Please make the campaign harder

Its not even that hard either in 0.1 release, or in 0.2 release. Nothing is hard gameplay wise in this game, all you have to do is follow PoE 1 formula of high damage, high mobility, enough defense. The only thing that is "hard" in this game is getting the right gear with the right stat, and its not even difficulty, its just an illusion of difficulty because randomization.

Neither PoE 1, 0.1 and 0.2 before nerfs are getting difficulty right. GGG can't yet differentiate challenging / hard with punishing. And they probably won't because the game is structured around trading and itemization in which that is where the "challenge" lies, in which just the same like PoE 1, and ultimately just the same game like PoE 1 with prettier graphic and added dodge roll. But the core gameplay is just the same, kill fast, move fast, be efficient.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

That's not the reason for less build diversity.

While PoE2 is missing some weapon types, thus gems and items, it already has a lot to offer on paper.

Gem Summary PoE1 - 693
Gem Summary PoE2 - 585

The biggest reason why PoE2 has less build diversity is restrictions.

Most skills are tied to one single weapon type. Attributes for many things are so tight, that it's not worth it or even possible to make stuff that's mixed up.
Even ascendancies are more specified than generalised. The passive tree has less to offer to explore other functions. Things are often not available to other archetypes.

The freedom to actually create a build is boiled down in PoE2.
If GGG would remove these restrictions, as it is in PoE1, we would have far greater build diversity.

First of all, that gem summary is vague and doesn't account for what are skills and what are support gems. I would argue there are significantly less skill gems in PoE2 then in PoE1 by far if we were to count them. Perhaps you can do that if you have nothing better to do and come with those numbers to the table? (how many actual skill gems are in PoE1 versus PoE2). But let's go beyond that and take those numbers, that I assume are correct, at face value.

Gem Summary PoE1 - 693 -> Game launched over 10 years ago.
Gem Summary PoE2 - 585 -> Game launched last year.

If you consider the number of gems there are, while almost half of the weapon types are missing and gems associated, that already shows a lot of promise on it's own. Not to mention that they might even add more then the ones missing in the future.

But let's go beyond that, as you indirectly pointed out, in PoE2 you can use 2 different weapons at the same time, something that you don't quite have in PoE1. This by itself is a completely new avenue for build creation and diversity.

Now, we could argue that skill gem stat requirements are too high. That is probably the only debatable/fair point you've made so far. I could see them being lower to promote the use of weapon swapping much more. OR... make the "reduced attribute requirements" stat on weapons reduce afferent skill gem requirements as well. Thus making that suffix much more impactful and desirable in the game overall as well.

However ... there already are weapons that have mostly overlapping stat requirements and most PoE1 people aren't even trying to combine those. In fact there is one blatant example at the moment where 2 weapon types and their associated gems have the exact same stat requirements. Those are Bows and Spears. Yet a lot of people simply aren't trying to combine these yet despite there being a lot of possibilities between them. You said you have a Ritualist that you abandoned, here's something for you to try and theorycraft.. try and make a bow + spear build, without lightning spear obviously. Want a hint for a possible interaction too? Sure.. I can see an obvious one at a glance between shockchain arrow and storm lance. Try something with that.

Moreover... the missing weapons will provide more stat overlap and options for weapon swapping. For example... my assumption is that flails will probabily have a strength requirement (or str + int), swords will have str + dex, I assume axes will be just str like maces, daggers will probably have just a dex requirement same as bows and spears...

In short, people aren't even trying the options they have to their fullest and the game is still far from complete to allow even more of it...

What you're saying about ascendancies being restrictive is nonsense. Literally everything I've played so far was "unconventional".

My builds so far: Minion Titan, Staff and two-hand mace Titan, Deadeye Crossbow and the one I was currently theorycrafting on was Staff ritualist with a possible spear swap.

I think a harder campaign like this would only be viable if it was significantly shorter. I wouldn’t have an issue with that tradeoff at all.

No one is going to play a 100h campaign every season though. This is a sure fire way to kill your game.

