GGG, you won against this new player to the franchise.

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kelzod#3040 wrote:

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Ren_Leaf#7270 wrote:

You guys ever stop for a second and think maybe "you" is the problem?

Game is fine, needs some tuning here and there, sure. But it's not unbeatable, many people have already cleared all endgame ubers so... maybe cry less and try to improve or just play an easier game

It is a "me" problem and I don't enjoy theorycrafting. Everything I have tried is unfun, so I am just giving up. It's definitely not for me and every criticism I see people make is met with "you should quit" posts. so I will find something else instead. the labs got me in poe1 and this just isn't fun at all

Then leave if you don’t enjoy the game. If theory crafting isn’t up your alley then look up someone else’s build. The reason why people are getting harsh feedback is because they come to the forum and trash the game with unwarranted rage posts.

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Vomk#2797 wrote:

Really hope GGG dont cave in and listen to all these cry baby posts. The game is not too hard, if a certain boss is too hard for you then go back and farm some more which the game is all about, farming items.

Check vendors for upgrades every level. If you have decent gear and your dps still suck then its your build, maybe do some changes there.
If you play standard you can get away with very low resistances.

The game difficulty is not the same to every class.

sorcerer has much better time than warrior, Doesn't matter if there was a bug or not.

Very limited builds that work for late game at the moment with just mace available, and can still get 1 shot on many circumstances.

Difficulty level seems fine, but a lot deaths didn't feel it was deserved. I mean A LOT.

POE2 has been amazing so far. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the passion from a dev team, and an even longer time since I’ve been this excited about a game. The last game that gave me this kind of sensation was Divinity: Original Sin II. I’m truly grateful for the hard work the dev team has put into this game—my experience with POE2 has been overwhelmingly positive except for two things:

1. The Trials of Ascendancy
These feel terrible and absolutely gave me a long and painful mental breakdown. I think there are two major reasons:

No sense of accomplishment: Successfully completing the trials doesn’t feel rewarding at all. The design is so punishing that, rather than satisfaction, all players feel is relief that they don’t have to endure the suffering for a while.Contrast with boss fights,almost all the boss fights in the game are incredibly engaging. Some are harder than others, but they’re balanced in a way that even when I died repeatedly, I didn’t feel depressed or demoralized. I could see where I needed to improve, and when I finally beat a boss—whether by mastering attack patterns or upgrading my gear and skill gems—I felt accomplished. The trials, on the other hand, are pure suffering.

The mechanics are not engaging: What do the trials offer? All I’m doing is dodging mobs’ attacks, and even if I dodge well, it’s not something to feel proud of. On top of that, some attacks are nearly impossible to dodge in the first place. When I finally manage to survive to the final stage, one accidental mistake wipes out all the hard work and resets the entire trial. That feels absolutely terrible.

For context: I’ve been engaged in high-level content in World of Warcraft for the past eight years, including Mythic raiding (cutting edge achievements) and high-end Mythic+ dungeons, which are some of the hardest content the game offers. I’m no stranger to dodging mechanics or difficult challenges. But the Trials are on a different level—they’re demoralizing.

2. No way to retrieve loot after death
This is particularly problematic when a unique item drops, and you die watching. It feels incredibly unfair and disheartening. Other items aren’t much of a problem, but rare drops should be sent to the player once they appear, regardless of whether they’ve been picked up or not.

Here are a few suggestions I believe could make the Trials more enjoyable.:

1. Allow multiple chances before failing the entire trial.
For example, give players three deaths before failing completely. When a player dies, they could revive at the last stage’s checkpoint, with honor and other progress restored to that point. That said, I understand that the Trials are not, and should not be, a walk in the park—they’re meant to act as gatekeepers. However, I firmly believe that the first Trial should serve as a soft introduction rather than a reason for players to quit. Later Trials, like the third or fourth Ascendancy, could present more of a challenge, but the first Ascendancy, in my humble opinion, should be easier to accommodate the average player. Right now, if the first Ascendancy isn’t completed, it becomes very difficult to progress through the campaign. This is especially true for certain classes—notably the Witch—where the lack of Ascendancy makes the experience significantly more frustrating. FYI. I am playing with one of my female friends and she cried her heart out after trying the Ascendancy trial. She was absolutely annihilated, like all her effort was for nothing. It wasn’t just frustration— it was real anguish and torment, like she’d hit a wall she couldn’t get past. Watching her go through that was honestly heartbreaking. A game shouldn’t make someone feel this way. And she is also no stranger to dodging, and not new to gaming. She still hasn’t completed the Trials to this day. Honestly, I’m the only reason she’s still playing the game at all. We both think the game is an absolute masterpiece, but this part—the Trials—feels completely out of place. It’s like a thorn in an otherwise flawless experience.

