Dear Chris, thanks for that almost killing joke! :)

"

vio wrote:

"

sofocle10000 wrote:

Well, a survival bonus would be light years better than having the current 10% death EXP penalty slap on the wrist where it doesn't matter (aka the first 95 levels),

they already addressed this "survival bonus" for not dying. and decided against it cause it would demotivate players to continue playing after a death cause they would need to build something up again.

a single setback is likely easier to stomach, at least i feel this way.

im inclined to agree.


heres what it comes down to, its the same thing right? say i have 20 hours play left to get from lvl X to lvl Y, and then I die, the game imposes a punishment and it will now take me 24 hours play to get there.

ok, now that can either happen via removing 4 hours from the xp gained by play ive already completed (current death penalty), or it can happen by lowering the amount of xp im going to get from the play Im about to do next (losing a kill streak bonus).


its the same thing in practical terms, you lose 4 hours either way, this presumes theres no exploitable cheapshot way to build back a streak bonus by donging lowball content really fast etc.

it really just comes down to the psychology of how you perceive it, which one feels better. theres a question there of if the right one to go with is the one that feels better or worse, seeing as its a punishment and hence supposed to feel bad.


personally I would rather have the time ive already spent feel like its been devalued than the time im about to spend. In my head its happened, and id rather move forward with the feeling of the time im about to invest being rewarded with 'full pay' rather than feeling like i could keep going but im not gonna be rewarded for this play because im in debt to the xp bank. I dont want to feel like im wasting my time when im playing, if you convert play ive already been through to wasted time I cant go back and unplay it, ive just got to deal with it, if you tell me the play in front of me is a waste of time I have an option to play on and deal with it or simply not engage in this time wasting by turning off the game and walking away.


that said, not gonna lie, sometimes when i die on a high level character to some bullshit with the current 10% xp loss, and thats like 20x tier 16 maps down the drain, I just switch the game off even now with the current system. Thats how badly it effects me, Im feel like fuck this fucking game, fuck sake, switch off, walk away.

so.... i dunno, its still a big feels bad either way, a lot more so tho when u feel like the death was pure bullshit.

"

sofocle10000 wrote:

Why not make it relevant all the way from 1 to 100?

Why not address the damn level 100 status reached on EACH LEVEL UP?

because you need far more xp from 99 to 100 than from 1 to 80 ? or do you want to just to go to level 1 when you die to a10 kitava ?

I dont understand your question, surely.

"

I will reach level 100, even on a character that died >1K times (though surely less than 100 from 95 to 100), which was played for a "few" thousand hours - sure, with a nice damage cap, dual wielding 1 H weapons used with a REAL MELEE skill that requires to actually "smell the enemies armpits" to kill them, and doing so on every content at hand. ^^

I don't get this statement either. Just because you're able to zerg through thousand of deaths, does not mean that there should be a clear deterrent of doing so.

"

That is not an "elegant solution in punishing specifically the people they want to punish for dying", is simply rewarding twofold the "meta or bust" mentality and the "grind ad infinitum on content your very comfortable with", instead of pushing your character to it's maximal potential...

dont see how it relates to meta much. and about grind ad infinitum, its a game about grinding, theres a reason level 100 is gated behind xp and not killing all endgame content bosses in the game (for example)

"

sofocle10000 wrote:

Why not increase said penalty to actually have a distinct impact on the zerging that is always allowed when you reach a level up?

there is an easy solution, but people who cry now will cry foul if its ever implemented; thus it will never be.

its called...drum roll...deleveling. done in some old games too.

"

grepman wrote:

Spoiler

"

sofocle10000 wrote:

Why not make it relevant all the way from 1 to 100?

Why not address the damn level 100 status reached on EACH LEVEL UP?

because you need far more xp from 99 to 100 than from 1 to 80 ? or do you want to just to go to level 1 when you die to a10 kitava ?

I dont understand your question, surely.

"

I will reach level 100, even on a character that died >1K times (though surely less than 100 from 95 to 100), which was played for a "few" thousand hours - sure, with a nice damage cap, dual wielding 1 H weapons used with a REAL MELEE skill that requires to actually "smell the enemies armpits" to kill them, and doing so on every content at hand. ^^

I don't get this statement either. Just because you're able to zerg through thousand of deaths, does not mean that there should be a clear deterrent of doing so.

