Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

They also have some kind of algorithm in play to accomodate for 250ms or more of lag. I've played PoE 'successfully' at 500 ping. Try playing a game like WC3 or LoL with this kind of ping - you basically can't.

Desync is a problem, but the way they handle clients is really advanced for an indie title.

 

No, it happens because they use a lot of prediction on client and server to minimize effect of latency. It doesn't work like standard client-server games where each action is confirmed by server and only executed after.
It's a common practice but what makes PoE special is they don't trust the clients at all so they can't mask the desyncs.

 

Apparently, they are introducing some sort of trading mechanism with the next patch. Which is good because i can't play anymore since i've filled all my stash tabs with stuff which is too good to vendor but i'm just too fucking lazy to sell. I tried for a bit but it is simply against my nature to peddle my shit in chat like some kind of street merchant. I want to smash shit in the face, i didn't ask to be a Jew.

 

You can use the forums until then or post in the party panel like some players do.

 

I hope they introduce at least a decent search function - I'm fine with the forum trading otherwise, but I always have to browse through dozens of threads to find something that I'm interested in.

 

http://poe.xyz.is/

Use that for shopping.

 

I play games so I don't have to deal with people. This is why trading in PoE is shit.

 

PoE is designed so that you can't press a button and receive a 'perfect~' item from another player. That kind of instantgratification undermines the core gameplay of an ARPG - or at least, that is the theory. You either kill things, or you spend time and effort convincing people to part with their items.

 

The problem is that you can't do both. It wouldn't be so bad if you could sell your crap while playing, but you can't. Any link you put in chat will become stale the moment you zone out of town or if a sufficient amount of time has passed. This means that if you want to actually sell your stuff you literally have to stop playing the game.

 

You still can shop while playing, though, provided you know what to look for, and not just browse aimlessly. As for selling stuff, just keep the things you want to sell in a separate stash tab and link them from time to time when you come to town to unload your loots. I hate people spamming trade chat with the same worthless shit every goddamn minute.

Also, you should play in the new leagues. Domination has 50% of current player population (as opposed to 25% on Standart) and Nemesis has 22,5% (as opposed to 2,5% on Hardcore). The market is much more alive there and chances are you'll find buyers/sellers faster.

Oh and do make sure the items you're selling are useful. Physical weapon with anything less than 100%+ dmg and +flat phys dmg past lvl 50 is vendor trash. Likewise, armor without +hp/es is vendor trash, unless it really has some crazy triple resists/25% chaos resists/crazy +armor% +flat armor.

 

I really like this game more than i thought. Once you get to cruel Act 2 things start to heat up again (at least for my current character) and the dark forest actually does seem foreboding when you know that one of those serpent assholes with a corrupted blood or storm herald mod could show up any second and murder your ass

tl;dr: i need a fucking staunching flask

 

I hope they don't 'improve' the trading experience much from what it is now, in fact I'd say the current system is quite excellent:
- Incomplete information about 'true cost' means you can sometimes find real bargains and even make a profit just from trading if you want to sit out killing for a few minutes
- The friction involved with selling means most people are open to haggling (would never happen if they could just auction everything)
- If you don't mind taking a 10% hit on ratios you can trade any currency to another in no time at all - again a time/value tradeoff

 

Funny, I loathe trading for exactly the same reasons.

 

Patch its rolling tomorrow will see what changes they made. Made a character on nemesis while i wait.

 

I've never really used multiple auras as an essential component of my characters, in fact it is only since the Nemesis league that any of my characters have incorporated aura related skill nodes. The explanation given for coming patch changes to Purity is that it works too well as an individual aura, which may be true in itself yet they are balancing out this adjustment by introducing three element specific auras that individually function better to protect against elemental damage. Maybe I misunderstand the nature of powergaming but I imagine this won't resolve the issues intended and in all likelihood will probably exacerbate late game balance factors once players refine their specialised itemisation. Meanwhile seemingly everyone (i.e. the more vocal reactions) views the effect of these changes as something that will undermine the viability of their characters.

 

Still haven't gotten past normal difficulty yet. Leveled a Scion up to 43 before taking on Piety, was such a tanky build that I barely took a scratch. 1400hp, 400es, 75% res all, 50% phys reduction, 30% block chance. Decided I could finally take on Dominus - well not on this machine because while the game normally runs anywhere from 20-30 fps in this fight I was averaging 5 (!). Couldn't tell what the fuck was going on. Dispatched his bros and first form easy enough, but then the low frame rate clusterfuck that was the next fight took all my health in about 3 seconds. Jesus fuck



(yes I'm severely butthurt)

 

20-30 fps normally is pretty low though? There are some serious performance spikes in PoE mostly due to effects put in game before fully tweaked.
Still, 20-30 fps is what, 6+ year old hardware?

 

Yeah, there are some performance issues in the Dominus fight. The rain of blood during the last phase especially seems very taxing - last I tried, I also only got about 30 FPS there even on my fairly decent machine (specs in profile).

