Dear GGG, please lower the overall difficulty of the game

Short words: please lower the overall difficulty of the game, because you went into another extreme side. Legion: game super easy. Compare to now.

Elaborate:
The game is now reaching boundaries of absurd difficulty level. And I'm not talking about difficulty level for exploit using meta builds. I'm talking about difficulty level for ppl who dont want to blindly copy a build that 99% of the league plays.

If you are a normal, working person and have lets say apart from that lots of time for playing PoE, because if you dont have time, you go play causal game that is obvious. So if you dont have 24/7 time and still like non casual games and dont want to blindly copy someone's else exploit/balance failure using meta build, you need enourmous amount of time to get into state in which you can play engame content comfortably. You can play it earlier indeed, but its than more torture than pleasure. So now its like almost 1 month since league start and i still have obvious non-gambling/non-highest end equipment improvements to make. And I play quite a cheap build relatively, because using lots of obscure skills and items. So lets assume it will take me 2 more weeks to get to a state of total engame content comfort. Its then almost 1.5 months. Its too much.

So what is the solution that 99% of ppl take - just copy some meta build, to shorten that time. That has lots of disadvatages:
1) Makes the game bore faster, because if you do like 3rd league again with someone else's build, its defeating the RPG paradigm. You dont play what you like, you dont have the joy of developing your own character.
2) Too high difficulty means you're targetting to really extreme player base. Not just non casual, but ppl who dont work, but only play games. Or work streaming, which in my opinion is quite a waste of human potential in real life.
3) You cannot do interesting partying. Because all the time same builds join your party. I gave up partying in general long time ago. Only do it now for 5-ways or breach rotas to exp.
4) You have extremely unbalanced economy in which pretty good items go for e.g. 1c, while sometimes pretty average items go for 2ex, like I sold one jewel few days ago for spider build. The mods were so poor, I almost sold it for 20c, but then fortunately spotted that I can make more money from that crap abyss jewel because .. its for meta build.
5) The game is more mathematical/economy oriented than RPG oriented. You have to spend hours in PoB to plan sth.

From my console: "You have died 320 times" And I do not neglect defences, I invest them pretty on even grounds as dps raising. I just cannot do more defence, because then would have slugish dps.

Another connected issue is the balance. Because you fail to balance the game properly after like 8-9 years since "non-beta" release, you force players to play meta builds, which in fact are usually op - too cheap to have full engame content capability. And with those build one can simply override the complex mechanics of some boss fight with simply enough power. So the question is why do you care making those complex boss mechanics, if it always possible to take a meta build that will simple overpower those mechanics? The fact that PoE is continously developed game doesn't give much excuse either, you're the professionals, you cannot release op stuff, you have to first test it, not use players as constant beta testers. I'm a software developer and that lack of ability to start maintaining release quality all the time after allegedly the game left beta stage is pretty annoying. I wonder why the hell have I payed you so much money in MTXes already. If it would take 6months for a new league to be released instead of 3 months cycle - fine its better to take more, but be done properly then to release op stuff, which you than cannot nerf during the league, because you could ruin someone else's build that is not meta, but has some charteristics of some op meta, so it would be unjust to suddenly nerf them.

Its not conradicting what I say. Now its this way - meta builds - maybe a bit OP, non meta builds underpowered greatly => too high difficulty.

A definite +1 to all of this. Don't think there's any right-thinking person who'd disagree.

During a 3.17 announcement stream, Chris Wilson mentioned a "Masochist Mode" (his words), specifically for players that enjoy playing at a higher difficulty.

The heavy-handed nerfs from the past two leagues has been extremely demoralizing as some of my favorite builds have been nerfed to the point that I can't take them to endgame (red maps +) reliably anymore.

I would like to GGG implement this mode for the competitive 5% of players that the current iteration of the game is clearly balanced for, then relax the core game to make it more accessible to the majority of the player base.

