GGG needs to understand that the campaign is unbearable and long.

Acts are boring because you're bored of them, not because they're actually boring - you're sharing a very subjective opinion that some may agree with, others may not.

If your build ends up not doing well when you reach maps, either your theory crafting is off and you need to learn how the game, skills, class/ascendancy mechanics and interactions work, or look up a build and copy it over - it's your choice.

I was sick and tired of taking 12~ hours on each League start myself, so I sat down and levelled 3 characters to maps (T10~) with a blank SSF stash. My third character reached maps in just under 7 hours. Why, how? I itemized properly, I structured my build correctly, including pathing whilst leveling and adequate skill changes at ideal times.

If you no longer wish to take an "abnormal" (quotes are there for a reason, you're not a racer, so it's really not an abnormal time) amount of time to reach maps, take what I wrote in stride and actually work for your sub 10 or sub 8 hours maps League start. Or don't, it's entirely up to you.

But you can't honestly expect anyone to take your feedback seriously when you're providing absolutely 0 evidence to supplement your claim.

I tried levelling a BFBB Raider and failed miserably, thanks to poor skill tree pathing and skill choices - maybe actually spend some time on researching how to effectively level, before you dive head first into a game like PoE and expect it to be baby's first ARPG?

Idk. Some of us have been playing 'acts' for 20+ years via D2 or even D1 if you want to compartmentalize it.

The problem I have with a lot of game design; is that it follows out dated and old tropes that only existed at the time because nobody had really come up with a better way of artificially elongating gameplay mechanics to keep people around.

I dont think acts need to exist in the first place at all. There are already better options and iterations of the mechanic itself a-la D3 bounties. The creative space exists; but devs are either too lazy or too afraid to step out of the established comfort zone.

Don't use D2 campaign as a comparison. In D2 you can be rushed through the acts in about 15 minutes for all three difficulty levels if you so choose. Can't do that in PoE.

Rushing is essentially a "skip" button which D2 had implemented since the very beginning.

Being strapped down over a hill of red ants by angry Apache's is "unbearable and long." Playing through the PoE campaign might be a bit "dull," having done it so many times, but it's a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong way from torture.

Jes' sayin'

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jsuslak313 wrote:

Don't use D2 campaign as a comparison. In D2 you can be rushed through the acts in about 15 minutes for all three difficulty levels if you so choose. Can't do that in PoE.

Rushing is essentially a "skip" button which D2 had implemented since the very beginning.

You're counting the grind-time you'll need to get to the minimum level caps for the quests and to be able to earn exp.. yes? Once they closed the loopholes that allowed you to sneak past the level gates by grouping level-appropriate people earning the quests, it now takes a good bit longer. Still doable in a few hours, but then again... so is the PoE campaign...

I still play Diablo 2.

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jsuslak313 wrote:

Don't use D2 campaign as a comparison. In D2 you can be rushed through the acts in about 15 minutes for all three difficulty levels if you so choose. Can't do that in PoE.

Rushing is essentially a "skip" button which D2 had implemented since the very beginning.

Ok yes but that doesnt somehow invalidate my point. And asking it to not be used as a comparison makes little sense when its objectively the basis of the very concept we're discussing.
Its not like Chris woke up one day and said, 'hey i have this great idea for something im going to call "acts" and they essentially play like little mini-adventures that help relate the story to the player!'. No; he did what old blizzard used to do best; which is take various obtuse and complex mechanics and mesh them in such a way that they are more accessible while still maintaining a level of deep complexity. For instance; D1/2 were born out of the nethack, MUD, and roguelike OG genres. Originally D2 was only going to be hardcore (no softcore mode); but because they wanted to be more accessible than the genres that inspired it; they decided to just 'include' a hardcore mode.


But i understand where youre coming from; clearly D2's campaign could be argued for better (or worse) compared to PoE's iteration. =]

I have made a thread about pre-leveled characters a while back. Not a single reply. I guess this was suggested many times before.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3098747

@jjb, what I'm saying is after very few times most D2 players STOP playing the campaign entirely, they rush through it with a higher player who tps them straight through. This makes it completely contrary to the OP point and PoE in general. PoE this isn't even an option, you HAVE to play the entire campaign and you HAVE to do all the quests again and again and again. This just isn't comparable to D2. You have the complete player option to basically nix the entire grind through the story on every new character in D2, and D3 for that matter. THAT's what PoE needs, a secondary option to skip over the story for the 1000th time.

@sabranic: there are no minimum level requirements for ANY quest in D2 (except ancients), there are only minimum level requirements to gain experience in certain areas. This has nothing to do with the campaign length, bore, or ability to skip it. Grinding levels is an entirely separate thing.

No one is arguing the philosophy of a game with "acts" or a story, OP is arguing that the 100th/1000th time through the story is tedious, boring, and mood killing

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jsuslak313 wrote:

@sabranic: there are no minimum level requirements for ANY quest in D2 (except ancients)

Yes. And what quest do you have to complete to get past Normal and NM difficulties?

The Ancients. No ancients, no port or walk into the worldstone keep.

They closed down the convert-a-character-from-standard trick years ago. Not that you can find anyone in standard anymore for a carry...

Also, if you want to be picky, you have to be level 5 to Complete the Malus Enchant Quest. Big hurdle, I know. But, it is gated.

1) If people can easily skip the campaign, then what is the use of all those low level uniques that were designed by the earliest POE backers?

2) If people can easily skip the campaign, can I instantly create a lvl 70-80-90 HC char?