The 6-8 hour mandatory tutorial

Being a Veteran of PoE with 8k+ hours in this game, it is an understatement that i enjoy this game. In fact i enjoy it more than any other game i have played so far. But lately i haven't been able to cross the hurdle that is the campaign.

I am in no way fast at this and on a fresh league start, it usually takes me 6-7 hours to slog my way through.

But having done this 100+ times i am now at a point where i, at league start, play for 20 or so minutes, or until i crash, and just can't get myself to continue or log in again.

I sit and look at this like homework i don't like doing and wonder why i have to. Do i have to? No i don't and put on a movie or something.

I see streamers on YouTube playing the game i love because they can get past the dreadfully boring and slow campaign and i don't. You would think just doing it would be easy enough but having ADHD it is about as easy as doing any other thing i don't enjoy.. Not easy at all.

So, this rant is meant to ask you the reader or if luck is by my side you developer. Why do we have to play through the campaign for the gazillionth time?
It is so slow and boring and not fun for anyone.

Here is my suggestion to remedy this: After you defeat some endgame boss (say Maven or whoever) and thereby show you have some understanding of the game. You get an option to start at 58 with 2 or 3 labs done. Bad gear that can only be traded for scroll fragments and 2 or 3 maps to get you started.
There..

Why do we have to start so slow when the game is so fast and meant to be played fast? Imagine a racing game telling to to drive 5mph for 6 hours before you get to race.. Would you play that?

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Bleaq#5977 wrote:

Why do we have to start so slow when the game is so fast and meant to be played fast? Imagine a racing game telling to to drive 5mph for 6 hours before you get to race.. Would you play that?

Well, I'm sure there are exceptions, but in general you do start with slower cars in racing games before you get to afford faster ones.

You aren't the first one to suggest a campaign skip but I doubt they'll ever let you do it. Personally I level one character per league so it's no problem to me.

If you seriously need 8 hours to level an alt after skipping the campaign, that’s not a game issue, that’s 100% on you. With access to leveling gear, friends to give you access to waypoints and skipping lab trials there’s no reason it should take more than 3 hours at the absolute slowest. And that's being generous.

Now about this “start with preset gear” idea, that just straight-up makes no sense. Every character progresses differently depending on the build, and gear scaling is tied to that progression. Starting with random preset gear means you might not even be able to use your desired build properly, let alone survive mapping. You’d be stuck trying to make broken pieces work just to hit 84 so you can finally use the stash you already prepared? That’s not streamlining, that’s shooting yourself in the foot.

Let’s be real, the real solution isn’t more hand-holding, it’s just learning how to play efficiently. If you’ve done the campaign dozens of times and still can’t figure out how to run it quick, it’s time to look in the mirror.

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VoidWhisperer42#5989 wrote:

...there’s no reason it should take more than 3 hours at the absolute slowest. And that's being generous.

what the... what is considered a fast campaign playthrough these days in poe1? if 3h is 'generous' im genuinely curious

Nope, but lol at campaign in 3 hours.

Show your video how you league start a 3 hour campaign, good luck with that haha. SOme people can do it, but not you sir, otherwise you wouldn't bother to post here.

I think a 7-8 hour league start is pretty solid and above average. 5 hours is already very fast.
There is nothing wrong with having to play the campaign. Games that skip this step usually lose to much flavor and are not considered that good. It is supposed to be grindy. Learn to like the campaign and play some act 1 runs before league start when you are bored, it helps a bit.

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AintCare#6513 wrote:

what the... what is considered a fast campaign playthrough these days in poe1? if 3h is 'generous' im genuinely curious

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Strickl3r#3809 wrote:

Nope, but lol at campaign in 3 hours.

Show your video how you league start a 3 hour campaign, good luck with that haha. SOme people can do it, but not you sir, otherwise you wouldn't bother to post here.

I think a 7-8 hour league start is pretty solid and above average. 5 hours is already very fast.
There is nothing wrong with having to play the campaign. Games that skip this step usually lose to much flavor and are not considered that good. It is supposed to be grindy. Learn to like the campaign and play some act 1 runs before league start when you are bored, it helps a bit.

Saying 3h on an alt is unrealistic is a bit of a stretch, if anything, that’s being generous. With proper leveling gear, sub-2h is entirely achievable, and with waypoint assistance, even sub-1h isn’t out of the question. So no, that 3h figure wasn’t exactly far-fetched.

As for fresh league starts let’s be honest. Taking 8+ hours to finish the campaign isn’t the norm unless your routing or execution is holding you back. Plenty of players, not just speedrunners, are already mapping or well into Eater/Exarch territory by that point, even in SSF.

Just because you can’t do it doesn’t make it unrealistic. Maybe the issue isn’t what others claim is possible, maybe it’s time to refine your own runs instead of expecting people to record hours of footage just to validate something you refuse to believe.

At the end of the day, all you've really exposed is your own ceiling.

GGG already said that 10-12 hours is the average for veteran players it's no secret they have the data. So you live in some kind of bubble. Also funny that this comes from a player who hasn't touched the league. You are just projecting what you watch on stream i guess.

