What should we expect in 0.9.4 ?

"

ronda174 wrote:

Hardcore is and stays not the core of any game. And shouldnt be treated as such, since it's a complete other approach of gaming.

GGG seems to think a little differently. Qarl recently mentioned that they tend to balance from Hardcore to Default, since it's easier to balance both at the same time that way. I.E. balancing Hardcore first doesn't mess up Default much, but balancing Default first could have massive negative impacts on Hardcore.

There will always be glass-cannon characters and for me that's actually a good thing. However right now there is nothing to remotely threaten witches thus there is no disadvantage to be paper-thin and that's problematic.

(Reflective aura while well intentioned does very little to hamper them and end up being actually more of a problem to other classes).

Also wanting to round up other classes to the same level as witches would make the game ridiculously easy and ultimately pointless.

Let's keep in mind that this is ultimately an item-oriented dungeon crawler ; While a little background story as well as extended character creation are important parts of it, the re-playability to be had is mostly found in gears collection & improvement.

So basically right now we are having a class (namely the witch) that can clear the hardest difficulty level implemented in mere minutes resulting in UNGODLY amount of items dropped and massive experience gain compared to any other classes.

The only positive outcome of this situation is that any of the top ladder witches as main farming character can now start up new classes and test new builds since leveling up in full gears is a breeze.

Not wanting to play such class end up penalizing me in that regard, but I guess that's my problem.

However I do hope to see witches scaled way down before open beta is launched, for PoE's own good.

I think there is a point at which the fact must be acknowledged that "perfect balance" cannot be achieved in a game like PoE.

Even if you can adjust the numerical values so that every class deals the same amount of damage, that isn't necessarily the best solution. Why are there different classes?

Variety.

Witches are fun because they can spell-spam the crap outta everything. Melee characters are fun because they're visceral and tough, dealing out the pain one mob at a time. Archers are cool for the same reason that automatic weapons are cool in other games: Volume of fire.

Trying to balance them (let alone the hybrid classes) is ridiculous. Each does what it does well, and is fun to play because of its unique style. In a party, xp is shared, so relative killing speed isn't important (except where flask refills are concerned), while in solo play there is no direct competition. Sure, a Witch might well level faster in solo than a Marauder or a Ranger, but, so what? Are you having fun playing that Marauder, bashing skulls with your axe? Then why worry about how fast a Witch might be doing it spamming AOE?

Too much effort is going into rectifying a misguided concern over "balance" issues, when balance is an illusory ideal, and gets in the way of the fun. ='[.]'=

Can we expect the passive tree to be updated to a fully rotatable sphere as opposed to a 2d map, because that would truly be excellent.

"

CodeOrange wrote:

Can we expect the passive tree to be updated to a fully rotatable sphere as opposed to a 2d map, because that would truly be excellent.

Why would that be excellent? I think 2d representation is clear, albeit takes much space.

"

Raycheetah wrote:

Too much effort is going into rectifying a misguided concern over "balance" issues, when balance is an illusory ideal, and gets in the way of the fun.

Do I really need to point out that there will be an in-game economy based on currency items at some point in the future?

Or that there were talks of Cutthroat PvP leagues?

"

Raycheetah wrote:

Too much effort is going into rectifying a misguided concern over "balance" issues, when balance is an illusory ideal, and gets in the way of the fun. ='[.]'=

Although I partly agree with KrapnoV that there should be somewhat balance because of the competitive nature of the game, I agree with you, especially this paragraph.

But you can rest assured that I've talken about this before.

If anyone wants, I can put a list here which contains completely inbalanced games which have been very popular.

Let's take a look at the most played online game of history.

Counter-Strike

A great example of what inbalanced means.

1. AWP-Desert combo.
2. AK47 and Colt.

Doesn't need any more words.

What about D1 and D2?

D1: Sorcerer
D2: Hammerdin

Games can never have enough balance. You have to stop at some point. I have watched the development of many games and the balance had been a real concern only after they implented all basic feautures and content into the game. D1,D2 and D3 are included in that list. And that balancing stage didn't take too long.

The development time and money that goes to balance at this stage of game is a waste imo... The game should be balanced in the open beta stage which will probably include all features and most of the content. A few months of balancing and polishing with the huge amount of data from thousands of players is much more efficient than constantly balancing the game only to balance what you thought you balanced before.

However Chris acknowledges "balance" as the highest priority atm.

@permaximum

as i agree with diablo 2 (but let's say there are tons of viable builds, like goldbarbs, necros and kicking assassins, etc. = viable melees) i strongly disagree with games like cs. there is only one "class" and you can switch the behavior and feel of the "build" any time with changing weapons etc.

i'm looking forward to 0.94 now, since i get a respec and the opportunity to change the claws of my ranger to some wands and join the frenzy discharge farming. i still have to get in melee range and will be as squishy as always, but maybe i get some fun.


e: will i just tried using 2 wands (blue with just the bsaic 10%spell damage)instead of my rare lvl 55 claws (with lots of ias and %dmg) using frenzy on range now and discharge. iam prolly killing twice as fast now. and that is with like 5nodes of each clawdamage and ias, nothing else.

should i be happy about that?

Yes there's one class in CS but these games should be balanced around weapons. There are many weapons, however you have to use awp, ak47, colt to succeed.

As for your question, ofc you shouldn't be about that. I'm not saying the game doesn't need any balance. I'm just saying it's not necessary atm. Because I'm pretty certain incoming features and content will greatly change the balance anyway. Just like they did before.