I am going to be very honest; I despise this game's lack of respect for self-determination.

you like playing thematic characters which I can empathise with.
However you need to balance it with some consideration for the performance of the character.
Regardless of whether or not you find the character or make it yourself, a character in poe works best if you pick something and run with it.
It's just way better to focus on scaling one thing, if you want a witch that casts lightning spells only get things that help you cast lightning spells, figure out which spell you like best and focus on it.
That cool looking axe? Well all it does for you is give you damage so a stronger yellow axe should be better to use.
Of course you can sprinkle in some utility, especially when it comes to defense, these gloves will let you sap enemies making their hits weaker, your witch could wear them.
But the way damage scales in this game, you need to understand how to focus on an aspect of your character, then double and triple dip, if you can.

"

alhazred70 wrote:

SSF doesn't need to be a challenge mode any more... its literally no longer the challenge mode. Ruthless does that.

I don't think its crazy to suggest that POE should have a mode that is tuned to FEEL GOOD TO PLAY (but still grindy) instead of being tuned around trade metrics and whatever CuteDog or Empy are doing.

I have long said that poe should focus on the solo/coop experience. It's a DAMN good game overshadowed by all the hazing and toxicity that comes qith the whole trading-mmo aspect.

After reading my posts replies, of which I am grateful for from other like-minded players who understand my circumstance, I am going to address one thing I mentioned, which was "where I was constantly failing with X build."

So essentially, I basically started off as anyone else with only a basic understanding of the game. Prior to playing POE, I played alot of Diablo 2 and 3 before POE fully left the beta phase (or around post beta phase, whatever). So dungeon loot-crawler games are a speciality of mine. Basically, and perhaps ironically, the issue was I could never survive due to extremely demanding gear requirements which ultimately affected my playtime experience. I one day made some friends who were generous and helpful enough to let me expand on my playtime by lending me currency and run maps with me. They are good people, and I will always be indebted to them. I've never bothered with build guides or other things, because I find them to be so painfully circumstatial, that they only worked if you were able to:

>find the currency to afford said loot with specifics, unless you have all the right currency at the right place at the right time to make an item yourself that may or may not give you the rolls you desire
>make sure that what you needed you could afford
>make sure you could farm anything at all in the first place

So effectively, if you were undergeared, never found anything and had a horrible time of surviving, you essentially were smashing your face & brain against a mountainside. For example, I wanted to run a Atziri's Rule build this league. But as always, the demanding gear statistc demands for defenses is always what hampers me. Someone gave me some equipment, now I am running an Arakaali's spider minion mancer build. It works, but it's not my build, and not the best. Is that a bad thing? Depends on how you look at it. Perhaps this may be considered heresy in Chris Wilsons eyes, but....

Why not just ignore what the community does to min-max things for a change, try to adjust to have a more simple gameplay system with more generous loot statistics and let everyone play for themselves. So instead of it requiring a calculator glued to the screen, time, patience and effort reaps the rewards. Would that be so bad, that technicalities become moreso options than straight forward demands? I dont watch twitch or streamers, so I could care less what others do. Just that we have a good time, and reap the rewards of our hard work.

I mean it works for Diablo. Just that one design method, mind you, but you never hear anyone complain that Diablo's mechanics are so utterly broken that it forces you to play in one way, or not at all.

"But that's just proving its through the eyes of the beholder. Its entirely up to game knowledge and skill. Whether the OP wants to do things on their own is up to them expectation wise. Something they seem to overinflated cause of ego. They believe they can do no wrong with their build and deserve to get a boss kill, regardless of how they make a character."

That's oxymoronic, of whoever said that. I can't look into the sky and pray that GGG drops an item I specifically need right in the here and now so I can proceed with the game to the utmost specification for the sake of personal desire. My expectations aren't shallow but neither are they unreasonable. If you think it's overinflated to ask to play a game entirely of your own volition, just wanting to be able to reach the same point as everyone else by your own effort, whether sooner or later, by committing and putting in the time and effort to make the ends meet, I think you have a problem with the concept of individual success.

