Being a mediocre player gets you nowhere in POE

This week on "Being a mediocre player gets you nowhere in PoE"

- how to curb your expectations

- elitist's throwing around their shallow victory's and laughing with people that are not wasting their lives in the same manner as them(How dare they!)

- a sprinkle of ruler patience

Stay tuned for more in this epic forum bonanza.

Peace,

-Boem-

I meant it more when someone was boasting. Being a top tier player doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.


For example, in Swtor, it offered a game mode called galactic star fighter, a side mode at best. It proved to be largely unpopular, and the first efforts made by a player are often so horrible they never make an effort to try again.

I managed to eventually become one of those elite pilots. But even then, being a top tier player in a largely ignored mode is essentially being the best at something most people don't want to try.

But while its bad enough to like something unpopular - its even worse when small groups of top tier players drive off the fresh meat.

One of these players justified these player massacres as entertainment for his viewers, despite maxing out in the 20s and only consistently having 5-10. He wasn't particularly special amongst the top tier pilots either, he just only played with multiple wingman of similar or greater stature.

It was basically beating up on other folks who had no capacity to fight back and constant turning away of potential new pilots, something the mode desperately needed.

If I didn't do other group content, I would have lost interest far sooner.

But either way, despite being some of the best players of said mode, they essentially were douches about it and just kept scaring off the new players until they stopped showing up or just afk leeched.

"

SeCKSEgai wrote:

I struggled with red elder running hierophant totems, primary weakness being difficulty increasing output with pure totems - if I didn't limit myself to totems and had another castable attack spell it probably would have been less challenging.

Point being is that its really disingenuous to claim shaper is a build tester when the majority of the player base never gets that far. I think the last ggg data had like 6% actually running top tier maps.

If you're going to be elitist about it, own it.

Otherwise, show me vids of random folks in 4-5 links with miscellaneous junk gear taking down shaper and uber elder. I've seen a handful of vids with low end gear succeed even deathless, but even then it was hardly "trivial".

I think you are confusing gear with build. If you still have "junk" gear, your build isn't finished yet. And every reasonable build should be able to kill shaper when finished, around level 90 with a rare 6 link or unique 5 link (30c or so, not exorbitant). Hence, build tester. And I said "near trivial". So I agree Shaper is not trivial yet, but it's easier than ever to get enough dps to skip most or all of his mechanics so even mechanically poor players can kill him.

You are also confusing Shaper with Uber elder. They are not even close to being on the same level as each other. Uber elder is insanely difficult compared to Shaper and was not part of this conversation. He's the real final boss of this game now.

Wasn't confusing them at all. But given that a majority of the player base never even makes it to mapping, shaper is clearly out of reach for most.

For the few that are actually completing all end game content, shaper is just a stepping stone - but those players typically know enough to accept that most of the playerbase will not see that content outside of youtube vids.

The biggest challenge I've had thus far since starting Poe was mentioned earlier about learning mechanics like how increase/decrease and more/less interact differently with damage.

If one can only follow instructions without understanding why they have no tools to address the issues they're bound to come across.

Right now I should be experimenting with different builds but a severe lack of desire to farm currency would make that a frustrating endeavor.

"

鬼殺し wrote:

The only saving grace is how many there are, which sort of makes 'elitist' a difficult term to use, since 'elitist' typically means the narrower part of a pyramid. As others have pointed out, if there's a pyramid structure to PoE's playerbase, it's incredibly flat, such that we have a fairly large layer of elitism right above the mediocre, and right below the actual elite. To an outside eye, it might even be hard to tell the two apart until they open their mouths, as the OP has done here. Then the division is super fucking obvious.

Oh no, I get where you're goin. Normally I avoid Gen Discussion boards but here its seemed like all I really was going to pay attention to was it and Gameplay.

Don't get me wrong, even Swtor had people in top tier gear that never actually learned how to play the game. Whenever they would start to sound elitist my guildmates and friends could feel me rolling my eyes across the internet.

