a majority of people playing dont use steam and are using the standalone client.

there are also playstation and xbox users that are not included.


i think a major issue is people are treating this like a full game release, balanced and good to go.

GGG is afraid to push important updates out in a timely manner because the one time they did do it everyone cried.

let them make the changes that are necessary and stop forcing a road block because you followed broken cookie cutter flavor of the month guide that is obviously not intentional.

personally in early access i really would not care if they deleted progress every month to throw in more stuff to be tested and balanced.

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arpgaddict#1346 wrote:

poe 2 was a MASSIVE failure.

And what is poe1 at 5k players?