Makes POE fun for casual players too.

"

Gabs2016 wrote:

POE is a wonderful game, i have spent more time in this game than any other. But it is becoming less fun and hard for a casual player like me. It looks like if GGG is making this game only fun for streamers. Someone like me with a job and kids only got a couple of hours to play in the week and taking a build to the endgame is really an epic achievement,it feels almost like a second job. Maybe you could make leagues for casual players.

Realistically every expansion since I myself started playing has actually brought more and more accessibility and brought about new and more streamlined ways to "Target Farm" build upgrades and enablers.

PoE absolutely is a M A S S I V E time sink, make no mistake about it. Leugues like Delve and Betrayal paved the way for more deterministic character progression through the inception of highly specialized crafting reagents and recipes. Then in Conqurors of the Atlas we got new high tier crafting orbs that further specialize our crafting outputs as well as Awakener orbs that functioned quite like Synthesis crafting but have proven to be WAY better in terms of power per Ex spent. From there, We got Delirium and saw cluster jewels which for the first time allowed players to craft their passive tree and time has proven that this was a revolution in character flexibility strength and progression yet again (although GGG does seem to be nerfing the ease of crating cluster jewels and what once was very easy is now actually quite hard without access to critical information). Then Harvest Came to be and it basically made the entire player base RMT'ers for 3 months and it was straight up insanity. in under a week an informed and skilled player could "Fully Mirror" a character through SSF playstyle.

Which brings us to Ritual. GGG tends to use LTM Leagues as a way to Alpha test major changes on the horizon. An informed guess, GGG is currently sifting through our data in an attempt to completely change the way items drop for players entirely. simply completing rituals in white maps only I personally was able to "SSF" something like 20Ex worth of near perfect gear pieces for several "Meta Builds". The ritual window will regularly offer up a nearly flawless item that is often just a simple bench craft away from being top tier loot and even more often you can find items that are a quick and lucky harvest craft away from a literally mirror worthy item. I myself found an amulet, int/dex base, T1 max life, T1 crit multi, T1 % spell damage, Temple t1 Lightning resist/ lightning damage leech and T2 all attributes... in a T5 map off of 1 ritual... arguably a mirror in its own right.

Yes. PoE can be an insanely time consuming game. However, taking the time to decided what your goals are and then how to achieve those goals will help speed up the progress. "Be singular of purpose" Pick one semi-major goal... Kill AL8 Sirus... then make a well defined plan of approach and adhere to the plan.

It can look like this.
Clear campaign,
Go straight into delve at lvl 70, push delve till depth 200 while selling all fossils and resonators, convert earnings into a suitable and craft-able 6-link base, buy up 10 "The Dream Trial" Prophecies, Ascend, Farm white/Yellow maps for gem lvl's and watch stones, Then Own Sirus with relatively unimpeded progress... Make each of those steps a day and you'll be there in a week.

I used to pump out about 8 builds a league while finishing my degrees in university this way while also working 2 jobs. It isn't easy but there are ways to discipline and temper ones self.

"

vmt80 wrote:

What I don't get is how the heck did they end up developing a game with such finesse and not implementing a single one of these QoL features IN the game at any point. I mean, building characters in rpgs is usually fun, so it's a big part of the game.

Yes, this I agree with. The other thing I don't like is how they seem to have designed some uniques to be used together. The typical example would be the Soul Mantle and 2x Kikazaru trick. That seems awfully contrived to me. Let's make a chest with a massive disadvantage, then add a ring that doesn't seem to make any sense on its own. But when you use the chest and two of the rings together, it turns a disadvantage into a massive advantage. It feels like they're testing us to see how clever we are, if people will think to use those items in combination. And it feels like they're shoehorning us into certain item combos, which again feels contrived.

I confess that I don't know the mechanics at all. Much of what is happening is a complete mystery to me. I follow guides and if the guide writer says that you absolutely must put this specific jewel in this specific spot in the passive tree, then I do it. I don't know why I'm doing it, I take it on good faith that they have a sound reason to do it like that. So that's what I do.

I suppose GGG are afraid that if the mechanics are simple enough for even casuals to follow, they will be too simple to keep the tryhards engaged and people will drift off to more complex games that require more thought and planning and insight. That is fair enough. I still enjoy the game even if I don't know what is happening much of the time.

