1.2.0 Improvements to New User Experience

Like mentioned in the post keeping new players is very important for the future of the game.

I do want to mention that personally I find the first part of the post more important.

The unbalance between the efficiency in killing mobs between ranged and melee seems to show especially in the beginning of the game.

Attacks speed is definitely an important factor although accuracy is too (as is mana indeed)

"

Attacks speed is definitely an important factor although accuracy is too (as is mana indeed)

Totaly agree, would even add faster animation, increase slightly move speed too, also the monsters have to be more " dynamic " but i suppose it's not possible atm ?

"

Chris wrote:

Path of Exile can have a tough learning curve for new users, especially those who haven't played Action RPGs before. Half of our new users are players who aren't very experienced with this type of game, but may potentially really enjoy it if they play to the point where they discover the depth of character builds possible.

Appropriate Feelings of Power
When players feel powerful, they enjoy themselves. If they don't feel that they're gaining more power from their incremental play, then they're unlikely to keep playing for a long period of time. This results in a really tough design decision between:

• Balancing the game so that players start out feeling very powerful. This is great for making the first few minutes fun, but has less long term enjoyment because there's less awesomeness for players to gain as they keep playing.
• Balancing the game so that players start out feeling weak. This makes it much easier to create a strong sense of progression as they gradually power up by completing their build, but can be alienating for new users.

As you know, we picked the second option for Path of Exile. While people really enjoy putting powerful builds together and feeling the pay-off of being able to destroy large groups of monsters, new players sometimes describe the initial combat as "slow" or "clunky". We're investigating ways to improve the feeling of combat at the start of the game while still keeping a clear sense of progression as you level up and become more powerful.

Early Attack Speed
Compared to other Action RPGs, our early melee attack speed is relatively slow. We're currently internally testing a change where early weapons have been rebalanced to be slightly faster, while still doing the same overall damage per second. This is tapered so that higher level weapons are unmodified (by then, the player can have vast amounts of attack speed from items, passive skills and support gems). So far, we've found that this helps combat feel more impactful at low levels. We're still investigating the balance consequences of the change (such as its impact on mana when skills are used more often) and haven't yet decided whether and when we'll deploy it to the live realm.

Tutorial Elements
Currently, the Path of Exile tutorial is a subtle box that says "Hold Alt to show items on the ground". This is insufficient to explain the game to people who haven't played Action RPGs before, so we are working on improving the tutorial for new players.

While I understand that a better tutorial isn't an exciting feature to hear that we are going to spend developer time on (as you all already know how to play), having better new-player retention will be very important for the future of Path of Exile. If people can learn how to play more easily, then the pool of people that you'll eventually be able to play end-game content with will continue to grow and grow.

Do you guys not even know your own game? strength in the beginning is fine, its the midgame where you can easily feel hopeless and overwhelmed.


Also, as for a tutorial, make sure you have something that teaches people about gems and links and skill gems, and supports. It took me quite a while to truly figure out how this works, because i had no idea in the beginning.

My biggest problem with this game even at level 80 is the impossibility to respec my build.
My first char was a big mistake regardless passive tree. Deleted at level 66 because of this. Almost quit it for good but i gave it another try.
The currency to do this is way to expensive... should drop more often.
Already spent hundreds Orb of Regrets and i'm not fully satisfied with my char. Still want to try other weapons/gems because the game allows it !
The game is complex in some aspects and to be punished for every mistake with builds, .. it doesn't feel like a game anymore :)
Starting over again and repeat all 3 acts only because is hard to respec your build...well, no fraking way...and i think that allot of players who left, felt the same thing (not worth to do it again).
Yes, the idea of a fresh start it's nice...but whenever i think of it, makes me feel sick. It's to much.
Increase substantially the drop of Orbs or give every 10 levels a chance to fully respec your build.
Give to players the possibility to experience more & faster because the game is based on that !
Don't break it with already to much repetitive content.

I want to add that I think the Templar is not balanced with other classes when we're talking about melee builds.

I want to try to explain this the best I can, which might be difficult.

So when I started playing this game I asked myself what class do I want to play. I like melee and dislike ranged or casting. I like to play as a life and armour based tank and dislike energy shield. I don't dislike evasion perse but like a permanent damage reduction like armour is better. I love a magical melee build with auras and elemental damage using a shield.

So typically the class for me is the templar right?

No, not in my experience with this game. Compared to the Marauder and the Duelist, the Templar feels highly inefficient to play.

In the early phase of leveling in the passive tree when playing a templar, you're forced to choose one or two handed already. This can be a dilemma, especially when you like to play self found and just started your first character in a league.
The Duelist and the Marauder don't have this dilemma, they can spec into more general damage nodes and build in a more general way leaving all options open.

Then there are the skills. While the Duelist has lots of fine Dexterity based melee skills and the Marauder has a wide array of pure strenght melee skills, I feel there's a huge lack of Intelligence based melee skills.
The Templar simply builds either as a Marauder or as a Duelist or a combination of those and if not he probably builds as a caster.
There is really no Strenght / Intelligence based melee build I can think of, except a simple elemental melee build that uses the same skills as a Marauder

When I look at gameplay, in my experience the Templar is effective either as a caster or as a pure Strenght build using Ground Slam and those obvious skills in the beginning.
Int/Str based weapons like maces and staffs are efficient with Strength skills but where are the Intelligence skills? There is not much that distinguishes the Templar from the Marauder in that area I think.

-EDIT-
And as a side note, I would like to add that I don't really believe in the build variety in the passive tree.
Look at the latest build of the week that has been posted by Chris. Is that the build of the week when you look at the passive tree or more like the default melee build?

"

Currently, the Path of Exile tutorial is a subtle box that says "Hold Alt to show items on the ground". This is insufficient to explain the game to people who haven't played Action RPGs before, so we are working on improving the tutorial for new players.

This made me chuckle :D!

lol, btw great to hear, i hope this will improve player retention.

i think charges can be introduced into the game in a 'more user-friendly' manner (power charges, endurance charges, frenzy charges). <

I hate temporary buffs en stuff building up like charges and Vaal skills, too much work

With the recent bumps and updates to the other threads can we get GGG's opinion relating to early Accuracy (in addition to Attack Speed), which has been mentioned by a few players, me included?

I think GGG should add a LOT of tutorial elements into the game. Perhaps, some "basic" vendor recipes (such as R-G-B or Chaos recipe) built in dialogues, for example.