Change my mind

Tell me that POE2 isn't Ruthless.

What Ruthless is
Ruthless is a mode about friction, tension and anticipation. It's quite difficult, but overcoming that difficulty feels highly rewarding. In a world where your items are far below par, every item drop has the potential to be the breakthrough one you need.

Ruthless is a mode that re-imagines traditional understanding of where Path of Exile's endgame is. It redefines the entire game as the endgame. Even reaching higher campaign acts, let alone maps, is an achievement. Traditionally weak items are suddenly very valuable. High level characters and good rare items infer immense bragging rights.

Ruthless is a mode where you barely find any items. You might get to act four without equipping a pair of rings. But each ring you find represents a huge power boost.

Ruthless is a mode where most items are normal rarity. You don't see a lot of magic items, and even fewer rare items. But finding a rare item of a base type you're looking for feels amazing.

Ruthless is a mode where you find very little crafting currency. You might only find one Orb of Alchemy throughout the whole campaign. But that orb lets you convert any base type of your choice to a rare item.

Ruthless is nostalgic. We picked the name partly because it was what the third of four difficulty levels was called back in closed beta. Aspects like item scarcity and support gems being valuable really feel like the early days of Path of Exile, just without desync.

Item Scarcity
The core Ruthless experience is that you don't have strong enough items to handle the content. Every item that drops has the potential to be an upgrade to your current gear.

In Ruthless, the quantity of items dropped has been massively reduced throughout all game content.

The rate of finding magic, rare and unique items has been massively reduced throughout all game content.

Rings, Amulets and Belts are much rarer than in regular Path of Exile. They cannot be purchased from Vendors.

Most league reward systems have been changed to only grant item rewards that are specific to that league (for example, Cluster Jewels only come from Delirium), plus items from the core drop pool. In Ruthless, getting items from the core drop pool is a valuable reward, especially when there is an item rarity bonus.

Many deterministic items like Divination Cards or Oni-Goroshi cannot be obtained. Many bosses like Atziri that guarantee unique drops still do, but are often harder to access

Why, it's the truth.

PoE2 is definitely more Ruthless-y than PoE1, but at least you have some crafting options like orbs, runes, and sockets. Ruthless POE1 is almost drop-only, especially during campaign, because currency is just so scarce. In Ruthless, I dropped my first Alteration Orb halfway through Act 2.

Plus in POE2 skill sockets are not linked to gear, so gearing is definitely easier than in Ruthless.

It's definitely reminiscent of Ruthless, but overall I feel like POE2 takes the best of both worlds. I've yet to see how this will impact the endgame, however.

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Shortwings#1741 wrote:

PoE2 is definitely more Ruthless-y than PoE1, but at least you have some crafting options like orbs, runes, and sockets. Ruthless POE1 is almost drop-only, especially during campaign, because currency is just so scarce. In Ruthless, I dropped my first Alteration Orb halfway through Act 2.

Plus in POE2 skill sockets are not linked to gear, so gearing is definitely easier than in Ruthless.

It's definitely reminiscent of Ruthless, but overall I feel like POE2 takes the best of both worlds. I've yet to see how this will impact the endgame, however.

This is the core issue. While it may not be true for you, the vast majority of the player base doesn't think there is a "best" of ruthless. Most, myself included, read a description like that and just wonder why anyone would ever sign up for it.

They built an entire game around a mode that nobody likes. It's like they went out of their way to make it not fun.

And to your point about crafting, there is no crafting.
YOLO Slamming is the only crafting method available.

The people enjoying it seem to be ruthless/HC SSF players and noobs who just arrived from Twitch. All the Asmongold viewers will be gone within two weeks or as soon as they get frustrated in act 2 or 3.

This game is for approximately 4% of the PoE community who wish PoE could just be a lot more frustrating and slow.

I just really wish that they told us that is will be ruthless in announcing stream, so i dont waste my time and money for it.

I really love poe1 and i hope that my money goes there, not for this bullshit.

Rings and amulets are most certainly available from vendors. I've purchased a few.

