Path of Exile, Gameplay Criticism

This is my best shot at summarizing the gameplay problems of POE, how they are connected and how to solve them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3WkaqDYtXQ

(I don't talk much about item/loot related issues; only the gameplay)

Thanks for watching. I hope this can help make the game better.

Edit (3/13/2020):

These are the 3 videos linked in the description of the one above covering the three individual topics in more detail:

Facerolling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxeh5nSjDHg
The War of Rates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep9f_Hgz6D8
Penalties: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3XIzHGUnVE


Edit (6/1/2019):

This is the followup video responding to many of the counterarguments in this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ZGXR7qV7o

Dunno about the recover exp-quest, but, yeah, pretty much this.

Also have to agree with ajo here. You can get damage from so many sources now, that it is quite hard to balance. Also, there are so many ways to quickly restore your life these days. It's a lot of work and kinda risky since it needs to be do all at once.

GGG should hire you !


But yeah those are common mistake, a lot of game compagnies does them. I have seen it in world of warcraft pvp way back then for example. If they are willing to acknowledge it to themselves, I'm pretty sure there is a lot oe literature and others compagnies games that could share them the insight on how they fixed it.

Great Video

THe biggest drawback is that they would to slow down a bit the pace of the game, I think they fear the consequence of it....

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ffogell wrote:

GGG should hire you !

lets not go that far. this guy thinks support is not a role to play in an arpg game..

Good video, agree with most of what you say.

Elite paint skills btw.

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Ajo wrote:

I feel that the game is beyond repair at this point. Nice video however and good job summarizing and explaining the flaws.

I don't think anything is beyond repair for GGG. They aren't a regular company. Also, thanks for your compliment and support.

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Cipp wrote:

Dunno about the recover exp-quest, but, yeah, pretty much this.

Also have to agree with ajo here. You can get damage from so many sources now, that it is quite hard to balance. Also, there are so many ways to quickly restore your life these days. It's a lot of work and kinda risky since it needs to be do all at once.

The XP recovery quest is both a "foot in the door" addendum to the death penalty, and an additional reward for people who have no lost XP (which includes those who haven't died).

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ffogell wrote:

Great Video

THe biggest drawback is that they would to slow down a bit the pace of the game, I think they fear the consequence of it....

I assume you're talking about the "more limitations" stuff. Pacing is a common concern, but might have the opposite effect of making the game feel even faster paced. Consider FPS and MOBA games that can feel fast paced but also have more limiations on skill usage. Again, I'm not saying that every ability needs a cooldown, but more limits might increase the "satisfaction per button press" ratio.

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MrsDeath_ wrote:

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ffogell wrote:

GGG should hire you !

lets not go that far. this guy thinks support is not a role to play in an arpg game..

I was exaggerating a bit in my attempt to conserve time.

Let me be clear, I absolutely think that support is a role. What I meant was that, the current rendition of "nuke the screen" and "aura bot" aren't the ideal role distribution, considering how prevalent they are.

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kalamir27 wrote:

Good video, agree with most of what you say.

Elite paint skills btw.

Thank you very much, heheh.

Very good points in OP video, especially what he is saying about 'rate wars'.

Clean presentation, but I see this a lot with creatives- I would call your video a well polished turd. Has all the makings of something great, but is still a turd lacking any substance or experience.

1. Facerolling - If you want to play an easy character, play an easy character. I play hard classes that take skill, and am glad the noob facerollers can't play at my level.

2. Frustrating unpredictable oneshots are actually quite predictable once you get to a high enough level to be able to manually dodge in melee classes. Again, this take skill. The name of the game is skill based progression. 99% of the oneshots are telegraphed.

3. Evasion is for high skill players. It isn't meant to tank hits, it allows you to jump in and out of combat. You are a ninja with evasion, don't get hit. If you have a problem with that, play an easier class that doesn't require you to manually dodge hits. Homogenizing everything so everyone can excel at every playstyle is what makes Diablo 3 so bad.

4. The dealth penalty and difficulty is one of the features that makes PoE stand out in a sea of bland arpg. Every other RPG you can just throw you body at challenges, over and over until you eventually make it to the top. In PoE you can only throw your body up to a certain point, then the game takes off the training wheels and you are forced to grow as a player.

5. You start to ramble when you get to "challenge bad", if you come into a game with a modular build system and can only play starter builds then the problem is you. Take off the training wheels and give it another shot. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. The masses enjoy a challenge, just look at Dark Souls.

TLDR: Mad cuz bad and made a polished turd. Nice polished turd, but about six mins too long even for a polished turd.

solid, thanks

we're bringing up most of these points for years now.

but they spoiled their player base and seem unable to want to unspoil them

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鬼殺し wrote:

^Forgot to hide his characters tab before posting this.

Nope, everything is right where I said it was. Are you looking at my non vile bastion occutist? Or my new witch that I am building as a tank for the funzies. Or my dozen or so dead hc chars that I converted to standard.

Gud try tho!