But I think I get what you mean, its rarely the top looking down but the folks just right under them.

"

krizzexile wrote:

Another league, another try. I love Arpgs, I played them all. However POE is the first game I admit defeat. The problem? Being a mediocre player.

It starts around level mid 80 - I only play softcore, I know my limits - when I map and map, trying to farm currency, trying to level. My goal: seeing the "endgame". The T16 bosses, maybe beating the shaper.
Problem: I make mistakes. Many. Not, too many, but enough to prevent any progress. Sometimes I missjudge the situation, sometimes my reaction time is too slow (by a lot, I am 40+), sometimes I simply forgot the mechanic or the threat a particular enemy poses.
Well here goes another 10% exp. 2 hours down the drain. My highest char is 91. 10% here is like 4 hours of mapping for me and I try to play maps I know are somewhat safe. I know most of the "nope" bosses in the maps etc. However being a slow player also has another disadvantage: in the time you farm x currency for item y, the inflation already made item y two times x and so on.
Watching POE streamer on twitch is like watching someone playing another game. Seeing those super corrupted amazing "fluff" items on reddit is a parallel universe. I never had enough currency to make enough attempts crafting something good let alone find something.
At the beginning of a league I might snatch some nice items with a patient trading approach but usually after week 3 this over because inflation. I have no idea how these people do it. I can't

it's super frustrating because there is no way around. Can't overgear/overlevel or any other solution.

I tried playing the beefiest, sturdiest, tankiest classes. Those classes their gameplay make chess look like an action game. Problem: you die too because of the afforementioned reasons. Difficult fight take too long usually.

Gosh darnit. I haven't played in ages and was just about to load up and give it a crack. Just bought a new laptop too. Sadly, this has depressed me because you've described my PoE experience down to a tea, even the age. I am going to go back to Fortress of the Witch King.


P.

Oh dear dear people talking about stuff they know nothing about again.

6% reaching maps means nothing in a FTP game as I said several pages ago. Many folks see PoE being popular so they download it, try it for an hour or two, see they wouldn't like to play it and stop. This gets added to the statistics and inflates the number so oh gosh this little people actually completed the game! Bullshit, make it something you have to pay 40 dollars for and this % would skyrocket. Stop trying to imagine the average player being some 50 level fool who doesn't know how linking gems work.

Shaper IS a build tester. The game has been on a constant power creep for ages. The ascendancies, the new items even now the skill reworks - they all make your damage explode. People are reporting killing map bosses in several arc chains with crappy gear and you are telling me Shaper is a credible challenge now? Like that other guy said we have uber elder, shaper is not the top dog anymore and if he was he'd be a joke to anyone committed enough.

Whats even funnier is how mechanical the Shaper fight actually is. Kinda like Hydra you can dodge all of his attacks meaning a build with no life and 5 links would be able to kill him if the player has good connection and fast reactions.

But hey what the hell would I know, the game is after all so super hard I cant comprehend it properly.

"

Johny_Snow wrote:

Oh dear dear people talking about stuff they know nothing about again.

6% reaching maps means nothing in a FTP game as I said several pages ago. Many folks see PoE being popular so they download it, try it for an hour or two, see they wouldn't like to play it and stop. This gets added to the statistics and inflates the number so oh gosh this little people actually completed the game! Bullshit, make it something you have to pay 40 dollars for and this % would skyrocket. Stop trying to imagine the average player being some 50 level fool who doesn't know how linking gems work.

Shaper IS a build tester. The game has been on a constant power creep for ages. The ascendancies, the new items even now the skill reworks - they all make your damage explode. People are reporting killing map bosses in several arc chains with crappy gear and you are telling me Shaper is a credible challenge now? Like that other guy said we have uber elder, shaper is not the top dog anymore and if he was he'd be a joke to anyone committed enough.

Whats even funnier is how mechanical the Shaper fight actually is. Kinda like Hydra you can dodge all of his attacks meaning a build with no life and 5 links would be able to kill him if the player has good connection and fast reactions.