When you say "vast majority" of the player base, do you have some actual data on this or is this just vibes. You also say 4% which is pretty specific, but you haven't offered any evidence besides vibes. I feel like the forums just get a bit negative around launches, because most ppl who enjoy the game are probably playing it instead of talking about it.

"

And to your point about crafting, there is no crafting.
YOLO Slamming is the only crafting method available.

During the campaign, I actually quite like this, it makes me excited every time I see a treasure chest. In POE1 those don't even register to the player. Not sure what will happen in the end game and how good or plentiful chaos orb crafting will be.

It IS Ruthless. Of Course.
This is fine. Good for the 'reset'.
They just need to tweak/fix the mechanics and put leash on the psychopaths in the office. (Mainly the Zealot, The Sadist and the Claustrophiliac. Could be all one guy.)

Note, that if you know the loot engine, just like in Ruthless you can farm bosses or mobs to get stuff. GGG. it is in the name..... so....

Basically you have to play alot longer to do anything. PoE 2 is not for fun or casual players. You just need to treat it as a second job if you want to play it.

Yeah, I get it. Conflating the joy of obtaining goals as enjoying the grind, is in the same league as conflating simplify with stupify and balance with backtrack and restriction, but hey, they always had issues, and with Tencent in and Chris out....
No Intelligence Over-ride to keep them in check or push them to fix.....

Biggest let-down was expectation of something alot less janky... smoother.
Some of the jank can be fixed with support gems, but you can only have one each, so you have to loose your fun and choices to fix bad mechanical.

Most developers poop on their potential, but luckily, unlike them GGG has consistently brought out new potential to replace the lost past potential.

I hope that all parties involved realize; given time, all things become copied and out of date and loose value. GGG should have cleaned house and brought their best for this one, but instead bailed the commander and left it for 'others'.

Whatever happens with this game is going to be the be all and end all for their career, maybe even their life.
It is going to either set them up for life or it is going to make them a Jester to glorify those who have left or moved on.

Someone has clearly just been midlessly grinding and hasn't spent enough time pondering and is loosing sight of the goal.
On the other hand someone else has spent too much time basking in the glory of other peoples work and needs get off his cardboard pedestal and start listening and interacting with staff and grind and put some effort in.
GGG became great as a New Zealand company. It will loose everything if it becomes a chinese face-maker company for a bitsa and tencent.
Wake the @#$% up both of you! lol

"

Shortwings#1741 wrote:

When you say "vast majority" of the player base, do you have some actual data on this or is this just vibes. You also say 4% which is pretty specific, but you haven't offered any evidence besides vibes. I feel like the forums just get a bit negative around launches, because most ppl who enjoy the game are probably playing it instead of talking about it.

"

And to your point about crafting, there is no crafting.
YOLO Slamming is the only crafting method available.

During the campaign, I actually quite like this, it makes me excited every time I see a treasure chest. In POE1 those don't even register to the player. Not sure what will happen in the end game and how good or plentiful chaos orb crafting will be.

You can probably look at the ladders and figure it out, but from what I see the vast majority of ruthless characters that do exist are abandoned at a level which indicates they almost certainly didn't even get far into campaign. I've literally never met someone outside of this forum who even plays ruthless. Anecdotal, sure, but if you think my estimate is off I'm open to revising my opinion. From what I can tell, almost nobody is even giving it a shot.

The quantity of crafting materials isn't the issue. It is the fact that there is no advanced crafting. Everything is yolo slamming and praying. That is not a sustainable endgame. Good gear will be almost impossible to attain for normal players.

I am sure that forums are negative around launch, but much of the negativity I am seeing is coming from long-time GGG supporters, people who wanted POE 2 to be great, heck, people who have spent thousands in supporter packs.

it's just a massive disappointment all around. Any fun I had with it was because of the illusion of progress, and I'm not even someone who thinks it's "too hard"

it simply isn't fun, and I am scratching my head asking why they thought it was a good idea to build a game around their least popular mode.

It's not ruthless because you get roughly the right amount of drops the game is designed for. It could be about 15% better yeah. But if you want poe1-levels of drops in this game, you're going to get poe1-levels of mindless gameplay too. Then people start asking for campaign skip, and the whole circus begins again.