Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[ArchAngel]

Fake edit: this should respond to the upper post as well:

Except you don't. It is very easy to put together a build that can do up to shaper and uber atziri.

You seriously underestimate the skill levels of the bulk of PoE players. I'm probably in that grey area zone where I would be able to beat the Shaper if I had more map drops as you suggest, but I don't think most are. They can't just beef up the bosses unless they want to alienate the players still trying to get at least somewhere with their own wonky builds.

And that's not even speaking to the financial aspect of making the game harder = more hardcore deaths = more players dropping faster. That's just the cold, hard calculation behind the TV meta, I suspect.

And I mean, it's not like I can be totally Codex elite monocle here. I find myself enjoying this game the most when my build starts functioning and I can just mindlessly blow up mobs for the most part and then like once every ½ - 1½ hours be forced to pay attention to something.

Maybe my English is to blame here but I meant up to Shaper and Uber Atziri as not them but all content before them. Mostly because both fights are more about knowledge of the fight and manual dexterity then some need for awesome and balanced build.

As for the rest: Look, right now the way to keep people playing is the massive RNG connected with accessing content. I am just proposing that the hard part is not access to content but beating content.
3.0 didn't bring in new people because it all became easier, it brought people because game has been years in the making, no other big aRPG is in its prime and probably some marketing. Most of these people never played it and didn't know how hard or not the game was.

And now most of those people didn't really come back for 3.2, most streamers played for fews days and went to play something else. They played for 2 leagues and they are smart enough to understand that there is nothing waiting now but the boring map grind. And it is boring because there is not enough challenge compared to amount of time you are grinding.
What is the point of making builds that then faceroll content and cannot access higher content before first doing 50/100/150 same boring maps that you faceroll.

I understand the fun in destroying stuff, that is only fun once you experience it first time. After a while the novelty wears off and it is just boring and any challenge is behind a 25h grind.

 

[Grunker]

I'm not talking about bringing people in - I'm talking about keeping them playing. GGG's got the bringing them in part solidly on lockdown, and 3.0 was their most brilliant work yet in that department.

Keeping them is the hard part, and making the game harder would actively hinder their efforts here. Your point that most OBVIOUSLY didn't stay isn't the point - GGG had to expect that. The question is how many people did stay? I'm betting the TV Meta is part of keep alot of people.

Maybe if the changes you propose only touched red maps though. Again, though, we come back to my earlier point: the elite grinders aren't hampered much due to difficulty, and more availability of red maps would make their already insane profits explode.

 

[ArchAngel]

I'm not talking about bringing people in - I'm talking about keeping them playing. GGG's got the bringing them in part solidly on lockdown, and 3.0 was their most brilliant work yet in that department.

Keeping them is the hard part, and making the game harder would actively hinder their efforts here. Your point that most OBVIOUSLY didn't stay isn't the point - GGG had to expect that. The question is how many people did stay? I'm betting the TV Meta is part of keep alot of people.

Maybe if the changes you propose only touched red maps though. Again, though, we come back to my earlier point: the elite grinders aren't hampered much due to difficulty, and more availability of red maps would make their already insane profits explode.

Well my proposed changes would make it so farming red maps with MF gear = suicide.

 

[Grunker]

It is not the MF gear but the speed and efficiency of elite grinders that poses a challenge to the game's economy.

 

[ArchAngel]

It is not the MF gear but the speed and efficiency of elite grinders that poses a challenge to the game's economy.

Both in combination. Whenever I talk to or read about MF farmers, they always have MF gear on. And the ease of content lets them get away with it. Making all mobs harder and map bosses much harder would make a stop to that.
Then one could MF on easier maps or go full gear on harder maps that drop better rewards. Balance.

 

[ArchAngel]

I mean it is kind of like that now, except the content you don't do with MF gear are only end game bosses + guardians (although I think people do guardians with MF gear as well).

But as it is now, GGG still has that crazy map grind and RNG on that fucks over 99% of their players.

 

[Cyberarmy]

They did make map bosses a lot durable with 3.0 patch but people simply started to avoid them.

BTW just ran over 20 T13+ maps yesterday (half of them are 15s) but no guardian maps, my luck seems dry in this league...

