Why have the Act 2 Bandits gone ignored for so long?

Seems silly to post this now, but its on my mind...

Is there a single build in the game that uses Kraitlyn or Oak? Has there EVER been a build that uses them since Act 6-10 were introduced? Hell, even Alira has lost most of her usage with the tree changes and gear changes across the years making it easier to cap resists.

The first iteration of these 3 was better than what we have now, you could mix and match the bonuses you got between Normal, Cruel, and Merciless. Almost every bandit had its uses.

This isn't a new request, or even a new observation. For years, people have been talking about how the bandits need reworking, but they are literally forgotten relics to the devs. They are part of the core story of the game, why do they get no attention for YEARS?

I use kraityrn, kraitlyn, kraityn( this one is correct) just for move speed during campaign. I usually don't use clusters in my build so I don't really miss the two points that much.

It's kind of being edgy, but it's helped my act 2 time a bit because I actually sat down and routed it.

Is not optimal but kraityn can make up for missing move speed boots upgrade and the attack and cast speed is nice.

Alira is just nice. Very good.

I find oak hardest to justify since most jewels are better than oak. His stats are found in abundance in the tree.

2 points is always better in pob probably, but sometimes we don't want to min max. They should have their bonuses doubled at least. Or make oak 20% more phys or somethong.

Alira for the acts, change into skill points later on during maps. Pretty much every time for me.

It would be nice if they made the others bonuses more attractive though.

I expect them to be revisited or removed with PoE2. Since the end game is shared there either needs to be an equivalent quest with the same rewards (they have to be revisited to make the rewards for the new quest relevant) or no such quest at all (and they have to be removed from poe1’s campaign).

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DichotomousThree wrote:

I expect them to be revisited or removed with PoE2. Since the end game is shared there either needs to be an equivalent quest with the same rewards (they have to be revisited to make the rewards for the new quest relevant) or no such quest at all (and they have to be removed from poe1’s campaign).

my guess is that poe 2 might have a trio quest mirroring the bandit quest

OR alternatively "bandit rewards"

Because it's just a quest reward? Lots of quest rewards are underwhelming or lacking in any lasting impact on your character, that's okay.

I suspect GGG's early plans had them making a slightly more reactive campaign than they ended up making, where this wouldn't stand out oddly as one of the only points in ten acts where you make a choice in a quest. To really fix it you'd have to rebuild that idealised campaign, and the time for that has no doubt passed.

I always take the points because fiddling with skill trees is the main reason I play this genre at all. But if it's generally seen as the "best" choice, and even if it's clearly the best choice to the point people aren't choosing other things, that's okay too. Why? Well, because they're bandit rewards. If an Exile decides in this instance they want to be an arsehole and help some prick take over the region, and they end up with a worse reward for it, that's not a problem, it's a gentle nudge from the narrative reminding us we're the good guys.

^yea...but that's lazy design. There aren't THAT many quests in this game...is it really too much trouble for devs to come up with meaningful quest rewards, for ALL quests? Plenty of other games have done it with a far greater range of quests. "Just a quest reward" is a really really poor argument to make, when one of the core aspects of arpgs in general is completing quests.

Hell, even a reward where you get to choose a stack of lesser currency, or essences, or anything of the sort is an incredibly quick fix that would actually make finishing literally any quest feel somewhat nice. It also might promote the usage of said currency through perhaps an npc interaction upon receiving the reward.

When every single player and every single character is FORCED to run the story over and over again, the LEAST the developers could do is pay even the slightest attention to outdated quest rewards...its part of the "rpg" in "arpg". Those rare item rewards MIGHT be good for the new player attempting their first story run, but the second that is finished those rewards become 100% useless. Even at first run, you likely already found enough rares (since they now drop like candy) that they are rendered useless. Those rewards are from a version of the game that hasn't existed for a long time...

And as others have said, it could be as simple as doubling the rolls on what kraitlyn/oak offer that could rebalance them. Thematically, their rewards make sense: but the magnitude is just so far below where we currently are in the game. 12% move and attack speed, along with 20% ele avoidance from kraitlyn MORE than makes them competitive with Alira, and also potentially weighs them over skillpoints in certain builds. Oak needs far more help, but perhaps changing the 20% increased to something like 10% MORE would be enough to even give Oak a place in the bandit reward hierarchy. Simple, simple changes with a WORLD of difference to the game.


[Removed by Support]

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jsuslak313 wrote:

^yea...but that's lazy design. There aren't THAT many quests in this game...is it really too much trouble for devs to come up with meaningful quest rewards, for ALL quests? Plenty of other games have done it with a far greater range of quests. "Just a quest reward" is a really really poor argument to make

I’m not making an argument, just responding to the thread title question. You asked why, not what’s ideal.

An argument I would make is that one thing that definitely comes down on the “really really poor” side of things is calling developers’ work “lazy” because decade-old quests (or even more) are outdated.

Kraityn sees a lot of use in Act 5 Kitava races.

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TemjinGold wrote:

Kraityn sees a lot of use in Act 5 Kitava races.

That's a whole separate argument for me which I don't really want to get into :)

Suffice to say...this is an ARPG grind game. Racing in any form is an entirely separate game in my opinion and should have essentially no place in "normal" discussions about PoE. I'm sure there are disagreements but that's where I stand. No need to go any deeper, I see your point; I just don't believe it has merit to the base game.

To me, that's like comparing Soccer to foosball. They share the "same" platform, but are entirely separate entities from one another.