Remember the CB plan. The game developed in the opposite direction

"

Invalesco wrote:

With only 5 flask slots, it is more of a choice whether or not to sacrifice that valuable flask slot for a quicksilver. With 24 sockets available, would you mind sacrificing one for phase run? It's a no-brainer and hence, it's not a choice as well.

Every of my character wears at least one quicksilver since a1 norm. I can resign from any flask, but no from quicksilver. It's no brainer, no choice, it's just must be.

So I suspect, that it's connected rather with what Raics wrote and it's easy solution. Prevent some gems drop in races, voila, causa finita.

GGG should start to separate PvE, races and PvP balances, because trying to balance it at once is IMO just impossible.

i got into CB ('friends helped') and then via normal way into OB because i believed in what ggg pictured us they are going to do: complex, fair, rewarding, d2-style game. game that you play and re-play again and again each time doing something different and longing for the moment to try something new or fix old mistakes. that was poe of my dreams. something that d3 didnt deliver (although i dont think d3 was THAT bad, combat there is far less one-skill spammy and cooldowns are not bad design decision but something that introduces 'some' strategy/tension elements) and d2 had no chance to deliver due to simply being game from 1999.

what weve got is an MMO with epic-scale grind envisioned to 'prolong the fun'. as if if not for the mandatory grind/trade people would have left. that attitude some people display: "you have to 'work' for your rewards in situation where SKILL is NOT involved" makes me sick.. you know that in hardcore games you have to play more because you PRACTICE as in: you get better at the game? same as in real life: you practice to be better. here the result of practice is directly translated to 'waste more time to progress!' (or trade, this game is all about the trade anyway)

i miss games that required player to have a skill (and was willing to go for it). current games only require time-investment without raising a bar much higher than what is accessible to limp penguin. poe is unfortunately that 'new' game - skill cannot beat RNG. you can only trade around it.

I was going to write something about GGG visiting some sort of seminar (ugh) before deciding upon these changes. But I changed my mind.

I don't remember phase run, even though i played some CB a while back. But it sounds like a great idea. Why not make it a high dex req, starting at lvl req 31? It sounds like it was pretty OP back then, so balancing was probably needed.

Not all balancing is bad, u know. Just the errm... 'heavy-handed' version.

But yeah, i agree on the PoE turning out to be more and more of a asian grind fest. For me, one of the worst decisions was to lower the level of merciless lunaris. I mean it felt like such a huge step back for my char (85 ranger) at the time (becuase there is no better farming zone, says i). Then came gated uniques.

ARPGs are about progression imo. I really dont want to create new chars all the time, i want to make them godlike and then slay millions of nub monsters and at the same time get some shiny lootz to make myself even more godlike. And then, I will most certantly buy even more stash tabs, and even some nice flashy effects just to show good will. After that ill use my lo0t to make another guy or gal. The possibilities are endless!

I don't view it as an opposite direction so much as a different one. Not every decision GGG makes regarding grindiness is a bad one; actually, I'd be inclined to agree with a lot of them.

That said, OP is dead-on in that GGG's focus has been too much on that category. Things like permanent CT leagues, more emphasis on PvP tournaments, and fixing desync have, in my opinion, been left in the dust by an over-emphasis on balancing the game strictly from a PvE mechanics perspective. Some things, like introducing Descent races, have been great ideas with great results; what we need is more stuff along those lines and less focus on the grind. One doesn't have to disagree with those balance decisions (which, for the most part, I don't) to concede that they are fundamentally less important than things like new game modes and netcode performance issues.

"

anubite wrote:

Phase Run was removed because it was mandatory for races. There was no give or take - it was just bad design. An easy decision. Without it, you were fucked. And taking it was of no significant cost.

Quick Silvers have a larger cost to use and aren't necessarily as mandatory (though, with the current state of early game flasks, a QS is sort of).

The main issue with Phase Run is you could go zoooom indefinitely to skip 90% of the game. Quick Silver limits how many monsters you can skip. That was the design; it may not be totally effecient to try and run past everything, since your movement boost time is reduced to the number of QS drinks instead of a tiny mana cost self-buff.

Phase Run could probably be added back to the game, but as like, a level 50 gem or something, where it is less critical and cheesy.

Game should not be balanced around races.

Game should be balanced around endgame first and foremost. So yeah, having a high level requirement would be okay.

Yet again: phase run sucks compared to Secondary Weapon Set with Brightbeak, faster attacks, leap slam and either blood magic or reduced mana.

Quicksilver flasks are redundant too in endgame for the very same reason with the exception of the Reaver-case.

"

mazul wrote:

Game should not be balanced around races.

Game should be balanced around endgame first and foremost.

Doesn't this strike you as even slightly egotistical?

What's the point of having races if they're not balanced? What's the point of having endgame if it's not balanced? Obviously all forms of balance are important. But let's not pretend that just because you enjoy a particular game mode more than some other mode that GGG should only be attention to yours.

"

ScrotieMcB wrote:

"

mazul wrote:

Game should not be balanced around races.

Game should be balanced around endgame first and foremost.

Doesn't this strike you as even slightly egotistical?

What's the point of having races if they're not balanced? What's the point of having endgame if it's not balanced? Obviously all forms of balance are important. But let's not pretend that just because you enjoy a particular game mode more than some other mode that GGG should only be attention to yours.

All forms of balance are not equally important.

Even if races were completely unbalanced in such way that only 1 build has a reasonable chance to actually win the race, people would still compete about being able to perform that build better than anyone else.

In the regular leagues, on the other hand, due to the amount of work people put into their characters (far more than in races), it is of interest that many different builds are well balanced at the endgame. It is not easy to switch to a different build.

"

ScrotieMcB wrote:

"

mazul wrote:

Game should not be balanced around races.

Game should be balanced around endgame first and foremost.

Doesn't this strike you as even slightly egotistical?

Fortunately, it's not an issue, balancing races and regular pve should be a piece of cake if they put their mind to it. Races happen at level ranges where not much stuff really matters.

PvP is another story. I'd say it's even impossible to do it in a game where all skills are available to all classes. Put in the low skill threshold, heavy emphasis on specialization and even heavier gear dependance and you get a PvP that's incredibly hard to balance without making one setup the 'ultimate' one everybody uses, and that's no fun. And even if it could be done, it's impossible to do it and not mess up PvE.

Even if it's possible by some amazing stretch I just don't think GGG can do it, especially not with the kind of effort they've been putting into it so far. So, they'd do themselves and us a favor if they just forget about it and work on fishing or, even better, rhoa bowling.

If you miss the movespeed of phase run, try smoke mine. Reasonably fast to cast, 20% movespeed bonus.

"

ScrotieMcB wrote:

"

mazul wrote:

Game should not be balanced around races.

Game should be balanced around endgame first and foremost.

Doesn't this strike you as even slightly egotistical?

What's the point of having races if they're not balanced? What's the point of having endgame if it's not balanced? Obviously all forms of balance are important. But let's not pretend that just because you enjoy a particular game mode more than some other mode that GGG should only be attention to yours.

Well people spend most of their time in endgame, so that being the main focus of balance is not necessarily a bad thing as long as everything leading up to it is a somewhat enjoyable experience.