Anybody else worried about the amount of automation that PoE is getting ?

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Fruz wrote:

Regarding the BV / Orb of winter comparison ... You are aware that you need to cast BV more than once to have enough stacks to do anything with it, are ou ?

You are aware that Winter Orb is not only channeling skill but also has duration? You need to stop and channel Winter Orb to get stack the same as you do it for BV. Its not damn turret that you click once and you have it for entire map.

I also remember the time when aura effects were reduced as they were making too much visual clutter. Then MTX boubles happened over night.

I've just became OK with the path PoE is taking, as it allready passed it's point of return.

Also I have less and less time to play, so I might even like those changes when they hit. I just still make difference between PoE now and then.

I prefer automated skill/cast on whatever personally. Carpal tunnel gets you and you will too I guarantee it.

There is no real challenge difference in stopping for a second to click versus not stopping the only real difference comes from efficiency and with the extreme levels of RNG in this game who doesn't want a bit more efficiency? Even with automation I'll have to say good luck to you in the amount of hours of your life you'll be tasked doing completely monotonous and repetitious movements while mapping/grinding.

It's all a bit mind numbing isn't it? I mean this entire genre? It's more or less enjoyable to a certain extent to be challenged for the entire time you're logging in and playing, for awhile, until you overcome that phase and get to the point where it seems everything dies two screens away in one mouse click and nothing can touch you anyway, and that's one of the end goals of most builds is it not?

So really I don't think much of a comparison needs to be made because it's so inconsequential, clicking once a screen or not clicking once a screen really, at this point why not just go for auto cast and run since we *already* have many skills/builds that revolve around this playstyle.

Also, some find it fun. It definitely is popular for a reason and I'd wager it goes beyond efficiency and into the realm of satisfaction. It's satisfying running around the map blowing everything up while raw power is surging from your character's every orifice and then picking up the goodies left behind... I mean, the portal scrolls.


I had a build in Sacred 2 that would just autocast novas around me in a large radius and I ran through maps magic finding just running and looting and that kept me engaged for hundreds of hours, so in the 'personal opinion' column I'll definitely check that this way doesn't bother me and I'm fine with it. I even played holy shock paladin in D2 to help farm, it's kind of a staple of the genre come to think of it to build towards an automated run and go type of clear speed character if you so desire.

Last thing, PoE is kind of clunky when things go slow and all of this seems to take the "edge off" that clunkiness so it gives the facade of smoother/silkier gameplay when you don't have to wait for animations to finish to cast. It feels clunky when everything's slowed down and more meticulous and that's when people start bawling at the start of a new season I'm sure, "I forget how slow and terrible everything feels when starting out", because it really does feel bad until things speed up. Again personal preference but I'd wager I'm in the majority here and I don't miss the days of concentration barb in D2 just going around hitting one mob at a time for your entire life. I know that's the other end of the extreme but it's there to simply emphasize that I don't miss that kind of "active engagement" and I'm glad they move away from it here.

It´s just getting worse since cwdt release.

We have just a few interactive skills such as ED/Contagion.

Powerful buff such as EE or EO shouldn´t be accessible as easy and so on but GGG probably thinks Poet´s pen and such are a good things.

I’m kind of worried. Would be nice if there were real dps benefits for manually using skills and penalties for automation, but there aren’t at all (and knowing GGG attempts to implement them would hit the wrong builds).

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GusTheCrocodile wrote:

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Fruz wrote:

Well, we will see how much of a "variety" it will be with those new skills.
For example, after they added mirage archers, did it actually add variety to the game ? Why would any archer not use it ?
I don't know that skill well though so I might be wrong.

To be clear, I was not making some kind of assessment of the total diversity of skill builds in use etc. There are, unquestionably, a larger variety of types of skills in the game with Mirage Archer than there are without it, that's what I was saying is a good thing.

There will always be loads of players following build guides, copying streamers, playing a relative few patterns that happen to be popular and powerful this month. With what you call "automation" or without it. That isn't the fault of this kind of skill, it's just how gamers are. I don't have anything against people doing the hot new thing, but the point is I certainly don't hold it up as an indictment of the game. They can play how they want to play and, thanks to there being such a variety of options, I can play how I want to play.

The number of potential combination isn't really what's relevant though, the amount of 'realistic' combinations that players are actually using is more relevant regarding diversity imho.

And if most racers using bows are using mirage archers ... well, I guess it is not necessarily a problem, but if pretty much all of them are (apart some niche builds @burning arrow prolif. for example, but that is very niche and needs a completely different setup completely) ... then it's not really diversity that we are seeing anymore.

I am not saying that this is the case, I've seen couple of streamers (racing, not the kind of streamers that don't really understand the game as there are such streamers) using bows recently and if I recall correctly, they were all using this gem, that's all, it is not representative but it definitely means that it's not a bad one.

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Phrazz wrote:

That said, I wouldn't mind them slowing down the game a little bit. Not by forcing less movement speed or attack speed on us, but to give us more (optional) things to interact with. Stuff that rewards you for stopping, exploring and interact with. They should keep the game fast, but they should encourage us to interact with stuff once in a while.

I definitely agree with hat.
Now speed wasn't the main point that I wanted to bring, but it is related here.

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Aynix wrote:

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Fruz wrote:

Regarding the BV / Orb of winter comparison ... You are aware that you need to cast BV more than once to have enough stacks to do anything with it, are ou ?

You are aware that Winter Orb is not only channeling skill but also has duration? You need to stop and channel Winter Orb to get stack the same as you do it for BV. Its not damn turret that you click once and you have it for entire map.

I didn't know that it was a channeled skill, I should have paid more attention to the video, my bad.
It indeed requires a little bit more action than I though (it seems pretty freaking strong though), it is still something that requires no targeting and pretty much requires you to just scale cold and use HoI, more simple and straigthforward than BV, to build and to play.

