[Megathread] Path of Exile

[Darleth]

Also worth noting: They said that Accuracy will be easier to cap, not sure if this is because it will be on more things, will be on the same amount of things but in larger amounts OR because you'll need less rating...

But either way, easy(ish) hit cap, I'm down!

Thing is, you'd still want Hits cant be evaded on a weapon if you are going with crit, since there are still enemies with certain effects that will reduce your hit chance (Shroudwalker for example). Not sure how I feel about accuracy all in all... I would have hoped that they are actually removing it because its such an old mechanic that imo isn't worth keeping anymore.

Some additional information:
SRS Amulet: https://dd.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/...e_sacred_code/
Confirmation on Legion jewels being able to modify keystones: https://dd.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/...upt_keystones/
New Skillgem and Blood and Sand showcase: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2507482

Edit from 05/24/19:
Resolute Technique modified by another jewel: https://dd.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/...shes_ultimate/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeE-9REzsIk Quicker bossphases with more to kill it seems.

[NoiseTank13]

This is going to be some funky stuff.

[Baconeggcheese]

There are a shitton of guides available and there is also poe.ninja which shows a ton of additional information on how people build their characters for certain builds.

So, as someone who keeps trying to get into the game and never getting very far... my big issue isn't a lack of guides, its a lack of being able to figure out what if anything I find fun without needing to invest a decent bit of time into the game. Guides =/= experience.

Every time I start up the game and get a tiny bit farther but the skills at the beginning just aren't very fun to use and I have 0 clue how or when I get something I might actually enjoy using. And I can't begin to even know how to spend my points as I level without knowing all that ahead of time as well.

Its definitely poorly designed in that way. A 1 time full respec like you say should be an absolute minimum.

[Shaiandra]

So, as someone who keeps trying to get into the game and never getting very far... my big issue isn't a lack of guides, its a lack of being able to figure out what if anything I find fun without needing to invest a decent bit of time into the game. Guides =/= experience.

Every time I start up the game and get a tiny bit farther but the skills at the beginning just aren't very fun to use and I have 0 clue how or when I get something I might actually enjoy using. And I can't begin to even know how to spend my points as I level without knowing all that ahead of time as well.

Its definitely poorly designed in that way. A 1 time full respec like you say should be an absolutely minimum.

The game definitely isn't newbie friendly. But if it helps, all primary damaging skills are available by mid Act 3 (minimum level 28 to equip the gems, but you might be a bit past that like low 30s by the time you finish the prerequisite quest), or late Act 3 if you're going for skills that your class doesn't get.
i.e. a Witch should have all damage spells available after doing a mid-Act 3 quest, but she won't be able to buy most melee or bow skills until a late Act 3 quest.

There are some support gems and utility skills that you don't get until Act 4, but you'll have all damage skills available before A4. So if you can get one character up to there, then you can try out skills and see what you like. Though late Act 4 is when you unlock the Cast on Critical Strike and Cast When Channeling support gems, so if you wanted to toy around with those Supports you'll need to progress a bit more.

[Darleth]

Snip

Glancing Blows is looking great for builds that use block chance effectively. It'll be easier to get block capped and even spell block can get to super high levels with that. The 50% damage taken is a good trade off for having a extremely high chance to block.
Dance with Death on the other hand seems... strange. It effectively removes one of the strongest parts of any build (helm enchants) for saving a flask slot for Diamond Flasks, while also making you more vulnerable to crits. Not sure if anyone would ever go with that one.
Power of Purpose is interesting. The question is how it behaves with mana reservation. All in all I can see some melee builds going for it to gain extra survivability.

So, as someone who keeps trying to get into the game and never getting very far... my big issue isn't a lack of guides, its a lack of being able to figure out what if anything I find fun without needing to invest a decent bit of time into the game. Guides =/= experience.

Every time I start up the game and get a tiny bit farther but the skills at the beginning just aren't very fun to use and I have 0 clue how or when I get something I might actually enjoy using. And I can't begin to even know how to spend my points as I level without knowing all that ahead of time as well.

Its definitely poorly designed in that way. A 1 time full respec like you say should be an absolutely minimum.