 

[ArchAngel]

They did make map bosses a lot durable with 3.0 patch but people simply started to avoid them.

BTW just ran over 20 T13+ maps yesterday (half of them are 15s) but no guardian maps, my luck seems dry in this league...

More durable, not more dangerous. Also 0 improvement for boss loot drops.

 

[Grunker]

they made them more durable and didn't edit the rewards, meaning people just avoided them even more.

 

[Jaedar]

New day, new record, level 81 now. Tier 9ish maps are starting to feel like they can be quite rippy.

So, which maps are best to shape? And how should I be managing the elder vs shaper thingie most effectively?

Also, can I influence how fast I find the endgame lab challenges? Found the first three pretty quickly, but since then nothing.

 

[T. Reich]

New day, new record, level 81 now. Tier 9ish maps are starting to feel like they can be quite rippy.

So, which maps are best to shape? And how should I be managing the elder vs shaper thingie most effectively?

Map shaping - pick a way:
1) Tryhard. Go here and pick the most efficient maps to shape.
2) Fun. What maps do you like running the most? Shape those, disregard any other factor.

Managing the influence - pick a way:
1) Tryhard. Google "permanent elder influence 3.2".
2) Fun. See a map you like in a shaper/elder influenced area? Run it for extra fun and possible profit.

Also, can I influence how fast I find the endgame lab challenges? Found the first three pretty quickly, but since then nothing.

/global 820. During weeks 1-2 of the league, takes 30 minutes tops to do all 6 of them. Not sure how it is now, but definitely faster than trying your luck with GGG RNG solo.
In fact, if you're SSF, then you're pretty fucked with these uber challenges. The only advice is to go hard with prophecies - there is one that spawns a trial in a map.

 

[ArchAngel]

New day, new record, level 81 now. Tier 9ish maps are starting to feel like they can be quite rippy.

So, which maps are best to shape? And how should I be managing the elder vs shaper thingie most effectively?

Also, can I influence how fast I find the endgame lab challenges? Found the first three pretty quickly, but since then nothing.

For non ranged builds most maps can feel rippy unless you are Jugg or got some very good leech.
If you are ranged then you are not doing damage fast enough, dead enemies don't fight back.

Uber Lab trials are random, fastest way to get them is global channel 820
If you are playing SSF.. well good luck then.. some unlucky SSF players reported getting over lvl 90 and not finding all 6 trials.

Maps best to shape is probably what google can answer better :D
I read Channel, Haunted mansion, Underground sea are good lower level ones.

EDIT: damn I got ninja'd...

 

[Grunker]

My recommendation is shape the maps you like, and run the elder/shaper variants you have maps of and enjoy. If you're ever in doubt, just ask about a specific tier here and people can point you in the right direction.

Hardcore sextant optimization and shaping the right maps isn't relevant unless you're tryharding

Also grats on personal record and such

 

[Jaedar]

Uber Lab trials are random, fastest way to get them is global channel 820
If you are playing SSF.. well good luck then.. some unlucky SSF players reported getting over lvl 90 and not finding all 6 trials.

I'm not SSF. What's global channel 820? people handing out town portal to trials for free or at a cost or what?

Also what I meant with managing influence is really which way unlocks the most content. I guess letting elder territory grow big?

 

[ArchAngel]

Uber Lab trials are random, fastest way to get them is global channel 820
If you are playing SSF.. well good luck then.. some unlucky SSF players reported getting over lvl 90 and not finding all 6 trials.

I'm not SSF. What's global channel 820? people handing out town portal to trials for free or at a cost or what?

Also what I meant with managing influence is really which way unlocks the most content. I guess letting elder territory grow big?

global 820 is where people post portal to trials and such or where you can ask for specific trial. I usually give 1c to a guy that gives me a portal to trial I don't have.

as for territory, to get elder and his guardians to spawn you need to let his territory grow to above 15 areas. You do that by clearing maps that have shaper influence.

 

[T. Reich]

/global 820 initially started as a master sharing channel - it was created when the Forsaken Masters expansion rolled out (on 20.08.2014).