"

That is not an "elegant solution in punishing specifically the people they want to punish for dying", is simply rewarding twofold the "meta or bust" mentality and the "grind ad infinitum on content your very comfortable with", instead of pushing your character to it's maximal potential...

dont see how it relates to meta much. and about grind ad infinitum, its a game about grinding, theres a reason level 100 is gated behind xp and not killing all endgame content bosses in the game (for example)

Let's address these 1 by 1:

1) Death EXP penalty should be ALWAYS RELEVANT, as you talk about "old games", those had the exact mentality - it's easier to keep the player "on his toes" if that penalty has the SAME IMPACT from start to finish.

Though that might mean you should be penalized with the same impact at those starting levels, compared to the end game - and it worked for a lot of games too, without them making said penalty feel like nothing for 95% of the progress and an "unbearable" PITA for the last 5%.

2) The reaching of level 100 status on every damn level up aka the 0% EXP loss with an EMPTY EXP BAR, is the zerging incentive, and you don't need to go "to level 1 when you die to a10 kitava", you simply need a real penalty like "...drum roll...deleveling" to be implemented as an efficient deterrent, or at least a sensible % increase for the storyline content up to mapping, or things will NEVER IMPROVE - they could find another penalty to better incentivize staying alive...

3) Level 100 was a "hollow" target all along, yet somehow, as soon as the first character reached that, it ALWAYS became EASIER. I'm not having a damn problem with TencentGGG making said goal easier, but they need to simply keep a damn constant stance about it.

They need to stop using alternate easier than average content (Beachheads, pure breachstones, etc. etc.) to encourage the "speed runs to 100", and you know, implement a better danger/reward ratio EXP wise for the end content - which should be really dangerous as long as you actually FIGHT IT - delve at least uses scaling, so they could take that model and work with it. Sure, it will require proper balance and addressing in a timely manner of the damn "loopholes" like asinine item/mechanics/interactions and overtuned skills to make sure everything has at least a "fighting chance" - let's not start with REAL MELEE vs ANY DAMN THING else, but you know what I'm talking about.

Ah, well, you consider I "zerg" my way to 100, but get this also, it's only possible due to the current death EXP penalty - which is "so great" that this "achievement" will not be invalidated by the time I spent hunting it - and I do prefer to play the game while attempting difficult to impossible content WHEN I FEEL LIKE IT, instead of cowering around or, even worse, use a "sanctioned cheat" to auto-win. I already grinded enough EXP on my main to level to 100 1.5 times, and I'm still going because I still have FUN playing him, while I try to constantly improve, even with the said plethora of limitations.

Contrary to other players, this casual n00b hoarder still works on getting his first level 100, and simply wants a real option to feel like the game at least entices him to run content closer to his character potential, and better yet, keep improving his piloting skills, his build and items so he actually manages it ALL. That should come with a fairer danger/reward ratio EXP wise for the endgame, but that would also make the 10% death EXP penalty "null", or "close to null" at levels 95-99. But said aspect should also be simply balanced by making the easier content more "grindy" so leveling from 99-100 in T10-T11 should take EXPONENTIALLY longer than doing the same versus Shaper/Uber Elder/Atziri etc. etc.

Oh, and "meta or bust" is perfectly relevant, because due to the current power creep, I could bet anything that I could also reach level 100 faster, safer and easier by going with a damn meta character that simply needs to employ all the "sanctioned cheats" at hand to get to max in a matter of DAYS - this amount also gets lower each league, which also highlights both the asinine power creep AND TencentGGG's fear of making level 100 the proper target for a completed character - they backtracked their opinion regarding the "uber status" that a level 100 character reaches a long time ago, they simply forgot to make it public.

