[Megathread] Path of Exile

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I learned my lesson a few leagues back with Absolution and the weeks wasted on that. Other, much smarter and more dedicated folks can test out the new skills to see if any are viable (not talking broken like Forbidden Right totem builds were the same league). I'm just waiting for patch notes to see if there's anything I really want to play right at the start of the league, otherwise I'll probably jump in after a few weeks once folks have figured out what's functional this patch and what's not.

See that would be the smart thing to do but if I was smart I wouldn’t still be sticking to shield throw as my main build.

As of now my plan is to try chaos shield throw as it’s the only damage type I’ve passed over and more importantly my friend won’t shut up about me trying it as he’s obsessed with chaos.

Though what I’m really hoping for is that they will give chains of command the dancing dervice treatment as I’ve always liked the idea of it but it’s just a dead idea on bosses.

[Edge-]

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229084

Shit's going live. All the links are here, I'm digging through the promo page for now and will wait for TLDR's from the streams.

Edit: No more map regions and a unified atlas passive tree. Watchstones are dead, Voidstones are in, and there are 4 of them to level the atlas up.

ATLASS PASSIVE TREE IS HUGE, it's like a second passive tree entirely. What the heck.

Eldritch currency seems mostly for modifying maps/stones or something. New currencies for implicit changes on gear as well. Kinda mixed on this because HOLY SHIT WHY DO WE NEED 12 NEW CURRENCIES but at the same time yay for more bases potentially becoming good.

League mechanic seems like Essense, but you get to sorta build the boss with various mods to get better/specific drops.

NEW GEM AND FLASK STASH TABS THANK GOODNESS

And nothing about new skill gems >.>

[Ashnazg]

For me, the main highlights are:

• Easier ways to get unique maps via Kirac
• 6 mod abyss jewels
• Ways to customize your atlas experience globally, quickly
• Harvest crafting back as orbs

Other honorable mentions are easy but customizable league mechanic; interesting end-game drops (new watcher-eye esque jewel with a free ascendancy skill); fail-free crafting of implicits with new atlas mechanics

EDIT: shit, the ability to target reroll suffixes/prefixes easily via the eldritch orbs by itself is going to lower the barrier of entry to so many builds by so much

[Lorgar Aurelian]

God I'm going to miss watchstones not being able to have tier 16 maps is gonna suck as I haven't even fought uber elder or the maven because of the grind to get to them. the atlas passive tree seems cool though.

other wise though the lack of new gam is a pretty big disappointment but going though some new atlas stuff should be fun.

[Edge-]

other wise though the lack of new games is a pretty big disappointment but going though some new atlas stuff should be fun.

I'm watching the video now and like...it seems the opposite. Two new endgame bosses, each with a miniboss, new influences for each that can modify the map your in to make it harder while giving better rewards in a bunch of ways, endgame bosses are farmable as invitations are tradable, unique pools for both minibosses and endgame boss, and I'm just getting to the part of the video on void stones.

Seems like they're making endgame content a lot more accessible in terms of how available it is to players and giving even more granular control over the type of endgame experience/challenge you want.

[unfilteredJW]

They took away Zana.

I’m done.

[Tojara]

Most of them are all around great changes TBH. Removing regions and giving you more reason to complete your atlas is just solid. What I found normally happened is you would localize in a couple regions at best and realistically there would only be a couple maps, or several in each region that you actually liked running. With the new system everything is available, is applied to everything and the pool of maps that you generally like running is just well.. bigger.

It makes barrier into the end game a lot faster with less micromanaging of the atlas in general. Storing sextants and not having to manage watch stones aside from the four you get is kind of a god send. A lot of people probably never made it realistically to the watch stone farming part of the game anyway, so just completing the atlas along the way is going to be giving you points towards that goal you never really achieved before. Personally I like watch stones, but I also played a lot, but in functionality the new tree while daunting looking isn't anything that we haven't seen before. It's basically a combination of the old atlas skill tree points, and all of the watch stone modifiers you could roll with alterations.

I'll have to see how the league mechanic actually plays, the arch nemesis portion anyways. From a QoL standpoint it all looks good though, and that's generally enough to keep me playing. New end game bosses, streamlined progression systems, and a fast trek to the end game are always positives to me.

[Edge-]

I'm picking up what they're putting down, this is more or less how I thought atlas passive tree would work and I'm digging it. Very much looking forward to the full thing, and apparently GGG are making Orbs of Unmaking drop around 10x more and purchasable from Kirak (not unlimited though). Should allow for plenty of flexibility in testing the new tree and/or moving points around as needed for stuff like map sustain.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229646

And gem updates are out, most of it is stuff we knew but it looks like a few other abilities got some buffs here and there. Few options are looking juicy, but nothing I really want to play.

