0 Min of PoE since 15th May

This post sums up how I feel about D3's Inferno difficulty: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5149179261?page=3#54
I found Normal and Nightmare incredibly boring. Hell was pretty good and was *gasp* actually fun.
Inferno is not. At all. They really dropped the ball on their Inferno design. Way more health and damage != challenging. Right now, you basically stack enough stats to survive a mistake, or abuse defensive skills to do so, and kite mobs until they die while you use the same skill combo over and over again. Yeah, that's real fun and challenging. Not. I wanted to play a Diablo game, not a WoW-ified game that borrows a few elements from Diablo.
I liken Inferno mode to Hard-mode raiding in WoW. It feels almost exactly the same. Learn the dance(hitting the enemy while avoiding the "bad stuff") then execute the dance over and over and over and over until the enemy dies. It's not fun. It's not challenging. It's just tedious.

Here is an example of the pathetic difficulty scaling they used:

Couple the ridiculous mob scaling with the terribly bad scaling of stats on gear, and you have the recipe for a terrible experience. The only things that really scale worth a damn gear-wise are DPS and armor. Everything else barely increases from the latter end of Normal.

Don't even get me started on the so-called customization...there's an illusion of customizability in Normal/Nightmare. It quickly becomes apparent that there is very little customizability in later Hell/Inferno.

Makes me glad I supported GGG for PoE. While PoE may not do everything right yet, at least your choices aren't made for you.

As a hardcore PoE fan I must admit that the D3 is far better game in any aspect. From storie to the technical solution. I think that GGG has much to learn from D3 to make PoE better game.

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Maverickroll wrote:

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

Really? I have to go through all of this *again*?

Pick on another Diamond, please. Give them the chance to feel simultaneously arrogant, lousy, proud, privileged and eventually, inevitably, despondent. Please.

Actually I am curious as to why you went with Diamond level donation, (or anyone for that matter), since I have not heard why.

If I had to guess as to "why" some one would donate $1000 to GGG, I would say it's because they can.

Since D3 i did not play PoE but thats normal. My PoE chars will get deleted in one Month, and after many houndred hours i have seen mostly anything in PoE and D3 is fresh and new.
But when the OB starts "I will be back", and maybe i will take a quick look at 0.9.10.

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ama wrote:

As a hardcore PoE fan I must admit that the D3 is far better game in any aspect. From storie to the technical solution. I think that GGG has much to learn from D3 to make PoE better game.

Dear God please no.

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ama wrote:

As a hardcore PoE fan I must admit that the D3 is far better game in any aspect. From storie to the technical solution. I think that GGG has much to learn from D3 to make PoE better game.

Really in every aspect? I feel that the way that GGG made the whole skill tree is quite unique and alot better than that of D3.
And it's somewhat hard to compare the finished game D3 to PoE, wich is still in Closed Beta...

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NotSorry wrote:

You obviously didn't get very far, every class in d3 stats vit and their main stat. The rest is bad. Skill builds there are very limited options as well, much less than in d2. For most inferno after act 2 classes have only 1 option, some classes don't even have an option because they can't possibly do it.

So remind me what ARPG ever had a system that didnt prioritise 1 stat with vitality (or whatever represents health) as the second option?? Indeed it was precisely the reason they did away with the pointless stat placement from D2 cause thats all you did, focus on 1 primary then throw everything else into vitality... and indeed this is also precisely the route that POE takes (just with different stat weighting)

And as for skill builds being limited in inferno, forgive me but that sounds like parroted/second hand information. Plenty of people are doing fine on Inferno with so called 'impossible builds', just seems like a lot of whiny children to me who expect inferno to be like D2s Hell, when in fact it was meant to be something that takes you months if not years to master bu slowly getting better gear.

Again this is precisely the route that POE takes with MOC. Indeed I was told repeatedly that this was great game design by GGG fanbois who said MOC was supposed to be impossible for certain builds. Thats my main issue with the D3 criticism on these boards, its so hypocritical when POE has very similar issues. Its not perfect but its nowhere near as bad as you make out.

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thelordrahl wrote:

Inferno is not. At all. They really dropped the ball on their Inferno design. Way more health and damage != challenging. Right now, you basically stack enough stats to survive a mistake, or abuse defensive skills to do so, and kite mobs until they die while you use the same skill combo over and over again. Yeah, that's real fun and challenging. Not. I wanted to play a Diablo game, not a WoW-ified game that borrows a few elements from Diablo.
I liken Inferno mode to Hard-mode raiding in WoW. It feels almost exactly the same. Learn the dance(hitting the enemy while avoiding the "bad stuff") then execute the dance over and over and over and over until the enemy dies. It's not fun. It's not challenging. It's just tedious.