I watched a Zizaran vid yesterday where he said he 'wanted to just give people some quick tips on Harvest crafting'. Fifteen seconds in, I had no idea what he was talking about. I get the same when watching vids by Cute Dog, Tenkiei, Path of Matth and others. I sometimes stop and think to myself is he even talking English?? There are so many words in there that I don't even know, he might as well be talking Russian.

This is why I like guides by Esoro and Big Ducks. They talk slowly and clearly using simple words, so that even thickies like me can keep up. The deeper theorycrafting guys just whoosh right over my head.

The problem, for me, isn't mainly the complexity. It is the fact that almost everything really useful is hidden behind layers of grind and RNG, and Harvest crafting is hidden behind an insane self-organization and optimization that makes it akin to work because of the stupid 10 craft store limit.

I don't mind the grinding too much, it's part of ARPGs for me. I don't know how many thousands of hours I sank into D2 and NEVER got a Buriza even once. I played Titan Quest for six years without ever finding a Ferrus Gnossi. But I got a ton of Archmage's Clasps, which many others farmed fruitlessly for years. And in those games, you couldn't buy what you couldn't find. It just goes with the territory.

I've been running Rituals all day and advancing my Atlas, and I'm quite happy with my progress. I did several Maven 3 and 4 boss fights to perk up my Harvest, Legion and Delirium encounters in maps. I now have my first Red maps which is nice. I killed four or five Conquerors so that's progress.

In terms of loot, I'm running a Miner and have a 5L Tremor Rod so I have limited headroom there. I have another Tremor Rod in my stash which I'm trying to 6L but nada so far and Fusings are in short supply. But I did make great progress on getting and crafting gear for some upcoming characters.

I'll be making a Blade Blast character, probably Phys Assassin. I got a Cold Iron Point in Ritual which is a good start. Then I also found a caster Talisman with Constitution(!) as anoint, 87 Life, +15% Evasion Rating and All Res. Also some boots with big Life, 30% Movement and all Resistances.

I'm also going to do a Bleed EQ Glad. For him I found a Belly of the Beast in Ritual, then crafted a 5L Astral Plate with 119 Life, 8% Life, and all three Resistances in the 35-40% range. Also boots with 30% Movement, big Life and All Res. Then finally an Axe with +156% Phys and a moderately good Bleeding mod as well.

I also found all three Primordial jewels and two Breachstones which I've sold for good $$$. These are meager rewards in terms of what the streamers and tryhards achieve. But for me it was a decent day.

"

porous2 wrote:

I don't mind the grinding too much, it's part of ARPGs for me. I don't know how many thousands of hours I sank into D2 and NEVER got a Buriza even once. I played Titan Quest for six years without ever finding a Ferrus Gnossi. But I got a ton of Archmage's Clasps, which many others farmed fruitlessly for years. And in those games, you couldn't buy what you couldn't find. It just goes with the territory.

I've been running Rituals all day and advancing my Atlas, and I'm quite happy with my progress. I did several Maven 3 and 4 boss fights to perk up my Harvest, Legion and Delirium encounters in maps. I now have my first Red maps which is nice. I killed four or five Conquerors so that's progress.

In terms of loot, I'm running a Miner and have a 5L Tremor Rod so I have limited headroom there. I have another Tremor Rod in my stash which I'm trying to 6L but nada so far and Fusings are in short supply. But I did make great progress on getting and crafting gear for some upcoming characters.

I'll be making a Blade Blast character, probably Phys Assassin. I got a Cold Iron Point in Ritual which is a good start. Then I also found a caster Talisman with Constitution(!) as anoint, 87 Life, +15% Evasion Rating and All Res. Also some boots with big Life, 30% Movement and all Resistances.

I'm also going to do a Bleed EQ Glad. For him I found a Belly of the Beast in Ritual, then crafted a 5L Astral Plate with 119 Life, 8% Life, and all three Resistances in the 35-40% range. Also boots with 30% Movement, big Life and All Res. Then finally an Axe with +156% Phys and a moderately good Bleeding mod as well.

I also found all three Primordial jewels and two Breachstones which I've sold for good $$$. These are meager rewards in terms of what the streamers and tryhards achieve. But for me it was a decent day.

Good $$$ ? Streamers always got Headhunters everywhere in the stash. It's just a point of marketing

Good $$$ for me. I don't measure myself by streamers.