Predictions for ExileCon/PoE2

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1453R wrote:

Okay. Lemme make it plainer: I don't care about the currency problem and it's not what I started this thread to talk about. It doesn't belong here, whether or not you believe it belongs at ExileCon. Go start your own thread.

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I edited my post for clarity, I'd love to support GGG right now but i can't for that reason and a few other recent decisions that i don't want to get into here as they're being discussed plenty elsewhere.

On topic i predict a historic player surge then a steep falloff because the resources for player education basically don't exist and the ones that do such as the new wiki are full of toxic terms against standard players for some reason so i wouldn't have any faith in its wealth of curated information.

we're on track for a really gross outcome if GGG doesn't step up their game on learning resources and quelling this apparent hatred for anyone "not as good as you" mindset.. Had that for 10+ years with hardcore/standard and it never went anywhere. (Ruthless)

Edit: i'm excited for PoE2 and i do hope GGG does extremely well, I can also still be furious with them :P

I did actually post on topic, Also as per GGG moderation Policy this thread belongs to the community, I know that because i've had to deal with actual-thread-destroying-trolls before in the feedback forum and i'm not one of them, I would've left it at that first post but i find it rude not to respond to direct quotes.

So you're already getting what you want if we don't directly address me on it i won't reply about it, That'd be rude right? I ain't about that.

Thanks for throwing out some predictions, it's a fun idea for a thread.

Just a few predictions.

Zana comes back(feel like this is a pretty safe one).

QOL for tabs. Opening stacked decks inside the div card stash tab with one click equals one opened stacked deck(this one is more of a pipe dream)

I think the beta will drop at the very end of this year with a $30 supporter pack to get access, like they did for 3.0.

Atlas Jewels.

Tons of new skills shown at Exilecon.

Really fleshed out version of the new socket system shown.

New weapon types, more anyways.

Finding out Wreclast really is a mirrored version of the real world, and is much more twisted.(maybe too far out there)

The entities above the current eldritch bosses appear.

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sumfight wrote:

Thanks for throwing out some predictions, it's a fun idea for a thread.

Just a few predictions.

Zana comes back(feel like this is a pretty safe one).

QOL for tabs. Opening stacked decks inside the div card stash tab with one click equals one opened stacked deck(this one is more of a pipe dream)

I think the beta will drop at the very end of this year with a $30 supporter pack to get access, like they did for 3.0.

Atlas Jewels.

Tons of new skills shown at Exilecon.

Really fleshed out version of the new socket system shown.

New weapon types, more anyways.

Finding out Wreclast really is a mirrored version of the real world, and is much more twisted.(maybe too far out there)

The entities above the current eldritch bosses appear.

I think pretty much everybody knew when they pulled Zana from the game, they were doing it to use her somewhere in Path of Exile 2. You don't yank one of the game's most popular and enduring NPCs for jollies. Yeah, I'd call it a pretty safe bet Zana shows up in PoE2. Though if they make her an enemy boss I'ma be sad, dun' wanna have to kill Zana.

Dunno 'bout tab QoL, that feels more like a league-patch thing rather than an ExileCon announcement. Maybe something they drop in one of the post-keynote interviews? I mean, Stacked Decks kinda suck in the first place so hey. Hueh. Man I wish those things still sold decently...

How would Atlas Tree Jewels work? Feels like trading a node/socket for a handful of generic bonuses a'la normal jewels isn't what people want from their Atlas tree, even if they're doing ordinary "I'm taking these nodes because I like this content" Atlasing rather than the psychotic target-farmer 'Atlas Build' stuff. Hm, not sure about this one.

The ExileCon web page shows an hour-long "Character Skills" panel with Rory, Ed, and Jonathan two hours after the keynote presentation. I'm pretty sure scads of new skills is a given. Heh. I'll go a step further and suggest that the fundamental way skills work may well change, or at least the fundamental way many skills work may change.

I'm not sure how much more design space the game has for weapon types beyond Spear and Crossbow. Lots of people have suggested lots of things, but we've already seen that scythes, for example, qualify as two-handed axes in PoE2. Guns/blackpowder weapons wouldn't work that dissimilarly from crossbows, and most of the niche-ier melee weapons like whips, flails, nunchaku, or the like are either easily folded into existing categories or make little real sense for the game.

Some people are predicting 'Javelins' as a one-handed physical ranged weapon...but we've already got javelins. Spears have both ranged and melee skill gems, a "Javelin" build is just a spear build that uses the ranged skills. I could absolutely be wrong of course, but when I think of "New Weapon Type", I try and picture something that can have fifty different variations of base weapon, a hundred-plus unique options, and which hits a playstyle generally unavailable or poorly supported in the current game. I don't see much that Spears and Crossbows doesn't cover.

Wraeclast is Wraeclast, not Dark Gory Earth :P

Dunno if I want the Masters of the Exarch/Eater to appear. I like there being a shadowy, unknown, mostly unknowable menace above those two entities, something that we can only hope stays occupied elsewhere because there's no possibility we could even contest it at all, let alone win, if it chose to take interest in us. Exiles can get pretty stronk in PoE, but we're still dudes and dudettes wearing bits of metal and prodding stuff with sharp things going up against eldritch monstrosities that can bend the fabric of reality itself. It's reeaaally starting to stretch my suspension of disbelief that jabbing the Searing Exarch or Eater of Worlds with a sword a few dozen/hundred times is all it takes to dispose of such an entity. Anything much stronger than the Exarch/Eater wouldn't make any sense.

Either way, thanks for contributing. Heh.