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IonSugeRau1#1069 wrote:

First of all, that gem summary is vague and doesn't account for what are skills and what are support gems. I would argue there are significantly less skill gems in PoE2 then in PoE1 by far if we were to count them. Perhaps you can do that if you have nothing better to do and come with those numbers to the table? (how many actual skill gems are in PoE1 versus PoE2). But let's go beyond that and take those numbers, that I assume are correct, at face value.

Gem Summary PoE1 - 693 -> Game launched over 10 years ago.
Gem Summary PoE2 - 585 -> Game launched last year.

Doesn't matter because you create builds with skills and support gems.
Furthermore, while PoE1 is over 10 years old, most gems have been added over these 10 years. It even counters your point because PoE1 had way less gems over the years compared to PoE2 in EA.

"

If you consider the number of gems there are, while almost half of the weapon types are missing and gems associated, that already shows a lot of promise on it's own. Not to mention that they might even add more then the ones missing in the future.

Doesn't matter because most currently available skills are not usable with the missing weapon types anyway.
What I already pointed out as a reason for less build diversity.

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But let's go beyond that, as you indirectly pointed out, in PoE2 you can use 2 different weapons at the same time, something that you don't quite have in PoE1. This by itself is a completely new avenue for build creation and diversity.

Depends. You can have two weapon sets in PoE1 too. Only QoL with autoswap is missing, and you don't have separate points to spend on weapon sets.

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Now, we could argue that skill gem stat requirements are too high. That is probably the only debatable/fair point you've made so far.

It's not the only fair point. Next.

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In short, people aren't even trying the options they have to their fullest adn the game is still far from complete to allow even more of it...

What you're saying about ascendancies being restrictive is nonsense. Literally everything I've played so far was "unconventional".

Meaningless. It's only your subjective experience, while the nodes on ascendancies literally prove you wrong.

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My builds so far: Minion Titan, Staff and two-hand mace Titan, Deadeye Crossbow and the one I was currently theorycrafting on was Staff ritualist with a possible spear swap.

Plays three builds and thinks his view has more value when I already told you that I have full-cleared the game on 10 characters with multiple builds on each - excluding pure testing.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

Plays three builds and thinks his view has more value when I already told you that I have full-cleared the game on 10 characters with multiple builds on each - excluding pure testing.

What have you experimented with again? Have you tried anything with weapon swapping? This league you told me you played essence drain and lightning spear like any other guy that copies builds from streamers in a brain-dead fashion. What interactions have you tried and what build ideas have you tinkered with? You're literally giving me 0 examples of that.

Also every one of your counter arguments is "doesn't matter" followed by 0 logic arguments. Do you even read what you write? I can't even reply to most of what you say because it's literally just plain denial or you're contradicting yourself in the same sentences.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

You can have two weapon sets in PoE1 too. Only QoL with autoswap is missing, and you don't have separate points to spend on weapon sets.

Aside from the fact that you prove yourself wrong in the same sentence, amazing... here's some food for thought for you... can you show me any PoE1 viable builds that use weapon swap and different skills with said weapons?

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

Meaningless. It's only your subjective experience, while the nodes on ascendancies literally prove you wrong.

Do you understand how dumb this statement is? You're essentially saying that the fact that different ascendancies worked for me on different builds, is a subjective thing somehow.. when it's clearly an objective fact. Literally nothing of what I've tried would have worked if things were subjective. You make 0 sense.

For example, Once you spec in the node on Tactician that makes your projectiles have Pin buildup... that's just what happens from now on, objectively. Also yes.. if people actually tried they would realize that that works even with certain spells that have the projectile tag.

Also please do tell me, what nodes prove me wrong exactly?

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IonSugeRau1#1069 wrote:

What have you experimented with again? Have you tried anything with weapon swapping? This league you told me you played essence drain and lightning spear like any other guy that copies builds from streamers in a brain-dead fashion. What interactions have you tried and what build ideas have you tinkered with? You're literally giving me 0 examples of that.

I did not play "Lightning Spear". Anyway.
And while I tested a few things in 0.2, it doesn't matter for the argumentation because the poor build diversity is not an isolated problem with 0.2, it's a problem with the entire game.
You can obviously say, "This amount of build diversity is something I consider as enough", but my innitial point was "In comparison to PoE1 because of presented reasons".

