Why I'm Quitting POE

[AorBH]

By way of background, I’ve been playing video games for years. Fourteen years of WoW, 6-7 of Diablo III, about 360 hours of Grim Dawn, a foray into Wolcen, which I quit mostly due to lack of endgame content. Lately, I’ve been playing around with the Last Epoch beta. As far as Path of Exile, I’ve put in about 360 hours and have four characters in the level 70-89 range. So, I would say I’m an experienced gamer and I’ve given POE a pretty fair try. I have no problem doing my homework, and actually enjoy researching gameplay, learning how to make my character and gameplay as good as can be and so on. I also have no problem with challenging gameplay. In fact, it’s what keeps a game interesting in the long run, giving you something for which to strive and achieve. But POE endgame is sucking the fun out of the game for me. And if a game isn’t fun, what’s the point?

Is POE an amazing ARPG? Yep. Is there a ton of content? Yep. Are the character models and combat satisfying? Absolutely. Is the game fun? Well, here’s where we get into some issues…

From level 1-50 or so, the answer is a hearty YES.
From level 50-70 or so? For the most part.
Endgame? I’m gonna say NOT SO MUCH. And that’s why I’m throwing in the towel.

Unlike most (all?) similar games, endgame begins when you reach the level cap, usually level 70 or thereabouts. For POE, endgame does start around level 70, depending upon how quickly you kill Kitava for the second time, and that’s when the game gets downright punitive. Around reaching level ~50 and facing Kitava the first time, when you die from that point forward, you lose 5% of your XP. But after the second time, any time you die you lose 10%!
When a level typically requires many millions of XP points, that’s pretty damn penalizing, especially considering you have ~30 more levels until you reach the cap of 100! And, with each level providing you with an important point in the passive skill tree, it’s easy to get stuck in a frustrating, demoralizing Catch-22 loop. Try to progress by doing harder content (e.g., Atlas maps, Delve and Labyrinth), die repeatedly, even from trash mobs, lose any progress you might have made.

Yes, you may get some loot or useful currency for your efforts, but like every other game, the greater the difficulty, the better the odds of getting those things. And, when you fail and nothing much drops in most other games, you typically have the consolation prize of at least getting something for your efforts: XP.

Makes sense, right? You put in the time and effort, you actually got the real-life experience of trying something, of taking on greater difficulty or a challenging boss. At the very least, you should get something positive for your efforts, like progress for your character in terms of XP, right??? But not in POE! Apparently, the game devs want to seriously punish players at this stage of the game. No soup for you! We’re going to suck the fun and enthusiasm you might have had right out of the game. We’re going to crush your spirit and enjoyment and remove any incentive you might have had to keep grinding in endgame!

And that’s why I’m quitting POE.

[Pasiego]

End game its not about leveling...even with a lvl 90 you can do all the content and being really powerfull.
Just focus on your template and try to upgrade things, after 90 lvl its just a number.

[Dragony Leviathan]

Sgt.Summer님이 먼저 게시:

buddy you loose XP in any RPG game out there, except diablo maybe
its a normal penalty, without it what would you loose? chaos orbs?
loosing have to be painful otherwise everyone will just yolo

no, you not lose exp in "any rpg game aroud there", for the real you only lose exp or penalty on death in a few selected rpg games, some are mmos, some are offline, but your statement about any rpg game is a bit over exagerated, PoE and Dark Souls are the few ones that i remenber, yes a few more games do that but i forget in this moment the names, but it's definitively not "any" or "lot" of rpgs that make you lose something on death, i played a lot of video games most rpg or arpg or etc, but almost none of them are that frustrating to level up like poe or others, but PoE is a good Arpg, i don't even care or bother to level past 90, i have some lvl 95 and 96 characters, but it's is very boring and bad to pass these levels, but for me what make PoE fun is the build variety, this is the part of the game that wins the platinum trophy for me, and the another thing i like about this game, is the gem system, the skills with gems that you combine almost the way you like, etc, and i like the maps end game, the part i don't like of this game is just the exp loss and the trials like labs etc, but this not make me stop, i have almost 3000hrs on this game well 2700+ for this moment, what i try to talk, is the statement this guy made about "ANY RPG" has exp penalty is not truth, but it's not make a game bad, only more boring.

