What has changed since November 2018?

Hi, the last time I played PoE was in November 2018.
I would like to start again by creating new characters.
I would like to ask if important things have changed since that date.

- Is the main story the same (with small changes of enemies with each version) or has the level cap and a large addition of lands and quests been raised?
- Have classes been added?
- has the gameplay changed significantly?
- Use and conservation of the gear?
- Are there many new gems?
Last 2 questions:
- Are there still many people playing or is it a bit deserted now?
- has the number of painful children increased?

Many thanks to those who will have the time to answer me.
Marco

The story is st ill the same. Lvl cap hasn't increased.
No new classes but there has been some changes to ascendancy classes.
Gameplay hasn't changed significantly.
Old gear might be mostly useless unless you have something that has mods that you can't get anymore.
There has been many new gems and some skill reworks.

There's still people playing but every time there's a new league, a lot of people stop playing it after some time and then come back for the next one.

Thank you very much for info!

The game got significantly harder since practically all monsters were buffed and the new final boss (Sirus) is the worst shit they introduced since I can remember.

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C4Guy wrote:

The game got significantly harder since practically all monsters were buffed and the new final boss (Sirus) is the worst shit they introduced since I can remember.

I mean, power creep means that the monsters aren't really much harder, and in some cases may even be easier. You just have to sniff around for new sources of damage boosts, and if applicable, defensive options, to get to the same power level as before.

For damage: Try to seek out things like Intimidate (such as Belt of the Deceiver), Shock (reliably via Skitterbots), Unnerve (Blade Blast), Arcane Surge (similar to Clarity or Cast when Damage Taken, often best to keep at a low gem level for more uptime), Tailwind (in Harvest, it's extremely easy to craft on Boots), new Jewellery base types (Steel Ring for big flat damage to Attacks), and if you're into expensive stuff, bonuses to socketed gems like Socketed gems have +x% to attack/spell crit (can be found on certain chests), and Awakened Support Gems.

For defence: IMO not too much has changed here, but you have a few more options - The Agnostic can supplement or replace MoM builds with big Life regen based on Mana, and Glancing Blows is currently extremely popular for more reliably proccing on-block effects.

"

C4Guy wrote:

The game got significantly harder since practically all monsters were buffed and the new final boss (Sirus) is the worst shit they introduced since I can remember.

They've buffed monsters a tiny bit, bosses a lot more, but they've buffed player power by such a gigantic fucking margin it's not even close anymore. For example, caustic arrow pre-3.0 had 550 base dps at level 20, dot multiplier did not exist as a stat, nor did most of our sources of chaos damage or minus monster res. Now, caustic arrow has almost 2k base dps, over 3 times what it did then, as well as having an entire new scaling vector from dot multi, as well as access to over 4 times the chaos increased damage that it did then, on top of access to wayyyyy more gem level scaling. The average caustic arrow build now does over 50 times more damage than it did then, and it was a good skill back then even.

The biggest issue with monster power creep isn't their hp (except with sirus and shaper hp buffs/phases), but rather with their stupidly burst damage. GGG devs have continually stated that they want to kill players, but that they also won't take away our increased access to speed, so their only (shitty) recourse has been to make monsters kill you proportionally faster. 5k hp used to be the "enough life" threshold back then, without even having extra defensive layers. Now, you can die in less than 100 milliseconds to any number of things with 10k ehp and 75% mitigation from block/dodge/endurance/divine flesh. Just watch waggle or any other hardcore player rip their tanky characters in less than the average human reaction time.

The power distribution between classes and builds changed quite a lot, but the balance between player power and boss etc power really hasnt changed at all.

Sirius isn't any more difficult than Elder or anything that came before it (at it's prime) provided you're using the right builds, and no this doesnt mean 100+ exalt + headhunter and other stupid crap. Just stop stubbornly playing the same skill/build and you realise quite fast things didnt get any more difficult.

People often claim "game got hard" when all that really happened is they jumped in and got their feet wet with some stupidly powerful meta build that got brought into line the next league, but they refused to let go.

- Is the main story the same (with small changes of enemies with each version) or has the level cap and a large addition of lands and quests been raised? - story still the same, end game was changed in its core (you still play maps and atlas and masters, but it's way different now, to the better end).
- Have classes been added? - no
- has the gameplay changed significantly? Yes and no, it is much faster and much more rippy now, but at the core, good old poe.
- Use and conservation of the gear? - as alway.
- Are there many new gems? - some are, a lot of new supports.
Last 2 questions:
- Are there still many people playing or is it a bit deserted now? - there are more players, but as always, older the league, less players there are. As always vocal minorities will say this game is dead after 3days of the league.
- has the number of painful children increased? - yes

Chaos resist has gotten more useful.

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Asmosis wrote:

The power distribution between classes and builds changed quite a lot, but the balance between player power and boss etc power really hasnt changed at all.

Sirius isn't any more difficult than Elder or anything that came before it (at it's prime) provided you're using the right builds, and no this doesnt mean 100+ exalt + headhunter and other stupid crap. Just stop stubbornly playing the same skill/build and you realise quite fast things didnt get any more difficult.

People often claim "game got hard" when all that really happened is they jumped in and got their feet wet with some stupidly powerful meta build that got brought into line the next league, but they refused to let go.

Every league , the previously overpowered builds , from last league , gets nerfed ,and other overpowered builds are allowed to replace them , in the next one. And if it is by design, why limit the build choice , by nerfing the previous builds , if others will take their place ?