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Path of Exile - upcoming F2P Daiablo clone

Started by Syt, September 08, 2011, 12:53:54 AM

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Iormlund

That's my main problem with PoE. Everything is balanced with no-lifers and trading in mind (see Harvest clusterfuck). I don't have the time (or the inclination) to play PoE that much and hate trading.

With every Atlas expansion grinding gets worse and I get to finish less of the game.

I haven't touched the game in months, and didn't really want to play this league, but I will admit the gem and difficulty changes intrigue me.

Syt

I've been thinking about switching over to playing standard. I might have a few skill tree resets, but at least I can keep progressing for more than a couple of months with my character. :P
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

frunk

I've gotten to a point where I go into a league with no real expectation of getting that far in to the end game, just to play around with whatever has changed.  If I get particularly attached to a character I may go farther, but even then I rarely get past yellow maps before getting bored.

More frequently I'll go alt-aholic and create 3-4 characters to play around with each.  I find the development/progression with a build I haven't tried before (and probably won't work that well) the better use of my time than grinding maps.

FunkMonk

Ended up playing a little last night. They did indeed make it harder and slower. The league mechanic is also quite rewarding. I dropped a Tabula at level 7 and after sorting out my gems and mana costs I'm flying through Acts now  :lol:

Game is more challenging though, which I like. I'm actually having to think about what I'm doing.
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

Syt

I'm still on Act 1, but I like the league mechanic so far. However, it seems to have issues when you're in a dungeon with limited space; there were cases where I was unable to place the explosives near some of the chests/relics.

I had a level 24 unique ring drop from a mini boss in The Climb (level 7 area) ... that doesn't seem right? :unsure:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Iormlund

I was very intrigued about the Act 1 difficulty hike.

While it was somewhat harder, I would've enjoyed if they had amped it a bit more. My biggest issue was hitting that mana flask non-stop.

I finally went with an Ice Trap Saboteur. I'm blowing up bosses, but still in early Act 5, so that might change.

Syt

I'm in Act 3 now. I never used Lightning Strike before, but it's quite fun :D

I'm a bit miffed about Tujen in Expeditions. He only has items that require the lowest currency, but his events almost always only drop mid and highest currency, and no rerolls. :unsure:

Rog is also stingy with rerolls, but they do drop. And Gwennen drops them by the bucket :lol:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Syt

Looking back, I notice that I've played POE since Incursion 3 years ago. That's a pretty long time, and I at least dabbled with each league.

Incursion league (V3.3)
The first time I played. I had no idea what I was doing, and faced with Incursion encounters in maps was left with a WTF. "You only give me a few seconds to clear this whole map? WTF??" I then switched to standard with my first character that I took through the campaign (with help from viewers, as I was still streaming at the time). Since then, Incursion is one of my favorite activities. It's a good test for your build's clear speed, and I like piecing the temple together for the eventual raid.

Delve league (V3.4)
The first league where I really went deep (har!). I started following build guides, because I generally struggled coming up with viable builds because there's SO MANY OPTIONS and you can easily create a flawed build by using suboptimal passives or skill gem combinations. Delves are still fun, though I usually don't go super hard on them these days.

Betrayal league (V3.5)
After the huge Delve expansion, another major shakeup by replacing the Old Masters, and integrating previous league mechanics into the main game in their stead. A fun expansion, though the hunt for the crafting modifiers each season is a bit of a chore. It marked the start (I think?) where previous league mechanics were added to the standard game in the next league.

Synthesis league (V3.6)
A cool concept for creating maps from tiles you find and clearing maps. Similar to Incursion, and I liked the idea. I don't recall what the issue was, but the execution felt really lacking (I think the "wearing out" of tiles when you enter them, causing them to disappear played a role for me). The only league that wasn't really integrated into the game later on.

Legion league (V3.7)
Loved this league. Two armies frozen in time, and you "hit" as many as possible to wake them up. Survey the map first to see certain drops (uniques, chests, etc.) and whether there's generals that add additional drops which will allow for a "big" special battle. Really fun if you have a lot of clear speed (e.g. arc or cyclone). Always happy when one of these show up on a map nowadays.

Blight league (V3.8)
I don't like tower defense, but this is fun (though I find blighted maps quite stressful :lol: ). Also introduced annointments that let you craft skill tree notables onto amulets. Farming oils, though ... pretty expensive.

