I do not want to play tank.

I do not want to play tank.

I know, you want the game to be “challenging” right. Well, it is not. It is just stupid. If you want to see a challenging game, go play Dark Souls 3. I play a squishy high damage sorcerer in that game, and I can beat every boss. I died millions of times learning the fights, and the fights are all challenging, but they are also all doable. Speaking of DS3, that game allows you to fight your way back and reclaim your souls (experience). PoE likes to waste people’s time by making them constantly lose experience with no way to reclaim it. This punishes squishies doubly by making sure they can never go up any levels. I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY TANK.

Playing a glass-cannon in Path of Exile is totally 100% impossible. In PoE, there are bosses that fill the entire arena with damage, meaning there is not a single square inch of ground to stand on without getting hit, and the only way to survive is to be tanky enough to absorb the damage. I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY TANK.

You have monsters that have an absurdly high range that can attack you from two screens away. I am supposed to dodge attacks coming from enemies that I cannot even see yet? You have monsters that go inviable, bypass all your minions, and one-shot you when they reappear. I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY TANK.

Notice that every build guide for PoE is the same. Get every single health node on the tree. Only get damage if it is on the way to your next health node. Make sure all your gear has tier-one health on it. BORING!!!!!!!! I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY TANK.

The unwritten rule in PoE is: play tank or do not play. I find this design to be terrible. I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY TANK.

Interesting post, but sadly GGG doesn't give two shits about your (or mine) opinion.

Sorry OP, but you're wrong.

Unbelievably skilled players regularly beat insane optional content on glass cannons in this game; there was a video about a year ago where some guy beat Uber Elder with a 1 hp/zero shield build.

So your Dark Souls analogy is perfectly accurate; the part you're missing is that your personal skill level isn't there yet.

Good build guides emphasize defense because the people following guides are usually less skilled than the people making their own builds. Making a guide that's approachable to newer and more casual players is a no-brainer decision; I've got a good friend who has a casual-at-best relationship with Path of Exile and before I even start writing a build guide I have him play the build for a few maps just to see if I should even bother.

All of that being said: POE is an action-RPG, not an MMO. Generally speaking, to be successful your build has to be able to do everything. A zero-damage build does not work most of the time, and neither does a zero-defense. This isn't unique to POE; this goes all the way back to Diablo 1, probably even earlier. And if you can't get your head around the concept that your DPS is zero when you're dead, action RPGs might not be for you.

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Showdang2 wrote:

Dark Souls 3

HAH! Scrub. Seriously though, go play Demon's Souls. It's like Dark Souls 3, but hard and not for children. You'll get one shotted a stupid amount while not playing a glass cannon, and it was 10x better of a game than Dark Souls 3. You can't just dodge spam and light attack, or stand back and shoot massive amounts of stupid high damage spells.

i do disagree with OP in that i think the tradeoff of going full Glass Cannon is that you die more often. However, i do agree that the game has gotten to the point that every piece of equip has to have health/ES and now (with new atlas) chaos resist. It would be nice to tone back the damage (and maybe the ability to regain health) to allow a more diverse mix of equip.

You're thinking that Path of Exile 1 is hard, are you?
Wait for Path of Exile 2. It'll surely wreck one's balls.

This game cannot be hard, because it doesn't rely on skill. Survival is a matter of statistics, gear, and knowing some (mostly poorly documented) mechanics first.

This is not exactly a defect. It's just the way the game is designed. Like it or hate it, that's up to you (and If you think the design is wrong, I can relate to you). I still play this game because, although it has defects, it's still a good game.

But, I'm a bit saddened with the recent direction of the game. I agree with most opinions in this post. Current meta kills build diversity (and that was the selling point of POE).

I just hope the "tank" or "go play another game" paradigm shifts soon. I would really like to play something else than my trusty necromancer.

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ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate wrote:

Sorry OP, but you're wrong.

Unbelievably skilled players regularly beat insane optional content on glass cannons in this game; there was a video about a year ago where some guy beat Uber Elder with a 1 hp/zero shield build.

So your Dark Souls analogy is perfectly accurate; the part you're missing is that your personal skill level isn't there yet.

Good build guides emphasize defense because the people following guides are usually less skilled than the people making their own builds. Making a guide that's approachable to newer and more casual players is a no-brainer decision; I've got a good friend who has a casual-at-best relationship with Path of Exile and before I even start writing a build guide I have him play the build for a few maps just to see if I should even bother.

All of that being said: POE is an action-RPG, not an MMO. Generally speaking, to be successful your build has to be able to do everything. A zero-damage build does not work most of the time, and neither does a zero-defense. This isn't unique to POE; this goes all the way back to Diablo 1, probably even earlier. And if you can't get your head around the concept that your DPS is zero when you're dead, action RPGs might not be for you.

the only fight that is like dark souls is the elder/shaper uelder/shaper fight ...

Right now it is even simpler , play necro or die .
All skills that require you to stand still while doing damage , are no go and not worth playing , it is so ridiculous right now it is funny to see top necro builds on poe.ninja .
This league is a disaster for most builds other than high speed , high damage while constantly moving .

"

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Showdang2 wrote:

Dark Souls 3

HAH! Scrub. Seriously though, go play Demon's Souls. It's like Dark Souls 3, but hard and not for children. You'll get one shotted a stupid amount while not playing a glass cannon, and it was 10x better of a game than Dark Souls 3. You can't just dodge spam and light attack, or stand back and shoot massive amounts of stupid high damage spells.

Other than maybe skeleton enemies (which playing a lightly armored build doesn't stop you from using a shield), Demon's Souls was one of the easiest ones in the series for me, and the harder bosses are much easier when you play them like Dark Souls 3 with high-iframe rolling.

That and Magic was apparently insanely overpowered in that game.