What game did you expect?? Have you ever played Diablo 1 or 2?? In that you didn't even nead to use a combo of skills, just 1 was usually enough. Honestly when people make complaints like this it just makes them look silly. POE, T2, D3, D2, TQ, Sacred2 etc etc have all followed this same path, its the very core of ARPG loot games, mindless grinding with just fun combat that doesnt require tons of effort. I see literally ZERO similarities with WOW... its actually ridiculous people are still using that as a stick to attempt to beat D3 with now its so plainly obvious its nothing like WOW.

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Eddyon wrote:

Really in every aspect? I feel that the way that GGG made the whole skill tree is quite unique and alot better than that of D3.

Its a good system, unique... no not unique but rare. Is it better than D3, meh how long is a bit of string, they both have their merits and flaws. Personally I prefer the variation in D3, it allows for experimentation where as I felt POE punishes you for experimenting and requires very focused single minded builds to work well.

But like I say they both have good and bad points... as with most things in life.

I think D3 is a two edged sword for PoE.

A lot of aust/nz players are being burned by D3. We are being herded onto the american servers and then blizzard shuts down the servers for maintenance during aust/nz prime time. There are already players who have had their accounts hacked and reports of bots in games are surfacing already.

So already there are aust customers bailing out and trying to get a refund on their game already. EB games return policy is a win for these people.

But the flip side is those customers are bearing the scars of being burnt. They will look to PoE for salvation, and see the same forumula. On line play only.
Another game where the players are at the mercy of the dev's servers, where their accounts are at risk of being hacked and loosing all their items as well as the drawbacks bots, hacks, dupes and cheats all await the potential PoE player.

It's only saving grace is that it's free to download. So people are likely to download and try it out and hope that all goes well.

Personally I wonder what the hell is wrong with the good old fashioned action/rpg games of old like D2 & titan quest. You bought a box copy and could either play solo play or online. D2 is still being bought and sold over ten years later and how many millions of copies are there out there?
You have to wonder what's wrong with such a proven formula and why modern games are choosing to avoid it.

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Asmodeous666 wrote:

I think D3 is a two edged sword for PoE.

A lot of aust/nz players are being burned by D3. We are being herded onto the american servers and then blizzard shuts down the servers for maintenance during aust/nz prime time. There are already players who have had their accounts hacked and reports of bots in games are surfacing already.

So already there are aust customers bailing out and trying to get a refund on their game already. EB games return policy is a win for these people.

But the flip side is those customers are bearing the scars of being burnt. They will look to PoE for salvation, and see the same forumula. On line play only.
Another game where the players are at the mercy of the dev's servers, where their accounts are at risk of being hacked and loosing all their items as well as the drawbacks bots, hacks, dupes and cheats all await the potential PoE player.

It's only saving grace is that it's free to download. So people are likely to download and try it out and hope that all goes well.

Personally I wonder what the hell is wrong with the good old fashioned action/rpg games of old like D2 & titan quest. You bought a box copy and could either play solo play or online. D2 is still being bought and sold over ten years later and how many millions of copies are there out there?
You have to wonder what's wrong with such a proven formula and why modern games are choosing to avoid it.

If only the times agreed with us. Unfortunately, D2 and Titan Quest are both products of an age now passed. We should be thankful enough that we were there to enjoy it. No equal of either game will ever appear again in any format, I think.

I am banking on PoE's niche nature, and I think to a degree GGG are as well. I want to believe there are far more lucrative games out there to hack/cheat/bot than this little rough-gem-in-the-rough, and yet that there are enough people around to support PoE and keep it afloat. You can accuse me of being naive or optimistic, but keep in mind I'm not the one with my future at stake with this belief.

The financial model of Path of Exile is totally untested. People point to LoL and I agree, there is a game that 'made it' based on a cosmetic-item market, but LoL isn't an ARPG that one can play solo. Vanity is key (I've made another post about this before), and Path of Exile by its very name doesn't seem to engender much in the way of social gatherings and showing off your aesthetic upgrades.

That all said, it is precisely because it is untested that I am very excited to see how it goes.

And yes, D3 is a two-edged sword for PoE. As TotalBiscuit put it, 'D3 is a massive threat', to which a PoE forum user replied 'D3 is a massive opportunity' -- to which I reply, of course, 'what's the difference?'

Excellent post, Asmodeous.

Edit: the very friendly little nerdgirl managing my local EBs tried to sell me on D3 when I pre-purchased two copies of Guild Wars 2. That was an interesting conversation which resulted in her selling precisely zero copies of D3, but much mutual gushing about GW2.

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

The financial model of Path of Exile is totally untested. People point to LoL and I agree, there is a game that 'made it' based on a cosmetic-item market, but LoL isn't an ARPG that one can play solo. Vanity is key (I've made another post about this before), and Path of Exile by its very name doesn't seem to engender much in the way of social gatherings and showing off your aesthetic upgrades.

Not *totally* untested.
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/05