And who does waypoint assists, what the heck??? More elite bubble here.

A lot of streamers even need 7-8 hours for the campaign on league start.
If someone says i can do campaign in 5 hours fine...but 3 hours need video proof as it is speed runner territory. No video = did not happen.

I too hate the campaign, but I don't understand feeling that way at league start. Running it multiple times a league for new chars is miserable, but fresh toon fresh league, every drop is back to being exciting and valuable.

Maybe try swapping to SSF or HC if you are so over the content?

I feel like this is going to be more of a detriment to Path of Exile 2. That game's campaign is such a slog and no matter how hard you push WASD, you don't move any faster.

PoE1's campaign was fun for 10 years but sheesh it's so old now and it's always stopped me from trying new builds mid league. I wish we just had to finish the campaign once per league per class or something like that, since they'd never dare do something like once per league. Then they could freely extend the grind of the end game 3x what we saved in the campaign but it would feel way more fun - for a while.

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Strickl3r#3809 wrote:

GGG already said that 10-12 hours is the average for veteran players it's no secret they have the data. So you live in some kind of bubble.

If 12 hours is considered the "average" time to complete the campaign, how come a large chunk of players are already past level 80 on day one? Realistically, that level of progress should take even experienced players more than 24 hours, based on that 12-hour campaign benchmark.

It's also worth noting that not every account is tracked on PoE Ninja, yet even with the limited data, we can already see tens of thousands of characters well into the endgame. That alone speaks volumes about how achievable fast progression has become. It's clear that not all 24k+ characters are elite speedrunners—those are the ones hitting level 100 by day two, not just finishing the campaign in a few hours.

At this point, getting through the campaign quickly just isn’t all that remarkable anymore. That 12-hour figure might reflect your experience or pacing, but that's once again based on your own ceiling—and doesn’t really align with how the broader playerbase performs nowadays.
Statements made by GGG years ago don’t really align with today’s standards anymore.

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Strickl3r#3809 wrote:

Also funny that this comes from a player who hasn't touched the league. You are just projecting what you watch on stream i guess.

I don’t want to disappoint you or crush your expectations, but I don’t really spend my time watching others play the game, that's just never been my thing.

As for this league, I skipped it at launch because I had zero interest in dealing with the usual early server struggles, and honestly, the league mechanic didn’t seem interesting enough to make it worth the hassle. That combination was more than enough reason for me not to bother this time around.

That said, skipping a league doesn’t make what I’m saying any less valid. The current league isn’t the only way to engage with Path of Exile—it’s not the first, it won’t be the last, and it’s definitely not the only way to play. Standard exists, after all.

And before we go down the whole “standard is broken” path—my experience comes from past leagues and solo self-found runs, starting from scratch just like anyone else would in a fresh league. Sitting this one out doesn’t suddenly erase that.

Once again, it feels like you’re projecting your own experience or performance onto the entire community, when in reality, a lot of players don’t struggle the same way. Most aren’t hardstuck in the campaign for 12+ hours by that point, many are already farming currency or progressing through their atlas.

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Strickl3r#3809 wrote:

And who does waypoint assists, what the heck??? More elite bubble here.

Calling it some “elite bubble” just because it's an absurdly simple way to rush alts through the campaign faster than solid leveling gear allows? Please. You can save a ton of time by skipping entire zones.

I get that for someone who struggles with the campaign and takes 12+ hours, this might sound wild, but it’s literally just asking a friend for 20 minutes to drop waypoints, and boom, your already fast alt is zooming even faster. It's not even that much of a wild concept. But even without the help it's fast a quick deal.

Sure, some people might not have friends—unfortunate for them, I guess—but that doesn't mean those who do are suddenly rocking “elite” status. It’s not that serious.

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Strickl3r#3809 wrote:

A lot of streamers even need 7-8 hours for the campaign on league start.

Since you brought up watching streamers earlier, maybe you should spend a bit more time learning how to rush the campaign instead of watching others play. Just maybe, you'll realize that it's really not that hard anymore to finish it within a reasonable time.

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Strickl3r#3809 wrote:

If someone says i can do campaign in 5 hours fine...but 3 hours need video proof as it is speed runner territory. No video = did not happen.

With a quick Google check, the current A10 “speedrun” sits at around 2 hours, so no, 3-4 hours for a fresh start or 2-3 hours for an alt isn’t even close to speedrun territory. Let’s not pretend that achievable times are some exclusive achievement for speedrunners just because your own time is stuck at a much higher mark. No shame if you need 12 hours, but let’s not act like your performance reflects every other player

If you require video proof, good luck with that. No one’s going to run a character, record it, and upload it just to amuse you or validate your doubts. That’s the job of your favorite content creator, paid to craft hours of entertainment for your viewing pleasure. But don’t expect the average player, who’s simply enjoying the game and not profiting from it, to offer up 3 hours of curated content to you.

But hey, if you're still convinced that 12 hours is the “standard,” that says more about you than anything else. Ultimately, this is more of a you issue than anyone else’s to be honest.