Casualisation shouldn't be perceived as the "death of PoE", as they could easily still entice casuals to play to 100 their characters, and work on both their gameplay skills and character improvement EVERY STEP of the journey from level 1 to 100, they simply need to add some proper danger/reward ratios even EXP wise...

the thing with no delevelling, it supports the 'find your own softcap' ethos the game has.

back in the day there were people who capped themselves at around 74, 85, and for real heavy grinders maybe 90.


now days 90 is pretty easy to hit so u find a lot of people who have 90 as their soft cap. they get there and theyre done, to them thats like max level, thats their personal lvl100. some people its 95.

"

Snorkle_uk wrote:

Spoiler

the thing with no delevelling, it supports the 'find your own softcap' ethos the game has.

back in the day there were people who capped themselves at around 74, 85, and for real heavy grinders maybe 90.


now days 90 is pretty easy to hit so u find a lot of people who have 90 as their soft cap. they get there and theyre done, to them thats like max level, thats their personal lvl100. some people its 95.

Sure, but they also have to balance the game around the "meta addicts" that reach 100 in a matter of DAYS - soon to be hours /played.

That made sense when level 100 was "unreachable" and you still had a semblance of "balance" in PoE. These days, not so much.

I'm sorry to say, but for heavy grinders, the goal is 95-100, as you amass EXP faster than ever until then. Afterwards, you hit an invisible wall, that divides the 95% of the masses from the 5% that still didn't get the "memo" and actually finish leveling for those few remaining levels...

In the current situation, level 100 is devoid of it's "status", and was devoided gradually from the start. We're way past the days when leveling to 100 was the pinnacle of the journey, these days it's the "laughing stock" of the block - reaching 100 by cookie cutter versus subpar content compared to reaching 100 by only farming Uber Atziri/Elder/delving below 1-1.5K, and eloquent presentation of character/ascendancy choices is the information I want to see out in the open from TencentGGG.

Then everyone will know without doubt why fewer "veterans" are actually making the game "difficult" for themselves to resemble a damn ARPG and not the current "Clicker Heroes arcade shooter mindless zoom zoom forced meta" fiasco...

If they keep this up, they simply need to be open about it, and change the genre "touted" by PoE...

Death penalty is probably the by far number 1 recurrent and repeatedly big-threated complaint from the community all time in this game.

These devs are living in their own reality.

"

sofocle10000 wrote:

Let's address these 1 by 1:

1) Death EXP penalty should be ALWAYS RELEVANT, as you talk about "old games", those had the exact mentality - it's easier to keep the player "on his toes" if that penalty has the SAME IMPACT from start to finish.

Though that might mean you should be penalized with the same impact at those starting levels, compared to the end game - and it worked for a lot of games too, without them making said penalty feel like nothing for 95% of the progress and an "unbearable" PITA for the last 5%.

most arpgs out there simply made death penalty absolutely negligible that it did not matter at all.

there is simply no good solution of what you propose within the confines of the current xp system. it takes like two minutes to receive two level ups at level
2 and it takes dozens of hours to go from 99 to 100. neither flat nor % do the work. flat will hit harder in the beginning, and %, as we all know, hit hard at the end.

and if you want to implement your own xp scale, you need to start with that. because no matter how much you try, the impact of death of a level 10 toon does not equal impact of death of level of lvl 99 toon. except in hardcore, and even in hardcore level 10 toon is achieved through 30 minute of play. level 99, not so much.

the more you invest in a character, the more impactful death penalty should be, sure.

and to me, problematic areas are exactly levels 80-92 or so where you usually have a completed toon, but death penalty does not deter you that much as long as you dont zerg all the things

"

2) The reaching of level 100 status on every damn level up aka the 0% EXP loss with an EMPTY EXP BAR, is the zerging incentive, and you don't need to go "to level 1 when you die to a10 kitava", you simply need a real penalty like "...drum roll...deleveling" to be implemented as an efficient deterrent, or at least a sensible % increase for the storyline content up to mapping, or things will NEVER IMPROVE - they could find another penalty to better incentivize staying alive...

hey, I'd be ALL for deleveling, yet this is something that most non-hardcore people will cry about, and it will never done. I dont see any point in talking about pipe dreams. Id want level 100 to literally not reachable and having things in the game maybe one out of 10 million tries is successful, but I'm realistic enough to know GGG will not do that.

