An overview of Abyss league.

Nice post OP. needs a better /TLDR though. Maybe something like:

If your fingers aren't bleeding you haven't been grinding enough to be awarded the next tier of content. I might be a little jaded as I tried SSF and that's why I agree with the whole post.

It still feels like there's a diamond under the current layer of shit covering PoE...just need to clean and polish it. Still best game available IMO but sooner or later someone will produce a quality polished game.

looking to DICE /s

"

Grauthrim wrote:

6) There is absolutely no incentive to play as a multiplayer experience, even though the game is clearly advertised as multiplayer and directly encourages that. Adding other players to the map makes things both A) Harder and mostly artificially harder. Bosses suddenly having double health makes little to absolutely no sense. B) You basically get the same drops anyway, aside from the person who opened the map who reaps ALL the consistent profits of maps being opened anyway. Even the games economy pushes and isolates players to a single player experience, their is little if any point in the multiplayer system unless it's in regards to trading. This is displayed brilliantly in the efforts of players who provide services for bosses, with rules that state you must be outside of the map until the last second to get the point.

This! Diablo 2 multiplayer was one of the best things that ever happened in gaming. When I started playing poe, i was hoping for a similar experience. Needless to say, 4 yrs back the game was almost unplayable with even a 4 man party coz of massive framerate lag. But even now, playing with other ppl besides a few things like master missions or completing challenges is a complete waste of time. PoE is simply a single player experience where u only interact with others to trade or level ur masters or whatever, but never to play together for fun.

What is an Abyssal Lich, huh Mr. RNG?

I hate it when content is locked behind random virtual dice, and hell they do it every single damned time.

Lock the League's prime feature behind difficulty. Make players beat Shaper and Uber Atziri in one fight without taking a hit, and do a Fatality on a full moon so they can face Reptil... Erm.. Ulaman.
I'll never get there if they do - but at least I would not get any false hopes when entering Depths, only to find that fucking spire again.

6) There is absolutely no incentive to play as a multiplayer experience, even though the game is clearly advertised as multiplayer and directly encourages that.

I start each league with a handful of my friends and we always end up alone in our hideouts. If its not performance issues, its how the game feels in a party. Things die insanely fast making all but one player play follow the leader, others can easily get party members killed by playing poorly, charge generation depending on how your character is built can be very frustrating, and everyone ends up jelly of each other when one perceives the others are getting all the good drops.

"

ntall1 wrote:

6) There is absolutely no incentive to play as a multiplayer experience, even though the game is clearly advertised as multiplayer and directly encourages that.

I start each league with a handful of my friends and we always end up alone in our hideouts. If its not performance issues, its how the game feels in a party. Things die insanely fast making all but one player play follow the leader, others can easily get party members killed by playing poorly, charge generation depending on how your character is built can be very frustrating, and everyone ends up jelly of each other when one perceives the others are getting all the good drops.

This. How a game says you're going to a party but really you're going to your own private box.

"

Grauthrim wrote:

4) Certain aspects of the end game grinds this league are awful. I can't bare the idea of how many abysses I have to run to get 50 liches. In 400 hours of game time this league I'm still sat at 13/50. I do every abyss I see, I have not missed a single abyss in playtime this league. Why is the spawn rate of these experiences so low? Again tryinng to drag out the value of economy.

I'd like to weigh in on this subject. I'v played everyday since league start no less than 7h/day 12+ on weekends. I run every abyss I find and I'm still only at 7 liches. I haven't seen a lich in 8 days now. This spawn rate is complete BS. I'm also a little irritated Complete Influenced Maps requires both at 300. IMO elder should've been a little less since their spawns have more strict requirements to occur.

This is a very good post and I think touches on a lot of points that get swept under the rug around here.

I agree with most everything you stated.

"

Grauthrim wrote:

"

ntall1 wrote:

6) There is absolutely no incentive to play as a multiplayer experience, even though the game is clearly advertised as multiplayer and directly encourages that.

I start each league with a handful of my friends and we always end up alone in our hideouts. If its not performance issues, its how the game feels in a party. Things die insanely fast making all but one player play follow the leader, others can easily get party members killed by playing poorly, charge generation depending on how your character is built can be very frustrating, and everyone ends up jelly of each other when one perceives the others are getting all the good drops.

This. How a game says you're going to a party but really you're going to your own private box.

I mean... that's why, when SSF was introduced, I switched to it exclusively.

I had never networked sufficiently to really benefit from the group experience... sure, Global 820 was useful (<3), but not a reason to stick around Trading Leagues.

But yeah, sitting alone in your Hideout is kinda the Path of Exile endgame experience :|

"

bwam wrote:

"

Grauthrim wrote:

"

ntall1 wrote:

6) There is absolutely no incentive to play as a multiplayer experience, even though the game is clearly advertised as multiplayer and directly encourages that.

I start each league with a handful of my friends and we always end up alone in our hideouts. If its not performance issues, its how the game feels in a party. Things die insanely fast making all but one player play follow the leader, others can easily get party members killed by playing poorly, charge generation depending on how your character is built can be very frustrating, and everyone ends up jelly of each other when one perceives the others are getting all the good drops.

This. How a game says you're going to a party but really you're going to your own private box.

I mean... that's why, when SSF was introduced, I switched to it exclusively.

I had never networked sufficiently to really benefit from the group experience... sure, Global 820 was useful (<3), but not a reason to stick around Trading Leagues.

But yeah, sitting alone in your Hideout is kinda the Path of Exile endgame experience :|

And how is this fun? Where are guild hideouts, where are the global meeting points now? There isn't even a point where people meet up to do maps, in fact ALL my friends do maps on there own!? How does this make any sense 0.o even when I played Diablo 2, the multiplayer experience was encouraged, CONSTANTLY.

"

Grauthrim wrote:

Right now the game is in a state I deem completely broken. You should never become this frustrated with something you love and value. This isn't worth it. You're losing me and probably many thousands of other players attention and slowly I'm about to turn to other things.

Not sure about losing thousands; I thought that would happen but retention on Steamcharts seems quite solid, in fact seems better than last league and the league before. People like an RNG grind it seems. Hey, good for them and GGG.

The above is a true statement for myself however. I still feel like playing PoE, I love the core game, but decided to check out of the league early to preserve what little enthusiasm remains. The endless RNG in every single game system, including advancing in the game's geographical space itself (MAPS!) is killing me. And the new map systems just pour more RNG on the RNG. And the new League mechanic is RNG upon RNG.

I want to put energy into a meaningful journey toward a meaningful goal which can meaningfully be attained over a two month or so period while trading with other players for THINGS. Not for the game itself (MAPS!)

"

Grauthrim wrote:

I hope dearly GGG continues to take steps towards making a fairer and more balanced game.

Here's hoping.