Synthesis is good, but not stability; lab disconnects aren't a skill test, they're a boredom test.

I came back after taking a fair amount of time away from POE. I like most of the changes to casting, with some innovative ideas and some interesting new skills to try out (+ new look / feel to some older spells). I like the Cavas missions, as well.

But, game stability went downhill quite a bit. A fair number of error messages are cropping up. Also, there have been a lot of disconnects, as well as some soft and hard lockups.

I figured I'd try lab anyways this evening. Lab is still boring, so getting it out of the way would have been nice. A disconnect popped up almost right away on the first attempt. A disconnect happened in the middle of the second Izaro battle the second time around. I'll do other things for the rest of the evening and (most likely) test my luck again another day.

I can do normal Izaro in my sleep, at this point. He seldom hits me unless I let him or my computer stutters. But, because of the so-called "skill test" that forces a re-start on a disconnect it's back to square one with Mr. I-somehow-don't-realize-I'm-dead-and-I-seriously-need-hobby, who is so boring that he could prevent plants from growing just by being in their general vicinity.

I figured I'd try one more time this evening. No go, as after defeating Izaro twice and while wandering around in the maze, looking for Izaro #3, another unexpected disconnect occurred.

Very disappointing.

Two more normal lab runs to report about:

First run I was headed into the third Izaro fight, then "unexpected" disconnection.

Second run I just finished the first Izaro fight before the "unexpected" disconnection.

I must be missing how much my skills are being tested by the "finish or start over" mechanic for lab.

The loathsome labyrinth is still horrible content. It needs to be made optional so people can skip it if they hate that kind of game.

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Turtledove wrote:

The loathsome labyrinth is still horrible content. It needs to be made optional so people can skip it if they hate that kind of game.

Agreed.

Two more runs, to more failures.

1st run: Unexpected disconnect between 1st and 2nd Izaro fight
2nd run: Clicked on the door to enter the 3rd Izaro fight and, instead of the door opening, the screen just went black.

So far I've beaten Izaro nine fights in a row, but no prestige class skill points as of yet.

Still, this is a great test of my skill at playing POE and whether my character is worthy of prestige class skills. In normal. Because normal is hard.

To bring closure, after two more failures a successful run. They went as follows:

1st run: Disconnect after first fight, return to log in screen
2nd run: Disconnect, I forget where
3rd run: Beat Mr. Bony Butt and his little green friend, got prestige class skill points

In all, I think I beat Izaro 13-14 times to get one out of four sets of prestige class skill points. That seems a bit excessive.

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Turtledove wrote:

The loathsome labyrinth is still horrible content. It needs to be made optional so people can skip it if they hate that kind of game.

The content IS completlly optional and skipable. No one is forcing you to ascend your charakter.
Want do you aspect? If someone dont like the Shaper fight, than the Shaper personally come to his hideout with the item of his choise, so he can skip the fight?

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EnjoyTheJourney wrote:

A disconnect popped up almost right away on the first attempt. A disconnect happened in the middle of the second Izaro battle the second time around.

I've played labs since they were introduced, and have yet to experience a disconnect. You may want to check your computer and more importantly the stability of your network connection to the servers. That is where the actual problem is...

The above is in not way condoning or denouncing the lab mechanics, but simply pointing out something you could do to fix the problem you're experiencing.

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juyevon wrote:

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Turtledove wrote:

The loathsome labyrinth is still horrible content. It needs to be made optional so people can skip it if they hate that kind of game.

The content IS completlly optional and skipable. No one is forcing you to ascend your charakter.
Want do you aspect? If someone dont like the Shaper fight, than the Shaper personally come to his hideout with the item of his choise, so he can skip the fight?

No, it's fucking not optional. Optional means you have the option to not do it. How many people do you know skip lab?

Jesus Christ knock off this nonsense already

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Legatus1982 wrote:

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juyevon wrote:

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Turtledove wrote:

The loathsome labyrinth is still horrible content. It needs to be made optional so people can skip it if they hate that kind of game.

The content IS completlly optional and skipable. No one is forcing you to ascend your charakter.
Want do you aspect? If someone dont like the Shaper fight, than the Shaper personally come to his hideout with the item of his choise, so he can skip the fight?

No, it's fucking not optional. Optional means you have the option to not do it. How many people do you know skip lab?

Jesus Christ knock off this nonsense already

There is a whole bunch of optional stuff in this game people chose not to skip.