FUCK the new map levels, drops rates and exp curve and 2.1

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If this dude is getting to 100 when most of his maps are t11 or lower, why do you NEED to do t12 or higher only?

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Which is standard is basically 1c.

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Another one that wants to streamline the game where the casual players run the exact same thing as the more hardcore players. These arguments are the reasons games goes to shit these days. Casuals whining. Go play diablo 3 if you want a game where everybody can do anything after having played for 2 hours without any effort.

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On the one side, people who either enjoy or just purely love RNG, let's be honest. They get a big dose of 'gambler's thrill' (or the associated feeling 'flipper's thrill') from the way RNG deals out occasional slices of fun content and the way that bakes up into a big zero sum cake.

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It's a grinding game, it's illogical to not enjoy "the grind" and still play this game.

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would it help you if ggg moved the currency sink feature to ... say ... zana? whe could sell t12+ maps for an exalt+. would that make you happier?

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How easily people forget the past. People used to spend exalts on 77 maps in an attempt to get a 78. Now you can chain 78 maps at the cost of a few chaos. It's a waste of time to pretend the system hasn't already "eased up" on it's core premise.

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Well i am telling you that's wrong since high tier then is mid tier now and mid tier is as sustainable as it was in 1.3 by comparison.

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http://postimg.org/image/h0wmesw51/

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shaunus wrote:

So I can have a challenge?

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twitticles wrote:

I'd say most of us who have been playing for a long while have built up a certain tolerance for lousy map drops and what people generally refer to as "streaks of bad luck" but there's a point where that tolerance is no longer sufficient to withstand the slowly building annoyance over the current state of map drops and the utter lack of being rewarded for rolling what intuitively should be a good map, or actually playing those really scary maps where you know dying is a very real possibility if you slip up or lapse in attention.
I'm at that point now where I*m about ready to put the game on the shelf and go do something that isn't quite as reminiscent of banging my head against a wall. But that's not what I want, I want to feel that the limiting factor to what content I can play is my skill, my gear, my build, not that the game decides to not drop an equal or higher tier map for fifteen maps in a row, which happened this weekend.

Prior to 2.0 we were in a good spot map-wise. I could run the occasional 78, a few more 77s and could sustain 76s with a decent currency investment. If all your maps failed you at least had the consolation prize in Zana giving you a 76 to run as her daily quest, which felt apt and really good as it was a free map of the third highest tier. Propably my best mapping experience ever was from such a map during the first one-month flashback hc event, where she made me run a timed boss-killing Promenade along which way I spawned five or six beyond bosses all with 60% turbo and I thought I was dead several times over.
Nowadays we're supposed to be happy when she gives us a 74, which is nine tiers below max and utterly irrelevant in terms of experience or map drops.

Prior to last weekend I had a pool of ~20 T9, 5-6 T10, 5 T11 and 3 T12, and despite rolling ~100/30 on most T9/10 or higher/domination on T11/T12 I'm now down to 7 T9, no T10, 4 T11 and a single T12.
My last three maps ran were a vaaled T11 with 157% quant/45%pack size which returned one T5 and one T6, then a bloody scary T12 with 171% quant and both bloodlines and nemesis rolls where I was down to a sliver of health several times and resulted in a single T11 drop, and now last a T11 with 122% quant/29% pack size that I slapped domination on with the grand result of four maps, at tiers 4, 8, 8 and 9 respectively. None of the maps returned enough drops to cover the costs for rolling them.
Which would have all been fine if I actually occasionally got to experience that one high-tier map that drops multiple equal or higher, or has a carto box, but I haven't - ever.

The current state feels unrewarding because it doesn't seem you can influence the map drops enough by well-rolled maps, the variance of he pseudorandom number generator either screws you over or it opens up the cornucopia of maps and if you're not one of the lucky ones standing underneath - you're gonna have a real bad time.

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nuub wrote:

You don't know how to roll maps.

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twitticles wrote:

I'd say most of us who have been playing for a long while have built up a certain tolerance for lousy map drops and what people generally refer to as "streaks of bad luck" but there's a point where that tolerance is no longer sufficient to withstand the slowly building annoyance over the current state of map drops and the utter lack of being rewarded for rolling what intuitively should be a good map, or actually playing those really scary maps where you know dying is a very real possibility if you slip up or lapse in attention.

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Prior to 2.0 we were in a good spot map-wise. I could run the occasional 78, a few more 77s and could sustain 76s with a decent currency investment. If all your maps failed you at least had the consolation prize in Zana giving you a 76 to run as her daily quest

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Mivo wrote:

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shaunus wrote:

So I can have a challenge?

This, really. The argument that nobody should need or want high level maps because you can grind to 100 in Dried Lake is absurd. This view completely ignores that PoE is a video game, meant for recreation, for fun!

In a game, fun usually is the result of one of two things: mechanically trivial, but stimulating content (like a good story) or challenging content. There is no challenge in running mid-tier maps when you're 90+. It's completely banal and requires almost no attention. When I map, I watch a show, talk on Skype, listen to an audio book or a workshop. It's almost automatic.

It requires less attention than playing most Facebook games!

The point is: Some of us care about the journey. Sure, if someone only cares about the destination, then really, just grind Dried Lake or T9 maps, then hit 100 and feel like you've accomplished something when really you did nothing that even a crudely coded bot could not have achieved. It's meaningless because there is no challenge.

Anyway, great post, Shaunus; it reflects my thoughts on the topic well.

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shaunus wrote:

This experience is sadly quite common.
Low level maps are more common than high level maps in high level maps.