[Drake]

You lose gold and xp in diablo 2 (you have a chance to get a percentage back if you can get your corpse back without dying a second time). Any hack&slash that is easier and less complex than diablo 2 shouldn't be considered high standard in the h&s list, since diablo 2 is the standard. POE is just aligning with the h&s standard, by having xp penalty and 6 portal limit in endgame.

Just because you can't handle it doesn't make it any less true. If you want to quit the game, just quit the game, that's your choice, just don't blame the game by being truthful to its genre.

[Stabiler Afghane]

Well he does have a point. I hit 800 hours this season, beat every endgame challenge, unlocked pretty much everything there is to do - except 100, my character is at 98. And i can 100% understand why people would leave this game behind purely based on xp-loss. Because all my friends who started this season with me did, because of xp-loss.

Yes, its clear that some of my friends left too early, complaining about xp-loss until 85 (will get disputed anyway by neckbeards but i think 85 is the point where it takes far longer then before) is more an issue of big and heavy flaws in your equipment, skills and passives because it implies you die 2, 3 times per map which shouldnt happening.

But you can get stuck so heavily because most drops are so insanly trashy that its no wonder newer or inexperienced players think they hit a brick wall, even WITH GUIDES. Dont even try to bring guides in to the conversation, all my leaving friends played with one. But they wont help you if you, for example, refuse to trade. Which is a valid way of play. And what are the chances for an inexperienced player, opening up a build with surrender, getting the pieces together let alone get a surrender in the first place?

PoE simply doesnt reward inexperienced players with anything. They will swim through endless supplies of useless, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ rares or strange specific unusable uniques. Crafting is out of the question too. And then the game takes the one thing away, other games are rewarding patient players for, the passive points. And here i will always defend the players not happy with this.

Its simply bad design. Considering your problems easily get solved by simply trading. But i can understand people not wanting to go that route. It takes the rewarding feel away of something good dropping. Not buying your way out of problems.

I would rather see these kind of people get a few more options. Especially with cluster-jewels in game now. They got me out of soooo many problems this season. They opend the way for unusable trash-items to be used now, because they could fix so many short-comings. And the design made it reasonable to roll them with alchs for the stuff your build needed. Flexible, a drop that didnt had too many variables to content with like normal rare items and only bound by how many skill-points you have. Which is why the xp-penalty should be done away with. If someone is stuck, doesnt have enough to trade or doesnt want to, at least he can level, open up these clusterjewels and play the build he likes on high-tier maps. By god.

[flipmode949]

Ya, XP-loss isnt nice and im not amused every time i lose my XP. Sometimes im doing fine for a very long time, just to lose everything within minutes.

But i dont actually think you know what you are talking about. Your Characters are between 7x and 8x and you talking about endgame?

I started my ever first character 3 weeks ago and im lvl 91 easily, still i didnt have seen Sirius or even some maps or map bosses.

Still got no clue what some Items do or mean and what i can do in the delve, how to find those damn walls or what caged maps are.
I did some Breaches, had a cassia only map and once did a simulacrium to level 14 with a friend.

I used a guide and there ist sill so much to do and learn and to finally see the endgame. Maybe you should just play lower maps or get a tankier build. Its not the games fault that you are dying.

[Mikek111]

I really hope this is a troll thread.

[Dragony Leviathan]

Mikek111님이 먼저 게시:

I really hope this is a troll thread.

i don't think it's a troll, but i admit this is unecessary to make a post to annouce you are leaving a game xD, i understand why some people think this is a troll post, but i think it's more like a guy frustrated with a good game and try to show their feelings, but him make a mistake to do this in public lol, atleast it's what i think about this topic, a agree it's is a little waste of time xp, and yes nothing going to change unfortunately. :)

[Dragony Leviathan]

flipmode949님이 먼저 게시:

Ya, XP-loss isnt nice and im not amused every time i lose my XP. Sometimes im doing fine for a very long time, just to lose everything within minutes.

But i dont actually think you know what you are talking about. Your Characters are between 7x and 8x and you talking about endgame?