I'm probably just gonna be boring and look for some content creator league starter this time around. Hoping for something with moderately decent performance without too much investment that's either bow (why not since it got a bit better) or self-cast to test out the new buffs. But I feel like self cast isn't gonna be in much of a different space even with the big buffs : /

[Fencers]

I have zero ability to understand the POV of people overwhelmed by the passive tree and subsystems in Path of Exile.

When I saw that Atlas tree I gasped and my heart fluttered in delight.

Give it to me hard and raw like OJ with no straw, motherfuckers.

[Coldkil]

I honestly find the game bloated as hell and stuff like this doesn't really appeal me. Granted it's way better than many other games.

But it's just a big illusion, once you "crack the code" it's pretty straightforward.

I'm waiting for PoE2

[NoiseTank13]

I'm picking up what they're putting down, this is more or less how I thought atlas passive tree would work and I'm digging it. Very much looking forward to the full thing, and apparently GGG are making Orbs of Unmaking drop around 10x more and purchasable from Kirak (not unlimited though). Should allow for plenty of flexibility in testing the new tree and/or moving points around as needed for stuff like map sustain.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229646

And gem updates are out, most of it is stuff we knew but it looks like a few other abilities got some buffs here and there. Few options are looking juicy, but nothing I really want to play.

I'm probably just gonna be boring and look for some content creator league starter this time around. Hoping for something with moderately decent performance without too much investment that's either bow (why not since it got a bit better) or self-cast to test out the new buffs. But I feel like self cast isn't gonna be in much of a different space even with the big buffs : /

watch "X's Strongbox" to be different than "Strongbox" when it comes to these passives.

[Edge-]

But it's just a big illusion, once you "crack the code" it's pretty straightforward.

To a point, yeah. But I really dig that they're doing this approach for endgame rewards since there's literally no objective "right" build. Sure there will be some "optimal builds for profit for X or Y content", but largely it's just a way to do what they started with the atlas passives and what I hoped they were moving towards: letting you customize the wealth of content to focus on what you want.

It's fantastic, you can focus on different league content depending on what you want to play or what's profitable. You can juice map drops during rough spots to help you build up some supply and then move those points to other content.

And as best I can tell, this new league mechanic can function how I've wished it could function for years: By ignoring it and not intentionally engaging with it each map.

Sure, you can kill all the baddies each map and never bank the "part" drops from mobs, but there's an active incentive to banking some for specific recipes so that you could conceivably get through a whole map without engaging with the mechanic for lower rewards in the map you're in. I'm digging it, beyond the fact that it looks like a simple basic, straightforward, and not time consuming mechanic.

Gonna be a bossing league for sho.

- - - Updated - - -

watch "X's Strongbox" to be different than "Strongbox" when it comes to these passives.

? It seems to work as it says - if you have strongboxes, it impacts the chance for that type of strongbox to roll, and if it does you can have double rewards with the second node.

[Coldkil]

To a point, yeah. But I really dig that they're doing this approach for endgame rewards since there's literally no objective "right" build. Sure there will be some "optimal builds for profit for X or Y content", but largely it's just a way to do what they started with the atlas passives and what I hoped they were moving towards: letting you customize the wealth of content to focus on what you want.

I don't see it as mindblowing or good as others see it - it's good because of the issues you had before and this makes it somewhat "less good".

I'm not saying it's bad or shit or overly complicated (while it is on some aspects and just for the sake of it). It's just that i find it way more boring than expected, freedom in builds is only up to a point where stuff scales terribly well and others just don't. Not saying you cannot do anything with any build (because you can) but i see a lot of roadblocks to avoid that are just there for the sake of it, and when you know where they are they are not serving any purpose whatsoever.

But it's just me. I love PoE when i'm leveling, creating my build and everything else. As soon as i start mapping or i have to deal with the current league mechanics, interest just dies nearly immediately and i don't know why honestly.

Reason why i'm waiting for PoE2, i want a "clean slate". Maybe i should play standard because a) i don't care about trading and b) i don't care about leagues for the most part. Maybe that's just the way i would enjoy the game more.

Does this new atlas thing apply directly also in standard or i have to wait for the league to end?

[kaminaris]

I don't see it as mindblowing or good as others see it - it's good because of the issues you had before and this makes it somewhat "less good".

It is mindblowing because that is basically the only game in entire gaming history that managed to reach this level of flexibility and not fall flat to face. This isn't really exaggeration. The amount of completely different builds and weird shit builds ive seen in this game simply outclasses any other game i've played or seen.

Ask yourself a question, have you seen a game where you can extend duration of a skill to half an hour?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy3ZNr9rYUc
Anti-support build (without intentionally throwing), an character that is literally negative addition to a team?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88pkWqlvDL4

There is really thousands examples of distinctively different builds, specialized builds, meme builds, all rounders etc. All in one game.


Yes you can't randomly click nodes and expect it to work, but there is a lot of flexibility depending on playstyle. Whenever I've seen some builds that i wanted to make, i usually end up with a mix of couple and stuff i change myself. The only exception was aura stacker.

