Path of Exile Questions Thread - April 22, 2021

I'm a veteran PoE player, I love the game, and I start leagues with excitement. And also did this league. But it's only been 5 days and I'm feeling something that I've never felt before; tedium. I don't know if maybe I'm burned, but I don't think it's that, because when I get tired of 1 or 2 hours of Ultimatum league, I go to standard to try some builds or level to 100 some character.

I think it's because of the massive nerfs of this league. Of course, Harvest nerf is simply excesive, but for me it's becoming really annoying when GGG tells there are some bufs but then you find that for one buff there're 2 nerfs. Getting maps this league it's becoming frustrating. I don't want to play other league mechanics if I don't want, so I would like to get enough maps to slowly completing the atlas just by doing maps, no need to delve or do temple.

I was really excited when they announced the offering of the goddess used to open a trial. At least I was able to achieve the trials not needing to use global 820 (god, that was so awful and tedious). To my surprise, I'm level 85, still at tier 5-6 maps, and have done several dozens of maps and got only ONE trial on maps. Have 2 offerings so I used them on map device and to my surprise, both of them openened the trial that I already got.

Master missions? Yeah, legend says those existed...

Delirium nerfed... Some atlas passives nerfed... New bestiary recipes useless... Ultimatum is fun, but not that fun, sorry.

I'm sorry GGG, but nerfs and nerfs and nerfs make game tedious. Yes, I will have to play more the game to achieve some goals, but that will be in a more boring way. I loved ritual league because of some atlas passives. I loved delirium because it felt worth it. Hope something changes, but maybe it's my fault...

EDIT: thx for the awards!!

submitted by /u/rhenk
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Reworked rewards league doesn't feel very rewarding

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 03:02 AM PDT

Besides some well-deserved nerfs, to summarize my feelings about this league, it's like we transitioned from "broken" to "meh".

I think that the atlas tree and master missions were nerfed a bit too much - to the point that I barely feel excited to buff up some areas anymore.

But more importantly, the league mechanic is outright disappointing and feels like a drag. I sincerely hoped it was my own rotten luck, but after quite some time in red maps I am beginning to fear that it's not. And I haven't even felt like running my inscribed ultimatums. With the current reward pool, trials feel like too much work/risk, for only meager, predictable returns.

Did anyone else have a similar experience?

submitted by /u/Generic_Snowflake
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When you think it can't get worse, but it can.

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 11:20 AM PDT

submitted by /u/UnDoned
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Why do we need to have less master missions?

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 07:50 AM PDT

I understand having infinite master missions is not healthy for game balance, but that was not what was happening before. If it's the nodes that make it so areas has 10% chance to give a mission for the specific master.. then just remove them? Or, perhaps you are worried about the quantity of master missions with the craftable watchstones? Which 99% of the playerbase does not have access to yet? Is this the problem? There is a compromise where atlas progression feels meaningful and we don't get "infinite" master missions. I'll gladly take my atlas progression being meaningful back, thank you very much. I don't even know why i'm progressing my atlas xd what am I achieving now? Like am I supposed to be excited about maps dropping 1 tier higher?

I remember a podcast with Chris Wilson talking about the atlas tree with ZiggyD. I do not remember exactly how it went, but essentially what Chris was saying was that certain players enjoy certain content more than other content, and that GGG *wants* these players to be able to do the content they want. Okay. I have a request. I'd like to be able to play master missions.

By the way, I love the league. Just for the record. I am enjoying it a lot. But I'd be enjoying it much more if I could do the content I love. Please reconsider the atlas progression nerf. Or, if you wish, go try and progress through the atlas. Try it. Seriously, just try it. It feels meaningless to progress the atlas.

submitted by /u/Soggy-Particular-133
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Careful, cheapest 6l shavs is a scam. He puts in 4l + 2l. They are jumping hideouts so you cant follow to stop their scam

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 03:17 AM PDT

submitted by /u/buchW
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Best Unluck

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 01:03 AM PDT

submitted by /u/TheNinjaWOOHOO
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A lot better than Krillson anyways...

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 02:23 AM PDT

submitted by /u/adamizer
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I think this Vaal Pyramid is trying to tell me something.

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Kelemeth
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Started delving for the first time. I feel like I've been robbed of fun.

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 01:17 AM PDT

So the thing is, as all of us, I enjoy gathering various hard-earned riches and it just doesn't feel the same in Delve. I'm talking about azurite, of course.

Can you imagine, those things just jump into your inventory without you ever needing to lift a finger. That part that I like, where I pick up my loot? GONE. Feeling of achievement, enjoying every piece of precious Azurite? Non-existant. Feeling the weight of the blue treasure? Taken away from me.

I don't feel like delving anymore.

submitted by /u/Disco_Frisco
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How I feel about POE Ultimatum...

