Worst Death Penalty mechanics I've ever seen!

First of all, I am not against death penalty. It is present in games since beginning of video games, but in PoE it doesn't make sense. Why? Because (in most cases) dying doesn't give you a lesson - if you don't know what mistake you have done, you won't learn anything and repeat mistake in the future.
For example, I finished Temple of Atzoatl many times, but I died 2 times during boss fights. Why? I have no idea. I'm playing totem build, so I have put totems and dodge attacks, but in these two cases I've died. The same problem is with some map bosses. I have just started endgame bosses, but in that cases, I knew why I've died, so it is not a problem.
I think it is mostly caused by graphic - there are too many effects, so it is difficult to see danger. In Diablo 2 boss attacks are clearly - I know which attack killed me. In PoE usually I have no idea what is going on (excluding endgame bosses). Another problem is very low zoom, so you don't see whole arena. Third problem is huge damage spikes, which usually one-shot players. It is primitive and artificial way to make game difficult.

It's fine, just because you don't like the implementation dose not mean that it is wrong.

I.E it is a tool to HURT you enough into re evaluating your build.

what you've learnt is that the temple boss is both unrewarding and rather random ^^ that means you absolutely have more knowledge now than you had before!

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Buster1013 wrote:

... Why? Because (in most cases) dying doesn't give you a lesson - if you don't know what mistake you have done, you won't learn anything and repeat mistake in the future.

Sorry man, but if this is your reason then it is entirely your problem. Certainly it is tougher to get to the root cause of some deaths than others, but it is almost always possible. At the very least you will pay more attention next time ;)

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lagwin1980 wrote:

I.E it is a tool to HURT you enough into re evaluating your build.

It works for hard endgame bosses - learning mechanics by dying, but it doesn't work for temple or white and yellow map. I won't re-evaluate my build if I don't know why I have died.
I died during Elder fight, because I was too slow - it is OK, I have learnt something.
I have done many T10 maps with 50%+ hp all the time, but I have one-shot died on T8 map (without dangerous mods) - it is not OK, I haven't learnt anything.

I suggest you playing hardcore. Do you know what is the death penalty there? Right, it's death. And when the penalty is so harsh, you are starting to analyze every death thoroughly. And I assure you that I know exactly why I died every time that happened, and what I should have do to avoid that. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes you'll have to think a bit, but the reason is always there.

Hardcore penalty aside, which is actually pretty generous because you still keep your character, I think you're forgetting that losing experience with down-leveling when you hit a certain point was a pretty common mechanic in older games. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that maybe that's before you gamed though.

I do think they should add some sort of combat log or death log so folks can learn from deaths rather than guessing though.

Once you learn the fight, you'll find it's pretty easy to avoid the major sources of damage.

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de_Lioncourt wrote:

I suggest you playing hardcore. Do you know what is the death penalty there? Right, it's death. And when the penalty is so harsh, you are starting to analyze every death thoroughly. And I assure you that I know exactly why I died every time that happened, and what I should have do to avoid that. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes you'll have to think a bit, but the reason is always there.

I'm casual player, so I play sofcore. During some bossfights it is almost impossible to see anything, because of huge number of graphical effects. If I died standing in red circle, I learn "I shouldn't stand in red circle". But if I don't see effect and there is no combat log, I learn nothing.
I know that after a few thousand hours I will (probably) know, that effect X = one-hit kill AoE with safe spots, but PoE should be playable (without huge frustration) also for casual players.

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Nubatron wrote:

I do think they should add some sort of combat log or death log so folks can learn from deaths rather than guessing though.

100% agree! "Boss X killed you with Y attack doing Z damage"

effects bloat is a seperate issue I think and one GGG really need to implement some settings for, party play is horrendous in HC if you have anyone with flashy skills and in a game with fairly subtle telegraphs it isn't a good idea to have the screen constantly inundated.

The death penalty is there to do just that, penalize you for death.