"Job Quests" for ascendancies, (à la FFXIV)

Hi GGG, Hi all,

Someone suggested this in a thread, and I keep thinking how good this would be! So I just have to write this.

For those who don't know the system: in FFXIV, there is a side quest chain that you follow to unlock your class (called "job" in that game) skills. They are gated behind level, but I guess that could be ditched or adjusted.
Anyway, the thing about these quests it that they aren't just garbage content, they are actually engaging storylines of moderate challenge (that could be adjusted also ofc) that hugely increase the flavour of the character you're playing. Really a great system in my opinion.

But, random mediocre gamer man, how do you implement that in POE2 (or 1 for that matter) ?
The ultimate goal I would say is to have quests specific to each ascendancy. 36 quest lines! You're crazy! I hear you say.
No need to put them all at once. May be first introduce the system with a generic quest line (that's 4 quests, or sets of quests, I guess to keep the current approach, the 4th being in maps). Then, have thematic leagues, where you introduce the questlines for one / a few classes (the entire class, Ranger for example). The first set for choosing the ascendancy would be shared, but then they fork.

Technically you meet an NPC he tells you to go kill stuff or go through some trial, and obviously kill a boss because X, Y or Z. The more thematic to the ascendancy the better obviously, the whole being to add that flavour and lore (I know POE isn't primarily about lore, but come on, you ended up creating a great universe and some of us I think would love to dive deeper (not talking about you Steve! :p )).

You want more motivation ($$ :)): it could be introduced as "seasonal content" to bring the players so inclined to explore these new stories + it would encourage players to try more classes and ascendancies for these stories.

The cons: obviously it could be a lot of work, and depending on how it's implemented could also require balancing... alternatively you can have the choice to do that or the generic trial, but it again needs to be balanced enough so people aren't completely disincentivised from doing them, then it would be done for nothing...
Certainly a lot of other complications. I don't know man, I'm not a game designer :)

So there it is, I think it would be awesome. What do you exiles think ?

While this doesn't feel like it fits the flow or story of PoE at first glance, I would gladly take this over the current ultimatum/sanctum options.


How we ascend needs to be more player-friendly and immersive than what it is presently so I welcome any brain-storming on how to improve what it is today.

"

Bellatrixxe#2627 wrote:

While this doesn't feel like it fits the flow or story of PoE at first glance,

That might be true indeed, but there were side quests in POE1, it wasn't an issue. In its most basic form that could be it, no need to specialise for classes, that's additionnal fluff.
The main thing is no need in my opinion to have some "special" different gameplay for ascendancy, so just let us kill stuff, and for the challenge, kill harder stuff, a boss. That's it :)