I'm Unhappy I Put As Much Money As I Did In This Game

"

DalaiLama wrote:

inaccurate and misrepresented nonsense

1) You are comparing apples to oranges.

The skill tree in Diablo 2 is not comparable to the passive tree in Path of Exile.

From a game development viewpoint there is no relationship (or very little) between these objects.

If you want to compare the skill tree of Diablo 2 to something in PoE, the correct comparison would be skill gems.

Iterating down and specializing a skill within Diablo 2 would be comparable to linking an additional gem within PoE, or accessing higher level gems.

2) As for the main part you misrepresented, the lack of choice I and Witt were pointing out, and that has to do with the choices the game forces on you.

Yes, there is a great big passive tree and a lot of different combinations of possibilities. However, only a tiny miniscule percentage of those will have any chance of working in practical situations. The ones that work in practical situations will involve either a shitload of life or a shitload of ES (and a whole shitload of +10 stat nodes connecting them)

Depending on what type of skills you are emphasizing, you will be pigeonholed into certain lines along the passive tree pretty much irregardless of what starting class you choose.

The giant passive tree is an illusion of sandbox and choice that does not actually exist.

I too feel like the game is going downhill. At first let me state that I am not solo player neither I am the one who dislike trading (If I were I would quit the game after few months of play).
I am not a casual player, I had 4 fully equiped chars able to do most of the hardest content with items worth around 700 ex total. The issues the game has as I see it:

1) Crafting system is actually ridiculous, it has nothing to do with crafting its only gambling. Ive played since open beta and Ive never crafted anything beyond 4L because I just hate gambling and find it unrewarding

2) GGG are consistently destroying the standard league with nerfing more and more items and making it legacy. After the latest patch it has gone beyond the edge, the game had become totally repulsive to any new player because no1 is going to farm months to be able to afford one item upgrade which is labeled as legacy now and mandatory to be able to do any higher lvl content. Why keep nerfing everything in PVE game goes beyond my undestanding, if its for the sake of PVP then its even more ridiculous...this is not PVP game and never will be, nor should be balanced around that.

3) Another issues comes together with n2, inaccesible to any new players means it will be harder and harder to actually sell mid game items (say from 10 chaos - few ex) because simply put there wont be anyone to buy those items...its already happening, I used to have 5-10 trades/day, my trade shop working nicely but recently I am unable to sell actually anything...
The only way to make some decent currency now is to start reselling legacy items and I have no interest in that...

also pls dont say I should stop playing standard, why should I? Ive invested many months and effort into my characters and items, why should I throw everything out of window and start from 0? I enjoy end game content, not starting from scratch over and over and never reach end game

4) The new patch is just a sherry on the cake, adding some unaccesible boss for 99.9% of players which is totally unrewarding considering the price to access it and the risk of dying there...they nerf vaal pact destroying many high DPS crit builds and adding new beyond OP gloves that compensate the nerf that will drop from some even more broken version of this boss and going to be like 400 ex I reckon which only RMT victims and resellers are going to be able to afford...

Used to love the game, enjoyed it for many months but its getting rly bad recently

I understand and agree with much you've expressed, Jaxxxson. I've dropped more money on this game for the amount of time I've played than any other game, including subscription MMO's. I've always been fine with it before, I saw it as akin to buying other sorts of games for full retail price that I played only once. Here with PoE, I was playing it multiple times.

However, after seeing the direction GGG has been taking the game, I finally understand the meaning of the "supporter" title. And that it was a mistake for me to spend/donate this money to GGG because I no longer support what they are doing with the game. I do not blame GGG for that, I blame myself.

I'm just glad I have alternatives to play, games that are much more tailored to my desired way to play an ARPG. I don't regret the enjoyable times I had with PoE, I just regret that I won't be able get more out of it without running into the issues that kill my enjoyment of the game. The tradecore economy, the punishing rng that doesn't feel rewarding.

Like many others, I'll continue to monitor the developments of the game. I still believe the base passive tree/skill gem is the strongest potential of the game. Maybe if GGG gets back to those roots, without handicapping it with rng and trading, I can consider myself a supporter again. Hopefully in the future there will the right combination of circumstances that I jump back into Wraeclast.

"

tikitaki wrote:

Yes, there is a great big passive tree and a lot of different combinations of possibilities. However, only a tiny miniscule percentage of those will have any chance of working in practical situations. The ones that work in practical situations will involve either a shitload of life or a shitload of ES (and a whole shitload of +10 stat nodes connecting them)

Depending on what type of skills you are emphasizing, you will be pigeonholed into certain lines along the passive tree pretty much irregardless of what starting class you choose.

There are more optimized combinations than others, thank you captain obvious.
I have only 18 ES nodes in the skill tree and my ranger and I have 7k+ES, is that a shitload of nodes ?
No, most of them just were on the way. Is my gear godly ? no, it's just good.
My hybrid witch has 16 ES nodes and 7 life nodes, is that a shitload also ? no it's not.
I obviously didn't count the travel nodes there because most of those survivability nodes are just on the way to a keystone/key element that I wanted.
It is obvious that one will need to take +10 nodes for a build, travel costs are nodes' placement is exactly the point of the skill tree ...

The skill tree has not been designed around hardcore leagues, HC leagues are different from SC where most people play, because obviously one needs more margin to survive in those.
If you cannot play and get to maps ( and run them ) with builds that you create ( that are different from full life/ES builds ), you are probably bad at building a char, sorry.
This passive skill tree offer tons of possibilities, you just need to plan well what you want do to and how, but don't blame it if you cannot succeed with builds that don't follow what most of the people do and feel pigeonhold, because that's actually only your fault : it's not because you didn't succeed that other people also didn't.