2. Replace current mechanics with more exciting ones.
Dodging ground effects is an awful and boring mechanic. It doesn’t give players any sense of accomplishment when they succeed. It’s just tedious.

3. Keep player mistakes in mind when designing challenges especially early on.
If one mistake vaporizes all the effort a player has put in, that’s generally poor design. Imagine working hard for a full year and then not getting paid because of a single error—that would feel awful. Players shouldn’t lose everything because of a mistake or two.

I absolutely love this game, and I know the developer team listens to the community. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and consider these suggestions. I haven’t played POE1, so I’m not sure if these ideas overlap with anything from that game, but the current state of the Trials could really use improvement.

That was a very... confused OP ngl. I imagine everything under the "
Couple of things he said" was him talking, not you, but the way you formated your text makes it very... hard to get.
Anyway...

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Foremost28#5787 wrote:

y should I have to go to a marketplace to trade with other players to find gear for my build? That defeats the purpose of me playing the game for myself, I dont want to trade with ppl. D2 had that, an you would spend hours in trade lobbies. If that is what this game is about, its a trash game, hands down."

It's hard to disagree with that and I'll be real with you, I'd rather have a game where I "build myself" than one where trading (aka farm exal to buy stuff and some time get lucky and drop something you can't use but can sale for exal) is the core experience.
What Killed D3 auction house was the fact that you stopped playing for the Loot, you started playing for the gold that you could turn into loot via the AH. It was very lame, and PoE2 does that in some way.

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Foremost28#5787 wrote:

The loot is trash.
The 'crafting' system is garbo unless you buy stuff from the market because you get so few drops when your salvaging mats.

This is also hard to disagree with.
The loot feels very bad, you almost never get something you can use, and when you do it's often feel like you swapped some number on the very same item you've carried since act 1. Your character look never change (and I know, GGG makes money via cosmetics, but still).

The "crafting" feels also very bad, you are constantly at the mercy of a exponential RNG that require you to use the very currency the trading use.
Why would you ever spend an Exal early on to MAYBE "kinda improve" an item when you can just buy one way more powerful for the same Exal?
Sure, the problem vanish later down the line when you start manipulating dozens and dozens of exals in trade, but when you start, the power boost that single exal can net you via trade is infinitely higher than the power you'll get from just using it to craft.

"

Foremost28#5787 wrote:

This game is not new player friendly, its for the hardcore PoE fanbase an thats not me.

This point I'll disagree with tho.
The problem isn't "it's not new player friendly", it's that your friend didn't want to engage in the "player driven economy" of the game. I'd say that this economy is EXTREMELY new player friendly as it will give new players extremely strong starter gear for the exal they'll drop early on.

Now the question is "does this lead to good gameplay experience"?
Kinda?
Instead of looking for items you look for currencies that you can turn into items, and you can gamble away to try to turn good items its VERY good items.

If you wanted my opinion, I think the game would probably feel infinitely better if it was designed without trading in mind, where every player can have a decent chance to find good gear and can reasonably produce great items with the crafting system, but this isn't what the game is. This isn't a solo game, it's a always online "community game" with which comes with good and bad.

The real problem imho is the fact that the game does a very, VERY poor job of telling new players that. It doesn't explain to you that the Trading is the core of the game, its what makes you exited to loot currencies or good items you cant use and look forward to be able to get new items via trading. In a way, the market acts as a safety net where you'll always be able to get upgrades if you play long enough, even if you never loot the very rare item yourself.

And since the game do not tell you ANY of that, as a new player you are just confused as to why all the gear you find is awful (because it is) and don't even realize that the little statue heads you have been dropping let and right are actually the "good loot" that will greatly improve your character power.

The fact that the trading is so ... "annex" to the game itself do make it feel like you are cheating in some way, exploiting something that is clearly not intended by the game and so I don't blame your friend for his reaction as its totally natural.

