Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[abija]

You said skill tree is too complex OR find the game too challenging. There are many explications for people finding the skill tree overwhelming, starting with the basic fear of any casual player (as in limited time) of not wasting their time on a broken build.

Regarding melee, first step should be fixing all the technical issues that plague melee and only after that address the skills (with the exception of cleave, they can start reworking that any time they want).

 

[Aothan]

yes and I am addressing both examples of what I see as misguided reasons for adjusting balance, the former being the strangely common mindset that an elaborate skill system gives players too much choice and in the latter case where players assume all possible skill permutations will reliably work in the hardest instances of the game. That assumption is not realistic or pragmatic for all number of reasons, but for casual players I would in fact say that just about any practical build is feasible for completing the game's story across all difficulties, albeit some designs will take much longer to acquire sufficient levels and itemisation progress. Thus 'broken builds' is a misnomer, when someone builds counter-intutively in what is by design a game meant to challenge average 'casual' playing at higher levels. Moreover the idea of broken should not be thought to even apply to the open end-game design that (mostly in theory only now) is there to enable customisable challenge for the most 'overpowered' characters. GGG have designed their game to work for both normal and dedicated players yet many are treating the end-game as though it should be accessible to all and the reason for this is actually because of how broken the overpowered builds are, not rather the 'casual' (or individual) builds which rightly exemplify degrees of ongoing game challenge. This problem is what I think could present an intractable issue for Path of Exile, there is just too much power in some designs which are becoming increasingly popular yet completely nullify the sense of challenge and now most players think that should be the standard for balance.

 

[Orma]

Once you go softcore you go tranny. Stay a man, stay hardcore.

 

[Turisas]

How are they going to fix melee anyway?

Why, that's easy. Nerf the other options.


Finally got around to playing a bit more - what's a good build for your first main when you're piss-poor and no gear to begin with?

 

[Olsvik]

Poison Arrow is pretty effective without needing any gear. Ground Slam as well, with the added benefit of being near many HP and armor ndoes if you start Marauder.

 

[Stabwound]

The problem with melee is that it's worse than ranged in almost every case. Also, single target skills are just shitty and annoying to use. I wanted to make a Facebreaker build but I can't imagine killing those Act 2 monkeys 1 by 1.

 

[empi]

well infernal blow gives a bit of aoe, but yeah they are at least adding more aoe melee skills, especially for daggers/claws

 

[Gerrard]

The problem with melee isn't that the skills suck (or at least not all of it), it's the bullshit that enemies have.

 

[Gregz]

I did a map the other day. It was kind of boring even though I found some OK loot, including two more maps. After logging off, I haven't played since and I haven't really thought about it. I think the game may have lost its luster almost entirely.

Yeah the end-game is in rough shape. No guild structure, raid structure, poor chat/friends UI, etc. It's a great climb, but once you reach the top...well I was in a group last night, and everyone was losing more XP than they were making...roughly...this was a lvl 85 group or so. One death from a shock totem boss, or elite chaos archer squad costs 5+ hours of grinding to get back to where you started that night. Very demoralizing. Another guy in the group dropped 600 fuses on an amazing bow, and no 6L. I mean the guy had saved for like a month...it's pretty harsh. Reminds me of old-school EQ, except without all the charming qualities that kept you playing the high lvl game. This game sure as hell isn't D3 or WoW, it's punishing at high levels.

In a way it's good, because you know high level players must have skill in order to be high level, but at the same time everyone is stacking their build towards the extreme defensive, which makes clearing the same old maps slower and more boring.

I imagine future content will address a lot of this.

Luckily I still have a few other games I'm still into when I want a break from PoE.

 

[DakaSha]

Overall i do think its important to keep in kind that this is a just-released beta. A lot can change.

 

[Olsvik]

Loot chain, die 5 minutes later being careless. RIP my Ice Shot Witch. Dunno what to make next.

 

[Arkeus]

Loot chain, die 5 minutes later being careless. RIP my Ice Shot Witch. Dunno what to make next.

It's kinda annoying that, to me, Witches are the most fun to play, given they are extremely fragile. Seriously, they need to give a serious boost to the ES nodes. It's just not normal that most of the good ES nodes are in the Shadow and Templar tree.

 

[dibens]

Quill Rain + Explosive Shot looks like a fun build.

It's just not normal that most of the good ES nodes are in the Shadow and Templar tree.

Wut? Witch gets +18% ES node near her and ES cooldown nodes, templars don't. Nevermind the % from INT. Plus the big ES ring is right beneath her. You'd be stupid to pick CI before lvl 50 anyway at witch point you have enough skill-points to reach far in ES+Evade or ES+Armor nodes.

 

[empi]

How/why would you build a witch that doesn't go to/through the templar/shadow areas? lol

 

[Arkeus]

Quill Rain + Explosive Shot looks like a fun build.

It does

Wut? Witch gets +18% ES node near her and ES cooldown nodes, templars don't. Nevermind the % from INT. Plus the big ES ring is right beneath her. You'd be stupid to pick CI before lvl 50 anyway at witch point you have enough skill-points to reach far in ES+Evade or ES+Armor nodes.

Templar gets two +20% ES node that also gives +10% elemental resist and 8 +8% node (not counting the armor bit as it can be useless depending), Shadow gets 8 8% ES recovery AND 2 10% ES Cooldown AND 2 10%recovery+cooldown+10%elemental resist.

How/why would you build a witch that doesn't go to/through the templar/shadow areas? lol

Pretty much, the way things are currently it's actually more optimal to BEGIN as a Shadow/Templar if you want a caster, as both have of those trees have more survability at first (though Shadow doesn't have easily accessible mana regen right there).

 

[empi]

But starting witch means you can easily take the 10% and 8% spell damage nodes which otherwise are hard to access, same with the cast speed that follows

 

[Olsvik]

at witch point

 

[Turisas]

Eternal curse be upon the wanker who decided you can't buy those skill gems (Right...? ). I already know which ones I'd like to use, but yeah fuck you, you're not getting those. Apparently the accepted way of acquiring certain gems is to run the same quests over and over with new characters until you get them for that ONE character you want to build into something worthwhile. And that's supposed to be fun? o_O

 

[Olsvik]

Or you can just buy them from other players?

 

[Dickie]

Eternal curse be upon the wanker who decided you can't buy those skill gems (Right...? ). I already know which ones I'd like to use, but yeah fuck you, you're not getting those. Apparently the accepted way of acquiring certain gems is to run the same quests over and over with new characters until you get them for that ONE character you want to build into something worthwhile. And that's supposed to be fun? o_O

Man, I thought I was the only one pissed off about this. I have to go get the gems I want with this character with another character.

 

[empi]

Lol you can just buy them from players rather easily...

 

[dibens]

I love that skill gems are not buyable at vendor. It makes classes more distinct due to the quest rewards, and keeps the market busy, especially on HC where you are losing your skills gems with the character. I also don't think that there is a non-quality, non-support gem that costs more than 1-2 chaos gems.

 

[empi]

apart from elemental hit, but yeah, most gems are pretty reasonably priced

 

[Arkeus]

apart from elemental hit, but yeah, most gems are pretty reasonably priced

Elemental Hit is so highly priced? Any reason why?

 

[empi]

It's a drop-only gem, same with chain and gmp