The 3 difficulty mechanic is outdated IMO

-- This is just an opinion and a topic for discussion, so lets not get out of hand here with replies and lets keep it civil for a change. --



Normal, Cruel, Merciless... is what I believe to be an outdated mechanic in my opinion. Does anybody else agree with me from an arpg point of view? Now, I have played hack and slash games like many of you out there since early D2 release. And back then I had no issue with it and how it felt, simply because the game was revolutionary at the time and because the game itself had nothing to work off of as a benchmark from other games.

And I understand that the devs mentioned long ago(I THINK), that with enough acts implemented, the difficulty system will be taken out completely and the levels will just be scaled. However, as it stands, nowadays I find myself less motivated to progress through the game due to this in place. The fact that I have to get through 3 difficulties before I experience endgame is a turn off in my eyes, many of my friends agree as well. Also, every game has an act that feels lack luster and tedious, and this is how I feel about act 3 in POE. It is just so long with its back and forth questing. And every time I complete it, I begin to think that I have to do it yet again.. two more times for a matter of fact.

Now, I am by no means any longer a 'super hardcore' gamer like some are, but I have played my fair share of this game off and on since closed beta, and really enjoy this game and love what GGG has graced us with. I have a few characters around 70-80 in hardcore/nemesis and a few I have been toying around with in Domination. But due to the issue I mentioned above, I am having a hard time getting through he difficulties three times just to get into endgame.

Oh, One last point... This mechanic wasn't some brutal in D2 simply due to the fact that you got rushed the majority of the time, which doesn't really exist here.

Thoughts, ideas... please speak freely but keep it civil folks.

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polak86 wrote:

And I understand that the devs mentioned long ago(I THINK), that with enough acts implemented, the difficulty system will be taken out completely and the levels will just be scaled.

Yes. From what I understand, Act 4 is scheduled to be added sometime around next spring, with another act each year after that. Odds are, once act 4(or at most 5) is added, they'd remove Cruel difficulty, leaving just 2. Then as more acts are added, it could go to something more like how descent races work where you only go through each zone once and after a certain point it just moves to the next "difficulty" setting.

Keep in mind that during closed beta, there used to be *4* difficulties(and only 2 acts), so this process has already started.

it's a mechanic that may be done away with by the time they add enough acts, out dated or not.
The already removed a difficulty with adding act three, they may do the same with act 4

it was 2 acts done 4 time
it's now 3 acts done three times
it may be 4 acts done 2 times

I agree, probably they should just lengthen the acts make all areas larger and add more areas inbetween quests. This would have other downsides.

I guess I like 2 difficulties best. Play once in easy mode and then second difficulty should be challenging and hard to progress.

Couldn't agree more.

I would MUCH rather one play through to level cap, then offer the ability to replay parts of the game on another, much more difficult setting.

I get why they do it, lets triple the length of our game, and we will pretend that some casuals will forever want to stay in the first two difficulties.

POE's map drop system for endgame is a big step forward, but you cant farm them, and the game doesn't offer any form of scaling for higher levels on lower level act maps...on top of the fact that id love to do some worthwhile farming of act 1 and act2 for the scenery change...but its just not worth it since the levels are so low in those areas.

I hate to say it, but D3 got it right with their monster power system (after mob density patch) which made the ability to farm any part of the game a real viable option.

Would love to relive some of the early act maps on a high end character without roflstomping everything and getting no xp and no usable loot.

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CapitalPunishment wrote:

Couldn't agree more.


I hate to say it, but D3 got it right with their monster power system (after mob density patch) which made the ability to farm any part of the game a real viable option.

I also agree with having what D3 has in place sadly. Being able to farm any part of the game instead of relying on act 3 ONLY for maps would do wonders for the game. In the long run they need to have 1 difficulty run for the story, where endgame mapping comes right after that. And to farm maps and such, they need 1 more endgame difficulty to streamline acts 1 - whatever they have in place, so that we can farm ANYWHERE freely instead of being forced to farm the last acts only everytime.

They key issue in the change would be that instead of grinding docks from 30-35 you would grind the Cavern of Wrath from 25-40, three times as many levels in one zone.

It's just to prevent too much repetition, also skill rewards would need to be handed out more often or as 2 and 3 instead of 1 and 2.

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polak86 wrote:

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CapitalPunishment wrote:

Couldn't agree more.


I hate to say it, but D3 got it right with their monster power system (after mob density patch) which made the ability to farm any part of the game a real viable option.

I also agree with having what D3 has in place sadly. Being able to farm any part of the game instead of relying on act 3 ONLY for maps would do wonders for the game. In the long run they need to have 1 difficulty run for the story, where endgame mapping comes right after that. And to farm maps and such, they need 1 more endgame difficulty to streamline acts 1 - whatever they have in place, so that we can farm ANYWHERE freely instead of being forced to farm the last acts only everytime.

2 difficulties in an arpg. "normal" with normal you can hit the level cap and the second difficulty will scale all areas to max level so you can farm where ever the hell you want adding much more variety to the "end game"


I would go for something like that in a heartbeat. I dont think you'll find many people married to the idea of 3 difficulties. I would venture to guess why we are usually stuck with it and why we generally accept it as players is because we know that's a lot to as ask would exponentially extend development time and costs and just generally not realistically doable with out a game being in development for more than a decade. PoE is in a unique position to do something like this over time though I think and I for one would welcome it.

All I know is that every time I get to act 3, my fun halts completely. Act 1-2 is continuously fun, but every time I get to act 3, I'd rather not.

Replace the last 2 difficulties with Descent