I've already made a post about it here, but let's just say the game need to first accept that trading is a part of it, and then ensure it's integrated and properly presented to new players in a way that they understand and enjoy it as a part of the game instead of raging at how unfulfilling their solo experience is.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3645119

As a member of the PoE fanbase... It's definitely not for us lmao

"

Foremost28#5787 wrote:

So, my Merc friend finally gave in.

Tried Chaos trials, get to the boss...die.
Did that 4 times.

Couple of things he said
"If Im playing an ARPG for myself, why should I have to go to a marketplace to trade with other players to find gear for my build? That defeats the purpose of me playing the game for myself, I dont want to trade with ppl. D2 had that, an you would spend hours in trade lobbies. If that is what this game is about, its a trash game, hands down."

So, with that, an yes I paid for the unfinished beta test too, Im out.

This game is not new player friendly, its for the hardcore PoE fanbase an thats not me.
The loot is trash.
The 'crafting' system is garbo unless you buy stuff from the market because you get so few drops when your salvaging mats.
Im here to play for myself, not for others.
Ive tried doing a build for warrior that 'wasnt what I wanted' an it does such little damage, its garbo as well. Fun factor with melee is -100 for warrior.
"You NEED RESISTANCES!!!" Ok? What if Im not getting lucky with drops? "THE MARKET PLACE YOU BOOB!" No, I dont want to trade with other players, Im playing solo for myself, adjust loot. D4 started with RM AH, an we all saw how that went, but this is a staple of PoE, so its auto trash. Im sorry.
Spending an absurd about to respec is fucking stupid. It took WoW YEARS to go to free respecs because its the future of gaming, not an archaic time in gaming.

Well, Hardcore PoE fanbase an GGG, you won against this new player to the franchise. It needs alot of work, but sadly I wont be back.
Take care you all in your new game!
I hope you make it a game that caters to the hardcore fanbase since its a real toxic fanbase you have catered too.

The game is not balanced around trading at all. It is just you that expects way to much in a short span of time.

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sephrinx#7591 wrote:

Sadly the game is balanced around an over abundance of trade items.

Which means the average player and solo player will greatly suffer. It's a huge issue many complain about.

GGG refuses to balance the game around ssf.

Thats exactly the same problem D3 had on launch in order to drive RMAH traffic.

Does Tencent have a controlling interest in a major Chinese RMT group?

I'm also not playing until they make major mechanical changes. They desperately need to make act 1 easier and more enjoyable. Leveling a new character is painful and boring for most classes. This is not a unique problem, diablo has it too.

I am also forced to agree that the gem system isn't very intuitive and seems like a system to generate tab sales. I think that the gems should either be levelless, only have a few levels, or level with your character. The system is over engineered. Waiting for support gems to drop is tedious.

I would love to sit in town, recut gems and respec my tree for hours with my witch/sorc hybrid, but I'd have to grind for both gems and gold. The alternative is to watch other people's builds so I don't hit a wall of death and boredom or use outside tools to spec and buildcraft. Is this the gameplay the devs want? I'd rather build them and see if they fly, but respec and gem costs don't make it worth the time. I don't care if it "works the best." I want to test skills and find the gameplay that is viable and fun on my own, but it simply costs too much in game.

I suppose I could trade for uncut support gems, but I should have planned ahead instead of using my currency to improve my equipment. How is a new player supposed to know that they should use an external site to trade. Why am I forced to buy a premium tab to sell. None of this is in any tutorial. Having to use a browser to engage with the trading is a laughably poor idea. Just integrate something similar into the game itself.

The gameplay is great, but I'd rather complain on here to try to instigate change than grind due to these barriers to my enjoyment.

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Skellymancer#5263 wrote:

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Delythyx#5706 wrote:

No they arent. They just use their head. You dont have enough luck to get resistances? False. You vendored/didint pick them up because u valued rushing/other stats. Now deal with it.

I do not have recording of my first run...

But I can assure you, for ENTIRE ACT 2, I have picked and tried to craft every single crossbow that dropped. And there was literally NOTHING good.

I checked the shop first every 2 levels, and after panic, started checking it EVERY level.

Nothing.

It is RNG after all.

Side note; if you want to play a ranged class, play ranger. Merc sucks because xbow mechanics suck.