Community Q&A with Chris

Hello Chris.

1.Will minions/summons get a boost in ai or at least will we get a aggresive stance and defensive stand?
I ask this because most of the time they will just stand there and do nothing unless i attack the mobs, even sometimes they just stay there while getting hit....

2.Will there be a toggle option for Hp bars for Minions/Summons?
I know is hugely annoying for other players to constantly click on minions/summons instead of monsters but for us summoners we need to see the hp bars, specially of spectres. It would be really cool if you could implement a way to toggle the view of these summons/minions HP bars on and off, and if on you could toggle between spectre/summon/zombie.

3.Any other type of summons planned in the future? As of now only skeletons so....

4.Will there be more unique items for summoners?

5.Any plan on implementing new unique summoner nodes such a Necromantic Aegis?

Thank you for your time.

Ah nice thread:


When are other leagues/events starting even they would need balance you could start them and close them once the population is too low:
Permanent Turbo(aka no Bots League)

CutThroat Races(Goal would be leveling but you can knock out other players)
I don't care about rewards.



Will there be an option on Private leagues to change the Tree/Gems, Droprates, Affixgeneration, Moster HP/Abilities, own events with currency rewards completely untied to the regular leagues.
I ask because there were several d2 mods which were better than D2 and I bet it would be easily possible to give PoE a completely different feeling as it it now without chaning uniques etc.


How many users did actually get banned for using 3rd party currency such as foolsgold, bitcoins etc?
I have seen only 1 user with a banned tag who used fools gold with the same nick on the botterboard and posted about it here.(That account hacked guy)
But if you check that board from time to time you see that some users are simply obvious.


Why aren't patch notes complete and there are stealth nerfs.

For example ES and CI had a long discussion and the changes were included but the change on Rings/Amulets with max 79 life weren't included

Mapdrop rates decreased compared to Closed beta etc.


Is there an attempt to fix drop again? Something like a global 3-4 player like drop.
Currently it is next to nothing=1 player vs overkill=5-6 players, so players are forced to use fillers.

I remember the itemdrop rates were better on Pre 0.9.12 maps. You had maps you needed 30 or more minutes to clear and the amounts dropped were fine.
Now a solo player finds less on a 124% map than 3 players on a 0% map.

Pixel shader 2? low graphic options? :(

You said you knew that certain monsters and skills caused desync issues. Why leave them in the game when so many people are experiencing major desync issues? Why not remove them until the issues are resolved?

Are there any plans to Change any of the Skills beside what you mysteriously mentioned in the Patch Notes, im especially interested if you plan to change something about the Arc Skill Gem.

Question about your long term goals with the passive tree.

When you think of the tree, do you think of it as a permanent, unchanging part of the game? Balance issues like the upcoming Duelist changes aside, do you plan to expand or add to it? I mean, just for the sake of adding more content/freshness.

Eventually reworking the outer areas to accommodate the addition of new Keystones maybe?

Possibly move the center of the tree outwards a bit to make a "new" center portion, increasing the size of the tree a bit. Things like this are what I'm asking about.

Or is the goal to just have the tree as great as possible in it's current configuration without ever adding things to it (not for balance reasons, but for content reasons).

Is there a reason all races this season are locked to the 4 current times? couldn't there be a day a week or two days every other week where the times are completely different?


Also can we see more "what's coming" updates much like the recent one you posted about 0.10.2, possibly with more detail about the not so immediate future? not asking for dates or specifics but more like a road map of what we can expect?


And lastly about Au/Nz servers, I've heard you state that currently they are Prohibitivly Expencive, the only solution i can think of is haveing a monthly? subscription servace to help cover the costs??

Thanks for doing this also, you guys should serve as a role model to all other Game Dev Company's

Q: In public games, is loot denial by body blocking an intended metagame or might this eventually be addressed in some way?

(potential ways to address above issue: (a) larger pickup radius, (b) better character pathing around obstacles (c) soft/walkthrough-able party members, (d) a true individualized loot option for audiences that find it appealing, (e) some other idea).

Hi Chris,

I was wondering if there will be any "balancing" for the end game maps for solo players vs group play, such as allowing IIQ to affect map drops again (I like to play solo mainly because I dislike the drop system like a lot others).

Currently, the maps drop is not affected by party size or IIQ. I understand the reasoning behind not letting map drops affected by party size as a single map can be used by the whole party, and I agree. However, imo, IIQ not affecting map drop rates is basically discouraging for solo players.

The problem is that:
- In order to get more maps within maps, you'd have to roll maps with better/harder mods. This requires currency.
- IIQ increases currency drops in maps, coupled with the IIQ of each party member in maps, there'll be sufficient currency to roll maps when they decide to combine their currency drops. However, solo players will have a much harder time acquiring enough currency to do this.
- In order to partially fight against this mechanic, I'd have to equip MORE IIQ hoping for more currency for myself to roll maps. This in turns affects my killing efficiency. This is especially true for higher level maps which you would make rare maps with tons of negative affix. A full party have a much higher chance to succeed in higher level and harder maps when combining each character's strength and weakness.

IMO, IF map drops can be affected by IIQ but not party size, at least solo players can have a chance to get more maps to compensate by the lack of currency to roll maps in groups.

POE is a great game, just that playing the end-game solo is just a pain sometimes

Are there any plans to discourage or encourage the mass hoarding of demigod items?