This is it. This is *it*. This is precisely why you're unhappy with PoE. Your idea of 'finished' is so far beyond the current reasonable means provided by the game that you cannot reconcile with the reality of the situation. Oh, I am so sorry. I really am. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be to be unable to play another character until one is 'complete' and one's idea of 'complete' being thousands of hours of play in a game that absolutely punishes you for wanting to go beyond 'decent' and into the realm of 'perfect' or at least 'the best' as you put it.
Mathematically speaking, you obtaining 'the best' is extremely unlikely -- and here I'm assuming by 'best' you mean top rolls on your rares, each of which will have 5-7 attributes and each of *those* can only be rerolled by rerolling the others. What a gargantuan task you have set yourself.
On the other hand, people like me must be almost incomprehensible to you. People who can play multiple, very weak, very flawed, but to us very interesting characters as once. We get a new idea for a build every day. Sometimes multiple ideas a day. We have 24 character slots and many stash tabs full of low to mid level stuff just waiting to be used 'correctly', waiting to be tapped in that special way that makes them tick. To you, who are on the path to perfection for just one high level character, all that lower level stuff must seem utterly useless.
Here's the issue, and I mean this sincerely: do you believe it's possible to obtain 'the best' on your one character in light of how crafting/rares work in this game? And a follow-up: is it worth your time pursuing it when, say, it'll take you thousands of hours to get there? That's a lot of time. I personally think you're setting yourself up for disappointment and anticlimax. I think there are some games that reward this sort of meticulous devotion to one character, and I *don't* think Path of Exile is it. Here's my reasoning:
1) Races -- a large part of Path of Exile's design, and for some of us appeal, is the idea of starting the game over for an hour or two on a completely fresh character with *no* hope of reaching even mid level. The game is, in a way, built to be replayed by the same player many times over
2) Lacking high-end content -- at this point, maps only go up to 78. Reasonably speaking, you can probably hope to bleed about 5 extra levels out of that before 'Diminishing Returns' really starts to kick in. This to me would support the idea that 'starting a new character' is, in GGG's eyes, a perfectly reasonable response to reaching high end content and feeling dissatisfaction with it
3) The current crafting system hates perfection -- here's where high level players are really getting screwed. The crafting system is excellent *if* you're okay with 'viable' or decent. The moment you set about trying to get 'the best', you're pushing a massive ball of shit up-hill with both hands tied behind your back. As I said, that's wrestling with divinity. A lot of divinity. I am not mathematician enough to tell you how unlikely it is that any given 5-6 attribute rare will, with a divine roll, get 'the best' stats for each. I'd say it's ridiculously low just to get 1-2 as 'the best'. But for me, 'the best' is a self-imposed restriction and your choice of words, 'I'm weird about this though' would reinforce that.
So while we altaholics and racers are just fine, someone devoted to the concept of 'perfection' or 'the best' is just butting their head against an extremely thick wall. Again I would ask if it's the wall's fault or the person butting their head -- there is every chance that person is simply not reading this game correctly, although I'd also say that's partially the game's fault for seeming other than it is. Even a cursory glance to me would indicate this game has a weak end-game/high level content. I view it like the atmosphere -- the higher you get, the thinner the air, the more you struggle just to breathe, just to stay alive. I admire those who try, but pity those who aren't mentally and physically prepared for it.
On the other hand, I believe it'd take someone probably on the very edge of sanity to even try it. To go up against such evidence that the game just isn't ready for dedicated high-end players. That if you're going to take on such a brutal crafting system, you'll almost certain to lose if your idea of winning is 'the best'.
Finally, I also think it's this subset of players who cannot view a character as 'done' until the gear is well past 'viable' that most frequently feel the need to trade -- after all, while it's a fool's errand to roll divines and hope that your 5-6 attribute rare will get great numerical values within their mod parameters, there's a much higher chance someone's already done it or something like it, and they don't value said item quite as much as you might.
Do you want a tl;dr? It should be no surprise: this game isn't for you, not in its current state. It isn't good enough for you. It's good enough for people like me with different (and I'd accept the word 'lower') standards, who accept that after about 60-70 levels, there's just no reason to keep going, so you make another character and try something different. But for you, whose idea of 'the best' is so far beyond what the crafting/looting system will reasonably supply, this game falls so far short of the mark and I think it always will.
I genuinely feel bad for you. I am sorry.
Spoiler
I never said that I wanted the best or the top rolls on anything, so calm down and quit jumping to conclusions again. Everything is relative to the best, and should be compared on the spectrum of best to worst. For example, the best 2h weapon I see on xyz is 882 dps. The worst dps of that weapon base is around 100-150. My weapon is 500 dps, which falls into 'average'. Do I want the very best perfect rolls? Well yeah, but that's not my goal. My goal is simply something above 'average'. Why can't I have a realistic goal of 600 dps?
As long as something in a game exists, there will always be those of us who are trying to achieve it. Not everyone just 'gives up' as easily as you do. Thank you though, for your taking the time to feel bad for me and apologize, because in all honesty I wouldn't do the same for you.