Or you're just afraid of simplicity for simplicity's sake.

And just to hammer it in, because clearly the people degrading me as "a weak player", clearly can't refute my final point.

"because, in the end, it's literal meta-power-creep-abuse", which is forcing you to play the way it wants you to, not the other way around.

Unless you have an ungodly amount of currency to throw in someone's face. Good for you then. Not eveyone is so lucky.

"

DeathorGlory wrote:

That's oxymoronic, of whoever said that. I can't look into the sky and pray that GGG drops an item I specifically need right in the here and now so I can proceed with the game to the utmost specification for the sake of personal desire. My expectations aren't shallow but neither are they unreasonable. If you think it's overinflated to ask to play a game entirely of your own volition, just wanting to be able to reach the same point as everyone else by your own effort, whether sooner or later, by committing and putting in the time and effort to make the ends meet, I think you have a problem with the concept of individual success.

No, no one should be entitled to demand to have the same results as people who are better at something. Be it computer games, sports or work.

"

Nomancs wrote:

"

DeathorGlory wrote:

That's oxymoronic, of whoever said that. I can't look into the sky and pray that GGG drops an item I specifically need right in the here and now so I can proceed with the game to the utmost specification for the sake of personal desire. My expectations aren't shallow but neither are they unreasonable. If you think it's overinflated to ask to play a game entirely of your own volition, just wanting to be able to reach the same point as everyone else by your own effort, whether sooner or later, by committing and putting in the time and effort to make the ends meet, I think you have a problem with the concept of individual success.

No, no one should be entitled to demand to have the same results as people who are better at something. Be it computer games, sports or work.

I agree with you, friend.

"

Nomancs wrote:

No, no one should be entitled to demand to have the same results as people who are better at something. Be it computer games, sports or work.

[Removed by Support]

almost noone is asking that ever.


could compare to diablo 2 that lets you finish the whole content on easy mode. and yet, gives also a hell difficulty for people wanting to invest more time.

or league, where every rank gets to kill the opposing nexus around 50% of the time. and lol gives you ranks to grind if you want more difficulty.

it s about fun and game design.

if in lol, because you start you were only allowed to destroy one tower and that s it, that would be boring, you understand ? or ?

and to top it off, in poe you can literally finish the game entirely on your second league by simply copying a good build maker. i am talking doing all content in the game. wich would be impossible in league.

[Removed by Support]

"

No, no one should be entitled to demand to have the same results as people who are better at something. Be it computer games, sports or work.

Didn't read source post of this, but this here is exactly what I like least in poe community. Gutgud guys persuaded themselves that excesses they do are "best", "work", and trying even harder to persuade themselves that those who criticize poe design do it just because they are "weak", "cannot work".

Ffs, it is not hard to slap aegis aurora and tank everything except maven memory game. Not hard to read what is our current meta this patch and jump on that train. Thing is, some people play not to crutch numbers and 40/40, and not to spam one map 500 times because apothecary is there, but would like some roleplaying immersion too, and to play whatever character they like more, and being able to visit all content in the game with it.

This is where poe design fails, build disparity is so large, that "self-determined" players as OP called them are bound to have miserable experience unless they toe the line and build around things that "work".

"

DeathorGlory wrote:

And just to hammer it in, because clearly the people degrading me as "a weak player", clearly can't refute my final point.

"because, in the end, it's literal meta-power-creep-abuse", which is forcing you to play the way it wants you to, not the other way around.

Unless you have an ungodly amount of currency to throw in someone's face. Good for you then. Not eveyone is so lucky.

You're not a "weak player", you just want to figure out things yourself, earn things yourself and that's a good thing. I'm the same. My builds suck but I keep coming back, hoping this time it will be better, this time I will find some currency and everything will work out.

And each time we try, we will come closer to success.