This game and noobtraps

Hello,

There are some things in this game that bother me. You have the obvious ones that everyone complains about (desynch, crafting, fusing/jeweler/chromatic orbs, ...,) but I would like to talk about a different problem, something that does not really apply to me or maybe you but does to newer/casual players. Some of my friends are in that newer/casual category and it annoys both me and them when they make choices in this game that I consider to be noobtraps. There are probably a lot more but I would like to cover a few here.

1. Nessa's reward for the medicine chest in normal difficulty. You should always pick the quicksilver flask, there is absolutely no reason ever to pick anything else, literally none. I think 100.00% (not even >99.999%) of all veteran players will always without exception pick the quicksilver flask (unless their mouse malfunctions and they missclick). There is absolutely zero incentive to pick the other rewards. None.

2. Normal bandit rewards: in over 99% of all cases you will go for either Oak or the skill point. The mana is typically not worth it, because if you have a character who uses a lot of mana and would like the 40 additional mana you are most likely EB anyway and that makes you life-based which then makes Oak the better option. Kraityn is a different story: it is very hard to gauge how many resists you will have with endgame gear even for veteran players (let alone for newer players) and resists are capped, meaning that if/when you get to nice gear you will have to pay the extremely steep price for respeccing kraityn's favor. This is especially deceiving because the allres nodes on the tree are typically 6% to all resist, meaning 8% all resist looks attractive to newer players not familiar with the game that much. The difference is obviously that you can respec out of the 6% all res node for free or for the cost of 1 regret orb.

3. Dominus 2nd form blood rain + proximity shield: many friends complain/died around this and for good reason. It is very counterintuitive because it looks like shit is about to get real and he is using an ability, so the instinct is to get the fuck out of his way. This means you get into the blood rain and kaboom - you are raped.

4. High lvl orbs dropping at low level: this is a great mechanic because it means that veteran players aren't completely wasting their time leveling new characters/rerolling because they can still have amazing currency drop along the way. A new player isn't going to do anything with chaoses, divines or exalts though and may end up wasting them or getting ripped off. I feel like newer players should be protected against this, i.e. 'you cannot use this orb until you are level XX'. Obviously in races you will turn this restriction off.

The only thing I agree with is the underestimation of valuable orbs at low level to new players. The other ones are pretty much player preference and not so much a noobtrap. Typically people will grab quicksilver flask yes but its really not going to make or break someones playthrough just because they can't run fast. Bandit rewards are somewhat meh, it would be nice if the quest granted a passive + one of those benefits. Sort of a here's a passive point for dealing with the bandit issue and here's hp/mp/res/etc for sparing my life. As far as dominus goes, its a somewhat screwy fight mechanic wise but not for the reason of blood rain. Players that die to it unknowing will figure out what made them die and learn when they go back in. Its no different than dying to vaal smash because you had no idea it could 1 shot or dying to merveil because you were chain frozen. If people RIP to it then they should've known better, like I did since I took a break before playing again and going through nemesis.

"Noobtraps" or "learning opportunities"?

My kids are "noobs", my wife and I let them make a lot of their own choices. Typically, when we are the ones presenting the choices, we will describe the pros and cons of each so that the kids can make an informed decision. Other times they make their choices with less information, when the consequences are negative then that is a "teachable moment" wherein we can discuss how some of the other options might have led to different results. When the result is positive then we can take pride that our kids are "growing up" and "being responsible".

Am I a bad parent for not dictating every choice my kids make? Am I bad for not forcing them to make what I know will be a better decision in the long run? Did you like it when your parents failed to give you even the illusion of choice?

does that mean instead of telling your kids what the concept of "hot" is

you instead let them touch a hot frying pan and then tell them that the resulting pain is what you call "hot"?



there is a difference between learning opportunities , and poor communication.
especially when said *noob traps* happen to go against established video game archetypes.


the dominus's blood rain is a perfect example. in every other game in existence when you fight a big huge boss the last place you would deem safe is within arms length of his claws and spikes and whatever.


that isnt a creative mechanic. what it is, is merely setting up the player to fail the first time they fight the boss , because lord knows once you figure out that you have to hug the boss in the final form , the whole mechanic become trivial.

"

Sinnesteuer wrote:

"Noobtraps" or "learning opportunities"?

My kids are "noobs", my wife and I let them make a lot of their own choices. Typically, when we are the ones presenting the choices, we will describe the pros and cons of each so that the kids can make an informed decision. Other times they make their choices with less information, when the consequences are negative then that is a "teachable moment" wherein we can discuss how some of the other options might have led to different results. When the result is positive then we can take pride that our kids are "growing up" and "being responsible".

Am I a bad parent for not dictating every choice my kids make? Am I bad for not forcing them to make what I know will be a better decision in the long run? Did you like it when your parents failed to give you even the illusion of choice?

What the fuck are you talking about, can you not make these shitty posts in my topics please and go to some place like /r/parenting?

Just to humour you, the bolded part in your post is something that is not necessary in something like the medicine chest reward. There doesn't have to be a 'teachable' moment there, just remove the fucking shitty options and be done with it. Do you serve your children 3 dishes of soup, one with poison ivy in it and then not properly inform them and go 'welp you took the wrong dish and now you're sick but for next time the way you can identify the poison ivy soup is by doing this and that and looking for so and so'? I don't think you do, you serve the correct soup.

I hope you read this post in its full glory before the forumstaffnazis censor this post and make it look like a pink unicorn typed it in lala-land while drinking from the chocolate waterfall underneath the double rainbow.

that isn't even one of his more glorious posts , the guy has a real talent for it .

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

that isnt a creative mechanic. what it is, is merely setting up the player to fail the first time they fight the boss , because lord knows once you figure out that you have to hug the boss in the final form , the whole mechanic become trivial.

I would like to point out that the mechanic isn't entirely obsolete once you figure it out because you still need to be in melee range so you cannot permanently off-screen it, making it more likely for you to take damage from him and thus increasing the difficulty of the fight. I agree with everything else though,

true if anything what that particular mechanic accomplishes is an effective culling of classes that don't pass that infamous gear check situation that you hear floating around .

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

true if anything what that particular mechanic accomplishes is an effective culling of classes that don't pass that infamous gear check situation that you hear floating around .

I don't mind gear checks that much and a lot of things are gear checks (can you run anything with zero gear, completely naked? No? Then everything is a gear check). There are still some things you can do to minimize damage though, you can run around the boss and dodge some hits. The only thing you really need if you're squishy with low regen is a staunching flask.

semi-noob-traps:

1) leveling Detonate Dead and CWDT (above lvl 3-5)

2) overpaying for quality on gems that have very bad % bonuses

3) no info on flat +life +mana gains on each level (this might lead to taking +40 mana seeing how low the initial pool is)

4) no clear information about 'crit' - that spells have innate crit that is separate from weapon crit. difference between global and local crit etc. i suspect that tons of epic weapons were vendored because while playing for the first time these stats are a bit unclear

5) ice nova and several other 'flat' skills that simply do not scale into merciless. building around them == reroll

6) differences in max dps of different weapon types. seeing that to be good sword or axe (1h) has to have 300+ dps noob will vendor 200dps wand.. wands have the lowest possible dps and 250dps wand is godlike. figuring this out is not easy for a noob. i - early on - vendored 200+dps wand thinking it is trash. havent found a better one since..