Help me get more people playing PoE!?

My friends don't really like PoE, they like the mechanics, the item system, the skill system... BUT they hate the slow early gameplay, the small amount of skill used at early levels, and the overall slugish feel at the beginning.

I'm pretty sure it's not a unique feeling to them. We are a group of 5-7 people online everyday, talking in mumble and playing all kinds of games, and PoE should be a no-brainer for us, but its not.

How can we improve the following "cons" that my friends feel the game has?

1) Game feels like yo uhave to play for a month before you have fun because the main system to improve your gear is useless unless you are rich, orbs are worth way more for buying items than using them.
Problem:
Using orbs for buying yields better results than using orbs for crafting.
You can go on levels without an upgrade and using blue items and have nothing to change them for a long time.

2) It's hard to get a "theme" going for your character. This is a consequence of the skill system, but i feel its valid, in other games a Character has its own unique set of skills and has a cohesive look and feel. Here in PoE , it's hard getting a good look and feel, unless you buy the armor MTX and weapon MTX and even then the skills might not fit your theme.
Problem:
"Everyone is a hobo that can rain fire from the sky",
"Get some pants for christ sake.",
"How tha fuck can i get this stupid hobo to put some armor on so it looks like a knight".


I'm pretty sure that's their main problem with the game.

Quit trading. It makes the early game seem pointless and simply a task to get to the level that you have for the items you traded for. It also takes out 99.99% of the fun you get finding items.

Buy MTX to look good.

My problem with early levels is usually solved with getting at least 20% movespeed boots & a quicksilver. Without these I feel like I move way too slow (I also dont wear a chest piece until mid cruel difficulty, unless its a unique one with movespeed).

Limited skill choice like you are talking about is another issue, but to solve that takes more work. To solve that you need to think about your build more (theorycraft), you will probably be pretty limited in skills until you at least reach level 19, but luckily that only takes an hour or less..

"

incugus wrote:

Problem:
Using orbs for buying yields better results than using orbs for crafting.
You can go on levels without an upgrade and using blue items and have nothing to change them for a long time.

That's logical, isn't it? If you could craft better items cheaper than the ones sellers are selling, noone would be buying stuff - thus sellers have to lower their prices more and more till someone is willing to buy.
Going levels without an upgrade - just use some orbs to get better stuff (either buy from others/craft yourself, whatever is more benefical at that point).

"

incugus wrote:

2) It's hard to get a "theme" going for your character. This is a consequence of the skill system, but i feel its valid, in other games a Character has its own unique set of skills and has a cohesive look and feel. Here in PoE , it's hard getting a good look and feel, unless you buy the armor MTX and weapon MTX and even then the skills might not fit your theme.
Problem:
"Everyone is a hobo that can rain fire from the sky",
"Get some pants for christ sake.",
"How tha fuck can i get this stupid hobo to put some armor on so it looks like a knight".

You are an exile, you aren't really supposed to look like a knight.

"

incugus wrote:

My friends don't really like PoE, they like the mechanics, the item system, the skill system... BUT they hate the slow early gameplay, the small amount of skill used at early levels, and the overall slugish feel at the beginning.

Actually, on early levels everything works, so you can use plenty of skills / playstyles that you dont even build around. It's in late game when all the gameplay revolves around 1 or 2 skills that you specialize in and spam for 100s of hours...


How to make your friends play PoE? I'd say level up one char to 60 - 70 and then carry your friends through the sluggish begining & middle.

"

Charanjaydemyr wrote:

Those quoted problems aren't problems in GGG's eyes.

So good luck.

Must be a reason why they are not problems in GGG's eyes.

Grab a Quicksilver when you're level 2 and put movement speed on your boots with the recipe, you'll feel like it's a totally different early game. Also use the recipes for your weapon (%phys damage or +1 to elemental gem on wand) as you're leveling, to keep your dps up. These recipes are cheap (people use them in races) and prevent you from hitting a wall during progression. These simple things would make your early leveling very smooth. It's quite obvious once you reroll an other character after the first one in a new league. The second character usually got leveling gear with high MS boots and things like Geofri's/Death's Harp/Lifesprig etc.

I have a similar issue, managed to get a friend of years to join, and gave him some interesting starting gems, melee, spell, ranged... He played for a little, LOVED leap slam, but quit before beating Act 1 merveil...or was it act 2 town? I think he made it past her, but left silently afterwards. I couldn't get a solid answer for what turned him away, he seemed to be more interested in some star trek online or something....can't remember.