Starting new characters is horrible

I rerolled a ranger for a new build and it's so unpleasant to play. This is the first impression you are giving new players, I introduced 8 of my friends to the game and 6 of them never played again after the first session.

Attacks miss constantly. I'm shooting arrows at zombies directly in front of me and they go straight through, hitting nothing or other random enemies nowhere nearby. I found my leg twitching as it was so frustrating, I've never had a game put me on edge like this before.

The slow attack animations are constantly being interrupted by stun, but you never see it on the client because of lag. Instead you just see attack animations with no damage being done, which made me even more frustrated.

Slow movement speed lets you get caught in packs much easier as well, more desync and rubberbanding.

And this is with a bow. Melee is 5x worse, swinging at enemies but never connecting. It wouldn't be so bad if you actually knew why, but there is no 'dodge' animation so it could be any of being stunned, the monster moving, desync, bad accuracy.

The entire early game feels like a broken buggy mess. The only exception is playing as a caster which seems to be more reliable for some reason, but man I can't wait to get out of these horrible slow early levels.

Playing on Australian server, from West Australia (latency was about 70)
P̯̹̙̥̉̏ͦͯA̠̝̰̣̯͕͚̲̭͈̥̠͑̓̿ͦ̾ͯ̍ͅͅȚ̜̦͕̞̞̠̮͎͔͙͔̺̺͉̟̿̿̏ͬ͛͋̍ͮ̌̚H̹͕͚̟͍̘̤̱̻̬͓̬̮̫̦͖̳̹ͮͨ̒̉ͮ̿̈ͪ̇̿͆ͭ̃ͭ̃ͭ̚ ̲̫̞̤͓̳͑ͬ̾͌ͯ͐͂̿͗ͨ͋͑̍͐͗̾̄O͕̮̻͔̳̠͉͖̳͖͈̻͇͈̣̙̪͈ͨ͐̒̽ͣ̋ͅF̣͎̞̞̯̝ͦ͌̆ͥ̈͐̾ͣ̔ͮ̐̀̏ͪ̚ ̟̩͙̙̩̮̻̼ͬ͑ͥͦ͗̿E̼̭̩̜͕̱̤̭̞͖̳͍̝̤̼͓̗ͩͫ̌ͬ̊̋̄͑͗̽X͕̰̪̱̲̩̙̦͓͓̯̠̤̝̝̯̣̥̀̋̌̍̚Ȉ̖̟͔̩̝̊̿ͪͅL̺͓̻̰̀͋̅ͮͧE͔̼͚͕̮̻̟̩̪̖̫̪̦͙̎̑͆̏ͨͅ
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I can't say I share your experience.

With the exception of the very start of a league, I find new chars super easy to level. And the start of a new league has never felt that hard either.

I play from Western Aus too, with approx 80 ping and don't seem to experience the accuracy issues you describe.

Regarding melee, if anything I find the experience degrades as you level. Your play style doesn't change much from normal to maps, but you go from face rolling in the early game to "how well can I survive" late game. Probably just the way I design melee chars but I find myself not unlocking "new" abilities as my tree grows.
Tin foil hats are a lie propagated by the aluminium industry.
OP definitely isn't the first one to feel like this. A very common complaint is how slow the start is. I personally completely enjoyed the atmosphere when I first played so can't really comment on that. The atmosphere alone got me through most of it.

I have raced quite a bit so I find the start too short to be tedious. With twink gear and someone rushing you it takes absolutely no time to reach merciless.
entire normal difficulty (Except parts of act 2) makes me suffer physical pain now. it is BORING, DULL, REPETITIVE and is a 'cost' of me having fun (?) in the future (merc). it is a time tax, one of many this game has to 'prolong' the joy. all f2p games have this stuff

im not into rmt, but if ever - buying 500 regret orbs should be my first rmt purchase. just to cut this 'joy' of wasting my time.

10 hours, just 10 hours to lvl 70 you say? maybe. but i have better stuff to do with said 10 hours. thats why i wait for full reset and then play new characters using said respec
Every single ARPG is repetitive and boring.
It is just "Click monsters till they are dead, collect loot, level up, repeat".
There's little to no challenge or skill involved, it is just a very time-consuming hobby.

What part of an ARPG you consider horrible (Levelling or Endgame), is a matter of personal preference, but both can be considered "just a waste of time".

I enjoy playing from 1 to 60, seeing my character quickly grow in levels and power.
I like it that I have to reroll in PoE (if I don't want to pay crazy amounts for regrets), that is one of the things that kept me away from D3 ("What? I can respec into whatever whenever I want? You serious?").
For me it is one of the strengths of the Genre that I formulate a build and try to get it done.
That I have freedom to experiment, but have to live with the consequences of my decisions.
If it works out, fine, if not, reroll.
That's where I find my motivation to stick to the game.