It's primary purpose stays as such: you found a master in a map, or you have a master daily up for grabs, and you're willing to share it with the other players (for free). You go to g820 and advertise as such, people join, and you do the master mission together.
Advanced form of sharing is master rotations: 6 people join a party, each of those has a specific same master (of same level) daily available to be done - each player shares thair daily with 5 others in turn. Basically, everyone shared their own, and got 6 master daily missions for the "price" of one.

Over the years, due to feature bloat and such, g820 now also houses a number of other activities:
1) Uber trial sharing. Same shit as master sharing - invite people over, let them complete your trial to get it done for ulab access.
2) Challenge completion sharing. Self-explanatory, I hope.
3) Map trading - trading maps of same tier in order to speed up the atlas completion. Mostly moved to /trade 820 these days.
4) Unique map rotations. Three main types: any unique map rotation (for atlas completion, a party runs up to 6 different maps), Poorjoy's Asylum rotation (hard map, good profit, YUGE exp for endgame, one of the fastest reliable ways to reach lvl100), Coward's Trial rotation (baby version of Poorjoy's rota).

Good etiquette:
1) sharing your stuff for free.
2) if you're looking for something yourself - wait until someone offers it, then politely ask them to invite you over.

Bad etiquette:
1) actively begging for something channel-specific.
2) trying to sell or buy anything channel-specific for orbs. There's /trade 820 for that - same shit as g820, just for moneys.
3) posting anything non-channel-specific.

 

[Jaedar]

Over the years, due to feature bloat and such, g820 now also houses a number of other activities:
1) Uber trial sharing. Same shit as master sharing - invite people over, let them complete your trial to get it done for ulab access.
2) Challenge completion sharing. Self-explanatory, I hope.
3) Map trading - trading maps of same tier in order to speed up the atlas completion. Mostly moved to /trade 820 these days.
4) Unique map rotations. Three main types: any unique map rotation (for atlas completion, a party runs up to 6 different maps), Poorjoy's Asylum rotation (hard map, good profit, YUGE exp for endgame, one of the fastest reliable ways to reach lvl100), Coward's Trial rotation (baby version of Poorjoy's rota).

Good etiquette:
1) sharing your stuff for free.
2) if you're looking for something yourself - wait until someone offers it, then politely ask them to invite you over.

Bad etiquette:
1) actively begging for something channel-specific.
2) trying to sell or buy anything channel-specific for orbs. There's /trade 820 for that - same shit as g820, just for moneys.
3) posting anything non-channel-specific.

Very informative.
Sadly it seems that (on hc at least), people talk about lots of other rubbish in these chats (and sell lots too).

Still a lot faster way to get the trials than finding on your own though.

People are pretty nice though, gave a dude free access to unsolved trial, and he still gave me the offering

 

[T. Reich]

You can do your civic duty and silently report the sellers - selling anything in global chat is a mute-able offence (when the channel mods aren't too busy punishing wrongthink instead).

Anyway, g820 generally degenerates into meaningless drivel the longer a league goes on - in the early days of a league it's mostly on-topic because most people want to get shit done as opposed to shitposting.

 

[Saark]

in the early days of a league it's mostly on-topic because most people want to get shit done as opposed to shitposting.

Funny how most communities end up like this. Great at the start, slowly declining as time goes on. Just look at our beloved codex.

 

[Cyberarmy]

So...
We are battle royale now and it's kinda fun. Mostly because it's unbalanced like hell.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Jaedar]

Tried the battle royale, didn't really like.

So how hard are red maps in comparison to previous tiers? Just got my first red map drop

Having too much fun exploring atlas with this char, don't want to die yet.

 

[janior]

imma spilt arrow onetrick
this is what diablo 2 should've been

 

[Cyberarmy]

So how hard are red maps in comparison to previous tiers? Just got my first red map drop

Hardess generally comes from mods and map bosses. To get red map bonuses you need to vaal them. That can create some nasty mods.

 

[Grunker]

To expand on Cyberarmy's post a bit, if you don't already know, generating red maps that you can fairly safely run as a somewhat casual player and not just spend all your currency is the real barrier, since vaaling permanently alters your map, meaning if you get mods you don't like, you have to start over on another map. So the result is if you want to make a profit you're going to run more mods you would otherwise avoid - making red maps more dangerous.