New Skill Development - Part 2

Promoting build diversity or not?
On one hand, relying on The Combo on every single character would be an unhealthy trend in the diversity of builds played, I can admit that. On the other hand, with the damage spikes that exist in the game, how many character builds can be played on Hardcore really? The popularity of certain defensive items speaks volumes to the state of PoE gameplay. Don't get me wrong, I like this game a lot. But I fear that GGG removing/nerfing overused defensive tech is the wrong way to go about it.
Unless they want a game that can randomly decide to instagib you without it being your fault.
Given that they've been open about seeing desynch as a problem and recently fixed boxes to gradually spawn monsters, that seems unlikely. I feel more builds can be played with The Combo and if it goes away, fewer builds will be viable, especially for melee.


"Get better, scrub":
This schism in the player base you'll find in pretty much any multiplayer game. I've seen it in StarCraft, in World of Warcraft, DotA 2, you name it. It's the age old balance between Accessibility and Difficulty. The easier the game, the more people can play it. The harder the game, the more enjoyable for people wanting a challenge. I constantly marvel at the inane complaints from people who can't seem push three buttons in sequence to the "elitists" who's egos seemed three-linked in a "Skill"-"Personal Worth"-"Judgemental Attitude" setup. I'm of course no different, I'm somewhere on this scale. Too easy a game, it's not fun to play. Too hard a game, same thing. It's like Birth, Death and Boredom, it's a Universal Constant.


"It makes the game too easy"
Absolutely nothing forces you to play the game using The Combo. If you feel it makes the game too easy, don't use it. If your argument is that "I'd be dumb not to use it as long as it's available", then consider that there are people who do use it/rely on it. Disregarding for a minute whether or not it's necessary to avoid insta-gibbing to random damage spikes, wanting GGG to remove The Combo because it makes the game "too easy" will naturally make it "too hard" for others.
Compare to map crafting for a second here. You can control the mods on a map, given time and the currency. The more difficult a map, the better the rewards. Good players can run very hard maps. Average players probably can't. That's completely fine and how it should be IMO. In that situation, it's up the player to decide for him/herself how difficult of a game he/she wants to play. We have a softcore/hardcore setting for that specific purpose. It seems to me a tad. . . petty to basically say "I don't want to have to choose, so remove this choice for me please. Anyone liking that other choice should be forced to like mine, because they're wrong the way they play the game".

Heck, maybe actually make a map mod where Immortal Call is disabled and slap a juicy quantity mod on it, that could tickle the palate for some players. I'd actually like to see that in game. Wouldn't run them, but I'd appreciate that the choice was there for the people who felt they could take it.

"Making stupid decisions kills you".
Somewhat true. I YOLO-Alch'ed a map the other day to have "Players have Blood Magic" on it. Upon going into the map, I had less than 700 HP due to reserving so much of my mana normally from buffs. Had I died there (quickly decided to not run that map), that would have been on my shoulders.
Running headfirst into a mob with reflect and spikes on death without looking at their mods, stupid decision. I did that once. Never again.

Lag spikes, desynchs, out-of-vision leapers, none of those are a result of your own actions. I'll take full responsibility for my actions if they get my character killed. Those things aren't. Remember that it doesn't mean shit that your reaction speed is up to par if there's a technical delay somewhere along the line.



And while I'm at it, being a softcore player says absolutely nothing about how good or bad you are at the game. It only says you don't enjoy permadeath. Inferring anything else is a logical fallacy. General assumptions can be made, definitive statements can not.