POE is therapeutic. It teaches me ZEN.

long post warning. if you dont like long posts, this is not for you

i've been playing POE for more a less a decade now.

I'm one of those scrubs who stubbornly refuses to play a proper build has 4k-5k hp players who gets one shot and bitches about it.

Through out my long years of playing poe, one thing i hate with great disdain is how spikey the damage can be.

its to the point that if i want to actually level up, i roll my maps magic with safe mods. i block out a lot of extra content, and actively any content that is potentially dangerous.

but once in a while i will still run into an AN mob with a specific combination of mods that makes it's damage spike a huge lot.

sometimes i fail to notice purple crystals (its much better now but sometimes i still fuck up).

sometimes i tell myself. oh this map has porcupines, but i ll also convince myself that if i just go slow, i ll get thru it. who am i kidding? back to town lol.

i would sum up my frustration with something that asmongold said. when hes playing poe it can get tiring because he has to be hyper focused, he cant "afford" to blink as it just takes a second of negligence to die.

our god gamer quin, with his immortal build that could tank maven's memory game died while mapping.

defenses dont mean shit when the damage can spike up so high and kill you in a split second.

i dont consider myself as a patient guy. i rage. sometimes i curse at the screen, sometimes i bang the table.

the amount of rage i have towards this game skyrocketed ever since AN was introduced. i hate AN to its very core.

i dont know why but it seems like the devs are so intent on making the game unpleasant. me and my buddies always joke about GGG doesn't like us having fun. i really feel that so damn much.

the game is catered for the top 1% of the top 1%. everything that was made to try and kill these people make the game's difficulty amplified to those who are not at that level.

and so i rage. i rage and rage and rage.

then one day, i had chest pains.

i got hospitalized but it was nothing too serious. i had an angiogram performed and thankfully my heart was determined to be ok. but i was warned.

i am no longer a young brat. i am now a grumpy uncle. i m squidward.

during my hospitalization, due to being hooked up to IV drips etc, despite having my laptop around, i didnt play poe. i played chess, watched movies/series and even played some old jrpgs that i had on my "to play" list.

i didnt realize it at first but i was not raging.

when i got released, it didnt take me long to play poe again. it also didnt take long for me to get hit with a sudden death.

i was pissed.

but it hit me right then and there.

THIS is the biggest contributor to my heart's issues.

i played so many different games. none have got me raging as much as POE. in many games when i die i am able to reason, well... ok. that was on me, i shouldn't have done that. awh man. i shouldn't have been greedy.

in poe? i could be enjoying a relaxing map clearing phase for half an hour, wiping everything clean, then i would die in a split second. 10% loss. i could have gained 1-6% xp in half an hour. but now i lost more than i gained in 1 second.

the frustration is real.

but i changed.

i can no longer afford to be angry. i am no longer as passionate.

i'm already over level 90.

who cares about experience? ultimately, we're chasing drops.

i've changed. i've gained enlightenment.

the game is much more enjoyable when i've come to embrace that once in a while i'll encounter a bullshit death.

i have surpassed death itself.

i no longer care for such a trivial matter.

i have achieved ZEN.

takes a while for the salt to build up :)

My builds very rarely reach 4k life anyway.

It is not impossible, but very limiting to focus on immortality because there are so many ways to rip.

I just get enough defenses so I won't rip to a sneeze from a rare mob and put the rest into damage and clearspeed.

"

exsea wrote:

i m squidward.
(...)

i have achieved ZEN.

I die to stuff I didn't see coming, too. I just don't let it get to me for more than an instant. =^[.]^=

Yes, once you realize that it's just pixels, that it's just fun, everything becomes....zen !?

^^This

Defenses are useless and everything comes down to one shotting everything on screen and three screens away before you can even see them

Can I have your stuff when you die?
Stop playing!

The game is fully broken and getting worse each patch.
Not worth health issues. Relax with some Hello Kitty Island Adventure ...

Playing PoE can be painful.