The game becomes less and less hardcore with each patch.

"

Boem wrote:

The only two things that bother me on this front, is sallazang and torture chamber changes.

Both where perfectly designed to be out-played once you knew how they operated, making it a pure skill-play with terrible out-come if you made a mistake.(which i enjoy)

All of the other changes i feel are a correct way of "easing up" the game experience.

But the two i mentioned are map bosses, which are in place exactly to enable a contrast to the other content presented.

Then again, i never understood the devourers are horrible sentiments either, so i guess for those people sallazang will still be a bad-ass mofo?

I understand how you feel pyrokar but there is difference in how you present the difficulty. Overwhelming is a very punitive design strategy that prohibits build diversity extremely and as such is most likely not worth the potential harm in a game design like PoE.

Peace,

-Boem-

edit :

Didn't read page 1 fully, but this.

"

grepman wrote:

Im way more concerned with making bosses -who have clear, outlined mechanics - more carebear. this is a concerning thing to me and if it signals a new trend I'll be very unhappy. I can live with leapers being less froggy, even though I dont think it was a necessary change.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

When GGG uses the phrase "short cooldown," they normally mean somewhere around one quarter of one second.

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Sogolon wrote:

Tunneltrap is another way overtuned boss. Seriously what were the developpers thinking: ''hmm tunneltrap in tier 1 maps, its kind of a noob trap and way too difficult boss''. "Alright lets put him in a level 75 map, but we give him a one shot projectile ability and an ability to shoot 3 balls very fast that one shot with any extra damage mod".

That were my foremost complaints with bosses, especially tunneltrap he hits harder than Daresso and Kaom in tier 15 maps. Lol who would even do that boss, even on standard characters I skip him because it would mean a very high chance of losing xp.

"

PHRandom wrote:

I would suggest rework some bosses such as:
1- Both Alira and Kraitlyn bandits at act 2
2- Stranglecharm (graveyard cave) at act 1
3- Crypt's boss at act 2

The game should became less hardcore mostly by reducing server lags, but not by increasing life way too much.

"

wild_captain wrote:

First of all, everyone who posted here, has his own meaning for the word hardcore. When hardcore is used to describe a game its because there is a permanent(-ish) death feature or penalty. HARDCORE =/= HARD. Having said that PoE is STILL hardcore cause HC players go to STD league and STD players lose experience on death. There is nothing more to say about regarding hardcore and obviously the thread's title is totally false/invalid. The game cant get less hardcore, it either is or is not.

Now for the majority of you who wanted to say hard/difficult/challenging etc (and instead used hardcore), lets actually see how the game evolved.

Lets start with the things that made the game easier up to this version we play now : The life per level and life nodes in the tree buff, AR/EV/ES nodes buff, Damage (all of them) nodes buff, more convenient place for numerous nodes and keystones, jewels, new uniques (every batch of new uniques in every patch has a game breaking one or a very powerful one at least since 0.11.2) , new affixes, master crafting, increased drop rates, skill buffs (even the ones they "nerfed" are more than viable just not hyped enough for sheeple to follow), trigger gems, death of damage reflect and thorns, countless damage nerfs to almost every creature in the game (bosses, exiles, trash mobs etc) - here are some of those changes up to 2.1.0 upcoming patch

Spoiler

"

Chris wrote:

Reduced damage and accuracy of ranged enemies.
Reduced the damage of Flamebearers.
Reduced the damage of Alchemists, especially in earlier difficulties.
Substantially rebalanced Invasion bosses, including changing their abilities. Many of the more extreme ones are now easier and some of the weaker ones are harder. We've changed the behaviour of bosses that used to be able to kill you before you saw them. Some Corrupted Secret Area bosses were updated in this process also.
Devourers now do less damage when ambushing you.
Devourers and Plummeting Ursae now spawn with some of their group submerged and some emerged.
Many Rogue Exiles have been rebalanced.
The Thornflesh Bloodline Mod has been removed
The damage dealt by many Act 4 monsters has been reduced to bring them more in-line with other monsters. This affects not only their appearance in the normal game but also in end-game Maps (and the Endless Ledge). Some monsters have received a larger reduction in damage than others (for example, Rakango Tails).
The rare resistance aura mods will no longer occur on monsters before level 40.
A short instance-wide cooldown has been added to many monster skills. Monsters with "bursty" skills have had this cooldown applied to reduce player deaths from fast, hard-to-predict damage. This includes skills such as Leap Slam, Flicker Strike, Shield Charge, Lightning Warp and Arctic Breath.
Rakango monsters now appear in maps less frequently.
Kall Foxfly, the unique Shadow Archer in The Riverways, has had his damage reduced. His Cruel and Merciless Lightning Arrow attacks have been further reduced in damage.
Vaal Fallen and Colossal Vaal Fallen monsters no longer always get critical strikes, but will now always inflict status ailments. The damage has been increased to compensate.
Nightwane (the unique Voll's Vanguard monster in The Dried Lake) and the Mirage of Bones have had their life halved.

Things that actually made and make poe harder up until now : the block nerf, the physical damage buff of mobs, EB rework, new leagues (mobs and bosses they indroduce in the new leagues are unbalanced as hell but they nerf them pretty quick after some whining.), new and higher level maps.

So we can clearly see what GGG implements with every patch, and with few exceptions we can see that overall the game indeed becomes easier (and less intriguing i might add) patch by patch. PoE is still challenging only because of the insane buff to physical damage with the awekening patch and the new map bosses with those insane fights. Everything else tends to favour newcomers and becomes really boring and flavorless for the veterans, with the only exception (even if it already began to deteriorate) being the passive tree that still offers some entertainment.

Now to make matters even worse with every new patch PoE also loses its "old school" feeling (free-for-all loot anyone?), it drifts further away from its roots and alienates older fans and supporters with the constant power-creeping and noob/casual friendly policies. And thats what Pyrokar tried to say on his OP (at least what i perceived). Sadly for a minority like us the game becomes less and less enjoyable (cause it actually loses its character, it doesnt mature as a game, it evolves into something else), fortunately for GGG that is what attracts new players (money) to PoE, cant really blame them but we cant continue supporting them too.

Anyway gl to everyone on the Talisman leagues, ill definately see some on you in HC version.

"

LMTR14 wrote:

if the game ain't hard enough for you (LOL WTF), stop fucking re-building net builds and do your own thing. it's certainly hard enough THAT way

"

Kalidor wrote:

"

LMTR14 wrote:

if the game ain't hard enough for you (LOL WTF), stop fucking re-building net builds and do your own thing. it's certainly hard enough THAT way

lol! the jokes of a std guy! :)

"

Kalidor wrote:

PoE was used to be GGG's quote "We made the game, We wanted to play" Now it is "We made the game, You wanted to play" ...

"

NeroNoah wrote:

Tunneltrap is a very mechanical fight. I could defeat him in my first try with a evasion crit dagger shadow (melee!). You have to be careful abour the projectiles and use a curse like temporal chains or enfeeble to make the battle easier. I don't even play the game that much, but I find him easier than Dominus or Piety the Abomination. He is relatively easy to read.