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Aside from the fact that you prove yourself wrong in the same sentence, amazing... here's some food for thought for you... can you show me any PoE1 viable builds that use weapon swap and different skills with said weapons?

You claimed: "in PoE2 you can use 2 different weapons at the same time, something that you don't quite have in PoE1." while it is possible to make builds that use both weapon sets. So I did not prove myself wrong. Like... what?!
The "weapon swap tech" is nothing PoE2 invented... only the QoL is way better and the options on the tree...

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For example, Once you spec in the node on Tactician that makes your projectiles have Pin buildup... that's just what happens from now on, objectively. Also yes.. if people actually tried they would realize that that works even with certain spells that have the projectile tag.

Cool story.

Blood Mage:
The first node "Sanguimancy" adds the life cost to spells and attacks, so you might think the asendancy is fully open for both skill types, you know, because the downside is for both, but the node "Vitality Siphon" lets you only leech with spells, and the node "Sunder the Flesh" adds only crit to spells.

And that's not exclusive to "Blood Mage".

Compare that to "Elementalist" in PoE1. Every single ascendancy node works on a spellcaster or attack build because it's generalised and not specified.

OP, i can respect your desire to have more challenge in campaign. but even elden ring will become easy if you play through it enough. suppose ggg make its harder as per your request... you will learn and overcome it and it will be back to the same situation. do we infinitely increase the campaign difficulty until you are satisfied? there will come a point where even you, a god gamer, will think its unfair and too difficult. there will also be similar problems when catering towards players who say to make the campaign easier. balance is hard.

sometimes when that challenge isnt available, you got to impose some restrictions yourself. like those darksouls players doing no hit run with no gear, or only using two shield as weapons.

ive seen some of your other replies, but you should still consider HC. you are disregarding the psychological effect of HC's one life characters that it has on difficulty.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

I did not play "Lightning Spear". Anyway.
And while I tested a few things in 0.2, it doesn't matter for the argumentation because the poor build diversity is not an isolated problem with 0.2, it's a problem with the entire game.
You can obviously say, "This amount of build diversity is something I consider as enough", but my innitial point was "In comparison to PoE1 because of presented reasons".

Again "doesn't matter", and again you dodge telling me anything you supposedly tested. Which leads me to believe yet again that you tested nothing and just copied streamers and poe ninja builds.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

You claimed: "in PoE2 you can use 2 different weapons at the same time, something that you don't quite have in PoE1." while it is possible to make builds that use both weapon sets. So I did not prove myself wrong. Like... what?!
The "weapon swap tech" is nothing PoE2 invented... only the QoL is way better and the options on the tree...

1.Show me another ARPG that gives you weapon swap points.
2.Again, you literally said so yourself, the QoL improvements and the weapon swap points make this possible.
3.Yet again, I ask you to show me those viable builds with weapon swap and different skills in PoE1.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

Cool story.

When you have 0 arguments you deflect with "doesn't matter" or stuff of the like, what a surprise you did it again here with "cool story"... can you deny what I've said about those nodes on Tactician? No? Of course not.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

Blood Mage:
The first node "Sanguimancy" adds the life cost to spells and attacks, so you might think the asendancy is fully open for both skill types, you know, because the downside is for both, but the node "Vitality Siphon" lets you only leech with spells, and the node "Sunder the Flesh" adds only crit to spells.

And that's not exclusive to "Blood Mage".

Compare that to "Elementalist" in PoE1. Every single ascendancy node works on a spellcaster or attack build because it's generalised and not specified.

Sigh... brother.. let me prove you yet again how stupid this argument is. Aside from the fact that literally one of the popular builds right now is utilizing blood mage and bleed from spears which is most definitely not a spell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkpJoBEui_g

You want to give PoE1 examples, how funny. Let me give you one as well from PoE1 which goes along your line of "thinking"... aka Templar - Hierophant

Sign of Purpose - Brands have 100% more activation frenquency etc etc
Pursuit of Faith - 100% increased totem placing speed, + 1 max totems etc

You can't play anything else other then brands or totems with these, they single it out, do they not?