The part about finding out which skills are good and that a lot of the early game skills suck is definitely a valid critique. I've never denied that.
There are only a few skills CURRENTLY (might change a lot with 3.7) that are good early on and can even result in a great endgame build. Melee has a lot of those "suck" cases, which might change heavily now with the upcoming changes, because A LOT of melee mechanics are getting changed. Most starting spells up until Merveil where you get some more advanced skills and then act 3 where you can usually get your "main skill" to use from a "guide perspective" are good. There have always been some early game skills that have been successfully used in endgame builds. Bow skills also need a ton of changes, which I hope are included in the melee rework at least a bit, because right now there are only a handful of skills that are good when it comes to bows.

As a sidenote: there are probably a ton of videos on youtube that shows off skills and how they work. Obviously you would have to test those skills yourself ingame to find out what you do like and what you dont like. Another thing: the subreddit is really helpful in choosing a build most of the times. It's a harsh and chaotic subreddit at times, but when it comes to new players usually 90% of the people on it are EXTREMELY helpful.

When it comes to passive trees: that is usually where guides should come into play. Looking up skilltrees from different players that use different skills to see why and how they are building that way. This is usually where guides will help a lot, with keynode explanations most of the time.

As Shaiandra said: most of the primary damage skills are available after act 3, with full access to ALL skills gems (besides Vaal Skillgems [which are basically just a standard skill gem with an additional empowered version that has a cooldown in form of souls], Portal, Enlighten/Empower/Enance) in either Act 3 after finishing up the library side quest OR Act 5 for clearing the twilight strand for Lily Roth.

[Baconeggcheese]

@Shaiandra @Darleth Yeah, thing is its still very much an "I need to soldier through this really boring stuff for however long until I get the opportunity to maybe start finding the fun". I've also just never understood what people find redeeming about limiting respec's so heavily.

Honest question, do you guys like the skill system in this game?

[potis]

@Shaiandra @Darleth Yeah, thing is its still very much an "I need to soldier through this really boring stuff for however long until I get the opportunity to maybe start finding the fun". I've also just never understood what people find redeeming about limiting respec's so heavily.

Honest question, do you guys like the skill system in this game?

The game has 99 flaws, but the skill system isnt one.

Its the problem with white knighting everything since forever because Diablo 3 hate.

It allows GGG to never do impactful changes and only focus on getting new stuff out to get as much $$ in.

There is a reason the last month all you hear in their interviews is "We need to rush PoE 4.0 and fix our shit game because D4 will destroy us" and its true.

The average casual still prefers D3 season for a few weeks over even trying PoE and they know that.

So they focus their attention into keeping the more "Wannabe hardcores" by adding complex mechanics repeatedly.

Unless you are already familiar with ARPG or generally if you arent passively decent at games, PoE will give you hell.

So yes, you either gonna sit and play the boring stuff and then sit down and read 1000 hours of mechanics/playstyle, or you are not gonna enjoy PoE.

So, in order to keep this fake mentality of hardcoreness to the game, they refuse to do QoL changes that dont really affect the gameplay, because their whales will whine.

And no company wants their whales leaving.

Also you sound like you do the usual mistake of "I will play this ability".

PoE doesnt work that way.

Its more like:

"Will i play MF, Ranged/Caster or Melee"

"Will it be critical based or not?"

After that, the majority of the builds are the same from like 60 to 90% because of the "big passives" in the tree.

Thats when you choose a skill and tweak your build with the remaining points, but in order to reach that part, you must first fail a few leagues in a row.

[Gallahadd]

Assuming it doesn't get murdered somehow... I think my build for Legion is set.

I call it, the B3 build: BleedSplosion, Bloodstorm, Block Cappped Gladiator. Using the new Blood and Sand archetype, with the new Bladestorm skill as a reliable AoE, that spreads bleeds eevveerrryyyywwwhhheerrreeee, which then triggers MORE AoE when the bleeding mobs die. then block cap (and Versatile Combatant) for defence, plus the new Molten Shell. Should be fun!

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Assuming it doesn't get murdered somehow... I think my build for Legion is set.

I call it, the B3 build: BleedSplosion, Bloodstorm, Block Cappped Gladiator. Using the new Blood and Sand archetype, with the new Bladestorm skill as a reliable AoE, that spreads bleeds eevveerrryyyywwwhhheerrreeee, which then triggers MORE AoE when the bleeding mobs die. then block cap (and Versatile Combatant) for defence, plus the new Molten Shell. Should be fun!

I was actually planning something similar but for my Second character. Gonna start with something stupid like a strength stacking witch with the baron just stacking health on zombies so I can blow them up. Probably won’t work but should be fun to try.

