Replace the lab with _______ !

Guild Arcade Race League/Event

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1646959/page/1/#p13183656

Lab doesn't need to be replaced. It needs to be fixed.

1) Evasion needs to work against traps. Just like Energy shield was seen to be too weak against them, evasion is even worse. It does literally nothing. It should get damage reduction vs physical damage from traps to the point where it's in line with a high armor/life-regen build. The lava traps should stay as is, and the chaos damage from the poison spikes shouldn't be reduced IF the spikes hit. Evasion should be the go-to stat for traps. That's what you do with traps. You evade them.

2) Izzy needs to be toned down considerably. He's way too powerful to gate a bonus behind. The builds that need that bonus can't get it, and the builds that can get it, don't need it. He shouldn't be the hardest encounter in the regular game. He should be made to be in-line with an act boss... like Dominus or Malachai.

3) There should be an alternative to doing the lab in each difficulty. If you do the lab in Merciless, you should get the Ascendancy Point for Normal and Cruel if you haven't gotten them yet. Same goes for the Map version. That way if you really hate the lab, you only need do it once to get all 8 points.

4) The entire layout should be given on those maps you click on. Maps are available on-line. They're an alt-tab away. Hiding the layout, and then providing a partial map is really stupid when you think about it. Players who enjoy the mystery can avoid clicking on them. Or there could be a bonus given for completing the lab without using the maps. But the current map thing is pretty much useless.

I'd replace the whiny lab haters with.... nothing. Just get rid of them .

Descent was really cool. i dont know why an alternate version of that didnt become end game

A maze with hazards

I'm hoping GGG continue the theme and add a side scrolling shoot 'em up map or perhaps a first person style map ala COD ...

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Ribbsey wrote:

I'm hoping GGG continue the theme and add a side scrolling shoot 'em up map or perhaps a first person style map ala COD ...

You just made me nostalgic for Hellgate:London. I loved that game.

I like Shag's post. All good points. They'd go a long way to making the experience more palatable.

I'd say the maze took a lot of time to design and program, so they must love the idea. They clearly won't be removing it, or "replacing it" with anything. It must be really fun on their own servers, playing without outside forces interferring with it (disconnections and lag, using computers that don't stutter, etc). So good for them! Also, good for those who are not impacted by said outside forces.

In a single player, offline game, with precise controls (like arrow key movement, or a console game with a control pad), I'd potentially find this mini-game fun and challenging depending on the rest of the game. It doesn't feel like it should be part of PoE, and even the Ascendancy Classes feel out of place compared to PoE's original appeal when I started researching it.

Sadly, though, this is not a single player offline game with precise controls, and the designers did not properly implement the maze to take the outside forces into account in a reasonable way. Almost everything I find bad about the maze itself is related to outside forces. Maybe they considered those problems, but thought to themselves "oh well, let's do it anyway. Too bad so sad for everyone else! We don't care about them. It's fun for some people, and that's enough for us. This is an unforgiving game that is punishing to everyone. They should all move here and upgrade (or downgrade as the case may be) their computers and play without pesky family interuptions or real lives.")

The maze feels like this huge shift in direction for the game, and it feels "bad", to me. The maze feels like... it's disrespectful of my time and efforts. That's the best description. (and really why I'd never touch so-called Hardcore leagues, except this is forced on standard players too, and cannot be reasonably avoided for long: balance, blahblah.)


Potential "Replacement" for maze:
We now find an NPC outside each trial and final maze. Let's call her "tomb raider extraordinaire" for now. For a fee (currency of some sort), she will open hidden paths through the maze that lead directly to Izaro's battle chamber. Using this short-cut method involves no moving between maps and all 3 fights take place in the same chamber, which will remove many of the outside forces problems. (I'd add in a wave or two of undead maze builders pouring out of the secret passages between Izaro battles to refill flasks)

Completion of the battle with Izaro in this version of the challenge only grants ascendancy points. No enchants or treasure. Thank you NPC tomb raider for helping us get past all the traps/disconnects/etc and continue playing the game.


Results:

People who love the maze can still challenge the entirety of it, gaining labyrinth uniques, treasure chests at the end, and enchants as well as the ascendancy points like now.

People who hate the maze can now ascend, without the problems that are ruining the experience for them, while still retaining the challenge associated with the rewards. (maybe even a little harder of a challenge, without some of those trinkets that you can find in the Reliquary)



TLDR: No replacement event needed.
Move ascendancy points to a 3-tier Izaro battle without maze between battles. Keep enchants/treasure/etc inside full maze.

I don't like the "skip it" solution... feels too much like cheating to me. But then, it would be optional so I wont thumbs-down your suggestion. It does lead to a slippery slope... should we have a proxy remove Cruel difficulty for us too?

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Shagsbeard wrote:

I don't like the "skip it" solution... feels too much like cheating to me. But then, it would be optional so I wont thumbs-down your suggestion. It does lead to a slippery slope... should we have a proxy remove Cruel difficulty for us too?

The intent here isn't to skip the game with an I-Win button, but to keep the PoE style challenge (fight monsters and bosses), and skip the mini-game part for the ascendancy only. This keeps the mini-game strictly optional.

Cruel difficulty is entirely part of the repetive map-map-map kill-kill-kill mentality of the game. Nothing mini-game about it. I see no slippery slope, unless they introduce another mini-game event like a mine-cart ride under Highgate that is the only way to get a new untradable crafting material.


edit: typos