POE2 should not require POB or external apps in order to play

Can you make it so that we don't need a POB or crafting site or wiki in order to play the game? Can everything be explained in clear simple English within the game?

thanks!

I mean you can play the game just fine without if you wanted to as everything is more or less explained over tooltips.

PoB and craft of exile don't teach you anything as both tools are just large calculators.

PoB isn't going to help you to create the gigachad for skill x if you don't have any experience with build optimization and game experience. And you don't gain any experience by randomly clicking items and stats in the calculator.
The only way to gain experience is by playing the game after all. Can be experience by trying your own stuff even if it fails or by playing builds created by other players.


The only actual necessary change would be a better trading website for a overall smooth experience without third party tools.

You can play it without then.

the game is too complex so that wiki is mandatory. Or are you really want to play a game that have 1000 hr tutorial or require to read 5000 pages before click create character ?

I've been playing some different games lately. One of the best things about PoE is Path of Building, IMHO. In other game one instead has to watch YouTube. PoB is far far better.

It is true that PoE is more opaque, less clear, more complicated, however, you'd like to characterize it. I think that will likely remain to be true.

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Booms776941 wrote:

Can you make it so that we don't need a POB or crafting site or wiki in order to play the game? Can everything be explained in clear simple English within the game?

thanks!

Well I feel that PoB is a great thing to use both for the creating of build ideas but also for min/maxing your existing builds.
If you had to do this "by trial and error" it would cost a ton of wasted currency.

And again, a game of this size with all these skills / mechinics and so on it far to much information to handle / remember so a Wiki is pretty good for this (as long as the wiki is properly updated and so on).

agree

too much math not fun

make a game too much math even worse

PoE Planner > PoB

PoB = watching a movie plot summary before watching the movie
PoEPlanner = Watching a movie trailer before watching a movie.

I prefer to use official tools wherever possible, But what we do have for this area of the game is somewhat lacking for now.

PoB actually DOES teach you quite a lot...if you know how to use its more advanced systems. A lot more than just messing around in-game does.

For example, it was only recently that I discovered the "node power" calculator and how I can use it to completely optimize my build. There is no in-game way to do that as you can't see what a node actually does until AFTER you spend the point. It's not always completely accurate but it has opened my eyes to many pathways I NEVER would have chosen in-game, even operating with 10+ years of experience.

I totally agree: PoE 2 needs to have a lot more QoL on the passive tree, even something as simple as hovering over a node will give you the same information that PoB gives you BEFORE you have to select it. "This node increases your damage by x%, increases your max ehp by x%, etc.". It's not "necessary" but it would be nice!

I absolutely agree that you CAN learn everything you need to know just by playing the game, but that doesn't mean there isn't a huge amount of missing quality of life and general information that COULD be added to the game to make it better. It isn't "necessary" to watch youtube videos, or read wikis, or use 3rd party software to play the game. But it does certainly make it a hell of a lot easier. GGG should be making every effort to include in their new game all of the QoL that 3rd party software was CREATED to give. The simple fact that PoB exists shows that we NEED something in-game with that information.

After a decade long hiatus in gaming I came back to it via Larians Divinity: Original Sin 2 back in late '17.

If you don't know about this game: first act (up to character level 8 or 9 - if you know exactly what you're doing, thats pretty tight on XP) is the hardest, because for an "optimized" run you need to plan around civilian skills (stealing, bartering, etc...) and their synergies with character stats. After that (when finished the ship fight) this part of the game becomes trivial.

I used Excel for this and found 2 or 3 fully viable solutions for a fully self-contained and very efficient party.

Not that easy in PoE.

I tried myself to come up with good builds in PoB even and so far I couldn't get close to what other people are doing. Too many variables at play and too many "interacting, but kind of not interacting" stats and skills.

I don't think a PoE without necessary PoB would be the same game. :-)