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The game is now reaching boundaries of absurd difficulty level. And I'm not talking about difficulty level for exploit using meta builds. I'm talking about difficulty level for ppl who dont want to blindly copy a build that 99% of the league plays.

Oh so how about you try one of the following builds:
Champion Molten Strike: deletes the entire game and immortal - Poeninja playrate: 0.2%
Champion Spark: Deletes the entire game even harder - Poeninja playrate 0.7%
Necro FR: Clears the entire game on a 5ex budget and is also probably the most complicated build in the game - Poeninja playrate 0.04%

What are you on about? This is just the very top of the iceberg of broken builds that nobody plays, nothing meta here.

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1) Makes the game bore faster, because if you do like 3rd league again with someone else's build

You do realize you're trying to make two arguments from opposiing viewpoints, right? You either argue you need to invest time into the game to reach a goal while also getting bored of doing the same stuff over again. But on the other hand you argue against yourself by also stating that the average person will never reach that threshold because they either have a life, family or a job. So the average playerbase doesn't share the same problems as you claim they do, because they don't get to the point you're apparently at.

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2) Too high difficulty means you're targetting to really extreme player base

The game was never easier and you don't know what you're talking about.

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4) You have extremely unbalanced economy in which pretty good items go for e.g. 1c, while sometimes pretty average items go for 2ex, ...

GGG can't fix that, but as you already said, you can abuse it. Not only can you sell mediocre items that you dont want for more but you can also satisfy your own personal need for off-meta stuff. I was barely able to sell a 410ES Shield, which is absolute madness. Abuse it.

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From my console: "You have died 320 times" And I do not neglect defences, I invest them pretty on even grounds as dps raising. I just cannot do more defence, because then would have slugish dps.

I will have to talk about that specific character then, I assume that is Fecalingus (beautiful name, fluent in shit).

Oh, so you going for Precision, Dread Banner, Skitterbots, Herald of Purity 4link, Precision, Pride, Vitality(???) and Haste(The worst offensive aura in the entire game) is extremely necessary while also picking the absolute worst defensive aura in the game, Discipline.

You have no armor and no phys mitigation/conversion anywhere. You will die to whitepacks just looking in your direction because you simply cant take a hit. Just throw some auras out and put in Grace and Determination. You already have 120% inc evas on your tree but you dont use it at all.

You're also, for some reason, going for spell suppression while not capping it. It's not a completely bad investment but in T16 maps IF you go for spell suppression you should cap it at that point.

And your argument about not being able to drop offensive auras because your damage would instantly go from mediocre to worse is wrong. You have to evaluate the cost of investment and if things like determination (and grace in your specific case) just rock the goddamn boat in terms of value and you just skip it.

Good riddance after you freed yourself off of so many bad offensive auras you might as well use a thing we call Molten Shell, or as the HC playerbase calls it 10 seconds of invulnerability. Steel Skin is the worst guard skill in the game and you're using it.

I don't get the sulphur flask either, 4% conditional regen.

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NaGawyvern wrote:

Steel Skin is the worst guard skill in the game and you're using it.

Profile Snooping/Shaming is the worst skill on the forum and you're using it.

For real here, There's nothing wrong with steelskin and you can't compare it to Molten Shell which is an Armour dependent skill where as steelskin provides its full bonus without any other special requirements, It has a valid place among the guard skills available and if you can't see where it fits in i would have to argue that you are lacking severely in knowledge on a good handful of builds in POE which use it.

And thats to be expected of most people because there are inevitably builds they may not like and as such never pursue or gain knowledge about at such an intimate level as they might if they had ran such a build.

I'm against making the game easier in a lot of aspects, I don't want the trade pool to be further diminished as the game progresses meta builds further constrain the market, diluting our playerbase even more is just going to hurt the game, making the game easier will make a lot of people happy but it will also lose the interest of a lot of the more challenge/hardcore oriented players who are in the normal leagues.