"

3) Level 100 was a "hollow" target all along, yet somehow, as soon as the first character reached that, it ALWAYS became EASIER. I'm not having a damn problem with TencentGGG making said goal easier, but they need to simply keep a damn constant stance about it.

I agree. the problem is that a certain contingent (the ones you argue for, the casuals) tend to think 'if something is in the game, I need to be able to have it after putting reasonable time'. this is a problem with people's mentality.

"

They need to stop using alternate easier than average content (Beachheads, pure breachstones, etc. etc.) to encourage the "speed runs to 100", and you know, implement a better danger/reward ratio EXP wise for the end content - which should be really dangerous as long as you actually FIGHT IT - delve at least uses scaling, so they could take that model and work with it. Sure, it will require proper balance and addressing in a timely manner of the damn "loopholes" like asinine item/mechanics/interactions and overtuned skills to make sure everything has at least a "fighting chance" - let's not start with REAL MELEE vs ANY DAMN THING else, but you know what I'm talking about.

I mostly agree. the issue is that PoE xp system is broken down, so even in cases of utter balance, people will figure out the best 'easy' and risk-averse way to reach 100. the biggest races happen in hardcore and its the same way there.

"

Ah, well, you consider I "zerg" my way to 100, but get this also, it's only possible due to the current death EXP penalty - which is "so great" that this "achievement" will not be invalidated by the time I spent hunting it - and I do prefer to play the game while attempting difficult to impossible content WHEN I FEEL LIKE IT, instead of cowering around or, even worse, use a "sanctioned cheat" to auto-win. I already grinded enough EXP on my main to level to 100 1.5 times, and I'm still going because I still have FUN playing him, while I try to constantly improve, even with the said plethora of limitations.

I'm not sure I understand any of your points here. What is sanctioned cheat youre talking about, and why cant you attempt difficult to impossible content when you feel like it ? is this about content gating ? Im truly lost here. Maybe it would help to detach from your experience and transpose it into a general statement ?

"

Contrary to other players, this casual n00b hoarder still works on getting his first level 100, and simply wants a real option to feel like the game at least entices him to run content closer to his character potential, and better yet, keep improving his piloting skills, his build and items so he actually manages it ALL. That should come with a fairer danger/reward ratio EXP wise for the endgame, but that would also make the 10% death EXP penalty "null", or "close to null" at levels 95-99. But said aspect should also be simply balanced by making the easier content more "grindy" so leveling from 99-100 in T10-T11 should take EXPONENTIALLY longer than doing the same versus Shaper/Uber Elder/Atziri etc. etc.

I dont disagree here either. The problem is that breakpoints will always be had. I also think GGG does not want boss killer builds to also be the most efficient xp getters. But again, I do see your point and agree with it.

"

Oh, and "meta or bust" is perfectly relevant, because due to the current power creep, I could bet anything that I could also reach level 100 faster, safer and easier by going with a damn meta character that simply needs to employ all the "sanctioned cheats" at hand to get to max in a matter of DAYS - this amount also gets lower each league, which also highlights both the asinine power creep AND TencentGGG's fear of making level 100 the proper target for a completed character - they backtracked their opinion regarding the "uber status" that a level 100 character reaches a long time ago, they simply forgot to make it public.

meta builds simply reflect power creep levels nowadays which make any achievement boring. while I absolutely detest power creep, GGG does know when things get stale, so we get this new endgame content in 3.9 which will be harder. I agree with you on their view on lvl 100, but I doubt theyd be going back

"

Casualisation shouldn't be perceived as the "death of PoE", as they could easily still entice casuals to play to 100 their characters, and work on both their gameplay skills and character improvement EVERY STEP of the journey from level 1 to 100, they simply need to add some proper danger/reward ratios even EXP wise...

I'm pretty passionate about casualization, so Id rather not talk about it. in short, I think it's a very bad thing for people who enjoyed what old poe was about (experimentation through failure and lots of grind and low default power level). no matter what poe becomes, the gist of poe to me is about struggling and improving gradually by finding items and theorycrafting interactions between systems.

casual players see level cap as some kind of bullseye, due to how other casual games present the level cap. where it really shouldnt have to be. level 100, or level CAP, to me, is best served as some carrot only reachable for the very few people who put in 923181293812 hours. so pretty similar to original GGG vision.

original GGG vision had a lot of things that fell victim to casualization. such as finding out things by yourself (recipes) and difficult trade incentivizing only trading for valuable items.