I started my ever first character 3 weeks ago and im lvl 91 easily, still i didnt have seen Sirius or even some maps or map bosses.

Still got no clue what some Items do or mean and what i can do in the delve, how to find those damn walls or what caged maps are.
I did some Breaches, had a cassia only map and once did a simulacrium to level 14 with a friend.

I used a guide and there ist sill so much to do and learn and to finally see the endgame. Maybe you should just play lower maps or get a tankier build. Its not the games fault that you are dying.

+1

[Chan]

Kiss Me Quick님이 먼저 게시:

Could you make a few clear statements? It's all just rambling with no coherent arguments.

Losing experience is hard think is the statement. Guess no one should tell him what happens with HC characters :x

[ImperiusDamian]

In Diablo 1 when you died you lost all your progress from when you last loaded. In Diablo 2 when you died (outside of HC) you lost 10% of your XP and 10% of your gold. In Titan Quest when you died you lost gold and XP. PoE is the same deal. Live with it.

[Raymond Reddington]

I can see both sides of it since I don't like dying in softcore leagues where you get 3 months and sometimes 1 death can waste a big part of your playtime for the day as far as XP progression. But it is the only penalty for dying besides losing 1 portal and it only affects you if your goal is to hit level cap. I got to 97 this league due to quarantine and playing one of the easymode builds (archmage stormbrand) with 9 /deaths - even though I'm still running a 5-link kingsguard chest. I usually get to about 93 in a normal league.
The devs do balance the tippy-top level content around the blonde-bangs-chubby-cheeked-scared-little-basement-dwelling-while-drinking-hawaiian-punch-from-moms-ceramic-pitcher-in-a-supporter-pack-hoodie-in-july-stained-with-cheetos-and-dried-out-capri-sun-while-spending-more-time-in-POB-than-POE zoomers, but thats like the final 5% of each major mechanic.
You can get insane gear at level 89 that will make that character far better than a rushed level 100 with the 11 extra passive points. So I pretty much plan to build with 90 levels worth of skillpoints. If you think you need to hit 100 quickly, or need to insta phase Sirus, or need to tank weta explosions in delve depth 2000, or self-farm a HH at league start, or need a uber elder item before you can run uber elder, you won't be having a good time with an original build.

[dakin1]

Isaac Newbton님이 먼저 게시:

The devs do balance the tippy-top level content around the blonde-bangs-chubby-cheeked-scared-little-basement-dwelling-while-drinking-hawaiian-punch-from-moms-ceramic-pitcher-in-a-supporter-pack-hoodie-in-july-stained-with-cheetos-and-dried-out-capri-sun-while-spending-more-time-in-POB-than-POE zoomers, but thats like the final 5% of each major mechanic.

So tell us how you really feel (lol).

[DaTank]

dakin1님이 먼저 게시:

Isaac Newbton님이 먼저 게시:

The devs do balance the tippy-top level content around the blonde-bangs-chubby-cheeked-scared-little-basement-dwelling-while-drinking-hawaiian-punch-from-moms-ceramic-pitcher-in-a-supporter-pack-hoodie-in-july-stained-with-cheetos-and-dried-out-capri-sun-while-spending-more-time-in-POB-than-POE zoomers, but thats like the final 5% of each major mechanic.

So tell us how you really feel (lol).

That my boy, is what we call a neck-beard.

Pseudo-intellectual broadcasting from the parents basement.

[Icarion]

*grabs popcorn* ooh this is getting good.

[DDReave]

When it comes to atlas the could at least give 1 positive bonus to the player instead of bombarding them with 6 positive bonuses for monster and 2 negative to the player.

They could reduce the bosses hp a little(not a hell lot) cause now it takes a lot to kill them even with good dps 8m+

Also invest some money on the servers and some optimization instead of giving a freaking laptop as gift like they are doing now get somehow reduce fps from 60 to 50 or 40 on the ashen woods map.

just some details they could polish cause i feel that dificulty on this game comes on nerfing the player to the ground almost and buffing the enemies like tanks. I´ve seen better scaling on dificulties on other games.

i´m clsoe to 2k hours and i´ve seen how awful the dificulty scaling has evolved on POE.