You nailed it GGG, im surprised. (Yet, I question your decisions)

Since I started playing in early 2014 there's never been a more exiting time in PoE.

There's been the atlas of worlds, that reshaped the endgame. (Added it, you could say)
The rise and fall of the double dipping meta, 6 new acts added.

After the recent leagues, after the recent new uniques. After creating multiple threads about the endgame and getting no support from anyone.
I was losing hope for getting truly exciting new endgame content. As someone who hates lvling and likes to play things as edgy and high lvl as possible, I was truly amazed by the War for the Atlas expansion.

Rares are getting absolutely insane, reshaping the mirrored gear market.
The atlas looks tasty as hell. There are new guardians, new maps, I love it.
The new supporter packs look Dark Souls af, my wishes came true..
GGG, big thanks for not letting your rich, experienced players get bored!

I do question a couple of things through.
What about the nerfs?
What about meta?

The new rares are crazy, a whole lot of new powerful uniques is coming our way..
Are you compensating for the 3.0 nerfs or have the 3.1 nerfs not been announced yet?
What I can't really understand: What do you intend for this game to become?

There is no set balance, as someone who loves to theorycraft and design all of his builds, this is rather annoying.
Is there going to a "final" balance update at some point?
An update that is going to set all the main mechanics in stone?
Do you want this game to be a shape-shifting behemoth forever? (I mean that in a good way)

We, the players who care about this game, are being kept in the dark for very long now.
I don't what to expect in the long term and I don't really like that to be honest.

It would ease me, if I could have a peek at your way of thinking.

Edit: The Vaal pact nerf: Unreasonable, berserker meta nerf would make sense, but to kill it all together? An overkill, now totems are gonna be crazy overplayed.. Will be the first one to jump on that train.

as always since PoE exists u will get the answer for nerfs etc few days before exp/league with patchnotes...

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Icoblablubb wrote:

as always since PoE exists u will get the answer for nerfs etc few days before exp/league with patchnotes...

Not the main question here. You're right tho. (There are freaking 20 days left)
Im more curious about GGG's intentions.

"

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Icoblablubb wrote:

as always since PoE exists u will get the answer for nerfs etc few days before exp/league with patchnotes...

Not the main question here. You're right tho. (There are freaking 20 days left)
Im more curious about GGG's intentions.

Imo there is patter and it never changes: announcements, release of pack etc - stuff to make customer get used to and plan to it accordingly.

Imo how to keep player in game as long as possible, after how to make customer to buy products, is 2nd thing that affects decisions done by GGG and therefore there will nothing stay as it is forever.

So "Do you want this game to be a shape-shifting behemoth forever?" is only one with "yes" answer.

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Rexeos wrote:

"

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Icoblablubb wrote:

as always since PoE exists u will get the answer for nerfs etc few days before exp/league with patchnotes...

Not the main question here. You're right tho. (There are freaking 20 days left)
Im more curious about GGG's intentions.

Imo there is patter and it never changes: announcements, release of pack etc - stuff to make customer get used to and plan to it accordingly.

Imo how to keep player in game as long as possible, after how to make customer to buy products, is 2nd thing that affects decisions done by GGG and therefore there will nothing stay as it is forever.

So "Do you want this game to be a shape-shifting behemoth forever?" is only one with "yes" answer.

That's a very cold yet realistic opinion.

But, do you wanna get more new players while the veterans who buy packs, actually buy you food leave?

They're not in this just for the money.. If this was Blizzard, I would not even bother thinking about this sort of stuff.

GGG seems to care, that's why Im so confused be their scheme.. Maybe Im wrong about them, I dunno.

That's why im trying to reach them.

"

....

That's a very cold yet realistic opinion.

But, do you wanna get more new players while the veterans who buy packs, actually buy you food leave?

They're not in this just for the money.. If this was Blizzard, I would not even bother thinking about this sort of stuff.

GGG seems to care, that's why Im so confused be their scheme.. Maybe Im wrong about them, I dunno.

That's why im trying to reach them.

I dont think veterans going to leave, unless they have something better to do in their lives or something personal what makes them stay here are able to get over it.

I think money is top priority in every company, because of money they are be able to do what they like and money are in the beginning of each company. Therefore money and to do what they like is on same level in every company.

Regards Blizzard: they care too, a ton. They canceled few games for which they paid millions of dollars, but in the end they decided to let it go, because of money game can bring, not to cripple good name Blizzard has, or player base they want to address? Only they know..

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Is there going to a "final" balance update at some point?
An update that is going to set all the main mechanics in stone?
Do you want this game to be a shape-shifting behemoth forever? (I mean that in a good way)

Game balance is inherently an ever shifting process. There are a vast number of possible combinations of skills and items and there are always going to be unforseen interactions.

Perfection goal that always changes. Can pursue, cannot obtain.

Well, I think GGG has done a good job at communicating their intentions behind each nerf to the players. If you bother to look at their manifestos, they clearly stated their design principles which guided their balance changes since the beginning and also clarified why they did so, I expect no difference this time.

But to say that there is gonna be a final balance and there is gonna be a time where everything will be set in stone would be too idealistic. The meta should be a constant changing landscape, regardless of it in perfect balance or not ( which is already a very hard thing to achieve without constant incremental changes ), otherwise it will simple gets stale very soon. That is how it always works for the other games, and Poe is not different.