My theories to why POE 1 and 2 are separated and some suggestions on fixing em

my take on why POE 1 and 2 are different.

when i first heard about it my heart dropped. i kept finding as much info i could about poe 2 and i have made my own conclusions to why POE 1 and 2 are not able to be mixed.

1. skillgems being weapon locked

- in poe2 skill gems are locked to weapons. for example i theorize viperstrike would be dagger/claw only but in poe 1 we can use viper strike with swords and even 2 handed swords.

- poe2's skills may come with unique animations and/or secondary effects. for viperstrike as an example, they could have made new strike animations that made sense using daggers but neglected to make any animations for 2 handed swords. thus they simply locked the gems to weapon class.

- splitting the 2 games ensures that people who play using certain skills do not feel like their build broke due to not being able to use their current weapon anymore if it so happens the weapon they're currently benefiting from does not match poe2's required weapon class.

2. different animation rigging

- this relates to my first point. ggg states that they have very low interest into giving poe 1 characters the new animation rigs. this affects poe 1 characters by a huge margin because as mentioned in the previous point, skills may have new "poe2 animations" as well as secondary abilities. since the animation rigs are not available in poe1, we simply have no corresponding animation to how the poe2 version of the skill gems would work.

3. item balancing

- the main issue simply revolves around items with "socketed items gain something" mods. how does GGG balance this? for example a shaper/elder glove that has mods that grant support skills to any socketed active gems, making it possible for that gem to work as a 7L.

- i have a suggestion on how to fix this, which is all items with mods that affect "socketed items" gains "active gems socketed in this item can only socket up to X support gems". x depends on the item type. for example unset rings, typically will have 0 supports, while gloves and helmets can have 3 supports, while chest/2handers have 5 supports. it is not easy as items like crest of desire exist.

- another suggestion i have is all "socketed gems" mods be nerfed/replaced/removed. this is the easier solution, but would standard players be happy with that? there are a number of older standard players with mirror tier 7L gloves/helmets that would be affected badly by this nerf. is everyone willing to accept this nerf?

- also these items will needs one more mod. "can only have 1 active gem slot". to reflect how it used to be in poe1.

rebalancing these items is a huge undertaking. and players are going to lose a huge amount of power if it is implemented. is everyone willing? personally i m willing. despite having a perfect crest of desire, i am willing. but i dont speak for everyone.

4. balancing legacy playstyle vs new "vision"/emphasis on player skill

- POE 2 seems more methodical. players are expected to play carefully. poe 1 seems to be full on zoom zoom meta. many players have adapted zoom zoom meta. even myself i kinda HATE going slow now.

- WOULD POE 1 PLAYERS accept poe 2 if the gameplay was slower? imagine D4 endgame. sure you can play fast but its not as fast as how we have it in POE 1. i would add the caveat, this is just my theory. even factoring that in the recent exilecon the game has been slowed down, we can clearly see the direction that GGG is intending, with a slower playstyle. in POE 1 simply spamming a single skill 10-20 times a second you'd do significant dps. POE 2 seems to have a lot of skill synergy, which works best if you have more damage instead of attackspeed.

- POE 2 is definitely going to be a slower game, especially with it's "no cheesing boss" mechanic. the game philosophies are polar opposites with POE 1 being a zoom zoom meta game.

5. the inverse effect of POE 2's gem system towards POE 1.

- simply put, we will have a spike in power we have never seen before. support skills that normally are run with minimal supports can now be 6 link. for certain builds the new system allows us to gain 2-3 additional active gems. our builds from poe 1 will simply be OP. it would be hard for ggg to balance this out.

6. incompatible aura system.

- there is no easy "direct comparison" between auras and the new system (forgot what it's called). auras also compete with trigger gems.

- will aura botters be happy if suddenly their build runs less auras due to this change?

- will people who rely on trigger gems be happy when they cant afford to reserve for the skill.

7. item conversion.

- MOST OF US. have tons of stash. TONS of items in our stash. converting all of them to POE 2 compatible equipment is going to be a total headache.

- GGG is afraid to fuck things up. mass conversion CAN fuck things up.

- my proposed solution to allow a merge is when POE 2 is out. ALL items from POE 1 is marked as legacy + locked. this item cannot be interacted with, except moving and removing socketed gems. on STD a new NPC is created to "update" legacy items. you need to fully unsocket all gems/jewels from your legacy items before being able to update an item. upon updating an item, it would have appropriate number of sockets and any nerfing/reworks are applied to it. the legacy mark is removed and the item is unlocked. with this solution PLAYERS decide what items they want to keep. players have to deal with inventory management themselves, finding stash to keep their gems that previously were slotted in.

final thoughts:

i really want to play the new classes, and really would like to have access to my STD POE1 gear/characters. but i feel conflicted.

if the direction of POE2 is significantly different from POE 1, perhaps i would enjoy playing POE1 more and ditch POE2 entirely? the fact is we do not know how POE 2 feels. i play POE 1 for 10 years. i have NEVER killed maven on a single try. i randomly can kill shaper in a single try. not being able to cheese bosses is a double edged sword. fights feel deliberate and you feel more accomplished. on the flipside out gearing the encounter is difficult.

i really wonder if i really want poe1 and 2 to merge. the feeling of FOMO is damn strong tho. if i played poe2 i would sometimes think "if only i could use my poe1 ascendancy". and vice versa, playing poe 1 "damn if i had access to the new ascendancy/new gems i'd be so damn strong now".

really torn between wanting them separate or merged.

It was never their plan to merge poe 1 and 2, it was always planned to be 2 seperated econmies where you could not transfer gear/currency between them. So making them 2 games was a better move I think than adding it to poe1 as a separate game/economy. I guess it will be much easier for them to develope aswell and no have to hold back becouse of poe1

As long as my characters would be there, the content (league mechanics and classes) would be there, then I would accept whatever changes they would make when porting to PoE2. As it stands, I don't accept either, I don't accept a big online game making a sequel. They're supposed to be goliaths that last for decades and we build achievements in them over time that always stay in one game.

"

mJ_mSv wrote:

It was never their plan to merge poe 1 and 2, it was always planned to be 2 seperated econmies where you could not transfer gear/currency between them. So making them 2 games was a better move I think than adding it to poe1 as a separate game/economy. I guess it will be much easier for them to develope aswell and no have to hold back becouse of poe1

This is exactly the opposite of what GGG themselves have stated multiple times throughout the history of PoE 2 reveals....that is why many people are stressed out right now.

For my own part, I always thought this would inevitably come to pass: there was never going to be a way to transform the original game into the new game...and the devs were deluding themselves and their audience into thinking there was. The entire PoE 2 is built upon totally different systems than PoE 1.

Hell, they can't even get map conversion right after years and years of trying...did anyone really think they could do entire stash conversion? There are single players with hundreds of stash tabs full of items. Multiplied by legacy vs double legacy vs updated vs double updated vs discontinued etc....there is no process in the world that would do that right.

"

exsea wrote:

my take on why POE 1 and 2 are different.

They've literally explained it in the first segment of the livestream and went in depth on it with Rory talking about the issues of the game. Why do we need a "theory"?