"

raics wrote:

"

vio wrote:

they already addressed this "survival bonus" for not dying. and decided against it cause it would demotivate players to continue playing after a death cause they would need to build something up again.

a single setback is likely easier to stomach, at least i feel this way.

And that's different from having to build up your lost XP in what way?

psychology. having to slowly build up some bonus stat is less attractive than just continuing getting the same xp you got before failing.

"

grepman wrote:

Spoiler

"

sofocle10000 wrote:

Let's address these 1 by 1:

1) Death EXP penalty should be ALWAYS RELEVANT, as you talk about "old games", those had the exact mentality - it's easier to keep the player "on his toes" if that penalty has the SAME IMPACT from start to finish.

Though that might mean you should be penalized with the same impact at those starting levels, compared to the end game - and it worked for a lot of games too, without them making said penalty feel like nothing for 95% of the progress and an "unbearable" PITA for the last 5%.

most arpgs out there simply made death penalty absolutely negligible that it did not matter at all.

there is simply no good solution of what you propose within the confines of the current xp system. it takes like two minutes to receive two level ups at level
2 and it takes dozens of hours to go from 99 to 100. neither flat nor % do the work. flat will hit harder in the beginning, and %, as we all know, hit hard at the end.

and if you want to implement your own xp scale, you need to start with that. because no matter how much you try, the impact of death of a level 10 toon does not equal impact of death of level of lvl 99 toon. except in hardcore, and even in hardcore level 10 toon is achieved through 30 minute of play. level 99, not so much.

the more you invest in a character, the more impactful death penalty should be, sure.

and to me, problematic areas are exactly levels 80-92 or so where you usually have a completed toon, but death penalty does not deter you that much as long as you dont zerg all the things

"

2) The reaching of level 100 status on every damn level up aka the 0% EXP loss with an EMPTY EXP BAR, is the zerging incentive, and you don't need to go "to level 1 when you die to a10 kitava", you simply need a real penalty like "...drum roll...deleveling" to be implemented as an efficient deterrent, or at least a sensible % increase for the storyline content up to mapping, or things will NEVER IMPROVE - they could find another penalty to better incentivize staying alive...

hey, I'd be ALL for deleveling, yet this is something that most non-hardcore people will cry about, and it will never done. I dont see any point in talking about pipe dreams. Id want level 100 to literally not reachable and having things in the game maybe one out of 10 million tries is successful, but I'm realistic enough to know GGG will not do that.

"

3) Level 100 was a "hollow" target all along, yet somehow, as soon as the first character reached that, it ALWAYS became EASIER. I'm not having a damn problem with TencentGGG making said goal easier, but they need to simply keep a damn constant stance about it.

I agree. the problem is that a certain contingent (the ones you argue for, the casuals) tend to think 'if something is in the game, I need to be able to have it after putting reasonable time'. this is a problem with people's mentality.

"

They need to stop using alternate easier than average content (Beachheads, pure breachstones, etc. etc.) to encourage the "speed runs to 100", and you know, implement a better danger/reward ratio EXP wise for the end content - which should be really dangerous as long as you actually FIGHT IT - delve at least uses scaling, so they could take that model and work with it. Sure, it will require proper balance and addressing in a timely manner of the damn "loopholes" like asinine item/mechanics/interactions and overtuned skills to make sure everything has at least a "fighting chance" - let's not start with REAL MELEE vs ANY DAMN THING else, but you know what I'm talking about.

I mostly agree. the issue is that PoE xp system is broken down, so even in cases of utter balance, people will figure out the best 'easy' and risk-averse way to reach 100. the biggest races happen in hardcore and its the same way there.