I'm behind solutions that keep our playerbase together and while people are asking for an easier setting/mode there has to be a way to make it fair for those who do not want it to be easy but are also not interested in the logout-macro league that is hardcore and i feel bad for hardcore players being stuck in such a farce of a game mode when they should be the people we are cheering on the most, the place where the biggest streamers are.

Exp loss is probably one of the biggest complaints and then its boss difficulty and this is in part a symptom of GGG's tendancy to keep re-working the end game as something new players should interact with regularly instead of side-content that is optional for ATLAS progression.

Story should continue all the way until the primary bosses in the atlas are defeated and then anything after that is the real (end game) with actual uber versions like we used to have in proper tiers so people could learn the mechanics and get better at the game and THEN take on the uber versions.

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Profile Snooping/Shaming is the worst skill on the forum and you're using it.

When people are in here complaining about the game being too hard nonstop it gets pretty tiring. The common issue these players have is that they are terrible at making a good build. You look at their profile and you see the same mistakes over and over. This has nothing to do with shaming when the person in question is pointing their finger at something else and blaming it instead of realizing what the problem actually is. A skill issue.

To get to the point: When you claim that the game is too hard and that you died 320 times and you're unhappy with that number while also stating that you can't fix your build(OP did all of that), I damn as hell am gonna check out this unfixable build.

You know, to validate/invalidate the claims OP made.
I didn't talk about the fact that ascendant is just an inferior choice for the skill OP plays, because that doesn't matter in this case. OP wants to play ascendant.
I didn't talk about the fact that OP plays a terrible skill, that doesn't matter because OP wants to play it and that's completely fine.
Pointing these things out would be buildshaming. I pointed out fundamental flaws that can be easily fixed without changing the core archetype OP is playing.
You can say though that I'm a rude dickhead, because I am.


Steel Skin can be useful, indeed. It's still the worst guard skill.
You use it when you can't use any other guardskill and even then it's subpar. It's like the kid at sports that gets picked last.

there are 2 things that i would really want changed.

1. Watchstones

give maven/shaper+elder the same treatment as exarch/eater or worlds.

get rid of all permanent DoT on the floor mechanics (dont punish players for having low dps, smart play should be rewarded rather than braindead dps rushes)

a regular player cant be expected to clear these bosses. learning how to clear em has a VERY high cost. exarch/eater you get to retry them again after doing a few influenced maps and they can be defeated with smart play.

2. Atlas passives/Favoured map slot

find different ways to award them, maven invites are mainly dps checks. they're not balanced in any way. the best strat is to burst the bosses. to be very honest, it's simply bad design.

it could be balanced a little if the arena was perhaps doubled or tripled in size, and remove "vitality"

I want to point out, hard content that players arent expected to clear is good for a game, however if the rewards are so significant that the best thing to do is resort to getting a carry, it should not be considered optional.


i would also really like it if GGG gave back 2handed weapon's old weapon damage range but that's a separate issue

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Profile Snooping/Shaming is the worst skill on the forum and you're using it.

Somebody finally had the guts to say it. Profile Shaming should be bannable.

i think when we talk about the difficulty of aspects of the gameplay it actually matters a lot to put those opinions in the perspective of what the characters the player is playing or referencing actually are. i dont think you can have a serious conversation about game difficulty without it.

is the problem the monsters are too difficult or is the problem that the player hasnt managed to find a suitable build? and if not why not? is this a passive, skill choice or gear problem?

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Andreuswolf wrote:

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Profile Snooping/Shaming is the worst skill on the forum and you're using it.

Somebody finally had the guts to say it. Profile Shaming should be bannable.

I don't think it should be bannable or even warnable but i do think it should be discouraged from being used in such a way.

If they make hardcore playable and possibly add a log-out timer to stop the cheaters using logout macro that pretend to play hardcore maybe the standard league would not be getting pushed to a point where the casuals cant complete the main quest line without a carry.

Tired of reworks trying to stack the odds against the casual players, add ACTUAL defined end-game content that is not intended for casuals and don't let that line get blurred as much as it is now.