I do not believe you

Every new league it is going to be different the game will improve blah blah mean time I hear the same things about content I will NEVER get to play because I will never get there !! So like many out here I am stuck knowing if I join the new release I will just be disappointed again ...

i'm afraid, the game will keep being challenging cause that's it's main appeal to players.

there are already cheapo, easy games out there where you can go very far with low time and skill investment.

if it makes it easier for you, i've never beaten sirus with my dot builds which suck at boss damage and i'm to stubborn to let other players help me.

this league i couldn't even kill the higher difficulty conquerors cause i've been too poor to afford a "Cane of Kulemak" wit the right affixes for essence drain.

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if you wanna boost your progress, join a guild. they share maps and power items and make you level up faster cause it's safer to do content in a group.

in fact, i did leave a guild in the past cause they were pushing me so fast it felt like cheating the game :)

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vio wrote:

i'm afraid, the game will keep being challenging cause that's it's main appeal to players.

It isn't really challenging, though. That is the core thing I learned over the years. The primary thing that decides how far you make it in this game is time investment. PoE is grindy, but grindy is not difficult.

Given enough time investment, almost anyone, skilled or not, can experience all the content and amass vast amounts of currency, particularly in softcore trade league. You can find guides on how to do that online, no problem. You can find that challenging, but the problem is that that was never what drew my attention to PoE, and I guess there are a lot of players for whom things are very similar.

You want challenge? Combine Chaos Innoculation and Eldritch Battery and go kill Atziri without enough DPS to instaphase her. You actually need to be able to play and dodge her spells. I remember someone doing that, there is a video somewhere, years ago.

The problem is: Finding more challenge in PoE is always possible. Finding less grind isn't.

And sure, there are other games out there that require less grind. But they aren't as intricate when it comes to itemization, passive skills and the interaction of the various systems. And itemization in PoE is a problem in and of itself, given that we still (or again?) lack a proper crafting system that isn't heavily currency (or grind, which is pretty much the same) gated, and that most drops are garbage.

That being said, I think that GGG is doing a pretty decent job in making sure everyone can experience at least some of the league content, so I don't understand the TOs problem in that regard. Of course, you won't see all of it (even players for whom the game is the job sometimes don't see all of it, which is rather hilarious). GGG is pretty bad in making sure the difference (in power) between the average/median/mid-tier/whatever player and the top end doesn't get too large, though. They keep introducing stuff that exclusively buffs the top end, which is rather hilarious. And dumb, if you ask me.

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Char1983 wrote:

It isn't really challenging, though. That is the core thing I learned over the years. The primary thing that decides how far you make it in this game is time investment. PoE is grindy, but grindy is not difficult.

i partly agree, poe is first and foremost grindy, then challenging. it's "grinding for gear games" after all.

but then, on league starts, professional players get double the progress then me. being efficient, getting ingame knowledge and playing skillfully to avoid setbacks is a challenge for me.

but in general, the challenge most players face, is finding the time to play. you're right in that one.

it kindof scares me that chris now directly says, that with no massive damage output, you won't get far in scourge league.

imho, in expedition, ggg switched from presenting you difficult monsters you can slowly kill to mobs that vanish if you can't kill them in time.

that's a paradigm shift and the price you pay for being able to continue content after you died.

if scourge league also works that way, i will having a hard time keeping up my motivation cause i could rarely ever motivate myself to join the herd and jump on the latest overpowered shit available.

What exactly skilled mean ? This game require exactly 0 player skill.

99% of the players that are hitting themselves in the chest how skilled they are, they don't know even know what skill mean. :D
FPS, Moba, Strategy, Racing, Sports games, some MMORPG, a lot of SP A/RPG and so on require skills.

You are just right clicking, and use your movement skill. At that game speed we are playing, there is exactly 0 skill involved.

And as far as build goes on, it's all about how much time you are ready to waste to read all the ******* bloated mechanics that POE integrated over the years.
And most importantly whoever build you copy, because this is the reality, and most people that are acting so hard, they are just copying some streamer/tuber build ....

And while i like depth, the game is just bloated. There is so much unnecessary things in the game, it's ridiculous.

And now we are getting 10th quality RNG option ....

You absolutely should be a no-lifer, otherwise you got no chance in POE.

And i wouldn't have a problem with it, cause i could have take my time and play in Standard, but STD is terrible, because all the focus is on the new League. STD hasn't been touched for the whole game existent almost.

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blueeyedevil wrote:

Every new league it is going to be different the game will improve blah blah mean time I hear the same things about content I will NEVER get to play because I will never get there !! So like many out here I am stuck knowing if I join the new release I will just be disappointed again ...

So giving optional challenges to dedicated players in form of aspirational content is wrong?

I disagree.

This has nothing to do with GGG, and everything to do with your expectations. If you, as a casual player, go into a league demanding to be able to do everything, you're setting yourself up to be disappointed.

I will probably never complete wave 30 of a Similacrum. I will probably never complete the Uber Timless conflicts. I will probably never complete a uber blighted map. I still like them, and like the fact that they have been added to the game.

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vio wrote:

but then, on league starts, professional players get double the progress then me. being efficient, getting ingame knowledge and playing skillfully to avoid setbacks is a challenge for me.

you miss one but incredibly important one:

they play the busted AF 'auto win' build. the discrepancy between someone who (by luck) picked good build and bad build is so huge that the unlucky ones simply quit the game because they deem it unplayably hard

and that applies to new players, but to veterans as well

if you dont want to play caustic/toxic for N-th time and decide to start as a Cleave.. you might as well uninstall the game because your experience is going to be HORRIBLE and COMPLETELY different to what people playing easy-clap-auto-win skills/builds


that is far bigger problem than uber-versions of some content (as long as they dont gate regular game progress or stratify the playerbase too much)

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sidtherat wrote:

that is far bigger problem than uber-versions of some content (as long as they dont gate regular game progress or stratify the playerbase too much)

I agree. The disparity between certain skills/builds is, in lack of better words; embarrassing.

But as we know, some skills are intended to be strong, other skills are intended to be bad. The reasoning? For there to be good choices, there have to be not-so-good choices too. While this is probably just an excuse for "this shit is impossible to balance", it's sad to see the same archetypes drawing the short straw year after year.

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Some skills released in 3.15 are not as powerful as intended

That quote is from the 3.16 patch notes, which makes it pretty clear that some skills are "intended" to be at a certain level, while others are not. So those skills are intended to be stronger, ey? What about Cleave? What about Dual Strike? What about the 56 other skills being vastly underpowered?

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RoyalMarauder wrote:

What exactly skilled mean ? This game require exactly 0 player skill.

It does require some mechanical skill, some reflexes, some composure, some overview, some skill in staying awake when the game is doing its damndest to put you to sleep.

Winning events in poe isn't something anyone can do, even if an average joe had the same knowledge and playtime as one of the usual faces that win those, they still wouldn't win, so there is a tiny bit of skill involved.