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The original was posted on /r/pathofexile by /u/Jernsaxe on 2024-12-28 11:14:27+00:00.
I hope we can all agree that GGG want POE2 to be different from POE1 in part by being a lot harder, and I think most of us think that is (or can become) a good thing.
So what I am about to argue isn't that I want the game to be easier, but that the way difficulty is currently implemented runs counter to the design philosophy GGG seems to have, and that I believe it will lead to a long string of nerfs whenever a powerful build start to dominate the meta.
Currently there seem to be two main factors putting pressure on the meta builds:
- Item Rarity on gear seems mandatory
- Deaths are very punishing
I will not go into rarity here since that have been debated better elsewhere. I will instead look at deaths being punishing and how players deal with this, vs. how GGG seem to want us to deal with it.
There are a lot of mechanics in POE2 that will kill you if you don't deal with them correctly. Some of these mechanics have little meaningful counter play but there are two ways to deal with (almost) everything:
- Be able to tank everything
- Kill everything before it get to you
Both solutions are intentionally not engaging with the game in the way GGG seems to want us to do. GGG want us to dodge one shot mechanics, they want us to pick the right charm for the right situation and do elaborate setups to pull off powerful combos to kill the enemies. They want us to respect any mob and have epic boss fights.. But I don't believe they have given us the right tools to do that.
A weak dodge roll is fine for (most) boss fights that we can practice and learn, but it does almost nothing for off screen random monster projectiles or hasted rares with 5+ mods that get on top of you and refuse to leave. It is also not a solution to arena fights like ritual in maze like maps, and a 4 second cool down blink that requires you to weapon swap or lose a damage aura is not much better.
A charm to avoid freeze for a few seconds that the best current rolled mod takes 320 seconds (0.25 charge per second) to recharge is not a solution to freeze deaths. Having to roll a specific belt mod to have any defense against other debuffs like stuns or bleed compound the weakness of charms as a defensive layer.
Doing elaborate setups to increase your damage every 5-10 seconds while standing still in a small area is not something you can always do during a fight, so what will often happen is that you use the setup once and stack your damage until you can kill anything in those 5-10 seconds or you don't do the setup.
This might just be an issue for me, but I don't play ARPG's to be in a constant state of focus to be ready to deal with any random mechanic being throw my way, whether that is an "added cold" magic mob hitting me with a projectile off screen or invisible ground or on death effects that kill me if I don't react in half a second. It just doesn't work for me.
The reason I think games like Dark Souls can have extreme difficulty throughout the game is that you can spend hours training for each encounter and you know what is coming after dying to something once. When I run ten maps in an hour I am facing literally hundreds of unknown mechanics, many of which will kill me if I don't either outgear it or play perfectly. I can never run a 4k life build if a white mob can hit me for 5k damage without be knowing it is coming and being prepared for it.
I think GGG's vision works very well for boss fights, I like learning them and having to react to difficult mechanics, and while I still think some of our counter play in those situation are a little lacking I can live with that.
But if I have to choose between playing perfectly for hours on end vs. random mechanics or simply ignoring every single mechanic through build/gear I know what I will choose in an ARPG every single day of the year.
The reactions we have seen so far is nerfs to the standout builds, and some of those builds did need a nerf. But there is a limit to how many times GGG can do this without burning out the player base, especially with no ascendancy respec and a 20-30 hour campaign each time your build gets bricked.
If GGG want a long term meta of the game being super deadly and forcing players to engage with their mechanics they need to do something about randomness, lack of counter play and how punishing death is. Otherwise the meta will always be a rush towards the "flavour of the month" build that ignores all mechanics while we wait for the next nerf.