Exp Loss - The Great Debate. But why no High-End Unique with Prevention?

"
There's no record of this. It was 5% ("Cruel") and 10% ("Ruthless", later "Merciless") since patch 0.7.1 (March 2010).


Wrong, XP penalty was different before the Fall of Oriath Expansion. You can find evidence in old threads here.

0% for Normal (no penalty), 7.5% for Cruel and 15% for Merciless difficulty.
"
"
There's no record of this. It was 5% ("Cruel") and 10% ("Ruthless", later "Merciless") since patch 0.7.1 (March 2010).


Wrong, XP penalty was different before the Fall of Oriath Expansion. You can find evidence in old threads here.

0% for Normal (no penalty), 7.5% for Cruel and 15% for Merciless difficulty.


It has been 10% since open beta. Baumi even posted the source.

I wish people would stop making up the 15% nonsense.
Last edited by Scarletsword#4354 on Mar 13, 2025, 5:44:06 PM
"
"
There's no record of this. It was 5% ("Cruel") and 10% ("Ruthless", later "Merciless") since patch 0.7.1 (March 2010).


Wrong, XP penalty was different before the Fall of Oriath Expansion. You can find evidence in old threads here.

0% for Normal (no penalty), 7.5% for Cruel and 15% for Merciless difficulty.


That is literally not what I can find as info on the web. Every other thread I checked, and website articles from that time period, mention 5% and 10% EXP, and -30% and -60% resistance penalties.

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Version_3.0.0

Literally a quote from those patch notes:

"
There is a 5% experience penalty for deaths in Acts 6 through 10, level 5 and 6 Forsaken Master mission areas, and the Cruel and Merciless Labyrinths. There is a 10% experience penalty for deaths in areas reached through the Map device, level 7 and 8 Forsaken Master mission areas, and the Endgame Labyrinth. These replace the old Cruel and Merciless experience penalties, and are only active in those specific areas. Dying in any Act 5 area (or lower) after completion of Act 5 (or higher) will not incur an experience penalty.


Edit: My bad, am tired and misread. You meant BEFORE that expansion, but it's still true:

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Version_0.7.1

"
Added death penalties of 5% and 10% of current level's experience on Cruel and Ruthless difficulties respectively
[Removed by Support]
Gaming PC: Win 11, 7600X3D, RTX 4080, 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30, 7000 MB/s SSD, 850W, 3840x2160p 120Hz
Streaming PC: Win 11, i5-12400, RTX 4060, 32GB DDR5-6000 CL36, 7000 MB/s SSD, 450W, 1920x1080p 60Hz
[Removed by Support]
Last edited by BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 on Mar 13, 2025, 5:00:42 PM
To add slightly more context:
The XP penalty was different just prior to the Fall of Oriath Expansion, because the Act structure of the game was different. As a result, the penalties come into effect later now: the 5% penalty at area level 45 instead of 40, and the 10% penalty at area level 68/69 instead of 56.

Normal spanned area levels 1-40,
Cruel spanned area levels 40-57,
Merciless spanned area levels 56-70.

Wiki Sources for area levels: Old Act 4 page from before 3.0.0, and the version history on the Act 1 page.
Adding context again, since these patch notes aren't all collected in one convenient place on the wiki:

"
0.7.0 - Added Cruel and Ruthless difficulty levels.
0.7.1 - Added death penalties of 5% and 10% of current level's experience on Cruel and Ruthless difficulties respectively.
0.8.0 - Enabled the fourth difficulty level (Merciless).
0.8.1 - Reduced experience penalty in Merciless difficulty to 15% (from 20%).
0.10.0 - Now that Act Three has been added, we've removed the Ruthless difficulty level and have rebalanced around this new progression. The experience penalties on death are now 0% for Normal, 7.5% for Cruel and 15% for Merciless difficulty.
0.11.3 - The experience penalty has been reduced by a third, down to 5% on Cruel and 10% on Merciless.
"
Jadian#0111 wrote:
Adding context again, since these patch notes aren't all collected in one convenient place on the wiki


Thanks! I do not remember that part so well, I just know it basically has always been a thing when I started playing. Those high penalties were before my time.
[Removed by Support]
Gaming PC: Win 11, 7600X3D, RTX 4080, 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30, 7000 MB/s SSD, 850W, 3840x2160p 120Hz
Streaming PC: Win 11, i5-12400, RTX 4060, 32GB DDR5-6000 CL36, 7000 MB/s SSD, 450W, 1920x1080p 60Hz
[Removed by Support]
or they could add TOTA to the core game? Wouldn't that be nice
"

Except that is false. EXP curve beyond level 94 has been adjusted more than once, increased in total to extend the grind:


Not disagreeing with the rest of your debunking but it is easier than ever, numerically we require the most experience right now as you mentioned however we also make more experience.

The level I consider a character done has crept up over the years to around 96~97 from the low 90s simply because that's where i get to in my playtime of a character.

Hell start of maps to 90 takes like an hour I really don't think some players appreciate just how much XP is currently available compared to prior.

I suspect alot of the issue is that rate is gated behind a certain level of experience and players without it feel like its either taking too long because they are playing safe, or they overreach with their character and it takes too long because they then start having deaths cost xp.
Last edited by Draegnarrr#2823 on Mar 14, 2025, 5:37:46 AM
The penalty isn't that big of a deal.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info