Number of deaths in maps as an adjustable difficulty / juicing mechanic

Tala moana exiles,

An idea I put forward here, for feedback and may be GGG consider it? It comes from this discussion : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3659635/page/1

So the pseudo HC mechanic of 1 death and you're out in the endgame appears to be a big pain point for a lot of people, but many others like it. Both camps have valid arguments. I personnaly haven't reached endgame yet, so this is totally based on the different reactions I've seen.

So here's the idea I put forward to may be appeal to both camps : how about you make the number of deaths allowed an option when you enter a map (or boss or citadel or whateve) ?

For example (obviously all the rewards / penalties need to be balanced, just spit-balling here):
- 5 deaths (poe1): -50% xp gain/quant/rarity, only 1 endgame mechanic allowed, some restriction on certain drops (uniques / endgame currency...)
- 2 deaths : let's say this is the current baseline, but add restrictions to access higher level systems
- 1 death : +50% xp gain/quant/rarity, but no access to pinacle systems
- 0 deaths (current system) : +100% xp gain/quant/rarity, gives access to pinacle systems, +throw in some chase loot

The main idea is to keep 0 deaths as a requisite to access some stuff, so you still HAVE TO engage with it (even for pinnacle bosses, may be you do a few tries with 5 deaths to learn the fights, but to access the chase uniques, you need to go 1 shot), but you do it at your own rythm.

May be you could even introduce atlas tree nodes to juice 0 death play ?

Edit following a suggestion below: put the whole thing in the atlas tree. It would be just 1-4 nodes, depending on how granular you want to make it.

That's it really :)

Could be an affix on the waystone, maybe even an implicit that can roll 1-6 etc

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ruskyandrei#6088 wrote:

Could be an affix on the waystone, maybe even an implicit that can roll 1-6 etc

That could be a way to implement indeed, the counterpoint I see is that it would add friction: may be you're a noob noobing and you don't have 5 death waystones, or you only want to do pseudo-HC stuff and it adds steps to craft/buy the waystones you want, vs. a togglable option

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Maldosam#3663 wrote:

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ruskyandrei#6088 wrote:

Could be an affix on the waystone, maybe even an implicit that can roll 1-6 etc

That could be a way to implement indeed, the counterpoint I see is that it would add friction: may be you're a noob noobing and you don't have 5 death waystones, or you only want to do pseudo-HC stuff and it adds steps to craft/buy the waystones you want, vs. a togglable option

There is nothing pseudo-hardcore in this game.

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Valsacar#0268 wrote:

There is nothing pseudo-hardcore in this game.

Thank you for your feedback.

Agree and think your idea is pretty decent tbh. One and done portal/death across the board just simply feels awful. If we wanted hardcore, we'd check the box at character selection, you know?

Quite a good solution actually, in my opinion.

Personally I've adjusted to the one portal system (after a long adjustment period and a lot of pain lol) but if this is genuinely a make or break issue for many people then I think this would be the best way to "meet in the middle".

As long as they don't go completely back to the 6 portal way of PoE1 I'd be happy.

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Chanlaa#7114 wrote:

Quite a good solution actually, in my opinion.

Personally I've adjusted to the one portal system (after a long adjustment period and a lot of pain lol) but if this is genuinely a make or break issue for many people then I think this would be the best way to "meet in the middle".

As long as they don't go completely back to the 6 portal way of PoE1 I'd be happy.

Never had an issue with 6 portals, but I see how it can be abused. And I'm not yet at 2's atlas.

The way I see it more options is more better. Even if you like one death maps, may be sometimes you just want to chill, or if you don't like it, may be you get bored and want more challenge for better reward.

Balancig this can be challenge, but I think it's consistent with the risk/reward philosophy of poe, and would change and improve a poe1 system.

Loving the 1 portal.

Slow down, get better defenses and last but not least IMPROVE AS A PLAYER.

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RKxZlcLUUF#5704 wrote:

Loving the 1 portal.

Slow down, get better defenses and last but not least IMPROVE AS A PLAYER.

Thank you for your feedback.