Death Penalty

I am a very busy individual, and so I am a casual gamer. I really wish I had more time to play video games, but I don't. I work full time M-F 8-6PM, so my free time is extremely valuable to me.

I managed to level a ranger to 68. I ventured into chaos and can certainly deal enough damage to take out most mobs (2100-ish base dps without frenzy)

My only complaint is your death penalty. It is a pain in the a** to level my character in merciless difficulty. It takes about 4 hours to get enough exp to gain a level. So, the only way to really get exp is by playing in chaos. I play solo because I don't really like co-op with strangers.

This is where the problem lies. I tend to get the exp bar about 1/4 of the way from playing about 1-2 hours in several levels of chaos. However, if there is somewhat of server or internet lag, or I scratched my nose during a surprise aura-enhance mob attack...I can die rather quickly from a couple of well-landed critical hits. *poof* there goes 1-2 hours of experience down the drain. I'm back to square one. This is NOT fun... it is ANNOYING and makes me want to stop playing the game.

My suggestion is to give some kind of exp increase boost for a few minutes after resurrection to at least get back some of that lost experience.

Anyway...keep up the good work with the game. It definitely has potential and keeps me wanting more.

I don't know how to post char stats, so they are as follows:

639 Life (I know, very low but have leech)
459 mana (also low)
1.87 attacks/sec
2089 DPS
13.7% crit chance
399% crit multiplier
35% pierce

The xp penalty is supposed to be harsh, especially when lvl start to get diminishing return (soft lvl cap is 70, which is where you almost are).

Nevertheless, its the same mentality as if you play hardcore if you intend for your char to past the lv70 mark, get more survivability and allow a huge margin of errors. 600 HP is way too low to survive in chaos, especially that you are a dex character who relied on evasion. You will be 1-shotted every time you did not evade.

The point is, if you can easily solo chaos at lv68, you are well capable of getting better equipment, sacrificing some damage into your defense.

Edit: for this case,the solution would be not relying on leach but a bigger life pool+flask instead. And even if you die, gem xp is not lost. If all your gems are at lv20 is a different story though.

There are a few examples of this kind of all or nothing design in PoE. They call it "hardcore" to end a 3 hour play session and have zero progress. I speak of the crafting and death, they are straight from the 90's design of "make a mistake, boy are you gonna pay!".

That said, you have to concentrate in Chaos all the time, no slacking! I sometimes realize my eyes have watered down my cheek because I haven't been blinking enough during Chaos runs, lol.

That's the way the game is made though, and who they are catering to, quite honestly.

The xp loss is a definite "Fuck this shit!!!" Moment, which is not why I play games. However, I always come back haha.

Thanks for the great feedback guys!

My replay will be mostly harsh, sry about that.

Casual playing is not really excuse for reckless playing. Either change your stlye and die less. Becouse there has to be something for "death" once you die.


I got a ranger and bosses at merciless 1-2 hit me. As lvl 56 i died 4-5 times or so ?


Adapt or die :)

Don't take this as being harsh towards you, but you're wasting your time.

The content ends at 60. Going well over that incurs a heavy penalty to xp gain, so of course you're going to spend a lot of time leveling up. Ergo, dying costs a lot of time.

When the 3rd act is added and the content actually scales all the way to level 100, the xp gain will scale much better, as well (at least through the 60's and most of the 70's). You won't suffer quite as much time lost from death once the proper content is available.

The death penalty should take experience away, but give you a bonus (say, 50%) to experience earned until you've earned back what you lost, in addition to what you gain normally.

Let's try math.. uhh.. Say you need 1000 exp to level, and you have 400. You kill two mobs and gain 50 exp each, so now you have 500 exp. You die and lose 20% of the level's total experience so you now have (500-200) 300 experience. You gain 50% increased experience for that 200 experience - so you kill two mobs and gain (50+25) 75 experience each, total 150. That uses up 50 bonus experience, and your current experience goes from 300 to 450. You kill five more - 250xp, plus 125 bonus is 375 exp added to your total of 450, so now you have 825. Now you have 25 bonus experience left - you kill a mob and gain (50+25) 75 experience, then another mob but your bonus experience is gone and you only get 50.


aaaargh it's so warm here


But if you die you lose any extra bonus experience - you can only regain what you lost from your most recent death.

How can you value your free time while you're playing 10 levels above area level ? It's the most direct waste of time in the game currently...

Im fine with DP, except when I get killed due to a lag spike. 1/2 hr down the tubes. Nobody but me in the instance and I die, out in the middle of a open field, no mobs around...
The lag and rubber banding seem to be getting worse.