PoE peaked in 3.13 and I am afraid that it may never go back up again... version:2

Path isn't a peak check player retention game. That's Warframe.

Path has remained ~120k every league for years. 3.13 hitting 157k instead means little in terms of the game's longevity and popularity. Player retention has always halved after the first month. You can go all the way back to 2015 and this trend continues.

PoE was not originally a casual friendly game so why would you expect it to stay that way?
Recently changes did little more than reduce stat smashing against enemies. Which is a good thing.
Last league getting a 6L white frenzy on hit bla bla for a few Ex then dupe and sell was idiotic.

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zzang wrote:

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Lacceh wrote:

Your opinion was heard - and obviously most players do not agree - stop trying to force it down our throat.

Also... quite frankly (and I know this isn't very eloquent, but couldn't be more appropriate): cry more.

First of stop flaming.
Secondly dont speak for "most players" no i dont think most players do not agree.

Basically crafting and endgame was at its peak in 3.13 the most fun time i had in this game since 2011.
Standard is literally a ghosttown in 3.14 but in 3.13 Standard was alive and on fire. What goolden time it was to play the game in the 3.13 era is hard to picture in words.

As someone that plays 99% in Standard, this is 100% true. I also played more in 3.13 than I had for several years. Made several lvl100's whilst playing about 6 hours every day for 3 months.

Standard was more alive than ever before. I also have crafts that I was working which just stopped completely in 3.14. We don't even have beyond on the map device in 3.14 so mapping is feels like a waste.

I'm still online like 14 hours a day just to sell stuff but I'm not playing the game. Just did a few heists here and there in the last couple weeks.

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Lacceh wrote:

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impulze3 wrote:

poe peaked in 3.11

Do you understand what statistics are, at all?
Your statement is objectively, demonstrably false.

Then demonstrate it, please :). Show us the numbers.

First, I will say that I do miss the old Harvest mechanic from both Ritual and Harvest Leagues. I used it to craft good trade items for currency and make OP items for my personal builds. It was nice for a variety of reasons regardless of weather your a casual player or a hardcore POE fanatic. I consider myself to be neither a casual nor a hardcore POE player. I'm not a mega crafter, but I do know some tricks of the trade regardless of the league.

Secondly, I understand and respect the nerfs to the Harvest mechanic all the same. (I can still miss it though!) It literally changed the definition of "Mirror Tier", which respectfully, lost it's definition with that kind of mechanic in the game. Personally, I don't care if it's in the game or not, if it remained unchanged, I'd use it all the same. The capacity of the crafting in this game has changed so much in the short duration I've played it. I can't help think when Harvest was introduced* a lot of the elite players probably quit the game. Players who had meta crafted item/s to create actual mirror tier gear throughout countless thousands of hours of grinding in and out of trade leagues prior. It had to be a slap in the face for them. I being a player that never owned an item like that prior to Harvest will ever know how it honestly felt. Did I mention I still miss the old Harvest....

I can't speak much on the league mechanic, I've only played so much and haven't gotten that deep into it. I originally didn't plan to play this league at all, but wanted to level some different ascendency's and try some different mechanics out. Most of my prior favorites were nerfed in some fashion with the 3.14 changes or prior. I find the league mechanic a bit more "rippy" then other's, but that might be my build. It seems fairly rewarding like most other trade league mechanic's so far. IMO, it's not as cool as Delirium or Harvest were, but in line with Ritual, Metamorph, Blight, and Legion (Loot Splosions). Syndicate and Synthesis leagues were kind of different in their own respects.

As far as peak player base numbers, I don't really think it's changed all that much year over year. With that said, it does fluctuate league to league. I don't think the majority of the player base plays much past mapping if even that. Certainly not end game content every single league, nor do they play for challenges. I think most people come to league start, try a new skill or two, do the league mechanic, maybe get to maps or don't, and just move on to something else after two to four weeks. Last expansion, 3.13 was a large one with the atlas changes, which is different from 3.14. GGG has a rotation they follow throughout their four content releases a year. Metamorph (3.09) was the same with a large release of the Conquers of the Atlas (Sirus and peeps). The December release is usually the biggest throughout each year and I think more people play it longer to try out all the new content.

I don't think POE as a whole has ever been for casual gamers, it's extremely grindy when looking at all the content and in the end even the grind isn't guaranteed. Stay sane exiles!

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Char1983 wrote:

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Lacceh wrote:

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impulze3 wrote:

poe peaked in 3.11

Do you understand what statistics are, at all?
Your statement is objectively, demonstrably false.

Then demonstrate it, please :). Show us the numbers.

https://steamcharts.com/app/238960

Yeah, I know that one, but where is the analysis?

Also, that sees to have only monthly statistics?

With Harvest present, no matter what you picked as your main skill, you could make it work eventually with enough havestcrafted gear.

Nowadays(3.14), POE is full of bad choices. With 50+ active skill gems and perhaps 20 valid builds .. sure, you can call that diversity
Sure, you can take ninja statistics and completely discard any notion of party play and aurabots which make some of the ridiculous builds viable in the lategame, you can say "this is fine" in front of burning building every day, but it isn't.

I heard GGG devs stopped playing PoE. If it is because of not rewarding and time demanding gameplay, it would be quite telling.

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Lacceh wrote:

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Char1983 wrote:

Yeah, I know that one, but where is the analysis?

Also, that sees to have only monthly statistics?

*facepalm*

I cba with you anymore, you're like a little child who needs hand held with every small step. How do you survive a day?

What analysis do you want man? He said 3.11 was peak. I showed the factual numbers that leagues AFTER 3.11 had SIGNIFICANTLY higher numbers - MEANING, no peak whatsoever. WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HERE?

All your posts are very toxic, every topic you join tends to get into stupid discussions with you being rude and treating other people bad, I hope you take some time to actually play and enjoy the game as you say so much instead of entering topics to flame. Peace bro

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Marxone wrote:

With Harvest present, no matter what you picked as your main skill, you could make it work eventually with enough havestcrafted gear.

Is that a good thing? That's what I meant in my earlier post about stat smashing. The build isn't necessarily good; players are just smashing their stats against problems until they go away.

There are certainly skill balance issues in the game but bloating stats to make something viable is horrible. Not to mention the "meta" skills get even more bloated and create an even bigger gap.

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Xzorn wrote:

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Marxone wrote:

With Harvest present, no matter what you picked as your main skill, you could make it work eventually with enough havestcrafted gear.

Is that a good thing? That's what I meant in my earlier post about stat smashing. The build isn't necessarily good; players are just smashing their stats against problems until they go away.

There are certainly skill balance issues in the game but bloating stats to make something viable is horrible. Not to mention the "meta" skills get even more bloated and create an even bigger gap.

As long as there is no real long term competitive edge (which there isn't) , it is not necessary to to have a balance in skill selection. But in my opinion it should be reflected in the content that no matter the choice, with average gearing and upholding general principles (using links, capping res, taking appropriate passive tree) , the game content (T1-T16 with Sirus AL8) should be achievable in mediocre fashion. No 1-2s boss phasing, but lets say Sirus in 10 minutes with all phases. I don't see the game to actually support that notion.

If you are in for the challenges, you can make a point that no matter the choice, eventually the pat on the back with adding another number next to your account is enough.

With PoE - the game designed to be played forever (Chris words, not mine) - I think they actually breached multiple of the principles that were stated as key to success of PoE.