Question about shared stash

[MarkD]

New player here, I only have one character now in Standard. My stash is full of items that I want to pass on to characters of other classes, but I just noticed that the game says, "Your stash allows you to share items between characters in the same league". So if I start new characters in the leagues like Settlers, I can't share the items with them? I don't want all my characters to be in Standard.

[Frayo]

Each league requires you to start completely fresh, but those characters will be converted to standard once the league ends. The items in your league stash can then be moved to your standard stash after that point.

[The_Driver]

Originally posted by MarkD:

New player here, I only have one character now in Standard. My stash is full of items that I want to pass on to characters of other classes, but I just noticed that the game says, "Your stash allows you to share items between characters in the same league". So if I start new characters in the leagues like Settlers, I can't share the items with them? I don't want all my characters to be in Standard.

That's right, you don't get to take your items into new leagues, they are level playing fields, new economies. You do however get items from Settlers into Standard once it ends, as progress is migrated at that point.

Also the league thing is very strict in that context, Settlers is a different league than Settlers Hardcore or Necro Settlers or Settlers Solo Self found etc. They don't share between them and migrate to the best match permanent league upon end (voided leagues excluded. They don't get to keep progress after they end, their progress is lost).

[MarkD]

Originally posted by The_Driver:

Originally posted by MarkD:

New player here, I only have one character now in Standard. My stash is full of items that I want to pass on to characters of other classes, but I just noticed that the game says, "Your stash allows you to share items between characters in the same league". So if I start new characters in the leagues like Settlers, I can't share the items with them? I don't want all my characters to be in Standard.

That's right, you don't get to take your items into new leagues, they are level playing fields, new economies. You do however get items from Settlers into Standard once it ends, as progress is migrated at that point.

Also the league thing is very strict in that context, Settlers is a different league than Settlers Hardcore or Necro Settlers or Settlers Solo Self found etc. They don't share between them and migrate to the best match permanent league upon end (voided leagues excluded. They don't get to keep progress after they end, their progress is lost).

I'm kind of confused about the purpose of leagues then. I thought they were meant to be endgame content for longtime players, but apparently you have to make a new character for each league. Are veteran players really making new characters over and over? I thought the whole point of endgame was to grind one character for hundreds of hours to perfectly max out a build. Does the real endgame content take place in Standard mode?

[The_Driver]

Many players don't touch standard. Most players play the challenge leagues and yes, many of them play multiple of them over their lifetime. And that means they redo stuff again and again, some try different things, some repeat what they did before.

At some point people reach such levels of grind to improve in meaningful ways that they just wait for another climb, be that another league or build idea etc.

Challenge leagues typically only offer small additions to the general endgame, but you may try to make that your main goal of the month or so. There are multiple activities to do at endgame, and mostly, challenge league mechanics are only "in" maps, but not in delve, heist and the like. Endgame is really what you make of it, might be bossing, might be trading, might be min maxing, might be challenges (temporarily available achievements), might be collecting as many uniques by yourself as you can.

[󠀡󠀡 WhyGamingWhy󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by MarkD:

Originally posted by The_Driver:

That's right, you don't get to take your items into new leagues, they are level playing fields, new economies. You do however get items from Settlers into Standard once it ends, as progress is migrated at that point.

Also the league thing is very strict in that context, Settlers is a different league than Settlers Hardcore or Necro Settlers or Settlers Solo Self found etc. They don't share between them and migrate to the best match permanent league upon end (voided leagues excluded. They don't get to keep progress after they end, their progress is lost).

I'm kind of confused about the purpose of leagues then. I thought they were meant to be endgame content for longtime players, but apparently you have to make a new character for each league. Are veteran players really making new characters over and over? I thought the whole point of endgame was to grind one character for hundreds of hours to perfectly max out a build. Does the real endgame content take place in Standard mode?

The reason the majority of players go into every new league is because a large aspect of the game changes with every league, a new mechanic to play end game with, sometimes new bosses, most of the times just new ways to do certain things.

If you want to experience all the base game has to offer first, standard is great, however if you are just starting for the first time, it's better to go for a league as it's new, fresh and you can actually make trades. Once the league is over that character will be dumped to standard, where many will leave it and never touch again, but obviously it's a fully built character, you can use it to keep building him up if you so desired.

Most people have their characters pretty maxed out by the end of the league, hell most have multiple maxed. Of course you can improve them in minimal ways, but it's often not worth it to do so.

The average player gets through the campaign in around 8-10 hours, experienced players can do it in 6, some can do it faster, especially if you join the league late and get boosted by your friends.

