Eternal Orbs - The problems they caused and how we can fix it

If I could change one thing about this game, it would be to remove eternal orbs from ever being in the game in the first place. The reach of "destruction" the addition of this little orb is a lot more than most realize. Standard server(actually my server of choice) is hardly even worth playing anymore due to these orbs.

Even if eternal orbs are removed from the game, the top tier items out there will always remain to be duplicated via mirrors. So what do we do then? Remove mirrors? Mirrors(despite their power) are actually a FANTASTIC part of the game. But when you combine eternal orbs potential to make "perfect" items and be able to duplicate them over and over, then we have a problem.

If I play this game for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 years straight, only on endgame maps. I will never see an item that comes close to the power of these eternal orb crafted items. This is a huge problem and quite frankly I don't know if it will ever be fixed.

People talk about "Legacy Items" causing as much damage as the eternal orb crafts. I disagree 100%. Legacy items will never go up in item count. If anything they will only decrease with people using vaal orbs on them. This makes Legacy items self contained in a way that yes they are over powered and yes only a select "few" have access to them. But the damage is done, we can move on. Eternal orb crafts don't work like that. They can be mirrored over and over until the end of time.

I read a post from one player with full eternal orb craft "mirror" gear. He said he doesn't even pick up rares anymore. There's no point. Yet his gear is considered "rare". See the trend?

Another thing I want to acknowledge is the fact that a lot of people really discount the standard server. Say its not a "real" server due to the legacy items. While I half agree, someone who doesn't have a ton of free time can't devote themselves to a 4 month server like a lot of others can. If you have a family, wife, kids, etc. your real only option is standard because your time is limited.

So what does that have to do with eternal orbs. Everything. The point of playing a game like this is to feel powerful and know that at any point, a godly item will drop for you and things will be "better". But knowing an item will still never even come close to an eternal orb mirror kinda takes away from the game a bit.

So am I saying do away with crafting? No. Not at all. I thought the crafting prior to eternal orbs was great. Exalts provided a random addition to your rare. Could be good or worthless, it was all about luck and chance. You win some, you lose some. Eternal orbs aren't about chance, they are guaranteed. If someone has 100+ eternal orbs(or 1000+ if you're AXN), they are guaranteed that they will end up with a god level item. And then when they are done, its all profit from there. It may have cost you 1000ex worth currency to build the item, but from here on out you have a "perfect" item that everyone will want to copy. If the one with the original item just so happens to be in possession of a Real Money Trading site, then you have people using real money to become top tier(happening right now).



That wall of text wasn't to "complain". I really want this game to continue to succeed and continue making the right choices. GGG honestly makes some real genius decisions with this game. Its why I've been playing since closed beta. The introduction of eternal orbs did destroy the economy and standard server. The eternal orbs were a good idea, but in practice caused a lot of harm. I really hope they figure out a way to fix this. I have a few ideas of options and maybe GGG will listen.



Here are our options to fix the eternal orb situation. I think a combination of a few of this will resolve the problem. Keep in mind, I'm just listing ALL options. Not necessarily what I agree with.

A. Remove Eternal Orbs
B. Remove Mirrors.
C. Make items that have had an eternal orb used on unable to be used with a mirror
D. Remove all top tier items that were created using eternal orbs
E. Remove all mirrored top tier items


To me, the most obvious easy answer is C. Sure there will be players out there with their top tier gear, but as long as they can't continue to be duplicated I think everything will work itself out. I would still remove eternal orbs along with option C, but that's my opinion. Any of the other options are a bit drastic and would cause a lot of unhappy players. As long as we can prevent the duplication, I think things will eventually balance themselves out.


If you read all of this. First off, thank you. But secondly, I hope to gain some support in this. I don't want to see this game's economy to continue to spiral downward. I want it to recover. I think its possible, but its going to require some real changes . Thanks for reading.

I like B or C. And I think they should inplement E on top of those.

You're not at the level of the crafting pyramid that you want to be, and so you want the game changed so that you can be... or you want the pyramid removed. Neither is a good idea for the game. Not everyone can be a crafter, and someone has to work to supply the crafters with their raw material. Be a happy worker-bee. When you find an exalted, eternal or mirror, happily turn it over to the crafters in exchange for a really nice item. That's the worker-bee's job. The crafters take those items and make your gg items for you to use how ever you will.

If you want to become a crafter, prepare to work for it.

"prepare to work for it"

In a video game. That's supposed to be fun.

Honestly, the crafting system in this game is so bloody awful, it will probably be what drives me off from playing. It shouldn't be called crafting. It's gambling. Nothing more, nothing less. It's a giant slot machine, that has different "slots" for how much you are willing to wager (and hedge your bet) on getting the slot machine to hit jackpot.

:(

in this kind of "ever-growing" games, you have the choice, you decide where to play; the new balanced league, or the trashcan of whatever has been made.

if you are the developer, and you have to decide how to spend your time programming for this game, you won't choose for the second one, maybe to something that affect both the "universes".

what you ask is only for standard. peace.

eternal orbs should cause the item to be something similar to corrupted (so that you can't mirror it) or they should be removed completely! they just make the richt dudes richer!


http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/543478

I disagree. I think they are fine.

as this is the suggestion thread:
eternals and mirrors are the "rewards" ggg has designed for players who dedicate their life to the game. and for everybody else to have a "lucky drop". (shags s right as always, i can't say it better).

in which way you want this changed?

how do you want to reward these players and yourself? what do you want to play for?

do you want to enable crafting for everybody in poe? please consider this is still supposed to be an action role playing game (arpg), not a role playing game (mmorpg).