So, the new expansion comes. How was the last one?

I think it was mostly forgettable. I haven't faced atziri (sp?) yet and I'm sitting on a full set, just don't really care to. Corrupted zones feel a bit forced imo, it takes out of the normal flow of the game and because it's completely optional I don't feel invested in them.

I think vaal orb was a really cool idea. Vaal skill gems were too hit or miss with far too few hits.

I wish they would have added higher level areas to the base game and higher item tiers and maybe one more affix teir to give endgame more depth and with the new items something more to grind for.

Ambush was obviously a huge success, invasion was lulzy in the beginning until they fixed the balance. Imo that poor balance tainted invasion for its duration.

In general I wish they'd remove shrines. Hell, you guys can keep the extra pocket of mobs its just those damn shrines are annoying and 90% of the time I just run up to it and then self cancel the effect so I don't have to be annoyed by it.

I loved the last league. I got lucky with some nice drops and even won a 16 exalt orb lottery held within the guild.

Can't wait to see what GGG has up its sleeve for next league.

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Stefacle wrote:

IMO the corrupted zones and Vaal Orbs and gems were all great additions to the game, even if I never got to kill Atziri.

Really looking forward to this new mini expansion, personally :)

It was almost the exact opposite for me.

*The corrupted zones provided almost no reward for very high risk. While leveling up the only thing you really got from them was XP and some Vaal Gems (see below). The lore texts weren't really interesting either. In endgame they provided fragments (see below). Conclusion: skip them.
*Vaal Orbs had some nice effects, but the fact that there was a (high) chance to completely ruin an item made them pretty crappy to me. I only ever used them on items I was going to vendor anyway. Conclusion: sell them.
*Vaal Gems: Some of them were pretty OP in low level zones (e.g. Spark), but most of them were pretty crap later on. And also a lot of them had some bugs. Overall they needed to long to charge up imho. A cooldown instead of charges would have been better. Conclusion: don't use them.
*Atziri (and Uber Atziri): Only reachable by farming vaal areas, which provided absolutely no benefit in advancing in the rest of the endgame (maps). Almost only killable by 90+ players with certain builds and expansive gear. (= most likely less than 0,1% of all regular players)
Conclusion: don't even think of going there

*Additional stuff: No new tileset, only ~2-3 new enemy models/textures.

Final Conclusion: 0/4 usable gameplay features, no real new content.

I don't want to bash GGG, and I'm still a huge fan of this game, but I just can't see SotV as a good expansion, it just isn't for me. The only thing good (or at least ok) was Ambush, but that wasn't really part of the expansion.

Well, good luck with the next expansion GGG! I hope this one will be better (like the rest of this awesome game)

Never got to fight Atziri, but then again I never actually tried. I thought this expansion was actually pretty boring. Side areas, gems and new currency hardly anyone uses. Pretty lackluster.

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Stefacle wrote:

IMO the corrupted zones and Vaal Orbs and gems were all great additions to the game, even if I never got to kill Atziri.

Really looking forward to this new mini expansion, personally :)

Agreed.

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Stefacle wrote:

IMO the corrupted zones and Vaal Orbs and gems were all great additions to the game, even if I never got to kill Atziri.

Really looking forward to this new mini expansion, personally :)

Same here! i have my hopes up for another great addition to the game.

I think the strongboxes from Ambush were the greatest addition to the game, and I hope they don't nerf the spawn rate of them too much when they're implemented as a core feature. The corrupted side areas were alright as well. I haven't made it to Atziri yet, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I love PoE.

I hate RNG.

PoE before SOTV had lots of rng. (It impacted my progression and a sense of reward)

PoE after SOTV has lots of rng * 100. (It ruined my progression and any sense of reward)

If this new "expansion" does not address the RNG i shall stop playing PoE.


Having said that,

I have never killed Atziri and i have got a couple of accounts with level 80+ characters.

Farming for items is nice.
PoE does not have farming. Farming is a process where you can gauge invested time vs reward.
PoE has a gambling system where invested time(or currency) "may/can perhaps" yield rewards.

Releasing an expansion that has no trading system incorporated and allowing people to crawl their forums and have an external "auction house" is probably the dumbest move that a company, who does not want an auction house, could have done.

PoE is a game where trading beats playing, and where using external tools is a requirement if you plan to play it to the end.

I love PoE.
PoE has problems that require attention.

Cheers.

"

TheStalker wrote:

I don't want to bash GGG, and I'm still a huge fan of this game, but I just can't see SotV as a good expansion, it just isn't for me.

I think that's the key part there. A lot of it wasn't really MEANT to be for everyone, only for the people who were already at end-game with very good gear and the right builds.

Not necessarily a bad thing as those were the players who really NEEDED new content the most, but it meant everyone else felt a bit left out. Sounds like the new expansion will have far more content for everyone else.

"

Malazans wrote:

I love PoE.


PoE is a game where trading beats playing, and where using external tools is a requirement if you plan to play it to the end.

This. PoE is literally being smart about trading, which is really, really dumb and overshadows the game almost entirely.