[MarkD]

Originally posted by The_Driver:

Many players don't touch standard. Most players play the challenge leagues and yes, many of them play multiple of them over their lifetime. And that means they redo stuff again and again, some try different things, some repeat what they did before.

At some point people reach such levels of grind to improve in meaningful ways that they just wait for another climb, be that another league or build idea etc.

Challenge leagues typically only offer small additions to the general endgame, but you may try to make that your main goal of the month or so. There are multiple activities to do at endgame, and mostly, challenge league mechanics are only "in" maps, but not in delve, heist and the like. Endgame is really what you make of it, might be bossing, might be trading, might be min maxing, might be challenges (temporarily available achievements), might be collecting as many uniques by yourself as you can.

This brings me back to my original question, which was about the shared stash. I would expect that anyone who's been playing POE for a long time would have a stash filled with different currencies, uniques, skill gems, and various other valuable items. Probably utilizing multiple extra stash tabs that they paid for. But if they keep starting characters in different leagues, they wouldn't be able to make use of any of that stuff. Are veteran players who paid for extra stash tabs actually starting new characters with nothing? And then grinding for the same items they already got with their previous character?

For me, being able to share items between characters is a pretty important mechanic in ARPGs. If I'm playing as a Templar and I find a really good unique wand, I can say, "Nice, this will be great when I make a Witch character" instead of, "Well this is useless". It seems like the leagues completely go against this with the way they work.

[acirb]

Originally posted by MarkD:

Originally posted by The_Driver:

Many players don't touch standard. Most players play the challenge leagues and yes, many of them play multiple of them over their lifetime. And that means they redo stuff again and again, some try different things, some repeat what they did before.

At some point people reach such levels of grind to improve in meaningful ways that they just wait for another climb, be that another league or build idea etc.

Challenge leagues typically only offer small additions to the general endgame, but you may try to make that your main goal of the month or so. There are multiple activities to do at endgame, and mostly, challenge league mechanics are only "in" maps, but not in delve, heist and the like. Endgame is really what you make of it, might be bossing, might be trading, might be min maxing, might be challenges (temporarily available achievements), might be collecting as many uniques by yourself as you can.

This brings me back to my original question, which was about the shared stash. I would expect that anyone who's been playing POE for a long time would have a stash filled with different currencies, uniques, skill gems, and various other valuable items. Probably utilizing multiple extra stash tabs that they paid for. But if they keep starting characters in different leagues, they wouldn't be able to make use of any of that stuff. Are veteran players who paid for extra stash tabs actually starting new characters with nothing? And then grinding for the same items they already got with their previous character?

For me, being able to share items between characters is a pretty important mechanic in ARPGs. If I'm playing as a Templar and I find a really good unique wand, I can say, "Nice, this will be great when I make a Witch character" instead of, "Well this is useless". It seems like the leagues completely go against this with the way they work.

You still get the similar thing inside leagues. If you find a great caster weapon, you would then create a Witch in the same league.

If you want to just keep hoarding stuff, you have the option to stay in Standard.

Leagues will also have content that isn't found in Standard. Even when a mechanic ends up in Standard, it's often more limited than the proper league version was. And they don't always get added.

Some leagues have specifically been focusing on players creating very powerful weapons, for example. If you didn't play in those leagues, you will not have items like that in your Standard stash. (You will be able to trade for them in Standard.)

EDIT:
In a fresh start it will take 1-3 days to get to maps, if you've done the campaign a few times before. Getting to a higher tier maps is "just" something like 1-10 days after that, depending on how much you play and how quickly you progress.

If you look at a league mechanic and it seems interesting, I suggest you try it sometimes. It is fun to experience the new stuff together with everyone else.

[insectbrain]

If i could use all the items and currency I have in my standard stash in leagues, I would find it pretty boring as I would be able to trivialise just about everything with very little effort and it would just get worse and worse every league as I would be accumulating more and more wealth and legacy items to make things even easier. I don't think I'd even want to play anymore if that was the case.

[MarkD]

Originally posted by acirb:

Originally posted by MarkD:

This brings me back to my original question, which was about the shared stash. I would expect that anyone who's been playing POE for a long time would have a stash filled with different currencies, uniques, skill gems, and various other valuable items. Probably utilizing multiple extra stash tabs that they paid for. But if they keep starting characters in different leagues, they wouldn't be able to make use of any of that stuff. Are veteran players who paid for extra stash tabs actually starting new characters with nothing? And then grinding for the same items they already got with their previous character?