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1453R wrote:

3.) Skilltree 2.0
I'm remembering a comment in ExileCon The First that Chris made; "we're not ready to talk about the skill tree yet". I know PoE's gargantuan skill tree is one of its most iconic features (what're we up to by now, 1500+ nodes?), but people once said that PoE's socketing-gems-in-your-gear skill system was one of its most iconic features, too. I'm betting we're gonna see some major overhaul to how the skill tree works in PoE2. What form that overhaul will take, I cannot imagine, but I would not at all be surprised to see the skilltree take a radical new form in PoE2.

Not really predictions but more like stuff that I would appreciate a lot as part of the 4.0 changes.

The current skill tree is fine but could for sure use some enhancements. Like there are so many outdated keystones that aren't really useful anymore with the current game and a couple of under powered nodes in general. But I personally hope for a overall balance enhancement in general cause the current meta is just that spell suppression is king while the block is still pretty okay and viable but damn weak compared to the spell sup.
Balance changes for skills would be also nice cause there are a good amount of skills which are viable but still feel pretty bad to play especially with the removal of their corresponding unique jewels, or just made changes in general.
Some minor QoL changes would also be nice like stashtab affinities for stack decks, incubator and all the other stuff you collect over time that has no set slot in any of the tabs.
Some less tedious and hand exhausting ways to open stack decks, alt spam, or chance orb would be also neat.
Zana's return as either a friendly encounter or boss encounter, cause why not.
More leagues with fun and engaging mechanics like they used to be couple of leagues ago instead of a league that adds just a temp power creep (sentinel,LoK, crucible as example, pretty boring and only filled with powerful items)

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SilentSymphony wrote:

An apology for what they did to standard and a decades worth of savings.

For what? For a balance change they made? It's not like your entire stash tab got wiped entirely lol. They don't balance the game around standard and they don't have to justify or apologize for any made changes that fully work as intended lol.
You can only blame yourself for hoarding currency for a decade instead of making use of it like everyone else does lol.

Honestly, one of the reasons I'm expecting a big, fundamental skill tree overhaul is because they can't just keep adding nodes to the skill tree. Each new cluster has to be within a reasonable range of start, since characters don't ever get more skill points. There's only gonna be so many ways and so many places they can tie new clusters for things like new weapons or new skill archetypes into the tree without making the tree bigger and extending the number of travel nodes you need to hit, and thus diluting the power you get from your finite and unchanging amount of skill points. Sure they can make it denser, but there's still only so many tie points on the base tree they can spin new clusters off from. It's not really future-proof.

I don't foresee them making the sort of sweeping overhaul PoE2 promises to be without addressing that future-proofing issue.

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1.) An entirely new cast of exiles.
2.) Skill Revamp 2.0
3.) Skilltree 2.0
4.) New Endgame Entirely

My opinons:

1. Yes confirmed already on exilecon 1

2. Nope. we will see the same skill system as presented in exilecon 1 - polished and perfected, but not completely changed

3. Half yes. Big change for skill tree was confirmed on exilecon 1, it was just not ready back then. Chris is very defensive about removing skill tree, devs want poe 2 to be more friendly for new player but do not want to reduce depth of the mechanics. I predict changes for passive tree but not as big as gem/socket changes (maybe even passive tree masteries was part of it)

4. Nope. It will be the sam old endgame will be the same for poe 1 and poe 2. Probably new end-endgame uber bosses but no fundamental changes. Sirius questline was announced at exilecon 1 and we are already on new quest line.


My prediction for exilecon main announcement:

- Big new about plans for passive tree changes

- New ascendancy classes

- more information about new main storyline


My wish for exilecon:

- Polish language localization

A large skill overhaul (combo skill stuff), and for some reason I keep thinking there will be more content than anyone expected. Like, an absurd amount.

New weapon types. 518 new orbs and splinters. And a new smart loot system, no more piles of useless clutter.

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kaepae wrote:

and for some reason I keep thinking there will be more content than anyone expected. Like, an absurd amount.

Sadly, unfortunately, I have the same notion, and will probably end up being somewhat disappointed.

But to boil things down: This is GGG's perfect chance to bring PoE into the current age, with changes to trade, better in-game sources to learn the game (tutorials, calcs etc), better tool-tips and so on. I also remember Chris talking about an advanced item info, where you could see/highlight the mods on an item, and see what was possible to roll. Better guild support. Better progression curve.

But hey, as long as they stay away from MMO-elements and open world scaling, I'll probably be happy.

I really don't think they'd go to the expense and trouble of an ExileCon The Second if all they had to show off was basically the same stuff they've already shown off but with a bit more detail this time. There's going to be something game-changing in this keynote speech. Obviously they're not gonna announce Path of Exile 3 and they already dropped the skill redux bomb. I'm figuring the last major piece has to be a redux to how the skill tree works.

I'm not expecting them to simplify it, that ain't how Grinding Gear rolls. I am expecting there to be Serious Changes, to either the skill tree or (well, more like 'to the skill tree and') itemization. There's gonna be big systemic changes somewhere, and the only two places left for it to really be are Skill Tree or Itemization, ne?

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1453R wrote:

I really don't think they'd go to the expense and trouble of an ExileCon The Second if all they had to show off was basically the same stuff they've already shown off but with a bit more detail this time.

My thoughts exactly.

When it comes to itemization, I don't think we'll see any big changes, though. As I see it, something I think GGG shares, is that the itemization is PoE's strongest area, at least the system as a whole (affixes, suffixes, prefixes). There are of course LARGE rooms for improvement, but the basics will probably stay the same.