Chris Wilson on PoE in 2013 and 2016

2013: the hardcore ARPG you've been waiting for
2016: the game was too difficult, PoE is a game you play while watching TV




welp...a thug changes, and love changes, and best friends become strangers. word up.

Gotta say, this answer was weird. Well, it just confirms what we're feeling in game since a few months, but the "official" description of the game has changed a lot since early days. Remember "FFA loot is good because it creates competition amongst players" or things like that ? Hard to do that while watching tv.

It has literally changed. Once upon a time, the pathofexile.com/game page read, in part:

"

Path of Exile is an online Action RPG set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast. We're a small independent team of hardcore gamers based in New Zealand and have created Path of Exile as the game that we'd want to play ourselves. It is designed around a strong barter-based online item economy, deep character customisation, competitive PvP and ladder races. The game is completely free and will never be "pay to win".

Go check it now. Something's changed.

"

We're a small independent team of hardcore gamers based in New Zealand and have created Path of Exile as the game that we'd want to play ourselves

that part is taken out

guess its a game they dont want to play anymore ? lol

Now it's pretty much Path of Flasks mixed with Path of Movement Speed.

Just make sure you have 4-5 OP flasks up at all time + perma Vaal Haste and run through everything with your eyes closed, or while watching TV, without having to make decisions on how to approach certain encounters and situations (remember when gameplay wasn't fast enough to have all flasks up at all time, where you had to use them strategically, and when your position mattered). A single flask giving you more defenses (armor/evasion/etc.) than your whole gear combined in some situations.

The only way to die now is blindly running into a volatile or standing on top of a boss with a DD totem close. Both being your fault for dying. Both probably getting nerfed to encourage the zombie-playing style.


The game has changed for sure. Some people like it, some people don't. I personally still like the game even though I preferred it before.

D3 was the same on launch. No smart loot. No way to get anything but to grind for it. Play 6 months, still don't see the item you want drop. AH kept items in play but most scammed, RMTed or just flat out abused the system. Hell was just that. Difficulty was off the charts for little to no rewards (I guess a good death is its own reward lol).

Then they made loot drops cater to your hero, not every hero (if you played a DH, you'd get bow drops, if you played a WD, you'd get staves and ceremonial daggers). Loot drops buffed. Other ways to get legendaries and set pieces.

PoE followed suit. Buffed loot drops. Provided other avenues to get items. Made the game more accessible rather than for the 10 no-lifers that were content to grind one map for weeks on end, 18 hours a day.

This game gets funner the more it evolves. I'm glad GGG decided to improve the loot system to be more rewarding. I'm glad for leagues like Ascendency that provide even more loot. Div cards that do the same.

You can always handicap yourself in some way to increase the difficulty. If you think this game is too easy that is.

"

Jaille wrote:

The game has changed for sure. Some people like it, some people don't. I personally still like the game even though I preferred it before.

Let's be clear : I may be complaining a lot these days, and regretting a lot of things from PoE 1.X or 0.X, I still think it's the best game I ever played, and I also think that PoE these days is a much better game than PoE 0.X. What we lost in "soul" of the game, we gained in an absolutely crazy amount of free content added along the years.

I'm just a bit sad that PoE is more and more trying to be a game you can play while watching TV, instead of focusing on what made it unique to begin with : the hardcore, sometimes unfair, ARPG experience. When I want to blow up monsters with one click while watching TV, I already have D3. It's perfectly done for that, I can play it from time to time and not think much about it. PoE is not the game I want to launch when I'm not focused. PoE is (was) supposed to be the hard game, the game where mistakes are lethal, where the autopilot mode is harshly punished.
We'll see if the various changes Chris talked about (new mobs skills and dmg fix on some legacy mobs) bring that feeling a bit.

All you reached lvl100 in hc?

"

grepman wrote:

welp...a thug changes, and love changes, and best friends become strangers. word up.

The message....good song!

"

C1111 wrote:

All you reached lvl100 in hc?

I wondered how long it would take for something like this to appear.