Too hard even for veterans (or why I quit after making Black Cane build)

In general, I agree with the TS. The game feels so very strange atm. For example: without good damage you cannot reach high-level content. But for high damage you need at least 6-links. If you go Delve to get the recipe, you will have to get to ~300-350 level (high-level content too imo), if you hope for good luck, as in my case, you can throw away >2000 fusings and not achieve anything.

(Even tried to farm Cursed Crypt, 200 maps done = 2 cards. Terrible, exhausted, blunt.)

Of course, sometimes craft happens joyfully and quickly, but it happens the other way around too - and this is a key factor for a player’s progress. I don’t understand why the game is tuned for people who are able to play like 10-15 hours a day for weeks and spend 50-100 ex on craft, then die, then roll a new character in a day or two.

From the point of view of such streamers, of course, everything is in the order and the game is just fine and dandy.
Thus the whole difficulty of the game is to quickly find out which build should be used for the next league, then copy it thoughtlessly.

But I don't want to play as another copycat. I enjoy melee builds, I play them. But PoE is built around obedience to the current meta. It is like Wraeclast was designed by George Orwell: do what you are meant to do or die)

4 options for GGG:

1.) most builds are too weak and only very few are very strong
2.) most builds are very strong and only a few are too weak
3.) sweet spot where a good amount of builds is very strong and a good amount is too weak
4.) somewhere around the sweet spot


We have 1.) at the moment (is my humble opinion). But I had fun in those 7 years no matter what GGG did, so I don't really care that much. If I disliked something, I just took a shorter or even longer break and came back from time to time to check what has/had changed.

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Leninisalive wrote:

That's why I quit the game. It discourages any creativity even tho "make your own build, so much to choose from" is the game's PR point. The difficulty is overtuned so it increasese the time and currency requirements on players making it stressful and unsatisfying to play. You're literally forced to play a dosed of meta builds and it's still hard, but unplayable otherwise. I thought I'm in the top, let's say 20% of the playerbase but if it's too hard for me, how is it for the average player? Where's the fking new player accessibility if it hard filteres even OLD players? I was able to kill Uber elder no sweat in previous leagues, but now with "we have to nerf players" approach I cant do red maps. I regret spending so mych holyday time on PoE and I lost all hope for PoE 2 with the way this game is going.

I agree 100% that now game is more difficult and time consuming, with the accent on the second.
I like the increased difficulty BUT to make all-round viable char firstly you got to be creative more than ever and secondly you have to invest a lot more currency than before.
These 2 things makes game a lot harder for an average or even advanced player who want's to play casually. If you don't have time you must go with something that gives a lot for least currency invested or you are going to get nowhere playing casually.
And yeah, I abhor playing the market to make currency. If I have to spend my free time looking at trade site for the most of it i'll rather quit.

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Johny_Snow wrote:

And why is that? Why someone who thinks they are good enough at the game to make their own build and fails be accommodated, coddled and listened to?

I dont say "waaa my builds should always work" The main point there is decreasing number of viable builds each league. What was considered sufficient survivability a few leagues back now is extremely low. Same goes for damage even to the bigger extent. It puts more stress on gearing to such a ridiculous level that you have to have almost fully built character before hitting red maps. See the diiference?
Before: complete the atlas-> finish and optimise the build. Now: finish the build-> complete the atlas. Thats why the gap between top players and average players grows so fast.

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Reinhart wrote:

I honestly feel your pain.

The problem is balance between all the possible builds.

People crying the game is too easy are those who all play meta-builds (that should have been nerfed in the first place). These guys should just keep their mouth shut and stop copying overpowered builds. Ironically they are also the loudest group on social fora. If you try to make your own build which should work on paper, you can have a very hard experience in PoE.

Game was too easy before this patch. End game was a joke with all powercreep so new term in community came as "Shaper per second". Cmon...
Only thing I don't like now is how much time you have to dedicate to make a proper build.

My issue is with monster damage, not Health.

Have berserker, 4K HP max resists and metamorph in T4 one shot me.

Regular mobs take over 1/4 of my HP per hit despite having armor saying 70% dmg reduction (which is also useless against boss physical strikes) and 3 endurance charges

bleed from rare mon killed me in 2 seconds statioanry.

HP pots replenish most 2400 HP over some time so also in my eyes HP pots are totaly useless.

I can facetank izaro with vaal pact but die to random mobs in 2 seconds.

nuff said.

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TorsteinTheFallen wrote:

I agree 100% that now game is more difficult and time consuming, with the accent on the second.
I like the increased difficulty BUT to make all-round viable char firstly you got to be creative more than ever and secondly you have to invest a lot more currency than before.

That's why I made this title. I quit after trying something I thought to be really creative 200IQ build with new busted uniques. But it wasnt enough. Somwhere around Incursion or Beatiary it would've been fun af build with good damage and pretty tanky as well (almost 8k es, 50physred from armor, some block, fortify and 3 end charges). I did Uber Elder on weaker characters before. But now it's punishing to go off-meta

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Leninisalive wrote:

Before: complete the atlas-> finish and optimise the build. Now: finish the build-> complete the atlas. Thats why the gap between top players and average players grows so fast.

And Im grateful for this change, simply because there wasnt a reason to min/max your build after you already unlocked the entire atlas.
There was nothing left to do your build couldnt already do.

GGG might have gone overboard with the mob hp buffs, but its still better now than it was before imho and they´ll introduce more powerful new toys down the road anyways. Those will nullify the mob buffs at least partially.
Question as always is: How accessible will those toys be?

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And Im grateful for this change, simply because there wasnt a reason to min/max your build after you already unlocked the entire atlas.
There was nothing left to do your build couldnt already do.

GGG might have gone overboard with the mob hp buffs, but its still better now than it was before imho and they´ll introduce more powerful new toys down the road anyways. Those will nullify the mob buffs at least partially.
Question as always is: How accessible will those toys be?

You are kind of right, but the Ideal situation should be- you improve your build while progressing through the end game. You may do it slower, avoiding bad map rolls, dying sometimes but not frequent enough to halt exp progression. But now for many players there are two options- halt your progression and farm currency on lower tiers fir a long time, then buy your best in slot items. The other is slowly progressing, completely skipping the current league machanic and even older ones (as I said incursions and monoliths are way harder now since the timer wasnt adjusted for hp buffs). Both of the options are kinda irritating so it leads to dissatisfaction and low motivation.

I honestly wonder sometimes if I am playing a different game. Endgame bosses aside I find the health buffs hardly noticeable. Yeah Guardians and Shaper take a good while longer now but outside of that? I wouldn't have noticed the hp was buffed if GGG hadn't told me. And no I am not one of those 20 million dps meta build guys. My highest dps chars have like 1,5k million, most are at 500k and below.

Difficulty as such didn't increase at all. Yeah you have to deal with boss mechanics a bit longer than you used to, but if your damage was always so low that you couldn't just one shot them and you are used to dealing with boss mechanics that doesn't make things harder. It's the same thing as before, just 10 seconds more per map, no big deal imo.

I find it hard to believe that a decently designed build can't handle red maps. I admit I've never tried to super creative jank stuff, I tend to simple and solid but it's always working out for me. Some builds are faster at mapping, some are better at bossing but all of them can do tier 14+ maps without much trouble.

As for metamorphs, if they are too strong, maybe be a bit more conservative with what mods you give them? I mean these are literally bosses where you can determine the difficulty yourself, if you give them every mod they can get because you're greedy than you have no business complaining if they blow you out of the water.