I do not enjoy the endless grind after Lvl 85 that some people seem to be so interested in. Playing hours and hours of the same repetitive content without level progression (build is done anyway)... why would I do that?

3.5 build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2299519
Last edited by Peterlerock on Apr 16, 2014, 3:18:24 AM
While you may certainly be right that you are weak in the beginning, that's kinda the point of RPGs.

At first you have only shit attacks, slow, weak, can't hit.
And then after a while you become a killing machine.

I mean that is part of the character progression. If you'd feel like a god early game there would be no progression unless you introduced powercreep.

See in POE I not only feel stronger at higher levels because my damage numbers go up, but also because my character plays stronger.

It's one of the downfalls of GW2 for me. Because of constant down scaling in levels I never felt real character progression. I also never felt any real difference when I played my character in the beginning compared to the end, besides that I unlocked a couple of more abilities which all don't feel "wow amazing".

In PoE I have that feeling of "this character sucks and is weak" to "wow now I just blow up whole packs and run like the Flash".

It seems hardly anyone even read the first post :s Obviously starting characters are going to be weak, but the gameplay itself feels terrible for me. Like a buggy half finished game. The slow gameplay makes the desync painfully obvious, this is what makes it so frustrating for me. The fact I'm shooting arrows directly at monsters and nothing is happening.

It's been most noticable with split arrow, if I just blindfire in the the general direction of the monsters I can watch arrow after arrow not hitting monsters clearly in their path but other random ones in the back or elsewhere taking damage.
P̯̹̙̥̉̏ͦͯA̠̝̰̣̯͕͚̲̭͈̥̠͑̓̿ͦ̾ͯ̍ͅͅȚ̜̦͕̞̞̠̮͎͔͙͔̺̺͉̟̿̿̏ͬ͛͋̍ͮ̌̚H̹͕͚̟͍̘̤̱̻̬͓̬̮̫̦͖̳̹ͮͨ̒̉ͮ̿̈ͪ̇̿͆ͭ̃ͭ̃ͭ̚ ̲̫̞̤͓̳͑ͬ̾͌ͯ͐͂̿͗ͨ͋͑̍͐͗̾̄O͕̮̻͔̳̠͉͖̳͖͈̻͇͈̣̙̪͈ͨ͐̒̽ͣ̋ͅF̣͎̞̞̯̝ͦ͌̆ͥ̈͐̾ͣ̔ͮ̐̀̏ͪ̚ ̟̩͙̙̩̮̻̼ͬ͑ͥͦ͗̿E̼̭̩̜͕̱̤̭̞͖̳͍̝̤̼͓̗ͩͫ̌ͬ̊̋̄͑͗̽X͕̰̪̱̲̩̙̦͓͓̯̠̤̝̝̯̣̥̀̋̌̍̚Ȉ̖̟͔̩̝̊̿ͪͅL̺͓̻̰̀͋̅ͮͧE͔̼͚͕̮̻̟̩̪̖̫̪̦͙̎̑͆̏ͨͅ
"
lukeiy wrote:
It seems hardly anyone even read the first post :s Obviously starting characters are going to be weak, but the gameplay itself feels terrible for me. Like a buggy half finished game. The slow gameplay makes the desync painfully obvious, this is what makes it so frustrating for me. The fact I'm shooting arrows directly at monsters and nothing is happening.

It's been most noticable with split arrow, if I just blindfire in the the general direction of the monsters I can watch arrow after arrow not hitting monsters clearly in their path but other random ones in the back or elsewhere taking damage.


Can definitely agree with this. Combat is kinda 'floaty'. There's no impact to it. It definitely feels cheap until you get enough effects going on the screen to cover it up.
No. Calm down. Learn to enjoy losing.
I love starting new characters and want them to feel weak and unwieldy at first as I crawl out of the surf on the beach.

I enjoy the feeling of my strength growing as I become more powerful from my interactions with the horrors of Wraeclast.

Maybe it's role playing, but personally I like how it feels to bring a character up from a cast-off undesirable tossed from a ship weak with scurvy from the voyage, to a deadly combatant who tears up the land who can persevere over insurmountable odds.
stop over moderating that makes the official forums useless
Well, you dont have 100% change to hit anyway in the beginning(or never if u dont take resolute technique).

If your hit change is 90% and APS 10, it doesnt really bother you.

If your hit change is 90% and APS 1, you will notice it.

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