POE sure seems to be losing a lot of steam

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Obviously you still havnt tried using whirling blades.

Thats true.

I stopped playing last week. I have a lvl 71, 52 and two chars in their 40's. While the passive tree exists and there are various gems there are very few playstyles and ways for your character to engage in combat. I wrote off Diablo 3 after getting two level 60's at release, but I went back to it this week realizing that it offers a great deal more variety in gameplay than PoE.

I'll explain what I'm going on about.

The method by which you play your character and think about approaching enemies is a playstyle. So:

Summoner/Totem dropper is the same playstyle. You put down your minion type and well . . . let them do the work.

Single target - dual strike, double strike, heavy strike, elemental hit, etc = 1 way of doing it.

AoE Melee - Sweep, Cleave, Infernal Blow, etc = 1 way.


In contrast to D3 which allows you to really change how you think about fighting mobs based on the runes you choose. PoE's support gems pretty much just increase dps (a few do things differently - i.e. concentrated effect, blind, chance to flee)

Let's look at the first basic ability for a Barbarian - Bash

Alone it does damage + knockback + generates 8 fury

Rune 1 Clobber - Removes knockback and adds chance to stun.
Rune 2 Onslaught - Removes knockback adds two additional hits for 25% damage.
Rune 3 Punish - Increases the damage of your skills by 8% stacks 3 times.
Rune 4 Instigation - Generates 4 additional fury
Rune 5 Pulverize - Does 38% damage in all enemies in a 26 yard line after the first target.

Each one allows you to change how you play your character and how you think about the rest of their skills in relation to this. If I get rune 3 and I have 24% inc damage on all my skills, then I get create a playstyle around using Bash 3 times and then using a heavy hitting ability.

Or maybe I go with rune 5 and adapt my playstyle to lining mobs up to hit them in a line.

Now, don't get me wrong, PoE has so much potential - it has a very open system and GGG can easily (and probably will) add gems to really create new interesting ability combinations. I will definitely be checking in to see the latest patches, but as of right now, it's a bit flat.

My second reason for leaving is the passive tree and the nature of HP. I don't like the game being balanced around high HP. It cheapens the other defensive options, reduces the need for exploration of builds and is just boring. It kills motivation to play because you just stop caring that you will have another skill point to spend when you're just going to open the passive map, click HP and close it.

There's very little synergy between the passive tree and the skill gems. Amusingly enough D3 let's you get 3 passive abilities (which function just like Keystone abilities) to create a build around. Only difference with PoE is that you travel to them on the passive tree picking up mostly boring nodes (+10 dex wheeee, +8%hp! wheeee, 4% more sword damage!!!!!). I ended up feeling like my character wasn't unique or interesting, just that I had to grind levels to place points in spots that put me to sleep.

What's more is that while maps are cool endgame content . . . d3 and poe are more similar than different (and yes it is an ARPG issue). Once you have end game gear then you're really just grinding to grind, usually to outfit alts . . . so they can be geared and grind some more.

That's the real crux. At the end of the day, whether you're playing PoE or D3 or whatever, is it fun? And I have to be honest and say the D3's combat is miles better, and smoother. GGG is a small team and I respect what they've done, but poe's combat feels flacid and fulfilling. I fired up d3 and instantly started having a blast crunching mobs.

Anyway, I'm sure some people left because of RNG or because of desync, or they died too many times; but the biggest killer of game is a feeling of nothing to do. And in D3's case, there might be anything to do, but it's fun to just play. When the chase is gone, PoE doesn't have that fun feeling, the chase is the sole motivation. And I know I'm not speaking for everyone so there's no need to chime in to say how much fun you can holding shift and spamming lightning strike for 6 hours a day.

Flame if you want, I only wanted to post my reason for leaving (temporarily).

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Chancellor wrote:

My second reason for leaving is the passive tree and the nature of HP. I don't like the game being balanced around high HP. It cheapens the other defensive options, reduces the need for exploration of builds and is just boring. It kills motivation to play because you just stop caring that you will have another skill point to spend when you're just going to open the passive map, click HP and close it.

