Veteran Casual Player Path of Exile Rating

My POE review after 4+ years as a casual player

Skill Tree Customization: 10/10
Skill Tree Learning Curve: Easy. IMHO this and the gem system are what makes POE fun.

Skill Gem Variety: 10/10
Skill Gem Learning Curve: Moderate, must rely on POE Wiki (More, %, Added, etc)

Gameplay Progression: 8/10
Gameplay Progression Learning Curve: Easy

Gameplay Variety: 8/10

Gameplay Drops & Rewards: No defined worthwhile rewards for most of the content

Multiplayer: 2/10 - Lag makes this unpleasant and frustrating at higher levels
PVP: 0/10 - Rich players dominate with top gears so pretty futile

Crafting: 2/10
Crafting Learning Curve: Steep. Complex, expensive and random (Prefix, Suffix, Tiers, etc, ewww)

Trade: 0/10
Trade Learning Curve: Too complex, 3rd party tools required, huge investment of time to research values, manage inventory and meet people to sell/buy. Worst and least enjoyable part of the game.

Conclusion:
Casual players will enjoy reaching Merciless relatively easily however further progress into mid-tier and higher maps and content will be frustrating due to lack of decent drop RNG or crafting RNG; leading to frustration and lack of game enjoyment overall.
POE is recommended for people who can spend real money to buy currency & gear from farmers or who can invest more than four hours a day farming and trading; elitist's and obsessive compulsives rejoice.

I think most of your assessment here is fair. The reality is that PoE has always been intended for the more "obsessive" "hardcore" arpg audience, not the casual audience. It is the appeal of the complexity, the frustrating difficulty, and the ultimate payoff when that one amazing drop in a million finally happens that draws many of us to this game. Players seeking a more "gifty", casual experience where everything layed out simply in plain (English) for them, should look elsewhere.

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Docbp87 wrote:

I think most of your assessment here is fair. The reality is that PoE has always been intended for the more "obsessive" "hardcore" arpg audience, not the casual audience. It is the appeal of the complexity, the frustrating difficulty, and the ultimate payoff when that one amazing drop in a million finally happens that draws many of us to this game. Players seeking a more "gifty", casual experience where everything layed out simply in plain (English) for them, should look elsewhere.

Yes, unfortunately nothing else comes even close to the skill tree and gem system.
Anyone have any suggestions besides the Diablo series and Grim Dawn ?

Titan Quest, Torchlight I/II and Van Helsing are worth a play if you haven't already...

Pretty spot on on your remarks, but you have to concede that this is the best beta state aRPG that you played - no, PoE doesn't deserve the status of a finished product with all the problems that it has, but that doesn't make it less fun...

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sofocle10000 wrote:

Titan Quest, Torchlight I/II and Van Helsing are worth a play if you haven't already...

Pretty spot on on your remarks, but you have to concede that this is the best beta state aRPG that you played - no, PoE doesn't deserve the status of a finished product with all the problems that it has, but that doesn't make it less fun...

it is definitely a love hate relationship

don't forget that most items are completely worthless since most people are able to get into mid to low tier maps. So unless you can farm content that is hard for most people or are lucky to have a good drop, you will most likely have to pay real $$$ money for items you need to keep progressing to level 100

the trade in this game is the most frustrating and idiotic system I have ever encountered. Even shitty games do a better job with trading.

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rothmans3k wrote:

you will most likely have to pay real $$$ money for items you need to keep progressing to level 100

Wat

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Docbp87 wrote:

I think most of your assessment here is fair. The reality is that PoE has always been intended for the more "obsessive" "hardcore" arpg audience, not the casual audience. It is the appeal of the complexity, the frustrating difficulty, and the ultimate payoff when that one amazing drop in a million finally happens that draws many of us to this game. Players seeking a more "gifty", casual experience where everything layed out simply in plain (English) for them, should look elsewhere.

PoE used to be a game for "obsessive" "hardcore" arpg audience.

With GGG's change in direction towards player retention, eliminating "decision pain" from the skill tree, increasing drop rates, power creep everywhere, etc., it's very obvious they are trying to make the game appeal to a wider audience than just obsessive/hardcore players. Based on numbers from GGG, I'd say the majority of the population of the game is mostly not "obsessive hardcore".

The game still has a huge disparity in the player base, as mentioned by Qarl, with only 2% of league players in red maps, and difficult content being put out like Shaper. It's obvious GGG is still trying to appease the now minority hardcore players.

The thing is, the issues the OP complained about has nothing to do with difficulty. That's what I associate "hardcore" with - difficult content. Trade being a pain in the ass isn't difficult. Crafting being rng based isn't difficult. Hidden game info/mechanics isn't difficult. Multiplayer being a powerpoint slideshow isn't difficult. They just make for a poor gameplay experience. And if "obsessive hardcore" means putting up with a poor gameplay experience, I'm not sure that is the direction of the game anymore, if it ever was.

They are trying to improve performance. They "said" they'll be working on trade improvements (lol). They added essences which makes crafting ever so slightly less rng based. The point is, I'd say the direction of the game is more accessibility, less poor gameplay experience, and difficulty in the form of boss fights like Shaper.

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Druga1757 wrote:

They are trying to improve performance. They "said" they'll be working on trade improvements (lol). They added essences which makes crafting ever so slightly less rng based. The point is, I'd say the direction of the game is more accessibility, less poor gameplay experience, and difficulty in the form of boss fights like Shaper.

They should change their system to something like this:

Mode: Slow (Standard,cruel,merciless + all other content) - Slower xp progression, increased valuable/useful drops

Mode: Medium (Standard,cruel,merciless + all other content) - Current xp progression and drop rate settings in live game

Mode: Fast (Standard,cruel,merciless + all other content) - Faster xp progression but harder to survive, lower loot drop rate but increased valuable/useful drops


and you cannot trade between modes

this way anyone with any amount of time can play POE and enjoy the pace of their choosing for the period of time they have to play the game, whether that be 5 minutes or 16 hours

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krunchor wrote:

"

Druga1757 wrote:

They are trying to improve performance. They "said" they'll be working on trade improvements (lol). They added essences which makes crafting ever so slightly less rng based. The point is, I'd say the direction of the game is more accessibility, less poor gameplay experience, and difficulty in the form of boss fights like Shaper.

They should change their system to something like this:

Mode: Slow (Standard,cruel,merciless + all other content) - Slower xp progression, increased valuable/useful drops

Mode: Medium (Standard,cruel,merciless + all other content) - Current xp progression and drop rate settings in live game

Mode: Fast (Standard,cruel,merciless + all other content) - Faster xp progression but harder to survive, lower loot drop rate but increased valuable/useful drops


and you cannot trade between modes

this way anyone with any amount of time can play POE and enjoy the pace of their choosing for the period of time they have to play the game, whether that be 5 minutes or 16 hours

They said they don't want to divide the playerbase anymore than it already is (2 leagues + standard).

It would be nice to have different difficulties for all the content (like they did with lab), but GGG has this view that some content needs to be gated by rng (fragments, map drops) as well as only one difficulty (shaper, guardians).