[Baconeggcheese]

@potis I'm sorry but that post was kind of a shit show of a rant with unnecessary double spacing and I'm not sure what you were trying to get at and what was sarcastic vs serious as its honestly kind of hard to tell.

Do you like the skill system? If yes what do you like about it?

[potis]

@potis I'm sorry but that post was kind of a shit show of a rant with unnecessary double spacing and I'm not sure what you were trying to get at and what was sarcastic vs serious as its honestly kind of hard to tell.

Do you like the skill system? If yes what do you like about it?

It was a semi-rant

The skill system is fine, the problem is its also irrelevant cause its highly unbalanced and 90% of the specs are the same when you actually learn the game and how it works.

Which to learn the game it requires to either:

a)Already know ARPGs a lot to understand faster.

b)Play a very high amount of hours and learn that way.

[Coldkil]

It was a semi-rant

The skill system is fine, the problem is its also irrelevant cause its highly unbalanced and 90% of the specs are the same when you actually learn the game and how it works.

Which to learn the game it requires to either:

a)Already know ARPGs a lot to understand faster.

b)Play a very high amount of hours and learn that way.

Agree on the balance, but to me the two points below are a plus and not an issue. Anyway i fully understand why people find the game way too punishing. I think GGG just sticks to their initial design and simply doesn't try to make the game different to appeal a different playerbase.

The game is sustainable, attracts an healthy playerbase, so they simply don't care abot the rest and i would do the same. They do abominations like Bestiary and Synthesis but they also do good stuff - people has been asking a lot for a Breach-like league and they managed to do it.

Only real caveat i have with the game is that the combat flow and animations suck - but they're at least tackling it right now, hence it's an improvement for me.

[Baconeggcheese]

Agree on the balance, but to me the two points below are a plus and not an issue. Anyway i fully understand why people find the game way too punishing. I think GGG just sticks to their initial design and simply doesn't try to make the game different to appeal a different playerbase.

The game is sustainable, attracts an healthy playerbase, so they simply don't care abot the rest and i would do the same. They do abominations like Bestiary and Synthesis but they also do good stuff - people has been asking a lot for a Breach-like league and they managed to do it.

Only real caveat i have with the game is that the combat flow and animations suck - but they're at least tackling it right now, hence it's an improvement for me.

Yeah I would definitely be hesitant to change a working formula. There are those people who want for instance permanence or near permanence when choosing where to allocate points or what have you. While I've never seen any redeeming qualities of such a system, there are people who think that's a huge deal and this is their game.

Its funny, because the more I've learned the more shallow the game seems to be. Its got a lot of shallow complexity, like the usual "look at this massive talent tree!" and then you look at it and its a lot of basic +10 stat that could have just as easily been stat points you allocated which already exists in the game in between a smaller number of more meaningful nodes.

I honestly don't get why they decided to go the socket route for skills. The whole thing is just odd to me, I'm trying to figure out what people like about it.

[potis]

Agree on the balance, but to me the two points below are a plus and not an issue. Anyway i fully understand why people find the game way too punishing. I think GGG just sticks to their initial design and simply doesn't try to make the game different to appeal a different playerbase.

The game is sustainable, attracts an healthy playerbase, so they simply don't care abot the rest and i would do the same. They do abominations like Bestiary and Synthesis but they also do good stuff - people has been asking a lot for a Breach-like league and they managed to do it.

Only real caveat i have with the game is that the combat flow and animations suck - but they're at least tackling it right now, hence it's an improvement for me.

9/10 friends of mine dont try PoE because characters are literrally 3 pixels and animations suck until Spell Echo/Multistrike, and they are right, game is horrible to look at if you havent watched it evolve.

I dont have a problem with game taking too long to learn, my problem with PoE is their inability to accept some changes need to be done for the general health.

After 6-7 leagues of the same bullshit i dont wanna do it again the same way, i dont mind re-unlocking the atlas, but trading for maps ? No, enough, i will simply quit the league if maps stop dropping when it takes them 10 days to admit "We fucked up map drops" and similar stuff.

[Baconeggcheese]

9/10 friends of mine dont try PoE because characters are literrally 3 pixels and animations suck until Spell Echo/Multistrike, and they are right, game is horrible to look at if you havent watched it evolve.

This has actually been a huge thing for me, the aesthetics are really mediocre and animations don't feel good that I've seen so far. From what I've seen the only way I'm getting my char to not look like a low level rpg char is spending large amounts of $ on overpriced cosmetics which feels terrible.

