Quitting POE2 if it has the same types of nerfs and POE1

My friends and I have played POE on and off since early access. We are working professionals with families who don't have too much time to grind, calculate everything on a spreadsheet, or constantly peruse the trading site. POE1 was relatively accessible to us with the proper build guide, but what made me, and subsequently the rest of us, quit were the nerfs.

We would build a character with time and effort, only to find that within a few months or less, our build was completely unusable due to nerfs, changing of mechanics, or changing of the passive tree. It was annoying to start over again because we don't have the time to go through everything and test if a build was actually good, and to grind/trade for items we need, only to finally get what we needed and then have the build be bricked. We quit POE1.

I understand the need for nerfs. Part of the beauty of POE is that you can create these crazy combinations of skills, passives, items... that culminate into a very fun experience. However, the numbers can get too high in the players' favor and break the intended gameplay. I get that. But the unintended (or intended?) consequence of bricking a build that one-hits the final boss is that any build that uses the mechanics, skills, or items that were nerfed would be negatively affected, even if they don't one-hit the final boss. I've never had a build that was good enough to one-hit bosses on maps simply due to time limitations. I've had fun builds that can take them down quickly, but those were all nerfed hard enough that they didn't work anymore.

The balance between not allowing top players to one-hit everything, but still allowing casual players to have fun is an unsolved and difficult problem. The only balance I can think of is to propose is a tiered damage dropoff. Evaluate the most challenging boss of the season's stats, and if a hit by a player would remove more than 15% of that boss' life, then divide the hit damage by some percentage once the damage is more than the 15% threshold. If it would do more than 30% of the boss' life, divide it by much more once it hits the 30% threshold. This is just an example and real numbers can vary of course. This way, crazy builds can stay crazy, and not break gameplay, and at the same time, players who aren't at the top ranks won't have any interruption of experience. This is just a thought, and perhaps there are other solutions that would better address the issue.

The main point is that if POE2 has the same problem of top player builds being nerfed and trickling down the nerf to casual players, then I won't stay long. It's not fun to spend time and effort on a build that is mid-tier, only to have it all wasted because there is an inaccessible (to me) version of the build that can do amazing things.

We need lots and lots of nerfs to overpowered builds. People "losing their character" is a total joke. It's in standard bro it's already dead. Nerfs should be hard and brutal.

If the answer is to "do better", then it's an easy pass to just play a different game. I understand not allowing overpowered builds, but I just don't like that it hits me hard.

Maybe that means that I and my friends are simply not the audience for this game. That's fine and we'll take our time/money to a different game. But this is simply my feedback for GGG to keep us and our continued business. We are happy to buy packs to keep GGG going, but not if the game isn't fun.

The real main problem of PoE2 is that it is still too similar to PoE1 in endgame while they talked how it would be different.
Endgame is still about killing masses of enemies before they kill you, still favoring builds that clear screens with least clicks and skills used.
Only difference is that crazy enemy damage starts in T1 maos where in PoE1 it started in red maps making the whole experience worse.

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PxstelStxrs7713#8942 wrote:

The real main problem of PoE2 is that it is still too similar to PoE1 in endgame while they talked how it would be different.
Endgame is still about killing masses of enemies before they kill you, still favoring builds that clear screens with least clicks and skills used.
Only difference is that crazy enemy damage starts in T1 maos where in PoE1 it started in red maps making the whole experience worse.

That may be the main problem, but it is not the problem that I would quit over. The nerfing of my builds is.

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AngryKoala#0180 wrote:

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PxstelStxrs7713#8942 wrote:

The real main problem of PoE2 is that it is still too similar to PoE1 in endgame while they talked how it would be different.
Endgame is still about killing masses of enemies before they kill you, still favoring builds that clear screens with least clicks and skills used.
Only difference is that crazy enemy damage starts in T1 maos where in PoE1 it started in red maps making the whole experience worse.

That may be the main problem, but it is not the problem that I would quit over. The nerfing of my builds is.

GGG's office taking notes right now: ''Remember to ask AngryKoala#0180`s FOTM build before nerfs or they quit(the guy without a single supporter badge)''

That's actually what businesses do. They ask their customers what they are looking for. And that's what feedback is for, which is why I'm posting in the feedback forum. It's silly to ignore feedback from paying customers.

You don't need to buy supporter packs to send GGG money.

I mean you are playing early access, it is kind of expected that there will be buffs and nerfs more often.

Except you are leaving a veiled threat towards the developers "if you do this devs then...."

Probably not what you should do if you want your feedback taken seriously or read by the developers. They have even stated they will disregard passive aggressiveness, so starting off your title with a threat towards the staff you can guarantee you already lost their interest.

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Tungdîl#4170 wrote:

I mean you are playing early access, it is kind of expected that there will be buffs and nerfs more often.

Certainly, I'm not saying that I've experienced this with POE2 yet, and variations are expected in EA. I'm saying that if POE2 has the same policy that POE1 did, then for me, it is not worth my time. I'm getting my feedback in early before the stable release.