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seanquigong wrote:

There is no real challenge difference in stopping for a second to click versus not stopping the only real difference comes from efficiency and with the extreme levels of RNG in this game who doesn't want a bit more efficiency? Even with automation I'll have to say good luck to you in the amount of hours of your life you'll be tasked doing completely monotonous and repetitious movements while mapping/grinding.

Of course there is.
If you don't have choices to make while playing as the games makes choices instead of you, then why do you play in the first place ?
Go watch a movie then, no carpal tunnel problems anymore.

And this is the road that PoE is taking.
I personally find 2 button builds quickly boring, I find having different choices for different situations more interesting.


Players are overall going to choose the path of least resistance.
So yeah, making stuff easier is likely going to bring overall satisfaction to players.
Will people get bored more quickly of their "I-have-two-buttons" builds ?
Maybe, probably imho.
But the satisfaction at the beginning will likely be there anyway.

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seanquigong wrote:

It feels clunky when everything's slowed down and more meticulous and that's when people start bawling at the start of a new season I'm sure

I disagree, I enjoy games that feel realistic when your character starts from nothing.
Games that give you all kind of unrealistic flashy and really quick animations everywhere at the very start just seem silly to me.

For example, many years ago, a friend of mine showed me Guild Wars 1 quickly .... I was like "what the fuck is this ? what are all this dumb silly effects at level 1 ? whaaat ?"
I was coming from DAoC, when you start : you are weak, you need to make your character better, the game does not try to make you feel powerful from the very start, which is something I really miss in many games nowaday.
If anything, I've always seen GW like a superficial game ever since.

It's 2018, soon 2019, most players of many kind of games in the world are just used to instant, or very quick gratification, from the very start of the game.
Superficial fast food games, that's how it feels to me.
If it's a phone game where I'm not going to spend much time on it, sure, I guess.
If it's a game supposed to feel immersive ? Screw that, seriously.

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Rakii wrote:

It´s just getting worse since cwdt release.

We have just a few interactive skills such as ED/Contagion.

Powerful buff such as EE or EO shouldn´t be accessible as easy and so on but GGG probably thinks Poet´s pen and such are a good things.

I'm not exactly sure where to stand with Poet's Pen to be honest, it sure feels too strong for the game, but it opens plenty of interactions and cool things.
It does feel too much though, but I'm likely going to use it to Cheeze Esh to get that challenge before next week :>.

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demon9675 wrote:

I’m kind of worried. Would be nice if there were real dps benefits for manually using skills and penalties for automation, but there aren’t at all (and knowing GGG attempts to implement them would hit the wrong builds).

I feel you there, I've been playing Ice Storm this league ...
At the start, completely self cast (took shaper down like this).

I switched to blight + CwC since, it's still somewhat self cast, but I'm not directly casting the skill, and it's just much better, without a doubt (And since Orb of Winter is a channeling skill ... well, there will be a much better choice next league, significantly better imo lol).
It does not feel super good (and reducing the cast speed of IS a bit could really help here ... but no), I don't really thing that GGG cares about it anyway.

There are many good builds where things are being done manually of course.
But the recent very efficient builds are over shadowing many (Sunder is still top tier though, for example)

Nope. I dont have to play it if i dont like it. And i dont mind the Variety.

But if you are such a slave that you feel the need to play the OMFGWTFLOLOLOLOLZOOMZOOM Clearspeed Autobombing Bullshit then you have other problems then PoEs design direction to be honest.

You can play the game without any kind of Automization in you Build if you like so whats the Problem honestly?

I remember playing Harbinger with a RF Chieftain. Basically holding right click to Shield Charge while watching something on the tv.

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Yogoff wrote:

Nope. I dont have to play it if i dont like it. And i dont mind the Variety.

But if you are such a slave that you feel the need to play the OMFGWTFLOLOLOLOLZOOMZOOM Clearspeed Autobombing Bullshit then you have other problems then PoEs design direction to be honest.

You can play the game without any kind of Automization in you Build if you like so whats the Problem honestly?

If you can't be bothered to read what I wrote in the thread, I'm not sure if I should even spend any time trying to explain to you, but I will try to do it quickly still.

I never go meta because it is boring to me.

Seeing the game becoming something else is something different entirely, and if you think that GGG adding more and more of those skills that take care of half of the game play for you while being more efficient will have absolutely no impact on the rest of the game .... well, you are very wrong.

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kikeuy wrote:

I remember playing Harbinger with a RF Chieftain. Basically holding right click to Shield Charge while watching something on the tv.

I forgot to mention RF, it got ridiculously easy to access, and yeah .... it does that now.
At least, you usually use scorching ray / orb of storm to proc EE, so you do have more action to actually optimize your gameplay.

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Bone2flesh wrote:

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Nephalim wrote:

PoE is 80% path of building and 20% netflix and autobomb with a walk simulator. Monster health scaling on non bosses never caught up after ASC was introduced.


Really though, I hope the focus system adds some much needed input variety.

Do you ever have anything like positive to say about POE. I mean almost all yout posts have a negative vibe to them. Or are just one of those glass half empty kinda people.

Given all that it relaly makes me wornder what makes you tick. How can you dislike something so much but keep comming back every league playing it? Stockholm Syndrom?

Look at the bright side of things sometimes friend. The game is clearly superior to anything else out there and nothing will ever be perfect. It just the nature of things.

While I try to refrain from replying people who get offended for other people like it was their jobs, here are some recent things I've posted.

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GGG could not possibly pump out more content than they already do without having to drastically increase their dev team. I really hope those 15 developers are being paid because they're doing a bang up job.

Believe it or not it is possible to have both positive and "negative" opinions about a game.