Why specific race tuning is bad in the long run.

Races like Descent, Descent Champs and Endless ledge reflect the time period of PoE in which they were designed.

Personally I love all of these races, or to put it another way, I love the potential these races have.

1. The problem becomes when we have a seasonal rotation like we currently do, and we have a race designed around a certain paradigm that worked at the time, aka single target and level 4 aoe gems for most classes, and the game is fundamentally changed between then and now, well it really makes the races untenable without some outside the box thinking.


Proposal: Add level 12 gems to the EL box. There is a reason melee was supposed to get sweep level 4, as it is independent of weapon. So often in the only three endless ledge races I've done this season I see a weapon drop that I cannot use because I am restricted to using ground slam.


So what if you can't equip or use these gems until level 12, the whole race is made up anyways lets try to reintroduce some fun to these races.

2. Races need to be adjusted inside the season they are being run. By the time EL rolls around again the whole game may have changed again, and so changing anything in EL based on this season's feedback in anything other than the current season seems like a monumental waste of time.

It was always frustrating to play a melee in EL, but if you got a great drop you were set! Now however, with all the adjustments to low level weapons you no longer have the luxury of using an item for many multiple of levels. A great rolled level x weapon = x+1 as a white weapon. This probably makes sense for the overall game, but man it makes endless ledge particularly frustrating to play.

This wouldn't be a huge deal except... there are no Descent or Descent Champions in the mix.

3. What is the point of the specialized season for the "featured" race, if there isn't a quality check before the season starts of the upcoming race? Changing 1-2 gems inside the starter box does not = a pass.

With most things in PoE, if something isn't optimal for you to do, there is another path. So you don't like EL, you like DC and descent, so you skip all EL and do those.

Act 4 mobs in EL are currently insane, and do so much damage it begs the question if they are balanced in the normal game.

4. If races are tuned incredibly specifically for a time period of PoE, in 6-12 months a lot of that work becomes wasted unless someone goes through and tunes again because the game has moved on.

I'm not sure how to fix this in the current feedback and balancing scheme, this just seems to be a hazard of specialty races.

after this season of uselessgrip signature and el gem removals i am proud to say the tiniest hope i had for poe racing is gone. half of the season is either endless ledge which is determinated by gem drops and signature mod that does not benefit anyone after hillock kill its safe to say ggg has absolutely no interest in poe racing

You don't get it. The devs are trying to make racing popular like PVP and they are on their best way to do it.
You know how big the PVP Community is.

Sweep wasn't for all weapon types before 2.0

Other than that, I agree.
Also, give casters back Firestorm so we can faceroll (granted we don't get a4 mobs, EW + cold snappers, dischargers or arcers in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th instance) this race again.

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Karvarousku wrote:

Sweep wasn't for all weapon types before 2.0

Other than that, I agree.
Also, give casters back Firestorm so we can faceroll (granted we don't get a4 mobs, EW + cold snappers, dischargers or arcers in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th instance) this race again.

Fair point, I never used swords as Marauder but yes I don't see why we have to suffer with such a bad gem selection when we don't get supports. Casters get firestorm or etc, why is flame totem not in the box? Its a level 4 gem that most people get.

Likely because everyone would use it, which says something about low level gem balance in the EL box.

Low level melee.... Did yuo know jade choppers used to be 24-37 dmg.

Theyre now 17 to 27. The old bottom end is almost the new top end?????????? I really think some of these nerfs need to be reverted, low level melee is just so painful for so many reasons.

I feel the main problem is that GGG has stopped balancing the game around racing. The recent Marauder buff was the only time in recent memory that they buffed something for the early game only. They want to balance the game around the end-game and around leveling normally (not rushing, doing sidequests, etc.). For example, if you are not rushing you can easily be well over 11 before Merveil and have no problem equipping the res rings needed for that fight. Whereas in racing, it's a struggle to go fast and be 11 before that fight since 2.0.0, now that the act is shorter and the zone is lower level, and prompting requests to make the res rings lower level, which I agree should happen.

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Morsexier wrote:

low level gem balance

This concept is pretty much a myth. Even for casters, some spells do ridiculous damage versus other dumpster gems. I'm sure I don't have to point out the usual suspects.

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Gamer_748 wrote:

I feel the main problem is that GGG has stopped balancing the game around racing. The recent Marauder buff was the only time in recent memory that they buffed something for the early game only. They want to balance the game around the end-game and around leveling normally (not rushing, doing sidequests, etc.). For example, if you are not rushing you can easily be well over 11 before Merveil and have no problem equipping the res rings needed for that fight. Whereas in racing, it's a struggle to go fast and be 11 before that fight since 2.0.0, now that the act is shorter and the zone is lower level, and prompting requests to make the res rings lower level, which I agree should happen.

Reasonably sure that's working as intended. The availability of Sapphire rings for Merveil (or Ruby for Prisoner's Gate, for that matter) used to be a given, depending on how fast one rushed. Now, it's a trade-off of time spent leveling vs. the risk of fighting Merveil without 'em. I'm no hot stuff racing, but I've discovered (what GGG prolly wanted me to) that I can handle Merveil without Sapphs.

It seems that GGG is changing things up to see how much harder racers can push, training us to move out of our old comfort zones.

Still miss Lightning Trap at lvl 10. =-[.]-=

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Raycheetah wrote:

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Gamer_748 wrote:

I feel the main problem is that GGG has stopped balancing the game around racing. The recent Marauder buff was the only time in recent memory that they buffed something for the early game only. They want to balance the game around the end-game and around leveling normally (not rushing, doing sidequests, etc.). For example, if you are not rushing you can easily be well over 11 before Merveil and have no problem equipping the res rings needed for that fight. Whereas in racing, it's a struggle to go fast and be 11 before that fight since 2.0.0, now that the act is shorter and the zone is lower level, and prompting requests to make the res rings lower level, which I agree should happen.

Reasonably sure that's working as intended. The availability of Sapphire rings for Merveil (or Ruby for Prisoner's Gate, for that matter) used to be a given, depending on how fast one rushed. Now, it's a trade-off of time spent leveling vs. the risk of fighting Merveil without 'em. I'm no hot stuff racing, but I've discovered (what GGG prolly wanted me to) that I can handle Merveil without Sapphs.

It seems that GGG is changing things up to see how much harder racers can push, training us to move out of our old comfort zones.

Still miss Lightning Trap at lvl 10. =-[.]-=

=9[.]9=

=~[.]^=