Last edited by nGio#1658 on Jan 26, 2014, 5:45:24 PM
That is really good gear. Way above average. I'm baffled that you're complaining about loot progression based on your gear.
I am guessing that I am in the top 1% of players for time played in Nemesis, and I am almost 89 without grouping a single time(except to rush friends). I trade flipped quite a bit to get most of my gear, because finding any of this stuff wasn't realistic in hundreds of maps and thousands of Piety runs. I actually just tried playing for the first time in over a week. I did 26 Piety runs for the hell of it, and I literally didn't get a single unique heheh. For some reason, the drop rates were a lot more generous for me the first 200 hours, but the last 400 have been on a new scale of miserable.
You have to take into account that I was no-life gaming Nemesis for a few months there, so my time played is much higher than most. Of course my items will be better than someone who has only logged a few hundred hours.
I am guessing that I am in the top 1% of players for time played in Nemesis, and I am almost 89 without grouping a single time(except to rush friends). I trade flipped quite a bit to get most of my gear, because finding any of this stuff wasn't realistic in hundreds of maps and thousands of Piety runs. I actually just tried playing for the first time in over a week. I did 26 Piety runs for the hell of it, and I literally didn't get a single unique heheh. For some reason, the drop rates were a lot more generous for me the first 200 hours, but the last 400 have been on a new scale of miserable.
You have to take into account that I was no-life gaming Nemesis for a few months there, so my time played is much higher than most. Of course my items will be better than someone who has only logged a few hundred hours.
There are 3 ways in PoE to make enough currency to buy an item you are after:
1)RMT and buy ultra overpriced orbs.
2)Flip items using trade chat and feel bad about yourself making people sell their stuff for way less than it is worth and then resell it on trade chat with double/triple price while they look at it and feel cheated.
3)Have this "once in a lifetime day" where you would win main prize in powerball lottery, but you found a soultaker instead.
Rolling my third char, 87 domination - abandoned, 87 nemesis ripped to standard, 77 nemesis and moving on.
Best item I got? Alpha's howl on domination, 2 months ago. Since then I found only one 1ex worth 1h mace on nemesis.
I just realised today, how actually boring this game gets. It is not for casual players.
All ARPGs are about items, and PoE is the only ARPG where getting those items is so hard that it makes people quit. Who the hell wants to play a game that is fun?
Although i like PoE, awarding it with Game of the Year should not happen. Looking at the poor itemisation this game still feels like beta.
Will play till the end of the league and return next autumn/winter season, no reason to play when the spring comes :-)
Now I have a place but the motherfucking cable company
keeps cancelling their appointments on me delaying internet installation.
In the not-to-distant future I anticipate not playing due to midterms.
When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
Last edited by ScrotieMcB#2697 on Jan 26, 2014, 7:54:59 PM
So while we altaholics and racers are just fine, someone devoted to the concept of 'perfection' or 'the best' is just butting their head against an extremely thick wall. Again I would ask if it's the wall's fault or the person butting their head -- there is every chance that person is simply not reading this game correctly, although I'd also say that's partially the game's fault for seeming other than it is.
[/spoiler]
Good post. As to the contents of it: it's not just the concept of "perfection", as you put it, that's unattainable, what also occurs is the outright denial to continued progression with your character; once you get to a certain point (circa 85), the game makes it so it's even harder and harder to improve. Mathematically speaking, progression is no longer linear, the curve becomes steeper and steeper until you get fed up. There is a difference between progression and perfection, up until the first gets you to the latter, POE, however, is unforgiving for both. It forces you to choose: reroll or quit.
This game is divided in two large groups: group a) the altaholics, group b) the finishers. At the moment it caters mainly to group a, with a passion. Group b, even though I think is a substantial part of the community and perhaps larger than group a, gets utterly neglected. What in my opinion makes players from group b so mad, including myself, is all the potential the game has to cater to both groups, yet the developers mentality is strongly against favoring group b. They are of the mind that gating content behind RNG and extremely low odds will make you play for longer and enjoy the game more. Well, I think they're wrong, I favor fruition and progress over easy replayability and unrewarding low level areas.
Which leads me to my final point: if you like refined endgame, then choose another game because the developers were not thinking of you when they made their game.
iven´t really quit but i dont play a lot anymore either , lack of rewards for my timeinput being too random and my expectations towards loot being too high apparently because this is the first ARPG where i´ve yet to loot a near perfect item after 600 hours in lategame.
I enjoy my play for the most part but I have to admit my level of annoyance varies from a little bit annoyed to holy shit why did they do that. Sometimes I just find it hard to accept the not-so-well thought out parts of the game. Man I wish I could just wave my magic wand and change some of these bits. But I know it's not GGG's fault there isn't a better contemporary arpg to turn to. God in heaven I know they're a small team but please for the love of my sanity please fix some of the annoying bits. The good parts are so good they just make the bad parts look even worse.
