POE is ACTUALLY dying not the drama queen kind, but the actual kind... From Developer Hubris

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

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Zerber wrote:

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orsonstfu wrote:

The single biggest problem that continues to plague Path of Exile is that the items that drop on the ground are 99.9999% worthless - which leads to a never-changing META of zoom with an ultra-strict filter on going for big fish and currency alone.

There need to be tiers of rolls that can ONLY be attained by dropping from monsters. This is the only way to release the zoom zoom valve and add items back into the game. At the moment every item is crafted or unique with zero rare drops in use except as an early league stop-gap.

Every single ARPG ever was/is about running as fast through content as possible because the faster you are the more often you can use the item drop slot machine. Remember 10 second mep runs or baal runs? The faster you are the bigger is the chance that good stuff drops.

You are describing Endgame behaviour, and at least for D2 it was not 'what it was about' from a design perspective. My replay of D2 via D2R with a friend who never played D2 back in the day has been what I imagine most here would consider excruciatingly slow but I am happy to be reminded that ARPGs are, in fact, NOT about going as fast as possible through the content. They are about enjoying the game however one wishes to, and for non ARPG junkies, that will almost certainly not be at a particularly accelerated pace.

But I am not saying you are wrong, because from a PoE perspective, it's all endgame now. That IS by GGG's design because it is well known that their strongest engagement with D2 back in the day was that endgame. So for people who immerse themselves in PoE to then believe this notion that ARPGs are nothing but endgame is perfectly understandable...but it is also subjective rather than objective.

In fact, once my casual gaming group hit a point where any given game is nothing but obvious repetitive grind designed to be tackled via metagaming optimisation, we move to the next game -- and there is no short supply there. Life is too brief and free time too precious to endure any one treadmill when there are other vistas to jog through.

ARPGs might encourage playing as fast as possible but then again so have most games, if 'as fast as possible' doesn't get you killed by the space invaders or the ghosts. Speed chess is a thing too.

But the original 'win' condition for most games is not speed. It's having fun by facing the game's challenge and the sense of accomplishment found in overcoming it. Speed runs as a variant of gameplay typically come *after* a game has been sufficiently enjoyed on its own terms. Typically.

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Draegnarrr wrote:

Boneshatter isn't a good example though because its got built in what we've always asked for (splash) and it feels great as a result, my only expedition character I really enjoyed was boneshatter is a mechanically wonderful skill that ticks every box I could think of for how a strike should be.

Strike's primary problem and has been for quite a few patches now is the requirement for extra targets + splash, if the gem has one built in its usually a good skill when it comes down to it (pestilent strike, boneshatter, infernal blow if SC, frost blades, lightning strike etc)

Skills like heavy strike need melee splash and ancestral call, you can gear for the 2nd but its expensive and it feels bad to deliberately limit your attack speed until you remove both.

Its a little like what if every spell or bow required GMP and Fork before it felt OK.

Boneshatter is what they need to be and I hope they buff some others to that standard or add new ones to that standard cause its right on the money, the rest I play with Kitava's feast because it feels so good :D

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

Yeah. No. Self cast was almost DoA with PoE. Shotgun only really applied to a few spells. Pretty sure anyone who made a caster tried a fireball shotty at some point but plenty of PoE spells didnt and dont have that crucial projectile tag.

Spell totem support came in well before 2015 and it was a major threat to self cast builds from its inception. GGG had no idea how to make it sufficiently weak in comparison to the inherent danger (and modicum of effort) in self-cast play.

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wrathchild619 wrote:

I dunno, I'm having a good time.

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rekikyo wrote:

For over five years the two most prominent builds were Freezing Pulse Spell Echo Multiple Projectiles, and AW totems.

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rekikyo wrote:

I literally clear entire maps with Tempest Shield (100-150 mobs blow up every time I get hit, if there's congestion)

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rekikyo wrote:

I literally clear entire maps with Tempest Shield (100-150 mobs blow up every time I get hit, if there's congestion)