Serious question: Why does Act 1 have to be grueling and miserable?

Just been running through some skills on Witch to test the fresh league start leveling process, and I got to say everything feels absolutely terrible. Had to hit a totem with 8 Freezing Pulses to kill it, everything feels like it's going to two shot you, and the Rhoas in the second zone are absolutely absurd.

If I was a new player I'd pretty much either be done with the game before the first act was over, or I'd be level 18 3 hours in killing Merveil. Why was the choice made to make it incredibly dangerous instead of there be a gradual increase in difficulty? It would make what is basically the introduction of the game way less painful.

Chris has admitted this was a mistake, and they have stopped all planned "revisions" of difficulty in the subsequent acts.

It remains to be seen if they will somehow revert what they did to act1, but at this point I doubt it is worth the resources to do so.

Additionally PoE sucks for new players generally speaking, so perhaps this weeds out the folks they dont really want anyways. I dont think it's a smart strategy, and I was one of the many people saying the Act1 rework made no sense, but here we are.

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DarthSki44 wrote:

Chris has admitted this was a mistake, and they have stopped all planned "revisions" of difficulty in the subsequent acts.

Can you link to where he said this? Curious to listen

Make first zone in the game much harder than it was to make it "more interesting".
What can go wrong.

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Userbla wrote:

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DarthSki44 wrote:

Chris has admitted this was a mistake, and they have stopped all planned "revisions" of difficulty in the subsequent acts.

Can you link to where he said this? Curious to listen

Ugh I cant remember which podcast or Baeclast this was. If I remember to check after work I will update the thread.

Edit: it was Baeclast #83. I dont have a timestamp as I didnt have enough time to go through it all again. I will say however any of the Baeclasts where Chris is actually on, is for sure worth listening too, even if its 3-4 hours.

Act 1 is the only act that resembles fun before you hit maps, it is the acts after first act that leech the soul out of you "oh i'm act 9 and still no 4link dropped, great" monsters are piss easy but you lack the QoL to kill them in fun way (multiple projectiles, multistrike, automatic cast, increased aoe etc, no minion speed, no minion agressivity)

and the first items that drop are the only ones that have any weight at league start.

I mean if 4l rare helm drops in act 1 that is gonna last you for next 8 hours, but anything that drops between act 1 and last act is something that you will change every 10 minutes if you even bother picking up loot.


I wish there was revision like this
:Make all acts harder
:Lower level needed to obtain support gems and multi-link items(so get the QoL early on)
:Make loot matter for endgame (this one is tough because of bots) but if chaos orbs and chaos recipe items were dropping it would be bit more bearable and you'd be like "well at least it does not feel like COMPLETE WASTE of time"

Because after you hit that first white map you will vendor all your current gear and in the 3minutes that it takes you to clear the map you'll earn more currency than you did in last 8/10 hours combined(stop pretending to be speedrunner that finished the game in 2 hours, you are not)

Sure, you have lottery winning chances to find some good unique if that was not changed (headhunter from 50lvl) but that will happen 0% of time per person. So it is fair to say that 100% of time the things you get while leveling are worthless and loot should never feel completely worthless, it can feel "not great" like most items that drop are. But literally 10life 5armor 23% local armor chest with 5% chaos resist does not feel just like "I'm not min-maxing towards endgame here" It is just placeholder that will not stand the test of time for next 40 seconds.

Act 1 is fine. Less they buffed it this league? Skipped this league & Arch. Was fine for Scourge.

I want a tough Act 1, the party experience for Act 1 is too fast & its my favorite part of the game, starting fresh lvl 1 with people. Act 1 already has lame zoomers who breeze by too fast, half of them skip the league mechanic. Why make it easier.

I started with Expedition & that update to Act 1 happened like the follow league or so after Expedition. Yet it didn't bother my new player experience I was just like " neat, now goat herd men are stronger, good ".

The only tough part of Act 1 is dying from the goat boss that shoots fire spells near The Ledge. Or end boss fight which isnt tough as ur party members have a portal near the entrance. That's it, nothing else is tough. Some noobs won't do enough dmg to brutus, so they have to kite him.

With those numbers, 3 lil tough boss fights, I'd make Act 1 tougher if it wasn't for new players. For sure the party experience should be tougher at least. The ghost ship npc quest is too easy & too cartooney.

Who summons a regular tanky totem?

I'd like some things for Act 1, a bigger town, more music ambience around town, & some lore quests. More npcs around & some other art environment ways to improve the immersion. However if someone quits at Act 1, probably has less to do with game difficulty & more to do with their pc game knowledge.

Even if they made Act 1 easier, new players are still gonna have their first 10 alts they build die 100 times, before figuring out how to POB build for themselves properly. If they aren't following guides. So the weeding process for dying is gonna happen regardless. Not endgame, just Act 5 or 6.

I don't believe dying ever bothered me when I started with Expedition till after Act 4, even then just ressed & ran to a portal on repeat. I remember I tried making a noob shield elemental witch & I died 20 times on repeat with a party member watching me heh. I laughed.

Every game I play forums mention new players who die & quit the game lol. Who does that. I get its better to make a game easier so new players don't die. Tho where are these people who test games & die a few times, then quit immediately. Sounds like they'd leave every game. They def shouldn't try Planetside 2, notorious for dying a lot.

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DarthSki44 wrote:

Chris has admitted this was a mistake, and they have stopped all planned "revisions" of difficulty in the subsequent acts.

It remains to be seen if they will somehow revert what they did to act1, but at this point I doubt it is worth the resources to do so.

Additionally PoE sucks for new players generally speaking, so perhaps this weeds out the folks they dont really want anyways. I dont think it's a smart strategy, and I was one of the many people saying the Act1 rework made no sense, but here we are.

Sigh.................here we go. It saddens me when the loudmouths have their say. I like GGG for a lot of things, I absolutely hate them for their lack of backbone.
Act 1 is fine the way it is, so is the 2nd.

I really like this game, but fuck me.......I fear for the future.

Ironically (imo) Act 1 is the best act in the game. Acts just get longer, boring and annoying with each act lol

["I mean if 4l rare helm drops in act 1 that is gonna last you for next 8 hours" -- Cake]

Where are these 4-link rare helmets dropping in act 1? Do you play the same game I do?