Metamorph league (V3.9)
Another league I liked a lot. Frankenstein themed, you collect body parts (and abilities) from enemies on the map and can combine them into a boss that will give special drops based on the parts you choose. Those bosses, if you make them strong enough can again drop a body part that you can later use to create a mega-boss. Once they made it so you pick up body parts automatically it was a really fun little diversion.

Delirium league (V3.10)
Delirium was ... fine. Rush through a map while the effect lasts (and stay ahead of the effect clearing up behind you) to kill a lot of stuff and get loot. You could also apply delirium orbs (if you had them) to maps to create pure delirium maps of varying difficulty.

Harvest league V3.11
Couldn't really get into this one. I liked the crafting you got from it, but I didn't enjoy the whole gardening aspect, optimizing how you planted your fields and how you watered them in three different colors. This could extremely streamlined when it was added to standard, and IMHO a bit too much.

Heist league V3.12
After some tweaks (originally killing guards increased alarm level - but there's no real stealth mechanic, so you ended up killing guards and not opening chests) this was fun, but a fair bit grindy. With enough contracts you could easily spend a day just doing heists (with some decent rewards, though). In standard I feel progression is a bit off. You need to level your helpers and give them gear, but you progress a bit fast to properly do that on low level contracts IMHO.

Ritual league V3.13
Kill enemies near the ritual circle to fight them again after they're revived. 3 rituals per map, with later circles adding the enemies from previous rituals. Decent fun, but not too special.

Ultimatum league V3.14
Select a modifier/handicap, then kill monster in a circle. Keep repeating for additional difficulty/loot. Did not enjoy it, because I felt my builds always failed after 3 or so modifiers, and I just started ignoring them (low level: shitty loot, high level: RIP).

Of the older leagues that are part of standard I do enjoy Essences, Bestiary, Breaches and Abyss. Though I feel the game starts to creak under the amount of old league mechanics showing up in the game now. Stuff like Delve, or Heist, which take place mostly off map help keep map encounters (Abyss, Legion, etc.) uncluttered, and I hope they will have more of those, though I understand that something the size of Heist or Delve can happen maybe once per year. That said, there's so much stuff now that it's quite easy to ignore the things you don't like and do the things you like (though Delve is something of a must, at least for the crafting bench unlocks - but you can do those by just following the "main road" without going into the dark bits much.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

crazy canuck

Quote from: Iormlund on July 24, 2021, 03:35:21 PM
I was very intrigued about the Act 1 difficulty hike.

While it was somewhat harder, I would've enjoyed if they had amped it a bit more. My biggest issue was hitting that mana flask non-stop.

I finally went with an Ice Trap Saboteur. I'm blowing up bosses, but still in early Act 5, so that might change.

I tried Act 1 - same impression.  Only moderately more difficult but being a moderate step up from brain dead easy isn't much of an improvement.  Back on the shelf this goes for me. 

Syt

#699
Still very slowly making my way through the campaign.

I like Expedition league and I hate it, or rather am disappointed in it. The set up of setting charges to affect your challenge and chance for reward is cool. But the rewards seem very uneven. Sometimes I apply modifiers to monster drops, and they drop nothing. Same with chests. Other times I get tons of (basic) loot from monsters even though I used only chest modifiers or vice versa. It feels incredibly random and uneven, and it creates the impression that the modifiers don't change the results much.

The "big" rewards are supposed to be obtained from the Expedition characters and their gamble/trade mechanics, and from Logbooks. However, the currency for trading with them drops incredibly unevenly, regardless of modifiers, and the currency to re-roll their offerings is even worse (except Gewennen, her currency and re-rolls drop at a reasonable pace, which makes sense as often times you get a piece of blue crap from her :P ).

So the mechanic is fun, but the rewards are often very underwhelming, even if you try to optimize use of the mechanics.

I think Logbooks (bigger excavation sites) are cool, but seem to drop incredibly randomly and sparsely, with some players reporting not getting any during the entire campaign, while I got 2 till Act 4.

I feel some rebalancing of the drop tables is required.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.


Syt

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

frunk

I thought they were map only drops.  I've gotten 2 but only in maps.1

Syt

As said, it seems extremely random.

Btw, have drop tables been changed? I feel I find significantly fewer scrolls of wisdom, orbs of scouring and generally less currency or useful gear.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

frunk

Quote from: Syt on July 29, 2021, 11:06:44 PM
As said, it seems extremely random.

Btw, have drop tables been changed? I feel I find significantly fewer scrolls of wisdom, orbs of scouring and generally less currency or useful gear.

I haven't noticed anything.  Did you make sure your loot filter is updated?