 

Yes 20-30 is pretty low, and a good guess on the hardware age; I'm pretty sure this laptop is from mid 2008. I'm really not too bothered that is doesn't run great all the time, what annoys me is that this fight relies on some crucial visual cues not to die suddenly and it has the worst performance in the whole game - primarily due to the amount of verts on useless scenery. Well now that I've read the wiki and forums I know what to do but it's still going to be a ballache, might have to wait for my new machine early next year.

 

Wow, RIP on Cast When Damage Taken. I guess that answers on how GGG is going to handle the nerf bat.

 

I'm actually glad they nerfed that gem, it is too powerful and what I dislike most is that promotes a more passive, lazy gameplay. I like pressing more than one button, that gets boring fast. But enduring cry or curses still remain viable even as lvl 1 gems.

 

The problem with the gem is that it made no sense to have to keep it at level one. Now not only you have to keep the gem at level one but also every gem linked to it. Frankly, i'd rather just cast support skills manually and not use the gem at all (also because all my gems are leveled already). The problem with that is that it makes the entire concept of trigger gems redundant. None of them seems worth the trouble now. I'd call that bad design.

 

the new descent modes look like they will be fun..assuming not everyone uses the same unique (Fragment of Eternity). At a guess I would think the last few moments in the video hint to secret areas available by using movement skills.

edit: Lyric Suite, I have been perplexed at how to best integrate the different aspects of my 'spellcasting' Templar after I decided to exclusively use staffs as a role-play characteristic (I'm not a dedicated role player in Path of Exile although as with any game I usually have a few ideas that direct character concepts and development). Initially it seemed to me the problem with using staffs was that they don't match the melee prowess of the other two handed weapons and are also are not particularly well suited to spellcasting. After examining staff properties on the official website it appears I was probably mistaken about both these assumptions, surprisingly staffs may well be one of the better weapon types available. For one they approximate the high end dps of the other two handed weapon selections, importantly however unlike all other two-handed weapon types they can have block as an implicit property. Furthermore it is possible for staffs to have similar levels of spellcasting properties as wands, perhaps not quite as powerful yet from what I have seen the difference is not much greater than 20%-25%. Taken together staffs are both unusually powerful in the combination of qualities they can have and strangely undervalued. So far trading for powerful staffs has been considerably more accessible for me than would be the case if they were swords or mauls of equivalent power.

and what I am actually trying to arrive at here is that with a Templar who focuses on elemental specialisation and sufficient melee staff prowess the 'Cast on Melee' gem is potentially quite effective, since with the confluence of properties that staffs allow for it is reasonably viable to merge both melee and spellcasting abilities into a character that can synchronise both aspects. Until I can arrange better sockets across my various pieces of equipment I have linked Frost Nova with Sweep and Leap Slam for a reasonable effect. A somewhat more reliable combination would be Cold Snap and Elemental Equilibrium since if even one creature is affected, ideally frozen, then those within the expanded radius (a 'class' proficiency for Templars) will also be frozen. Not quite as powerful as using shock or ignite but an effective measure for controlling creatures that takes some priority in Nemesis.

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to make use of Cast on Melee gem, just that the methods required won't typically match the usual melee or spell orientated character types, and there is some requirement for characters to be better aligned to merging elemental damage with both spell and melee capabilities. Not that I want to promote any more characters using Spectral Throw but since it counts as a melee skill that would likely be one of the more powerful combinations for use of said skill gem.

 

The only way i can seem making cast when damage taken useful for me is to level it and link immortal call to it, while leaving all the other gems on manual. I don't think the nerf affects my build terribly, at least in principle. I have a 14 second duration on my endurance charges, so if i play it right i don't need to spam enduring cry at the beginning of every fight (plus i have the endurance charge gem linked to heavy strike). Casting Molten Shell manually is a bit of a problem since it forces me to stop hitting on enemies in the middle of a fight which is a death sentence for me since i rely on leech for survival, but i guess i can just leap slam out of a fight, pop the shield and get back in. Lastly, totems have to be cast before engaging in combat, which works for some but not for others (the vitality totem for instances has too little a radius of effect).

In principle. What makes this less then viable in fact is that i have no mana to do all that, not at the cost of sacrificing auras, which means i might as well spec back into blood magic.

So, again, there are several problems with this gem. One, the change they made forces you to play around gem levels to find an optimal spot, which is not a game i want to play, since changing the level of a gem costs either currency or time. For me, a gem ought to get better as you level up, otherwise its just bad design. Two, you cannot have a game with skills changing this radically every patch. It may have been fine on beta, but not on release, particularly in a game which offers limited respecting capabilities and where every "build" requires a great deal of investment in terms of time and currency.

I don't know about the other trigger gems since there are no "spell" linked to my main attacks, so there's nothing to trigger. Also, cast on death, does this actually drop in hard core?

 

BTW, if i'm reading the change right, does it mean that with a level 17 Cast When Damage Taken gem (req level 63) i can't use a level 20 Molten Shell? (req level 68)?