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 05:17 AM PDT

POE is a game I love and appreciate a lot and would like to take the time to give my feedback on this Ultimatum league as I am not enjoying at all. I know that a lot of people will disagree with what I am about to say, I still want to put my thought out there

Ultimatum Feedback

Its a revamped ritual, with better rolls for sure, but not useable most of the time. In ritual, you could at least choose to take something that you value the most. In Ultimatum, you are forced to take a risk for something that you can not control, with the best case scenario is to sell it for a couple of Chaos Orb (I still have to get something worth more than 15c).
Ultimatum rewards do now scale with the risk. The last wave rewards are not always more valuable then the first waves.
Ultimatum is terms of ROI risk/reward system is not worth it, especially during the leveling process.
In terms of content, there is less that Ritual league. The end game content has been cut off (delirium, fractured maps and deep delve) and replaced with a slightly better old league mechanics and pure focus on bosses which are the same as last league so not new content there.
Game/Progression is too slow. It's almost as slow as SSF. The Atlas progression way to slow, maps sustain is bad, you spend a lot of time trading those mediocre rewards of trial for chaos and farming/grinding is not worth the amount of time put into it. The same amount of time used to give much more excitement and ROI. After 5 days I only got 1 Ex and a Paradoxia, while last league I was sitting on 30 ex by this time and already started a different character.
There is no more reason to grind for a minmaxed character (you dont need a minmaxed char to do bosses)
With Harvest nerf, crafting is back to meta crafting which required exalts. Exalts are sky rocketing because of drop scarcity and the content which gave a lot of exalt drops are nerfed too. So crafting has been nerfed on both ends... ie getting minmaxed is way slower if not impossible (if you are not a full time poe player).
Poison sextant removal. This mechanic allowed moderate players to accelerate there farm on any build to be able to farm another stronger build. It was not nerfed but totally removed.
Atlas nodes after nerf are almost uselss now
Missions are way to scarce.
The market is in a weird spot. The best way to make money is to sit in you hideout, flip and trade!

If the aim was to make people play more I wonder if GGG can share with us the stats of players engagement for these first 6 days to see if that goal was achieved.

On the positive side

I appreciate the old league improvements
I agree with a lot of the nerfs to make it a bit less accessible (but this is too much)
I appreciate the new low life mechanic as it opens up for experimentation
I love the meta shift

Understanding the player base

It's very hard to please everyone, especially in community as variant as POE. To simplify, I will say there are 3 groups of players :

Hardcore (not just the league) players that want the game to be more difficult to feel the achievement and dont like to be overpower as they get bored. They like the grind to be slow and long
Softcore players that want to make money, progress fast, be in god mod, clear all content with some challenge, and be able to buy/craft anything they want with a moderate amount of grind
SoftSoftcore players that want to play the game to enjoy it and advance slowly with casual time investment

I dont know the % of this separation on the whole players base, but I know that most of the "Streamers" are hardcore players. They are the one that understand the game mechanics, create builds, die, level again, and attract players on their stream to learn the game.

GGG always says we are listening and we react to the community feedback. However, I feel that the opposite is true. GGG has a vision for this game and apparently is too stuborn to change it and for me they do not get what the community want.

The streamers (the like of Ziz, Nugi, SteelMage, etc... and I love them all) do not represent what most of the community wants (not from what I am reading) but there voices has too much weight at GGG. I feel that GGG is targeting there enjoyment in the game as they will attract more players...
When regardless of the redit tsunami following the Harvest nerf, GGG still ships that huge nerf to the point of being a useless mechanic, and on top of that nerfs every other enjoyable aspect in the game, only proves that GGG is not listening or just not understanding what we are saying (that might be related to the fact the reddit is viewed as "angry mob" that will nag no matter what)
The nerf to talismans which was useless anyways except for very very rare occasions proves that the metrics on which they are building there decision is off.
And not to forget the "close your eyes" meme...

Communication with the player base

We spend 3 months between league nagging, and pointing out stuff that is not going well, but we only get a response toward the beginning of the next league when its too late to change (devs are almost done) if the new decisions do not suit the community.

GGG never gives stats and concrete reasons to why they did these changes or nerfs and rarely addresses the issues (Except for bugs) during the league.

Doing polls to take the opinion of players before it addresses a huge change can help?

TLDR:

The game has nice new changes but it is way to slow to the point of being a tedious brain numbing grind of mediocre loot. It lacks excitement and getting boring really quick. I have not played that much and felt that under rewarded for while.

Something needs to be addresses quickly else people in my state which are still hanging on in the hopes of finding a loop hole after the nerfs are going to stop playing this league.

Currency drop rates might be an easy way to fix the economy and speed up the game a bit.

I hope GGG is really listening.

Have a great day.

submitted by /u/PhilosopherBig597
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I can handle the texture streaming issues, but this?!

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 07:35 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Brookowly
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First time in 12 leagues I ran out of red maps, alch orbs and master missions.