"

Fruz wrote:

There are more optimized combinations than others, thank you captain obvious.
I have only 18 ES nodes in the skill tree and my ranger and I have 7k+ES, is that a shitload of nodes ?
No, most of them just were on the way. Is my gear godly ? no, it's just good.
My hybrid witch has 16 ES nodes and 7 life nodes, is that a shitload also ? no it's not.
I obviously didn't count the travel nodes there because most of those survivability nodes are just on the way to a keystone/key element that I wanted.
It is obvious that one will need to take +10 nodes for a build, travel costs are nodes' placement is exactly the point of the skill tree ...

The skill tree has not been designed around hardcore leagues, HC leagues are different from SC where most people play, because obviously one needs more margin to survive in those.
If you cannot play and get to maps ( and run them ) with builds that you create ( that are different from full life/ES builds ), you are probably bad at building a char, sorry.
This passive skill tree offer tons of possibilities, you just need to plan well what you want do to and how, but don't blame it if you cannot succeed with builds that don't follow what most of the people do and feel pigeonhold, because that's actually only your fault : it's not because you didn't succeed that other people also didn't.

Oh jesus.

You're right, all the other people saying similar things are all wrong, you're right.

You're the Special Master Builder and nobody else can possibly understand your vast insight into characters.

The fact that I'm pigeonholed into paths with lots of survivability, leading to virtually zero actual choice, means that I am bad at the game.

Your argument is 100% sound and adressed all relevant points that I and others brought up.

You can close the thread - everybody is just bad here except Fruz.

Also, my 82 Ranger is still alive and kicking in Hardcore. Where's your witch? How is your /deaths coming along?

"

tinko92 wrote:

"

Rhys wrote:

As for map bosses, yeah some of those are right bastards, but it's mostly intentional. Don't want everyone just steamrolling them all, aye. It's OK to have a few that are a real challenge, that players learn not to mess with unless they're properly prepared. It just changes the "value" of the map, depending on if you can handle the boss or not. We also definitely want to give some of the more boring bosses a makeover, too.

That's fine.

But why would anyone want to fight those hard bosses? For what exactly?
Risk - reward?

This is actually my biggest problem with the game as well right now. I don't mind an epic battle or maybe zerging to beat a particularly challenging (read "one hit wonder") boss but to then have that boss drop a shitload of blue and white items with 1 or 2 sockets, no orbs, and nothing else of value is super frustrating. Those are my QQ moments.

As for trading, I think trading can be fun if they find a better method than using trade chat. We shouldn't have to use 3rd party sites to find trades IMO, and trying to find anything in trade chat is a test of one's sanity. Personally I would like self found to be a bit more viable for all put the top of the top end gear since it's reasonable to assume rarity means you may not find something on your own so if you want it you have to trade.

I left during OB for a lot of these reasons because I simply got bored and frustrated. I came back a few weeks ago at the end of the previous season and had a lot of fun (hence my supporter pack purchase). I got excited about the new content until it was released and then I realized the gem of that content (Atziri) would probably be out of my reach forever. I think I've owned a grand total of 3 exalts in my entire playing time so the odds of me getting geared up enough to win that fight are pretty much zero. That would be ok if the other loot options were more "win". Guess I've just got perpetually bad RNG luck.

@tikitaki : so if I can do something that you can't do, it basically means that no one else can do it ?
interesting ...

My witch is fine thank you, you can see her in my char lists.
You trying to taunt on HC over SC is ridiculous ( but definitely expectable ) or maybe you didn't read my previous post, idk ...

"

Fruz wrote:

@tikitaki : so if I can do something that you can't do, it basically means that no one else can do it ?
interesting ...

My witch is fine thank you, you can see her in my char lists.
You trying to taunt on HC over SC is ridiculous ( but definitely expectable ) or maybe you didn't read my previous post, idk ...

Anything works on Standard because there's no penalty for failure.

I asked you about /deaths for a reason. It's totally pointless to make a big rant about how awesome your crappy witch is, but it impresses exactly nobody.

This isn't an e-peen thread and the people who are sharing their experiences have generally played this game a whole lot longer than you and with a lot more success.

What interests me the most is that people from a wide variety of backgrounds are having the same issues with the game.

People who are:
Solo players.
Group players
Traders
Crafters
Hoarders
Standard players
Hardcore players
Competitive players
Casual players

All different groups, bringing up problems with balance, build diversity, and game direction.

"

tikitaki wrote:

Anything works on Standard because there's no penalty for failure.

I stopped there.
It also proves exactly what I was saying :

"

Fruz wrote:

You trying to taunt on HC over SC is ridiculous ( but definitely expectable )

"

Fruz wrote:

@tikitaki : so if I can do something that you can't do, it basically means that no one else can do it ?
interesting ...

My witch is fine thank you, you can see her in my char lists.
You trying to taunt on HC over SC is ridiculous ( but definitely expectable ) or maybe you didn't read my previous post, idk ...

What a strawman. Tikitaki did not promote HC over SC. He merely said that your statement that "anyone can make a character that survives with only a few life/ES nodes" comes from a very flawed place considering your character has probably died more than once. In other words, "not survived." So if you want to link your character that's in HC with only "X nodes" or screencap your high level character with 0 /deaths to prove your point, then be everyone's guest.

Otherwise, it's kind of specious of you to suggest that everyone who has trouble surviving without taking a shitload of survivability nodes is bad at this game.