Why are so many buils behind a paywall?

I want the normal game: playing solo, beating merci, going maps. Solo. Selffound. With fast clearing speed and good survability.
Like you could in D1 and D2 without any problems.
They did even Übertrist naked in Hardcore because you wouldn't get gearchecked like in a cheap MMO everywhere.

But when playing the trading game is more rewarding than playing the actual game since Closed Beta (they didn't changed anything since CB in that case, great work) you just question yourself if the developers even play their own product?
From scratch, selffound?
Doubt it.

CI? Forget it, 5+ exalts for shield + armor at least (you want sockets in that armor too? Poor bastard). It's like 10% of all passive skills are rendered useless because of the gearwall CI is gated behind.
Discharge? Sounds so funny but hey, remember that unique items you need? Oh, they don't drop for you so you are forced to trade and look at that price and just think "fuck you".
Ice Nova: just no
Glacial Cascade: just no
Righteous Fire: not really
Going 2h melee? If you're suicidal, try it. 1h+shield is so much better. Or 2x 1h.
And maybe some other skills / builds I forgot, tried the builds above all solo selffound, no way to get a fluent gameplay without trading.

Of course I could play one of the no brainer builds but I find them all so boring I prefer quitting PoE than playing with such skills like Summoner (sucks with Torment anyway) / Incinerate / Dual Strike / Fireball / Lightning Arrow / TS etc.

So am I forced into this boring set of standard skills mostly every Hack'N'Slay has because the interesting stuff is behind the "trade, win the lottery or die with medicro gear in merci because you need better gear for farming bosses but no better gear is dropping"?

I feel so.

The thing is that GGG wants this game to revolve around trading. But there are a few fundamental problems with that and I'm sure you've noticed them, but just to make sure:

1. Solo/Self-found is not an option to any degree. What you get is what you have, and that means diversity and choices are extremely limited. In order for GGG's ideal of "diversity" and "choices" you must trade with other players.

2. Just about every "good" or "viable" build as a minimum cost to get working. The lowest I've found builds to work is 5-10 exalts, while the most expensive can be 200-800, or even more. These are prices using Standard, mind you.

3. Since everything is so costly, there are only a few ways to get what you want. Lots of lucky drops (multiple uniques of value or Mirrors of Kalandra), farming with a good MF build (that you got running from previous currency), or joining groups in maps that use FFA or SA and snatching as many good drops as possible.

So unless you:

1. Get the drop

2. Get the snatch

or 3. Have a high MF build

You aren't going to get what you want in any short period of time.

I can understand that they want to push trading, but it's been put to a point where trading is required. I don't play the leagues because I simply don't have the time or patience to grind my eyes out and work with the limited economy in those temporary leagues.

You're just flat out wrong about not being able to make interesting builds as self found. With the inclusion of masters, getting the right kind of gear for yourself is a whole lot easier. As self found player leveling your masters should be one of your highest priorities, particularly Haku and Elreon.

Then just find a good item base, alt it until it's good. Regal. And then apply a master craft to it.

But of course you are choosing to limit yourself to self found. So you're probably going to want to use a shield and take advantage of those passive nodes that give huge resist and defense bonus for having a shield unless you are willing farm and craft for extended periods.

Without having to worry about resists as much you can then get more gear with item rarity and maybe find yourself something good.

"

BearCares wrote:

You're just flat out wrong about not being able to make interesting builds as self found. With the inclusion of masters, getting the right kind of gear for yourself is a whole lot easier. As self found player leveling your masters should be one of your highest priorities, particularly Haku and Elreon.

Then just find a good item base, alt it until it's good. Regal. And then apply a master craft to it.

But of course you are choosing to limit yourself to self found. So you're probably going to want to use a shield and take advantage of those passive nodes that give huge resist and defense bonus for having a shield unless you are willing farm and craft for extended periods.

Without having to worry about resists as much you can then get more gear with item rarity and maybe find yourself something good.

It takes forever to accomplish that.

I basically had to start from scratch after damage avoidance was destroyed, and I cannot reliably play this game. No matter what I do I end up losing more progress than I have earned.

I'm not going to play a boring searing bond build to farm. Incinerate is boring enough and I did that during my damage avoidance days. I'm done with boring shit, and anything that is cheap, is boring. And they're few and far between anyways.

So excuse me for telling the truth about this game not being for those who want more reward than input. This game is more input and work than reward and enjoyment. Plain and simple.

@Natharius, I've never been wealthy in any league (except for this one ^^) and I've also never found that there was a shortage of builds that I could try out. I've never even considered playing a cookie cutter build either. I don't know what to say. Most builds I have played cost about 15 chaos orbs to put together.

So I'm not sure why you think it takes a lot of time or money to make a build. I'm just not seeing it from personal experience.

Right now I'm in Bloodlines league using a build that cost me 8 chaos orbs and I'm almost ready to start maps.

In a perm league you can certainly self found CI. I am right now. (I don't actually play self found, just accumulated enough good ES loots to give it a shot).

Let me give you an example of a build I would personally try.

I would get an Infernal Mantle (cheap as dirt). I would get a

I would get a Darkscorn Bow (also cheap).

And I would choose the appropriate passives to make it work.

I would convert physical to chaos, and also physical to fire, and THEN fire to chaos damage. I would alternate between lightning arrow, Fire arrow, and Poison arrow with elemental equilibrium. That's the kind of build I would make. Cheap as dirt. And you better believe you can do maps with it too.

I just haven't gotten around to it.

Solo self found icenova

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAv4EswVCCPQOSBEPEZYUsBZvFy8XVBhqGjgdFCcvLJwvbzeBOlg8BT1fQZZCw0SrRtdJUUwtTLNQMFJTUrJT1FVLVa5VxlXWWAdd8mHiZJ1k52aeakNtGXBScLtw1XGFeC985X5Zf8aApIIQgh6Cm4hCidOMNo2CjmSPRo-mj_qQVZeVl_SaO5uhnwGf36IApwismK6zsUK2-sAawFTAZsHF0PXR5NkT2rna3dsL217fhN-w41bjauTr6_XsGOw473zw1fId8xH3pvfX-tI=

Why you think you cant run self found icenova? theres nothing special on the dude.

Also running firetrapper self found.

CI character im making used 1ex to buy which is totally enough for any CI build

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BearCares wrote:

@Natharius, I've never been wealthy in any league (except for this one ^^) and I've also never found that there was a shortage of builds that I could try out. I've never even considered playing a cookie cutter build either. I don't know what to say. Most builds I have played cost about 15 chaos orbs to put together.

So I'm not sure why you think it takes a lot of time or money to make a build. I'm just not seeing it from personal experience.

Right now I'm in Bloodlines league using a build that cost me 8 chaos orbs and I'm almost ready to start maps.

Well that's why you can put it together with just chaos, you're playing in temporary leagues. I'm playing in Standard. I don't have enough time for leagues.

So what you should say is that you haven't played in standard and should, so you know what you're talking about.

Even RF takes at least 8 exalted to get running for end game maps. That's not cheap by any means, and even then that build is limited.