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 11:48 AM PDT

Not a new player by a stretch with 5k+ hours in game. Definitely either bad luck or drop rates this league is WAY lower than previously. So standard alc and go on yellow. Chisel, alt, vaal on T11-14 red. Literally sitting on 2 red maps and 0 currency to roll it. Even out of resonators for fossil roll lol. Probably should use sextants on T10 maps...

Running yellow maps on lvl90+ char is not fun at all. Master missions super space. I was not even able to reach lvl 83 delve, unlike I usually able to do by this point.

EDIT: Also I ran something like 20 heist contracts to get some currency before red maps. I did not even touched it previous league. Something is completely off.

submitted by /u/Yakez
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Windows update kb5001330 is the issue with texture streaming FOR ME

Posted: 21 Apr 2021 09:27 PM PDT

I don't know how I feel about uninstalling a windows security update. BUT... It did fix the texture issue for me.

Curious if this helps others. Again I don't like the idea of uninstalling a SECURITY update, however, it fixed things for me...

Multiple sources and other games having issues too:

submitted by /u/ReRIFT
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The trialmaster is doing a bit of trolling

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 02:24 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Valox
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The Harvest mechanic and my road to lvl100 HCSSF. (WARNING - Long read)

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT

Ritual League:

After approximately 4900 hours played, I was finally able to reach lvl100 in the HCSSF Ritual League for the first time. Ritual was a great league for me. Even though I started a month late due to traveling, I very much enjoyed Ritual league for the 2 full months that I was able to play. The new changes to the atlas were fantastic and the league mechanic itself was simple and decent in terms of rewards, especially in the early game. But what truly made the league great for me were the Harvest changes and implementation.

As someone who only plays SSF, most leagues go as follows; I try out a new skill (in this case Reap), I get to late red maps and depending on the strength of said new skills, I make several other characters somewhere in the range of 90-97. That is usually where the fun stops for me (Or I die). I don't really enjoy mindlessly grinding maps to 100, because other than reaching lvl100, what is the goal? Crafting incredible gear simply isn't possible in SSF without ungodly amounts of luck. Until we got Harvest.

Harvest gave me a goal, a purpose. No longer was I just grinding maps for the sake of it. I was grinding maps to make items that would increase the strength of my character beyond what was normally possible for me ever before. Even though I knew it would take me a very long time and a lot of maps, it didn't matter to me. I knew that as long as I put in the effort, I would be able to finish the gear that I wanted for my character. Gear that I usually only saw in Standard owned by the top players. It took me 2 months and 3 deaths to complete my character. And I didn't stop playing when the league was over. I continued on in Standard to try and create items for a different build that I had in mind. Needless to say, I have never enjoyed playing Path of Exile as much as I had during these 2 months of Ritual League. We have also had a record high of lvl100's in our guild during the Ritual League and several people with 2 or more.

For me, almost unlimited character progression is what makes ARPG's enjoyable. Especially so due to the insane depth that PoE has, but it has to be achievable. I don't mind RNG at all, but it has to be balanced in a way that over a realistic sample size, you will be able to get what you want. Harvest was perfectly balanced for this. It was RNG upon RNG upon RNG; Find a Harvest>Get the crafts that you want (ex. aug life>Hit the desired mod on your item. But it was achievable! I knew that as long as I played enough maps, the RNG would even out. And it did.

The current league:

With the huge nerfs to Harvest, master missions, skills and more, alongside very few buffs, I don't see myself having a long term goal this league, which is unfortunate. I'm still happily playing the game at the moment, but I don't see myself playing nearly as much as I did in Ritual. I really think GGG should reconsider their stance on Harvest especially. After all, don't we all play PoE for enjoyment? And don't we all come back for every league even without Harvest? If anything, I think that leaving Harvest the way it was in Ritual will only get people to play longer and have a more enjoyable time. In any case, I hope you all have a good time in Ultimatum.

Link to my character if you're curious: View Profile - Path of Exile - Anscendant

submitted by /u/Atrocebtw
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A unique item with this mod would be wacky cool!

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 10:44 AM PDT

submitted by /u/AmihaiBA
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Is it just me?

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 10:31 AM PDT

submitted by /u/keqoh
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That was a fun league

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 11:44 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Pspspspspspsppsps
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GGG the Asset Streaming system is breaking gameplay

Posted: 21 Apr 2021 03:26 PM PDT

I cannot even see 1) the bosses 2) the enemies if I can see the bosses I can't see their visual effects so I literally have no idea why I'm dying or if I'm standing in something bad.

Please it's affecting gameplay. It's one thing to have slow loads or blurry textures but these things are just not visible at all and we NEED to see them to be able to play the game well.

edit: some examples (from the last hour): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vyd8Piak1c

submitted by /u/pwalkz
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Me after work

Posted: 22 Apr 2021 11:06 AM PDT