"

Ah, well, you consider I "zerg" my way to 100, but get this also, it's only possible due to the current death EXP penalty - which is "so great" that this "achievement" will not be invalidated by the time I spent hunting it - and I do prefer to play the game while attempting difficult to impossible content WHEN I FEEL LIKE IT, instead of cowering around or, even worse, use a "sanctioned cheat" to auto-win. I already grinded enough EXP on my main to level to 100 1.5 times, and I'm still going because I still have FUN playing him, while I try to constantly improve, even with the said plethora of limitations.

I'm not sure I understand any of your points here. What is sanctioned cheat youre talking about, and why cant you attempt difficult to impossible content when you feel like it ? is this about content gating ? Im truly lost here. Maybe it would help to detach from your experience and transpose it into a general statement ?

"

Contrary to other players, this casual n00b hoarder still works on getting his first level 100, and simply wants a real option to feel like the game at least entices him to run content closer to his character potential, and better yet, keep improving his piloting skills, his build and items so he actually manages it ALL. That should come with a fairer danger/reward ratio EXP wise for the endgame, but that would also make the 10% death EXP penalty "null", or "close to null" at levels 95-99. But said aspect should also be simply balanced by making the easier content more "grindy" so leveling from 99-100 in T10-T11 should take EXPONENTIALLY longer than doing the same versus Shaper/Uber Elder/Atziri etc. etc.

I dont disagree here either. The problem is that breakpoints will always be had. I also think GGG does not want boss killer builds to also be the most efficient xp getters. But again, I do see your point and agree with it.

"

Oh, and "meta or bust" is perfectly relevant, because due to the current power creep, I could bet anything that I could also reach level 100 faster, safer and easier by going with a damn meta character that simply needs to employ all the "sanctioned cheats" at hand to get to max in a matter of DAYS - this amount also gets lower each league, which also highlights both the asinine power creep AND TencentGGG's fear of making level 100 the proper target for a completed character - they backtracked their opinion regarding the "uber status" that a level 100 character reaches a long time ago, they simply forgot to make it public.

meta builds simply reflect power creep levels nowadays which make any achievement boring. while I absolutely detest power creep, GGG does know when things get stale, so we get this new endgame content in 3.9 which will be harder. I agree with you on their view on lvl 100, but I doubt theyd be going back

"

Casualisation shouldn't be perceived as the "death of PoE", as they could easily still entice casuals to play to 100 their characters, and work on both their gameplay skills and character improvement EVERY STEP of the journey from level 1 to 100, they simply need to add some proper danger/reward ratios even EXP wise...

I'm pretty passionate about casualization, so Id rather not talk about it. in short, I think it's a very bad thing for people who enjoyed what old poe was about (experimentation through failure and lots of grind and low default power level). no matter what poe becomes, the gist of poe to me is about struggling and improving gradually by finding items and theorycrafting interactions between systems.

casual players see level cap as some kind of bullseye, due to how other casual games present the level cap. where it really shouldnt have to be. level 100, or level CAP, to me, is best served as some carrot only reachable for the very few people who put in 923181293812 hours. so pretty similar to original GGG vision.

original GGG vision had a lot of things that fell victim to casualization. such as finding out things by yourself (recipes) and difficult trade incentivizing only trading for valuable items.

Very well said, and I do agree with most of your points.

PoE never was, and never will be your generic ARPG, even if that is only due to the fact it's developers are really passionate about their project - sure, they say something, and do something else entirely due to various reasons - so it should have a better solution than most regarding the ease of acquiring EXP at the start of the journey, transformed into a shallow dangling of carrot just out of reach on the latter part of it.

TencentGGG should do a lot better regarding a better incentive to take all the steps of said journey, from level 1 to 100, and also a better job at finding a better deterrent than the current death EXP penalty.

In Softcore, the death impact should always be relevant, and it's lackluster to dwindle in PoE until act 5 and the first Kitava fight, with NO PENALTY FOR DEATH WHATSOEVER. They need to highlight to their playerbase that dying shouldn't happen, and you should always use it as a learning experience even in Softcore, so you wouldn't make the same mistake again.

