Game is turning into a glass cannon only builds

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Baharoth15 wrote:

You'd suspect to fight monsters in an ARPG but then monsters are the least threatening thing around...

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Johny_Snow wrote:

Why do you need 10 mirrors to enjoy the game?

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Johny_Snow wrote:

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Baharoth15 wrote:

You'd suspect to fight monsters in an ARPG but then monsters are the least threatening thing around...

Unless they have proximity shield

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Johny_Snow wrote:

Why do you need 10 mirrors to enjoy the game?

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BaumisMagicalWorld wrote:

Aye, we don't, but GGG are not stupid. I think they very much understand that having both is a truly terrible idea and will definitely lose them players.

The EXP penalty has been a staple complaint over the years (and I personally despise it), and so is the portal approach in combination with how rare some encounters are and how easy it is to have an instance crash and all portals lost. That penalty is a personal gripe I have with the game, mainly because I most enjoy playing builds that end up being laggy because the game engine can't handle it. That's why it took me far longer than normal to get to level 99 in Affliction on my CWDT character. And it was such a chore that it put me off from going for the home stretch to 100.

The Starfall Crater boss this league is a perfect example of how it should be. Same as Abyss bosses in maps, once that instance spawns, you can die several times without losing a portal; just re-enter the area and learn from your mistakes. The only risk you have left in that scenario is an instance crash, which is rather rare by comparison.

That is how it should be, in my personal opinion. There's nothing wrong with making encounters hard, but you have to make the access to it fair. 1 portal bosses like the other two bosses are a no-go. Thankfully, those are fairly easy after you've fought them at least once.

Let me elaborate (sorry, a bit of a rant incoming):

I have issues with bosses like Maven, that I find poorly designed, mainly due to their gimmicks that have nothing to do with skillful play anymore. The fight is cool until you get to Memory Game. The single mechanic in the fight that makes me loathe it. I have short-term memory loss problems (below average and may be first signs of early dementia), meaning I cannot remember the sequence in phase 2 where she does the longer one. Doesn't matter how many times I practice, I cannot do it. The short one is not a problem. How is that fair design? Everything else in it is about skill and hand-eye coordination.

Then you got Searing Exarch. Stupid ball phase that is ridiculously hard without a totem and probably impossible without a teleport skill (unless you can tank a ball). Even Shaper's bullet hell phase is easier to dodge. And he spawns dark orange runes on the ground while using orange abilities in a dark brown/orange arena. They reduce your maximum Fire Resistance and block your Life Recovery. Nice. Accidentally step on one and it's time to instantly kill myself with Eye of Innocence. Which happens a lot cuz I can't see shit due to no layering of skill effects. Fun.

Now, let's take a look at Eater of Worlds. Only issue I have with this fight is the "Energize the spheres!" phase. Completely counterintuitive, going HARD against PoE enemy design, because the game wants you to remain in them for a brief period of time while being chased by a fucking laser. This reminds me very much of the Crucible stone circle BS, though that one was much more manageable. How they expect your average player getting there for the first time to figure it out is beyond me. And then they feel cheated because of the counterintuitive design and locked access behind dozens of maps.

Infinite Hunger is one of those bosses that just don't make sense. He has a debuff that removes Armour and Evasion Rating. This would be fine if GGG hadn't spent the last couple years removing all other forms of direct Physical Damage defenses from the game. Flat PDR is practically gone, so is Phys taken as Ele now (more or less). That leaves you with Endurance Charges, for the most part. Grace and Determination were nerfed hard, so what is fair about this debuff now? Especially the first couple times you fight him, how can you reasonably expect for this fight to be any kind of enjoyable?

Sirus. If they removed the storms, it would be a far better fight. Everything else in that arena is imo completely fine. It has, once again, very much counterintuitive design, because you have to wait for the storm to pass and then walk directly underneath him so he gets down from his chair. Just... no.

And yeah, I've killed all of these bosses, by the way, feel free to check my profile. I'm not complaining because I couldn't beat them or something. I am complaining because I beat them and find the fights suck.

IMO they did, in fact, peak with Uber Elder. You get to experience both bosses separately beforehand and become familiar with their own mechanics, and then they are both used in that fight, but some mechanics are skipped. Nothing about that boss fight is unfair in any way. Literally nothing. Even Zana says "Come to me, Exile! Quickly!", so that's another very clear sound cue.

And this is not a matter of me being bad at the game or something. I'm a huge fan of the Souls series. I played through every Souls game (Sekiro, Demon's Souls and Bloodborne excluded -> but I watched Let's Plays and streams) and Elden Ring. I have close to 900 hours in Elden Ring alone. Over 1500 hours in all of them combined. I beat every boss and collected everything in all games. So, this is also not a matter of "uh, too hard" - no, I don't mind it when it's difficult content. But I absolutely despise random unfair bullshit.

GGG really needs to step up their game in boss design. When Chris said "we are good at designing bosses" - those times are long gone. Iirc he said that when we had Shaper and Uber Elder as pinnacle content. They have introduced backwards designed bosses since. And I cannot fathom why they continue to refuse to tweak these fights to be more fair. Instead, they did another 180 from "Uber bosses are designed to be for the players who seek the extra challenge to test their builds, with no extra rewards over their regular boss encounters" (paraphrasing from an interview before they added Uber bosses). Now, S-tier rewards are locked behind Uber bosses, among other things.

So, yes, I am, in fact, very much looking forward to PoE 2 and I hope it comes with improvements.

/rant XD

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BaumisMagicalWorld wrote:

Instead, they did another 180 from "Uber bosses are designed to be for the players who seek the extra challenge to test their builds, with no extra rewards over their regular boss encounters" (paraphrasing from an interview before they added Uber bosses). Now, S-tier rewards are locked behind Uber bosses, among other things.

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BaumisMagicalWorld wrote:

You mean that only you yourself can get it done? It wouldn't encourage anything but pigeonhole you into X builds, skyrocketing prices for said builds, resulting in completely gating the entire thing. Endgame exclusive drops would be hoarded by the few who get there first, buying up everything needed to get there, creating a market monopoly. Then nobody except a select few would ever run Ubers. Congratz, you now achieved the polar opposite with that approach.

The reason why those carries exist in the first place is because the 70% less Damage taken is hard to overcome for a lot of builds, and it's hard to access the encounters as a whole, in particular if you don't no-life the game efficiently.