Why is the skill gem system dumbed down in PoE2?

Excuse these harsh words, but can someone point me to an explanation why gems will now be socketed into a separate interface instead of into items?

To me, finding and making items with matching, linked sockets was an integral part of itemization that set PoE apart from other games.

What will we put into items instead? Not using that "resource" would be kinda wasteful and I can't imagine a better use than what we had. It was also an elegant way to set a limit to the number of skills we could use - 1 per item or make sacrifices.

Eh, I’m sure it leaves plenty of design space for things to put into items later down the line in expansions. Or even before that, for all I know.

I do agree it’s less elegant this way with this abstract “skills list” but I think the benefit of increased customisation for more skills, and the end of the multiplicative layers of socket/link/colour rarity that became a real drag late game, are easily worth that.

L take.

As originally presented, the new skill gem system was intended to solve a couple of problems in PoE 1: Disparity in access to 6L skills (dependent on types of gear), which also prevented secondary skills from being powerful enough (relative to 6L skills) to be worth using.

Additionally, the simple utility of being able to quickly switch out a piece of gear (a bow, say) for another, similar piece of gear without struggling for the correct sockets made new finds/purchases/what have you instantly usable, and thus, more exciting.

So, not dumbed down, so much as streamlined. Of course, in the end, it was just too good for PoE 1, the game played by people who don't play it correctly. =9[.]9=

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Solmyr77 wrote:

Excuse these harsh words, but can someone point me to an explanation why gems will now be socketed into a separate interface instead of into items?

To me, finding and making items with matching, linked sockets was an integral part of itemization that set PoE apart from other games.

What will we put into items instead? Not using that "resource" would be kinda wasteful and I can't imagine a better use than what we had. It was also an elegant way to set a limit to the number of skills we could use - 1 per item or make sacrifices.

Chris/Johnathan did explain this (I think during the day 2 Q&A), but here's the cliff notes.

- Currently, support gems give you massive damage boosts. Content is therefore balanced around the damage of 6L skills, but players only get 1-2 of those. This leads to the one-button gameplay of PoE1, which GGG are trying to get away from.

- Because people only have 1-2 main skills, active skills need to be able to do everything in order to be viable. If a skill can't clear packs AND do good single target damage, it will be displaced by players in favor of one that can do both. This limits GGG's options for skill design.

- Having to stop your progress through the campaign because you found a nice item with the wrong sockets on it is not fun, so people avoid doing it. We're all familiar with the trend of putting on a Tabula at level 1 and not taking it off until you're high enough level to equip your endgame chestpiece. Leveling loot becomes more impactful when there's no drawback to equipping a new item.

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Raycheetah wrote:

As originally presented, the new skill gem system was intended to solve a couple of problems in PoE 1: Disparity in access to 6L skills (dependent on types of gear), which also prevented secondary skills from being powerful enough (relative to 6L skills) to be worth using.

Additionally, the simple utility of being able to quickly switch out a piece of gear (a bow, say) for another, similar piece of gear without struggling for the correct sockets made new finds/purchases/what have you instantly usable, and thus, more exciting.

So, not dumbed down, so much as streamlined. Of course, in the end, it was just too good for PoE 1, the game played by people who don't play it correctly. =9[.]9=

Careful what you wish for. Diablo 2 had those same "issues" with only allowing 1-2 skills to be at peak performance due to skill point limitations. So Blizz went and "streamlined" skill trees away with D3 - go from Fireball to Blizzard to Arc and back with the press of a button.

I also don't see a problem with an item upgrade not being immediately usable. That's been the way of things in most games. What's the benefit of removing steps from the game to get done with it faster?

Remember that this also clears up how much clicks you make while you're playing. since you don't need jewelers, chromes, fusings, bindings, etc whatever else you have to spend to craft sockets.

It also makes it where you can use more skills for different utility. kind of how they made your weapon change when you use a certain skill. Lets say your a sorc, you wanna be lightning and cold, when you cast a cold spell your cold staff will be used likewise with lightning. You cant really do that all that well with the current poe system. If you did that in poe1 people would complain they couldn't level up multiple gems in offhand.

I do think that this takes away most of the early mapping fun in ssf whenever you're working on building your 5 and 6l tabs early on. I don't think this breaks anything or makes the game worse in any way.

6L take

ggg: "having 6 gem slots provides interesting choices for the player"

player: puts one manually triggered damage skill and 5 damage gems with "cast on x" in the other slots.

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as long as this game has damage checks this won't change. best scene on the exilecon podium has been the question "will there be reflect in poe2" which they obviously didn't understand.

they're just making it more difficult to aquire more power by removing support gems with damage multipliers but keep the principle as it is.

and we will see even more trigger gems to keep those joystick players happy, automatisation for the win.

poe2 looks like alot of guys had alot of ideas, seeing their mistake of going left makes them turn to right while the way out is at the top.

edit:
sounds like a rant, it's just my first impression from the conference, maybe it's all different in the real game.
i understand that "damage dealt" can't be all about timing skill combos

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vio wrote:

ggg: "having 6 gem slots provides interesting choices for the player"

player: puts one manually triggered damage skill and 5 damage gems with "cast on x" in the other slots.

--

as long as this game has damage checks this won't change. best scene on the exilecon podium has been the question "will there be reflect in poe2" which they obviously didn't understand.

they're just making it more difficult to aquire more power by removing support gems with damage multipliers but keep the principle as it is.

and we will see even more trigger gems to keep those joystick players happy, automatisation for the win.

poe2 looks like alot of guys had alot of ideas, seeing their mistake of going left makes them turn to right while the way out is at the top.

Trigger gems reserve Spirit, so you're gonna need a lot of it if you want to do this. Might not be hard, but still, I reckon it won't be quite as easy as you make it sound. Remember that Herald of Ash took almost all of the Warrior's Spirit in the demo.