Feedback on 1.2/Masters

Just some random thoughts.

About me
I'm playing very casual this league (one 85, last season it was six dudes between 85 and 91), but I'm playing this game long enough to kind of "know what I am doing".
I don't care too much about "grinding for 100%" (Meaning: I'll never have mirrored gear, I'll never see Uber Atziri or reach Level 100), and I honestly don't care. I've found my spot in this game and am having fun, without a feeling of "this game doesn't give me what I need".

So see this as "casual feedback".

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Masters

The general idea is wonderful!
Finally you are able to do some "crafting" on your own, you are no longer depending 100% on trade to get your resists up, your gems linked or your DPS in a comfortable position.
I especially like that the crafted mods are somewhere in the middle, not tier 1, but not useless (as a casual, they are pretty much what I can expect).
If you know how it's done and what to look for, you can easily craft some nice gear on your own.


I quickly realized that it's fairly easy to get them all to level 6 (even without farming for them), but then it is a grindfest. But again, that's ok to me, same as Level 100, I just don't think I need to do this, but others maybe want it, so they have something to work for. Fine.

It's a nice bonus that they sell quality gems. I hope this will not get nerfed, I get at least twice as many GCP as last league.

What they really need: more variations!
Both their dialogues and their missions are very repetitive.

Haku
His mods are fine, his missions are quite boring, it's always the same. They are super easy, just walk in, click spirit, walk back. Some more variaton would be nice.

Vorici
I love the missions, you actually have to adapt to solve some of them (open chest, keep on low life or kill exile, not guards).
The crafting prices seem to be a bit high, I 5-Linked a lot of armors, and all in less than 50 fusing. And I doubt me and most other players will ever have 1500 fusings. ;)

Elreon
His missions are stupidly easy. Is it even theoretically possible that the spawning attackers destroy the runestone? I'm playing melee, and never did that thing get some serious damage.
Crafting mods - same as Haku, wonderful.

Catarina
Her missions are... ok. The design is alright, it is just annoying that you have to lead the resurrected minions very carefully, they have a horrible pathing/AI.

Vagan
His mission is just a gearcheck. At 60, I couldn't beat him. Now I almost oneshoot him.
He had some variety in the beginning (like: kill more dummies than he does), but the last 50something times, I just had to murder him, "and even Daresso remembers this fight"... not.
His crafting is probably the most important, as in this game, it is impossible to get a solid weapon without at least 2-3 important affixes.

Tora
Great missions, but I don't care about her mods. ;)

Zana
I love this girl. Free maps to play, with interesting missions, especially the timed ones are fun.
Her crafting prices are beyond crazy. Paying multiple Exalted Orbs for some additional boss?

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New skilltree

I overall like it. More notables, some interesting new clusters, more accessible crit in the lower part of the tree (now you can kind of keep up with daggers).
There's some parts I don't like too much, especially what GGG did to some "one-point wonders" (one point for 2% leech was great, four points for 3% is nonsense, same with the weapon fire damage, one point for 30% is cool, 3 points for 50% is mediocre).

Life

I don't get it. In the end, it's probably the same, all my respecced characters have about the same life as before, but why was this change necessary? What's it good for?

I still invest about the same amount of skillpoints in life, however it feels less meaningful. I know I have to do it, so I put a point in +5% life, see my life total go up about 80-100... hmmm. I liked it a lot more when your maximum life was influenced more heavily by the life nodes (common 8-12%), they had more impact, it felt more meaningful.

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Rampage

Compared to the last leagues, it's a bit boring. I ramped up some nice killstreaks in pack sized open maps, but generally I couldn't care less about the number in the upper left.
The effects you get are quite useless, to me all it adds is more fireworks on the screen that I did not ask for.

I'm glad that boxes and shrines are still there, they remind me of better times.

Patch this upcoming week promises to add a lot more master variation.

Read here for more info http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1061170