My characters die too often

Just posting this for whatever it might be worth to GGG.

So, one thing about me is that I am very anti-meta when it comes to character builds. If all of the popular kids are playing one build, I shy away from it from the desire to do something different. (This also has the added bonus that the gear for whatever I am making is not likely inflated in price.) I'm not one for cookie cutter stuff. Sometimes I will look at build guides for ideas, but I never follow them to the letter and always make my own decisions when it comes to the passive tree, gear, etc.

On that note, I don't enjoy character builds that simply try to push large numbers. Larger numbers aren't fun to me. Doing 100 damage in act 1 and 1,000 damage in a map to a rhoa feels exactly the same and is mechanically no different.

When I build my characters, I try to make them mechanically interesting. I love Jousis' builds (he does a lot of spellcast loop builds.) Some of my builds have focused on poison stacking, long duration modifiers to boost spells like tornado and void sphere, and attempting to utilize eternal youth + wicked ward with trickster. I've also done some other things like a death aura and righteous fire combo (which was very successful.)

However, one thing over the past 10 or so leagues have utterly killed my desire to play the game: I always die. A lot of times it is because I took a huge hit from some beefy monster, and then an offscreen skeleton archer took a quick potshot and dealt the last 20 points of damage to kill me.

The past 4 leagues, I've built way more heavily into life. The last two, I went very out of my way on the passive tree to try to get more life and energy shield. I've only been able to get at most 4k life and maybe 1.5k ES. Still, this is not anywhere near enough.

So then I tried boosting every defense that I could. Resists capped as per usual and some armor and other things. I've even experimented with some strange but potentially powerful defensive options. Yet, death always happens.

The problem is that, in order to push bigger numbers, I am forced to take less "interesting" passives and gear. To push the biggest numbers, I'd have to make a character that is mechanically vapid.

The meta seems to be to use all yellows/rares. But yellows and rares mostly are just numbers. I really love a lot of the uniques the game has to offer, because they offer some extremely interesting mechanics. Of course I still use rares (and do appreciate that they are relevant.)

It is extremely disheartening when you see a streamer killing several Shapers and Mavens per minute while having like 14k ES and 5k life, and I am struggling in tier 10 maps with my lousy character and can't even kill the map boss.

All of my characters the past several leagues have been hard locked in the 86 to 92 range due to the experience death penalty, the diminishing returns of exp past 90, and the inevitable death that happens.

On the flip side, I did make a couple of cookie cutter builds. They performed great! But playing them felt miserable, and I felt empty while playing them. The feeling of playing cookie cutter builds was a very dissatisfying one, despite how well they performed.

I am sad because I love path of exile and I think it is one of the best games that exists right now. I feel like the team behind it is very good as well. From some of the interviews I've seen, I love Chris' views on game design. But my last session left me so deflated and upset that I had to uninstall the game for my own sanity.

I don't know how to really solve the problem of being deathlocked out of progress. I don't know if low tier players such as myself are even a priority for GGG.

One thing I did notice in the skill gem department is that there is a massive lack of healing abilities. We've got regen totem, devouring totem, siphoning trap, and life gain on hit support. You could say in some cases purifying flame has a healing component. But there aren't really a big variety of skills that heal you in the game and I personally think it would be a great addition if done right.

I think my biggest issue is that it feels like we're penalized for trying to make creative builds. This is evident in how "push bigger number" builds are often the most successful.
(On a side note, I enjoy on-crit effects, but crit multiplier is vapid.)

Likely going to sit the rest of this league out. I will definitely see you all in the next league. Hoping I have a better time next league and patch. Till then, much love my fellow Exiles!

Look I don't usually like to be "that guy"...but I am when I have to be.

Uniques are fine, unique mechanics are fine. But they are simply not designed for an entire character to be decked out in them. Some of the most interesting unique items also have zero defense on them. You complain about dying, but you also know exactly why you are dying: 90% of the gear you are using has literally zero defense.

Typically an "all-unique" approach is for the player who is incredibly inexperienced or is otherwise just venturing into low tier mapping. Very quickly, as you described, you realize that the uniques just don't cut it because there is no defense and no synergy and its INCREDIBLY hard to "fix" those errors with JUST a passive tree.

There are "build-defining" unique items. These are the ones you would like, that provide interesting and different mechanics to mess around with. But you don't then put on 6 other unique items that offer no synergy or defense. That's just mechanically "incorrect" building.

This is a feedback post on your characters dying too often: but this is one of those situations where it is absolutely 100% player error, and willful player error at that. So....not sure who the feedback is for.

**Also, the "meta" is not "use all rares". That is basically the ONLY functional way to build a character that can go into the endgame. That's not being meta, thats just playing the game.

***ALSO also, there aren't many skills that heal....wow. First of all, there are a TON of ways to heal in this game. They are RIGHTLY not tied to a skill to reduce clunkiness, instead they are usually tied to passive tree or gear. If heal SKILLS became a meta, we'd have a huge problem almost as big as the current defensive aura problem: every single build would have to use the same skill. Ghost shrouds, on-block, regen, leech, recharge, recoup, consecrated ground just to name a few work with ANY skill. It could be said that nearly ALL the skills in the game have a built in heal effect, it's just not tied specifically to the skill itself. You do a lot of hits, you take on hit leech. You stand still a lot or otherwise can't heal on hits, you regen or recharge. You use a shield, you get heals on block. Proper characters find a way to heal. And if this isn't "creative", idk what is. There's also healing potions

There's a huge difference between good "non-meta" builds and just plain bad builds. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be creative and not playing what others play. I do that myself. But you have to know good building fundamentals to make that work. This game isn't so easy that you can expect to slap any ol' crap together and call it a build. If you are expecting that, this isn't the game for you.

If you're gunna use Eternal Youth you might as well use Petrified Blood and Dissolution of the Flesh. I probably wouldn't build a Trickster that way since Eternal Youth is too far but that's easy survival.

Builds without at least one Defensive aura just aren't recommended. This isn't a meta thing. It was forced onto the playerbase by removing other sources of DR and granting reservation bonus.

It is rather boring but that's the way it is.

I'm only at 4.4k HP and do fine thanks to Wind Ward and Frost Armor stacking for 50% Less.
A better but more expensive version would be to use the combo Dissolution of Flesh and Spell Dodge cap thus Wind Ward is up more consistently instead of SS and LoH ignores PB degen.

Without it's still squishy IMO. 40k Max hit across the board. Last league I was 80k.

I don't play meta either. I hardly even pay attention to other Steamers / Youtubers.
I watch Mathil sometimes cuz he makes hipster stuff like me. Just pick a skill and go.