Does this game have a low skill ceiling?

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LumduL wrote:

I'm approaching level 40 and I feel like the skill ceiling for this game is far, far too low.

I don't think preparing a good build is skill. That's just preparation, which any middle school educated person can do. Skill is APM. I have a 0.97 cast time on my spells means 60 apm, which is pitifully low skill ceiling.

If I remember correctly, a well organized, geared caster in D2 had enough faster cast rate to get about 3-4 casts a second, or 180 to 240 apm. Furthermore, the game had a lot of utility spells to save you, which I don't see much of in this game.

In my opinion, both the utility skills and APM are what make a high skill ceiling. Knowing when to flee and fleeing in a timely manner.

If I am wrong about the utility skills, or I have a VERY low faster cast speed, feel free to say so. I've only reached level 40 on cruel.

In D2, most people played by holding down the right mouse button, and occasionally switching to an escape skill. APM isn't very meaningful if the actions don't have to be accurate, and by traditional counting the APM for holding down one button for an entire minute is 1, no matter how many in-game spells that casts. Let's not pretend that D2 was a skill testing game. PoE in its current form offers far more mechanical complexity in pretty much every way than D2, and in my experience, you have it completely backwards in terms of which game encourages more use of active skills. FFS, you only had 2 skill binds in D2, and then had secondary hotkeys to swap out those 2 skill slots. That is not a system that encourages active use of several different skills in combat. D2 is faceroll easy compared to PoE. I played from Classic on, and leveled several LoD toons to the mid 90s. D2 was a lot of fun, but it was *not* hard or skill testing. You just had lower standards when you were a decade younger and less experienced with game.

There's definitely room for a lot more mobility skills, but depending on your definition, most successful builds use a wide variety of utility and support skills such as auras, traps, and totems. Situational awareness, targeting priority, and avoiding projectiles and telegraphed special attacks are all very important for higher level play. They haven't had time to add a lot of the skills they want to yet, either, and the way support gems work (especially the really interesting ones like totem), the options available to players will rise exponentially with new skill gems.

PvP is still in its infancy, but it is far more of a design focus than it ever has been in the Diablo series. The skill-testing part of any RPG is generally the PvP, and right now, Path of Exile looks on track to have far better PvP than D3 or TL2 offer.

If you don't consider gathering items and planning specs to be an interesting part of gameplay, though, I have no idea why you would think you would like this game. Those are some of the defining traits of the ARPG genre, and PoE caters to people who want really deep systems for itemization and build planning. If that's "just preparation" to you, save yourself some grief and go play something else. This isn't the genre for you.

D2... as an example of taking more skill? *facepalm*

Dungeon Crawlers are typically more about planning and execution. In terms of this PoE is a lot harder then D2 as its far less forgiving. If your considering 'death' as something you brush off then yes, its very easy. Try playing on Hardcore and tell me how that goes. If you add in not dieing then Dungeon Crawlers can become quite difficult.

Do they require vast amounts of skill? No. They are more about 'numbers' in knowing how to maximize your character which I feel is its own form of skill, requiring a bit of thought and with how the game functions, its very dynamic in what will work and won't work, and a lot depends on the player.

If you want a higher skill ceiling, roll on hardcore. It won't have the highest 'skill cap' but it will be a lot greater then if your on normal just laughing away at death.

Meh yea i dunno. Personally i dont believe many games out in todays market require much skill at all. This doesnt change them being "fun" or not, it just is what it is.

Just my opinion.

Cheers.

PoE has a VERY low skill cieling. If you want to try a game with a very very high skill cieling, go with either Dark Souls or Vidictus (Lann or Vella. Spear tank2win does not count)

casting time depend mainly on spell. I can cast 2 sparks in 1 second where i still have room for improvement.

As of general PvP. I think PoE already have fantastic mechanics in place to create fine PvP matches. Flasks alone are wonderfull idea for PvP fights. Add skill variety more complex mechanics like "high dmg vs low dmg to armor" and it easily outclasses D2 already from pure fun perspective.

PvP still is developed though and it can still be improved to get even more fun from it.