For me, being able to share items between characters is a pretty important mechanic in ARPGs. If I'm playing as a Templar and I find a really good unique wand, I can say, "Nice, this will be great when I make a Witch character" instead of, "Well this is useless". It seems like the leagues completely go against this with the way they work.

You still get the similar thing inside leagues. If you find a great caster weapon, you would then create a Witch in the same league.

If you want to just keep hoarding stuff, you have the option to stay in Standard.

Leagues will also have content that isn't found in Standard. Even when a mechanic ends up in Standard, it's often more limited than the proper league version was. And they don't always get added.

Some leagues have specifically been focusing on players creating very powerful weapons, for example. If you didn't play in those leagues, you will not have items like that in your Standard stash. (You will be able to trade for them in Standard.)

EDIT:
In a fresh start it will take 1-3 days to get to maps, if you've done the campaign a few times before. Getting to a higher tier maps is "just" something like 1-10 days after that, depending on how much you play and how quickly you progress.

If you look at a league mechanic and it seems interesting, I suggest you try it sometimes. It is fun to experience the new stuff together with everyone else.

I certainly do want to try the leagues, but I don't see how I could possibly have time to play more than one character to level 100 (and beyond? I get the feeling the endgame is endless in POE) before the league ends. I haven't been playing POE for years so I certainly can't blast through the entire campaign in 3 days like a speedrunner, nor would I even want to play that way. Right now I've been playing for 30 hours and I'm maybe halfway through Act 3. And I'm not having any difficulty either, I'm one-shotting most mobs and bosses barely even hurt me. I'm not following someone else's perfect build, just using my own experience of ARPGs so I'm sure it will get harder in later acts.

BTW the exact thing I was talking about actually happened (almost). During my last play session, my level 29 Templar found a level 63 unique spirit shield with nice bonuses to minions. Which would be ideal for a Witch character xD

[P4K|LDX]

Hello!

I'm one of the veteran players you seem to talk about: 15k hours, in, hundreds of dollars put into the game, etc.

I understand this is confusing for you, but people play games for different reasons - and your way of playing the game, regardless if it's in Standard or in a league, is fine, as long as you're having fun.

With that said, I'll try to answer some of your questions.

Yes, yes we do start over from scratch at every league start, without items, without any boosts, without any of our accumulated wealth. Yes, we do farm the same items we farmed in the previous league: those items stay in Standard and can't be brought into a new league.

In fact, that's PRECISELY the purpose of a new league: everything is fresh and new players can compete against veterans with fairness. The economy is vibrant, thousand of players are rushing in to play, because for a moment in time the disparity between players is non existent.

If we didn't start over every three months, how could new players get into the game and play against or with someone with thousands of hours in? Why would anyone play this game if new players were at such a disadvantage? The game would die in a heartbeat, and PoEdevs are very self-aware about it. They're fine if you stop playing PoE one month after the league launch, as long as you come back for the next. It works. It's proven. It's amazing.

Regarding gameplay, things may go slowly for you now, but eventually if you play enough the game goes faster. You're talking about 30 hours to be middle of Act 3, a veteran player (from scratch, I repeat, we don't have access to bonuses) could be level 95 with a decently geared character with that amount of time. As an example, a veteran will finish the campaign in 6 hours on a fresh league start - that means without more gear or boost than you. It's just acquired skill and knowledge built over the hundred of hours.

This is intimidating for new players, yes, but this feeling of being outmatched skillwise and knowledgewise must not be confused for in-game advantages or even worst, for pay-to-win mechanics. The game is fair and fun precisely because of leagues and fresh start and the popularity and success of the game is a testament of that mechanic. It's something really easy to be wrong about when you don't know how it works, it might not be easy to approach the game, its monetization or its gameplay loop, but again, PoE wouldn't be as successful if it wasn't fair and good.

Then regarding the shared stash as you mention, it totally does work in Standard AND in league, but separately, as others pointed out. See it this way: you get a timeframe of 3 months in which you can play just as you describe, find gear, share it with other characters, etc. But after 3 months it gets moved to Standard and you have to start anew, or if you feel nostalgic of your characters and gear, you can go back to them by playing Standard over the new league.

I hope that answered a few of your questions. The game has a lot to offer, but if you don't have the time to take it all, it's fine - just enjoy it at your own pace and have fun.

[acirb]

One more thing: Level 100 isn't a requirement in this game. It's a personal challenge requiring you to invest time and resources in. A build will be perfectly functional and strong long before that.