Ascendancy is not fun.
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It is with a heavy heart that I write those four words, because that is the most scathing thing you can say about any game, and Path of Exile has been my favorite game for so many years now.
I am astounded. There are two primary reasons it is not fun. 1. Dodging spiked traps and waiting patiently for balls of needles to pass you by is an activity well suited to a platformer. It is not well suited to an ARPG which is a) fast paced and b) mouse driven. This is the more fundamental reason, and the one that makes me surprised that no one at GGG put the brakes on this idea. 2. The labyrinth is unforgiving, and not in ways which add meaningful challenge (which most of us find fun) but in ways which add tedium. Waiting for razor-blade gears to pass. Waiting for fire-filled floors to go back down. Waiting for spiked doors to open. Waiting for floor spikes to recede. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting... What's that? You got impatient, made a mistake, and died? Well, guess what, that hour of progress you achieved (largely via waiting) is now gone. Go back to try again, and wait some more. The second issue is partially fixable (introduce waypoints), though that would eliminate the "charm" of running a labyrinth, so I can understand if GGG doesn't want to change it. The first issue, however, is not fixable. Not without removing the traps completely. I don't object to hard. Difficulty, per se, is neither good nor bad. But it bears mentioning that additional difficulty is good WHEN AND ONLY WHEN it creates more fun. Otherwise the difficulty is meaningless at best (but usually a detriment). I believed that GGG was showing their understanding of this distinction when they introduced item filters. Staring at huge screens full of trash and looking for items worth picking up is challenging, for sure, but it isn't a meaningful challenge. So that was an awesome addition to the game. But other times I have to wonder if GGG spends any time thinking about this distinction at all. Want more examples of meaningless challenges? Try turning your keyboard upside down and playing like that. Or replace your mousepad with your cat. Or use nerfed Quicksilver flasks so that you have to spend more time trudging through empty areas at a slow speed while backtracking. Oops, you all get to experience that last one! It was probably a balance decision to make the traps more "challenging." "But gibbousmoon, stfu with all your QQ. It's an expansion, it's more material, if you don't want to experience the new material, go back to running maps or whatever you liked to do before this version came out." Well yes, that would be fine, if not for the fact that the game is balanced around players having the new abilities offered by Ascendancy. I think some people call it "power creep." So to really enjoy playing high-level material, I have to go through that unfun labyrinth three times with every single alt I like to play. I have quite a few, both hardcore and softcore. Many, many hours of unfun. That's not why I play video games. The Ascendancy expansion has changed the game fundamentally, from my favorite game since Diablo 2 to a game that's not so fun and very hard to recommend. Wash your hands, Exile! Last edited by gibbousmoon on Mar 11, 2016, 3:13:26 AM Last bumped on Mar 6, 2016, 11:01:52 AM
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i think most of this comes down to the build you are using. life builds with vaal pact have it pretty hard. however my cheap explosive arrow build is awesome for the labyrinth:
9.3k hp 58% base movement speed 8.4% life regen you just need a build with high movement speed (via skills or just walking), life/es regen and a strong single target damage. the more regen the have the less you have to wait. | |
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you only have to do it 3 times. It's not like they changed the entire game. Just overlevel, grit your teeth and get on with it or ignore the extra content.
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I've never thought they'd come up with the kind of content that would make me want to switch to another game. I've been playing since open beta with a couple of very short breaks and now it seems it's time to let go and I'm just so sad.
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" It isnt "just 3 times" it is 3 times for EVERY character you have and will have forever. IGN: LessBow
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" You missed the point completely. 1) "Grit your teeth and get on with it" - you realize this is a video game? Meant to be fun? That people are choosing to spend their free time on? This isn't some shitty part of life like having a boss you hate... 2) You don't get to ignore it; it's mandatory. You want your new Ascendancy tree? Tough shit, do the labyrinth... 3 times... per character. So yeah, you can ignore it I.E. quit the game like I'm doing, but that isn't exactly the ideal outcome for a games expansion, now is it? This expansion is even worse than 2.0 which completely raped my character into the ground and I quit after it launched; never even tried it until two weeks ago. Now I'm quitting again because of this horrible expansion. Later, GGG. Blizzard knows how to make a game. You don't. Last edited by Vaalamity on Mar 6, 2016, 4:10:05 AM
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" think of the lab as a 'race'. this content is to be speed-farmed by experienced players. it sadly has a high entry barrier (new gamers or gamers used to one OP build find it difficult) but the lab is: - build independent. some have it easier but it can be done with ANY build. on pretty much any level (sans Izaro fight) - skill dependent - for farming enchants, not gear/loot/xp - something that should take ~10 minutes TOPS for a semi competent player. | |
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The Labyrinth is a race with no season points, and no alternate artwork items except for the top player every day.
" Do you mean for a semi prescient player? ------------------ Re the OP: I think the thread title is wrong, because the ascendancy skills are awesomely fun. +100% pierce at start of projectile movement, +0.5% Critical strike chance per power charge, Movement skills cost no mana, all your skills have elemental proliferation, movement speed can't be reduced below normal, life leech effects not removed at full life, party members have conduit, etc etc etc.... They are awesome fun. It's just getting them which is not fun. Face it, all of your suggestions are worse than this idea: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/657756 Last edited by dudiobugtron on Mar 6, 2016, 4:45:06 AM
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" I see your point. But I am going to insist that the process of the getting those new abilities is that which defines this expansion. If the process of becoming more powerful is not fun, then it is not worth becoming more powerful. In real life, maybe that's wrong. In a game, it's absolutely not wrong. This game feels like a job now. I went through the labyrinth exactly once, with an overpowered character (lvl 75, in the normal labyrinth). It was boring and tedious. I could go through it again with a lower-level character for additional challenge, but it would remain equally a) boring and b) tedious. So why bother? Like I said, I play video games for fun. Not for work. The journey itself has to be fun, or I'll do exactly what I've been doing since that single unfun labyrinth run: Playing other games instead. Wash your hands, Exile!
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" As mentioned by other people, three times for each character you want to try. " Pointless. Being 25 levels over, with much better gear, tons of life. One mistake waking into some spikes. RIP. How exactly is this "fun" ? +1 to OP: Lab is not fun. AT ALL. Never give up, never surrender !
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