I heard they were overhauling the graphics and animations with 4.0, which I'm really hoping changes enough to make me feel otherwise.

[potis]

This has actually been a huge thing for me, the aesthetics are really mediocre and animations don't feel good that I've seen so far. From what I've seen the only way I'm getting my char to not look like a low level rpg char is spending large amounts of $ on overpriced cosmetics which feels terrible.

I heard they were overhauling the graphics and animations with 4.0, which I'm really hoping changes enough to make me feel otherwise.

Its one of the marketing things.

PoE is F2P for sure, you dont have to pay anything to see the content.

But if you actually PLAY the game for what it is, you need a minimum 50-60e/$.

Which in turn they make it smartly by telling you "Buy this skin, and take your points back to buy your stash tabs!".

Its win/win for them so.

Yes, supposedly PoE 4.0 has a massive overhaul, but i dont see how without changing game engine completely.

[Coldkil]

I honestly don't get why they decided to go the socket route for skills. The whole thing is just odd to me, I'm trying to figure out what people like about it.

Imho it was a "meet in between" of sockets on gear and possibility to use any skill with any character (which is true up to a point though). I like the system but i also see its shortcomings when you "gate" some build behind heavy investment or trade - though a 5link is easy to get and more than enough to farm.

PoE is a game of choices. You choose to do X, you reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. It's extremely satisfying when things go right, utterly bad when things go south, and it happens a lot when you're new. The +10 stat nodes imho are fine because while functionally they're the same as pressing a + button, they give the feeling of progressing towards bigger, more important nodes. And that's a very powerful drive.

As @potis said, the meta is there, there are guides and everyone pidgeonholes into the same builds and strategies because they're hella strong compared to the rest or the generic "i'm gonna play this" character one can build on its own. And even there, some constraints are simply there to stay so you cannot just go wild.

It's illusion of choice, done well, but still illusion. Scares some people, attracts others.

EDIT: i'll state it every once in a while - i'm a totally casual player and mostly SSF. I never completed the Atlas, nor any endgame encounters. Mostly because i don't care, i love the journey and to see where my character archetype brings me. Sometimes it dies badly, sometimes is really strong. Yet i have to see any of the "real endgame".

[Rogalicus]

9/10 friends of mine dont try PoE because characters are literrally 3 pixels

I actually wish they were 3 pixels because game's maximum zoom out is like 4 times closer to character than it should have been.

[Baconeggcheese]

@potis Can I ask, why do you space out every single sentence?

Imho it was a "meet in between" of sockets on gear and possibility to use any skill with any character (which is true up to a point though). I like the system but i also see its shortcomings when you "gate" some build behind heavy investment or trade - though a 5link is easy to get and more than enough to farm.

I just don't really understand the point, you could come up with an infinite number of ways to create a system that lets anyone use anything. Though I don't know why that's a redeeming thing outside of getting to use the character model you want in this case.

That sort of thing tends to make things impossible to balance leading to the kind of pigeon holing you're mentioning. It also makes class choice feel nearly meaningless from a gameplay perspective, and that's doubled down on by aesthetics not being class related either as far as I can tell. Like why am I even picking a class at the beginning if that's the case?

It's illusion of choice, done well, but still illusion. Scares some people, attracts others.

That's my thing, I don't think shallow complexity or "hard to learn, easy to master" design is good. MoP / WoD demonology was the epitome of this, it was super hard for new players to get into but once you learned all the rules it was super simple to execute. Imo its the worst kind of design, but it does make a certain kind of person feel good.

It reminds me of people playing on vanilla pservers, where their favorite pass time seemed to be spouting bits of knowledge they've accumulated about min-maxing the game despite the game being very simple. Its exactly the kind of thing that leads to everyone being pigeon holed into a small number of simple builds out of a large number of possibilities.

- - - Updated - - -

So I logged into the last char I ever played, just dinged 25, and it gives you a full passive skill reset... but you have to use it right then... if you use any points after that it goes away for no apparent reason.

Do they give more later on, or is this a one time thing? lvl 25 seems like an incredibly dumb level to give this.

[Gorsameth]

So I logged into the last char I ever played, just dinged 25, and it gives you a full passive skill reset... but you have to use it right then... if you use any points after that it goes away for no apparent reason.

Do they give more later on, or is this a one time thing? lvl 25 seems like an incredibly dumb level to give this.

You got a skill reset because you logged in for the first time since a major skill tree rework.
You don't normally get a skill reset, your level has nothing to do with it.