They need to start placing some weight on the trial via error, which was so fun in PoE, and encourage their player base to PAY ATTENTION, ACKNOWLEDGE A PROBLEM, LEARN TO SURPASS IT and feel the "joy" of doing so... Even the casuals can easily identify a problem, think of various ways to solve it, then adapt. That should happen during all the steps of the journey, and I know that it might be difficult to highlight the reasons why our characters die, but TencentGGG needs this constant focus placed on the death problem on Softcore, to keep it's playerbase engaged and actually play the game, while also providing better incentives to keep players "hooked" for a longer time span.

Deleveling is an option, but they should also find and employ alternate solutions if they fear that greying out the last skill point/last few skill points will break the game. Add a damn alternate quest that could increase in difficulty/complexity for as many as having 5/10 skillpoints greyed out. Highlight in a better way what kills a player - sure, it might be a simple 1K physical hit in the end game that dealt the killing blow ultimately, but they could also show a damn detailed death log regarding sustained damage for the last 1 sec / 3 sec / 5 sec, so everyone would understand what the hell happened and WHY DID THEY DIED.

When I talk about "sanctioned cheats", I mainly refer to subpar game content related to character potential that grants BETTER EXP than the difficult one (Beachheads/pure breachstones etc. versus the real end game like Uber Atziri/Izaro/delving at depth >1K) AND asinine items/skills/mechanics and interactions used as a "crutch" combined to the power creep to make PoE the best "Clicker Heroes arcade shooter pew-pew zoom zoom forced meta" game on the market, which sadly differs a lot from an ARPG...

I get that being powerful is addictive, but most of the end game fights are well designed (even the damn phases of the end game encounters can be perceived as relevant as long as they ask their players to do something and not be outright TIMED INVULNERABILITY portions, so the bosses wouldn't be deleted in < 1 nanosecond), so they might be even more addictive if they are balanced with a soft cap/hard cap on both player and monster damage, and with the focus placed on sustain and attrition instead of the current ROFL STOMP one shot fiesta that started to happen a long time ago, and is seemingly neverending...

With better investment you should feel more powerful, yet the power level should always be kept in check, so the damn game doesn't devolve to a different genre entirely...

We need better danger/reward ratios EXP wise, and I'm actually hoping that the new Conquerors of the Atlas update will come with a much needed adjustment, or at least PoE 2 will, as there should be more focus placed on properly adjusting content scaling via the mapping system and the increase of all the map tiers closer to max...

TencentGGG don't need to go back on their view regarding level 100, but they need to simply employ a fairer danger/reward ratio even EXP wise, so the journey from level 1 to 100 FEELS LIKE A JOURNEY, every step of the way. I always thought they had the wrong view since I started in 1.0, and I expressed my point of view as early as 1.3.0/1.4.0 regarding said aspect. They simply will be better served by embracing it the right way, and link for a change the difficulty of the content to the EXP gain, in a way that will also encourage their players to explore said content at all times and strive to constantly improve their characters to better tackle it.

Casualization can be a great aspect, if you actually transform the casuals little by little into regular/veteran players that know their ways around the game, but that shouldn't have a constant cost in subpar content, balance, and a lesser overall experience. A casual player = a player that will always find FUN in PoE, be that for entertaining and obscure idea regarding a new build, or by grinding at a chill pace for a few K hours. The key is to keep these players improving, and that will constantly transform them in the right kind of playerbase that PoE needs.

Some casuals enjoy to take the "best there is on the market" and replicate it as best as they can, but even then, they will learn ("monkey sees, monkey does") in time what they can expect as an outcome from said copies.

Sure, with most things out in the open, it's very hard to still rely on item upgrades that drop as a loot, and are not crafted at 0 danger for the character, except the cost of crafting materials, and the liberalization of trade that encouraged the market to sell everything too fast and with no cost led to the current path of finding your best upgrades through mostly trade - TencentGGG need to deal with these problems in a way better way than they currently do.

Maybe we will see a return of mystery and real FUN with PoE 2, or maybe not. I still hope that until PoE 2, during, and post PoE 2, PoE will be better managed on these aspects on all fronts. I am very reluctant these days to place too much faith on TencentGGG's capabilities, but they only have to do their job in a better way than they currently do, and the outcome might surprise us, hopefully in the right way...