Weird stuff i did before is basically a minion builds on all ascendencies that killed A8, including duelist.

[Coldkil]

It is mindblowing because that is basically the only game in entire gaming history that managed to reach this level of flexibility and not fall flat to face. This isn't really exaggeration. The amount of completely different builds and weird shit builds ive seen in this game simply outclasses any other game i've played or seen.

There's not that much of flexibility to me - only many many options that fall into a limited set of archetypes - but it's fine. I'm not saying PoE isn't an incredible game. I love the depth it has, and basically everything about it until i reach the first phases of endgame. I don't really know why i lose interest that fast - and i played all kind of builds, from basically uneffective/unplayable ones to stuff that's basically autopilot.

The progression and power curve is fine, i love how effort and committment is rewarded in the long run etc. Just i am unable to play it for extended periods of time. I don't know if i'm doing something wrong, if the game is not for me or it's just as it is.

That's mostly why i'm waiting for PoE2. The new skill/socket system looks much much appealing to me - and i think it's basically all i need there.

It's not like i don't get the game or i don't recognize how deeply it has changed the ARPG scene basically setting a new standard. Just i reached a point where i said "the game is good, like really good, yet i don't have the urge to play".

Dunno if i've been clear. It's just my opinion. As i said, i should try to commit to standard league and see if not having "time windows" connected to leagues is making me appreciate the game more - cause i would really like to.

[kaminaris]

There's not that much of flexibility to me - only many many options that fall into a limited set of archetypes - but it's fine. I'm not saying PoE isn't an incredible game. I love the depth it has, and basically everything about it until i reach the first phases of endgame. I don't really know why i lose interest that fast - and i played all kind of builds, from basically uneffective/unplayable ones to stuff that's basically autopilot.

If poe is "not much flexible" then every other game has literally just one build.

But in reality no, archetypes doesn't define gameplay, gearing nor content you intend to do. There is so much more to meet the eye. Quick example, raw phys cyclone vs CoC, technically you play similarly but in reality positioning matters on CoC while it completely doesn't on phys variant. Even clearing map has completely different feel to it.

[Edge-]

Yo, one of the things I'm the most hype for with this league? A lot more bases are on the table since wince we can add implicits.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-atlas-skill-tree

Atlas passive tree is out. No real "masteries", they just highlight where other nodes for the same league mechanic are. Haven't really looked into it yet, but it's seeming good.

[Gorsameth]

Sigh another giant tree designed to look intimidating that someone on the internet will tell me how to fill out because F*** trying to figure that monstrosity out when I just want to zoom zoom around exploding mobs.

[Edge-]

Sigh another giant tree designed to look intimidating that someone on the internet will tell me how to fill out because F*** trying to figure that monstrosity out when I just want to zoom zoom around exploding mobs.

Most of it's pretty straightforward. Connecting nodes seem focused on map drops, and it clearly tags where all league content is so you can plan which content you want to focus on and just do that.

I'm sure there will be all kinds of atlas passive "builds" that focus on different rewards or content or are "EARN 2348967 EXALTS PER HOUR WITH THIS ONE EASY ATLAS BUILD, GGG HATES IT!", but I'm into the customizability we get as players.

Am I gonna actually learn the whole tree? Fuck no, I still don't even know the fuckin passive tree, just general ideas of what is where. But I don't think we'll need to, much less have the kind of understand that we do for the normal passive tree.

This is a boss league so I should probably focus on other boss league content like Metamorph, but I love me some Incursion or Blight or Ritual and an totally gonna look for those nodes and make some quick and dirty "build" at first. Don't much care about "optimal" here, unless I need to focus on map generation or something for a bit, I'm just gonna focus on content I like.

[unfilteredJW]

Most of it's pretty straightforward. Connecting nodes seem focused on map drops, and it clearly tags where all league content is so you can plan which content you want to focus on and just do that.

I'm sure there will be all kinds of atlas passive "builds" that focus on different rewards or content or are "EARN 2348967 EXALTS PER HOUR WITH THIS ONE EASY ATLAS BUILD, GGG HATES IT!", but I'm into the customizability we get as players.

Am I gonna actually learn the whole tree? Fuck no, I still don't even know the fuckin passive tree, just general ideas of what is where. But I don't think we'll need to, much less have the kind of understand that we do for the normal passive tree.

This is a boss league so I should probably focus on other boss league content like Metamorph, but I love me some Incursion or Blight or Ritual and an totally gonna look for those nodes and make some quick and dirty "build" at first. Don't much care about "optimal" here, unless I need to focus on map generation or something for a bit, I'm just gonna focus on content I like.

Yeah with how it's set up I just went after the stuff I like to do and it was pretty easy to grab stuff.

Is it min max? LOL no, who cares.