But hey what the hell would I know, the game is after all so super hard I cant comprehend it properly.

This is literally what Charan and I were talking about - not the actual elite but the "poelitist". You believe that the average player is able to complete endgame from start to finish. You assume that spamming a handful of skills mindlessly in hopes of perdy l00t is enough to motivate folks. You also assume that your experience is the norm, despite easily being able to read otherwise.

I spend more time talking with Charan on the forums than actually playing the game. He's uninstalled while I'm just not motivated after 1.5 leagues and a month of flashback. Given my gaming history, I'm accustomed to more depth and interaction.

Just browsing through the gameplay help forum you'll find people getting stuck all over the place, and fairly often its long before mapping.

I can totally acknowledge I've still got plenty to learn, particularly on the mechanics side with the math. I only started midway through abyss, and at this point I'm ready to settle in standard because having to not only rebuild characters but wealth,masters,lab and atlas every few months just doesn't feel worthwhile. To play league only means that you're essentially trashing everything you gain with very little time to enjoy it.

But let's put it in perspective - if everyone who played more than a few hours stuck it in for the long haul and was doing all content - there would be a lot more items from the hardest areas flooding the markets. Imagine if Atziri's sacrificial garb was as common as Voll's Protector's...


But really, any game 5 gigs or more isn't something people just wait for to dump it an hour later. I still remember 14.4 dial up and despite the huge gains in speeds multiple gigs still take a while even when tapped into a backbone. F2p alone doesn't mean inflated statistics.

At this point it just sounds like you're parroting what people say on streams like you're at the same level - yet failing to recognize something you stated yourself, "He'd be a joke to anyone committed enough." Not everyone feels the same level of desire or enjoyment in this game. Just as not everyone has the patience to eat deaths in HC, not everyone has the patience to endure SSF.

That does remind me though. It's like people who still are stuck with bronze rating in LoL after several years. You can't say its lack of experience, but lack of learning or lack of motivation are both believable answers.

In other words, a "poelitist" fails to recognize any experience other than his/her own.

I am not sure what are you trying to say here. You say the game is spamming a few skills mindlessly then proceed with saying how many people get stuck before reaching maps. So on one side the game is as easy as spamming and moving at light speed, on the other its hard enough for casuals to routinely need help.

Its contradictory is what it is. You want more depth, saying how the game is shallow yet keep up your narrative that it is not noob friendly.

I honestly don't know how to respond to this. With the wealth of information readily available anybody can reach the end game. Easily. Motivation? Who the hell cares about that, if you are not motivated to play the game maybe thats not the game for you? I myself was not motivated to play certain leagues but in the end I always come back. You are really looking at this from the wrong perspective, if the game was paid for the definition of casual would have changed drastically.

OP, as a mediocre player like you and a filthy casual to boot there are hard truths you'll learn as you play POE. I have been playing filthy casually for 2 years now and yes, I have yet to meet uber izaro, atziri, the 4 guardians, shaper, elder and a host of "end-game" bosses that has come and gone, maybe I'll never will.

The hard truth is that if I continue to play as I do, "end-game" is not for me. People complain of power creep and clear speed meta but to a casual like me, power creep? clear speed meta? alien words. Power creep and clear speed meta are only for those who can put in a lot of time and amass vast quantity of exalts and can afford to creep power speed their gears.

It's not that I don't enjoy playing POE, I still am having lots of fun playing it. I even enjoyed those traps from the previous expansion. The thing is you have to manage your expectations of what you can actually accomplish in POE playing casually and being mediocre at it. Now if you're just mediocre but can put in a lot of time, there's lots to learn but don't worry after a few years you'll be playing like the God-mode streamers that they are and you will be. But for those that can't like me, we'll we just enjoy the game, enjoy the journey, smell the new shiny things GGG gives us and take it to where we can.

Just like life, we enjoy every moment we can play, every day we are online, we don't rush to the end game.