In fact, have another one: Witch - Necromancer

More then half of this ascendancy is literally dedicated to minions

Minions have unholy might, minions have increased hp, minions this minions that.... What ascendancy from PoE2 singles out minions as bad as this one in PoE1? What ascendancy in general singles out a single skill type at all for that matter in PoE2?

Aside from the fact that this argument is extremely dumb, it literally makes your case worse for PoE1... literally 0 logic again.

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IonSugeRau1#1069 wrote:

Again "doesn't matter", and again you dodge telling me anything you supposedly tested. Which leads me to believe yet again that you tested nothing and just copied streamers and poe ninja builds.

Bruh... you believe that "everyone except me copies streamers and poe.ninja" nonsense anyway.
I even have a fully written guide here on this forum.

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1.Show me another ARPG that gives you weapon swap points.
2.Again, you literally said so yourself, the QoL improvements and the weapon swap points make this possible.
3.Yet again, I ask you to show me those viable builds with weapon swap and different skills in PoE1.

No, you are misrepresenting what I said.
You claimed that weapon swap is a PoE2 thing and I told you, it's not; it only got additional functions like "automated" and "specific points".

You have builds that use "Toxic Rain" for single target and swap their weapon to "Caustic Arrow" for mapping.
You have bleed builds weapon swapping for "Ensnaring Arrow".
You have builds that swap to "Redblade Banner" for rage build up and then damage with their main weapon.
There is even weird tech like "Ralakesh", where you use weapon swap so you lose the attributes to "wear" these boots, so you can swap back to gain their effect again, and so on.

"

Sigh... brother.. let me prove you yet again how stupid this argument is. Aside from the fact that literally one of the popular builds right now is utilizing blood mage and bleed from spears which is most definitely not a spell.

And that someone is using a spear on a Blood mage does change the fact that the mentioned nodes do nothing for attacks how!?

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

Bruh... you believe that "everyone except me copies streamers and poe.ninja" nonsense anyway.
I even have a fully written guide here on this forum.

First of all, that's not how quotations work, you actually have to quote something I've said... where have I ever said those words? Here's one you can quote in the future though: what I actually believe is that a lot of PoE1 diehards are clueless and copy builds from streamers and PoE ninja because they can't be bothered to come up with something themselves, and then come on the forums and complain about build diversity without having tried anything else.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

No, you are misrepresenting what I said.
You claimed that weapon swap is a PoE2 thing and I told you, it's not; it only got additional functions like "automated" and "specific points".

You have builds that use "Toxic Rain" for single target and swap their weapon to "Caustic Arrow" for mapping.
You have bleed builds weapon swapping for "Ensnaring Arrow".
You have builds that swap to "Redblade Banner" for rage build up and then damage with their main weapon.
There is even weird tech like "Ralakesh", where you use weapon swap so you lose the attributes to "wear" these boots, so you can swap back to gain their effect again, and so on.

You don't understand the point of weapon swapping in PoE2 even though they even showed it in some of their promotional material... you are supposed to combo skills together from different weapon types to get different results... this is not a thing in PoE1... the examples you've given me are yet again proof of that...

And again, swapping weapons in PoE1 isn't even close to being a feature used by most builds. You don't combo skills together in that way at all in PoE1 which is why I've said "you don't quite have in PoE1".

I myself have used weapon swap in a cheesy way in PoE1 once but it was not a proper feature by any means and it was extremely lackluster to say the least (Animate weapon of self reflection with weapon swap). AGAIN.. This is NOT the same thing.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

And that someone is using a spear on a Blood mage does change the fact that the mentioned nodes do nothing for attacks how!?

Read what "Blood Barbs" node does. While you're at it, read what "Between the cracks" does too... not relevant for that bleed case but, again, just read it.

Also you talk about those two or three nodes that are more specific for spell but when I pointed out to you that the same thing but WORSE is present in PoE1 ... you somehow have nothing to say about that for PoE1? What do you think about the design of those nodes and ascendancies in PoE1?

Yeah I know what you have to say about that.. probably "Doesn't matter"