An illness, the attainment of BiS gear.

I have been considering making a thread about this for quite some time and commenting/participating in other threads currently highlighted this issue for me again, so here i go.

When considering PoE in it's full potential one of it's highlights is the vast variations of builds and the scope of differentiation possible between them. But with experience and time comes a revelation, this highlight of which the developers are so proud appears to be available only to the people with the riches to do so.

Now why would i say such a thing?

Quite easily, i have a lot of experience with this game, both in theory-crafting/end-game/mechanics and all of the things prior to these factors (experimenting, making odd creations and the like, pushing the limits on mechanics and combining designs to explore efficiency and compare those)

As a player does this, he is easily faced with a reality check in the current-end-game, this reality is most easily described as -->

"the end-game is balanced around the most efficient min-max concepts available to the current player base within the current game-state"

It is quite clear that at a certain stage of the game (i will pose this is around lvl 80+- and upwards) that the passive tree becomes less of a factor to a character design then the items he is actually utilizing.
That is not to say it holds no relevance to the build, i am simply saying that at a certain point in character development, items become of a higher value then the passive points one gains with each increasing level.

As such and with the things i just wrote in mind, i think the hunt for BiS gear is a symptom of a more underlying illness within the game.
This illness in case it was not yet clear, is overall balance or more accurate the lack of such a balance.

From my point of view, BiS gear beyond level 80+- enables the more odd and quirky builds to "function" in the current-end-game where a min-maxed highly efficient build would simply rofl-stomp content. And i believe this to be a heavy tax on the game and its "fun-factor".

I believe it to be detrimental to the games future that odd and quirky builds perform so poorly as they do in the current end-game.
(for relevance, the end-game i am talking about is lvl 77/78 maps with high modifiers)

I personally believe PoE has a lot more potential if it would lessen the gap between min-maxed efficiency builds and quirky projects. Both offer time spend in the game and a form of fulfillment, but as it stands it is easily noticeable that a quirky build feels more troublesome to undertake because of the gap in efficiency in end-game and the cost involved with simply "making it work".

Maybe some high end crafters could contribute to this thread with there findings on this subject. I am pretty sure they managed to make some stuff work in end-game that would be unrealistic without the funds/items they posses.

Gonna stop this wall-o-text here and hope you enjoyed reading it.

Peace,

-Boem-

As for someone who has never broken the 75 map wall ATM, even i can tell a big difference in difficulty moreso that boss's you fight are still 1 shotting me in some circumstances even with 4.6k life average map mods.

But when it comes to gearing to Min/Max a build spec if only Mathil would see this considering he did Atziri with shock nova.

I specifically left atziri out of this thread tbh.

1) it's a very mechanical fight that can be overcome by knowledge.
2) gearing for atziri is relatively easy when you understand 1)

Atziri is also what i consider until this day to be "optional content" as such i don't think it should be used as a standard when discussing this topic. I sort of believe we might get more "optional bosses" like this that are better suited for other build type's and as such would balance the current division in builds able to do her.

I imagine if you have the gear to facilitate it, you can kill atziri with any skill in the game, which sort of partially proves my point. none-the-less i rather not go there.

I consider 77/78 maps to be more appropriate content when discussing this topic, since you can't really consider them optional in my opinion.

Peace,

-Boem-

This is a general illness on the internet... doesn't depend on the game. People ruin games for themselves all the time and blame it on the game. They never learned how to play, only how to win. Winning a game like this shouldn't be the goal, because the game never actually tells you that you've won. Players don't realize it and keep playing a game that was over months ago and complain that the game isn't fun... when it's really up to them to play the game in a fun way.

so the last comunism patch wasn't enough?

the day after 1.3, with all my mirrored gear, i was doing 25k dps vs 45k pre 1.3 while my friend with ONLY glyph mark + mirrored amu, crap rings, crap quiver was doing 75k tornado shot dps

yeah sure, the OP skill of that current period makes a build OP
at the moment a build made with 300 exa can be better than one with 2k exalted, the biggest difference is the SKILL GEM+TREE, BIS items are useless if you are using the wrong skill gem and build

"

Shagsbeard wrote:

This is a general illness on the internet... doesn't depend on the game. People ruin games for themselves all the time and blame it on the game. They never learned how to play, only how to win. Winning a game like this shouldn't be the goal, because the game never actually tells you that you've won. Players don't realize it and keep playing a game that was over months ago and complain that the game isn't fun... when it's really up to them to play the game in a fun way.

well PoE will tell you if u won the game :P


But as a little crafter myself hunting for BiS-Gear i can tell, beein super casual in a game will never take u to BiS Gear, means if u play half an hour every 2nd day browsing the forum for builds finding ppl hitting 100k+ dps, carring fullparties like nothing cant be a realistic goal.
If u invest more time, read guides how to generate currency, how to craft items, and how to rate items in value dropping while playing u can achive higher goals.
With the Benches GGG implemented a huge boost to upgrade your QoL in Path, normal players with a decent base knowledge can now craft overaverage items with a 10ex invest of each slot (weapons are still hard to get compared to the rest).
But a lot player arnt even thankfull for that, and better calling for nerfs, rage against droprates, etc.
Crafting BiS Items in the end is just a personal thing, which is fully out of beeing casual at all, since it takes so much currency to finish a item with 6T1 mods (mods u actually hunt withing crafting it). And ye it's also fun running almost bankrupt everytime u crafting a new piece of BiS-Gear.

"

InAshesTheyShallReap wrote:

so the last comunism patch wasn't enough?

the day after 1.3, with all my mirrored gear, i was doing 25k dps vs 45k pre 1.3 while my friend with ONLY glyph mark + mirrored amu, crap rings, crap quiver was doing 75k tornado shot dps

yeah sure, the OP skill of that current period makes a build OP
at the moment a build made with 300 exa can be better than one with 2k exalted, the biggest difference is the SKILL GEM+TREE, BIS items are useless if you are using the wrong skill gem and build

get a load of this salty bad RMT babby.

I dont see a problem, the same answer we say to people who want SFL,

- Do what's fun for you.


For at least 18 month, I played the game with the only objective to maximise my ouput of DPS/Clearing speed of map. That was my fun, my priviledge. "standard"

To be able to achieve that, I played the trading game / mini crafting game. And I finally got to the point where I could optimize slighly my gear but the effort is not worth the fun i'll get by doing it.


I dont see a problem with the gear "mirrored".


So I have decide to change my quest in this game.

Now, I dont care about "BiS" for my spec, I'm playing to push my caracter in league.




P.S. If people are willing to put the effort, the can afford any item in this game but you'll need to trade.

Don't really see a problem, D2 was like this too (regarding weird builds and requirement of great gear).
Once you reach a certain part it will be much harder to progress, and looking out for that BiS gear is part of what will keep you playing.

People however got the wrong idea about D2 because it was full of botters, RmTers, D2jsp trash.
Without those you'd rarely ever see any high runeword, I played pure HC for years, rarest drop I ever got was Templar's Might, my throw barb wore it with pride!