This is one of my biggest disappointments with PoE.

Chancellor's above post highlights a number of valid criticisms, and I've also stopped playing PoE for the time being... Here is why I personally have stopped.

1. Lack of diversity. This doesn't need to be explained much because I'm sure most of you get it, but really there aren't many things you can go in this game... Basically you can go:

Some form of spammy LMP or GMP ranged.
Summoner.
Faux-melee (e.g., Lightning Strike).

Yes, other builds are technically possible, but they are so niche and require so much more time and energy to pull off correctly that it isn't really fair. We're not all hardcore theorycrafters and most of us don't have absurd amounts of time to dump into the game.

2. The loot system is terrible. I don't see why its OK for the loot system to create fighting and/or instability in a group when you are otherwise supposed to be working towards a common goal. This isn't a carebear criticism. If you are partying together and working with others, the game should do everything it can to promote that. If you are fighting, pvping etc, then the game should do everything it can to promote competition and even hostility, but the latter doesn't work in group environments where we are all trying to do the same thing.

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1235 wrote:

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Spysong192 wrote:

2000$ to play poe? xDDDDDDDDDDDDD
.... -.-

dude atleast try to make arguments

don't know how much a new computer would cost, obviously if i buy a new one i wouldn't get one that can barely run this game, try using your brain a bit, do you get the point? this game runs horribly on anything except relatively new/high end computers and a lot of people would need to buy a new one to play it properly, is it that hard to understand?

Its not hard to understand its just not true, i have a 2 year old computer with a mid range graphics card that i paid 900 dollars for and i run the game on high settings.

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Chancellor wrote:

Post here

D3 only had choices in theory. If you wanted to actually be efficient you had no more than one or two builds at a time (changed from patch to patch depending on current balance) that were actually viable for endgame inferno farming.

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zankioh wrote:

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Chancellor wrote:

Post here

D3 only had choices in theory. If you wanted to actually be efficient you had no more than one or two builds at a time (changed from patch to patch depending on current balance) that were actually viable for endgame inferno farming.

The thing is, in D3 the only thing you lose by not taking the optimal build is in fact the efficiency. By not taking the optimal build in PoE results in outright dying. That is the problem.

Yes, in D3 you also need to have resistances and health, but each class is usually given tools through passives and skills to have the viability of being glass cannon. In PoE you can't not take some hits. Especially when you are hit from outside the screen.

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zankioh wrote:

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Chancellor wrote:

Post here

D3 only had choices in theory. If you wanted to actually be efficient you had no more than one or two builds at a time (changed from patch to patch depending on current balance) that were actually viable for endgame inferno farming.

not everyone played to farm effeciently, I enjoyed playing the way I want I could care less if I farm fast or not cause I played for fun not to make money or live off the game.

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Cynaris wrote:

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zankioh wrote:

The thing is, in D3 the only thing you lose by not taking the optimal build is in fact the efficiency. By not taking the optimal build in PoE results in outright dying. That is the problem.

For the first ~6 months of release there were only 2-3 viable specs for Act2+ in D3 for each class, all of them usually hinging on 2-3 skills that were shared between all specs.

You have that "outright dying" pointed at the wrong game, imo.

I kinda stopped playing for now because it is impossible to craft anything but magic items.
Find very few orbs in a lot of game time 2-3h a day since open beta for total of 2 regal, one exalted.
And when you use one of those after a month chances to get anything good is very low.
Find good enough rare gloves - well tough luck, you will need to play for 300h to get jewelers and fusing to make it 4link for that single piece alone.

I play mostly solo (because playing in 6 man party is stupid, cant see anything, too easy, dont even need to do anything, stuff gets killed and I dont even see anything),
I play with the stuff I find or craft because it is more satisfying / trading is boring and real work- feels like cheating (I already have a real job).

And the nature of the game is the fewest number of skills that you max with supports and skill points so the gameplay becomes stale.
Very few interesting support gems that work. Most are 'MORE DAMAGE!!!'
auras guess what: More Damage, More elemental damage, You take slightly less damage, You take slightly less elemental damage