The final touches on the rapid-fire PvP Tournaments for PvP Season One. We'll post more in the news about this in the near future.
Another new active skill. We're trying to design it to be a good primary skill (like Spectral Throw was) rather than a secondary skill like Searing Bond or Arctic Armour.
Several new Unique items (probably 4-5).
Some more new vendor recipes.
More achievements.
Several new microtransactions. There are interesting new ones in the works.
A revamp of end-game Map sizes and mods. We'll probably post more about this in the news next week. One of our goals is to make the Maps larger.
The Damage over Time update (described here) is likely to be ready for 1.0.2 but we're not making promises on this one yet. It's a very dangerous change and we want to make sure it's fully tested.
A fix to the problem that occurs when you get too many effects on the same entity. You'll know what I mean if you were ever on fire while using Blood Rage.
The ability to exit to the character selection screen rather than the main menu. This may be patched in earlier than 1.0.2.
There's plenty more that will be in the patch of course (THESE ARE NOT PATCH NOTES). We'll let you know next week as we get closer to finishing it!
Was the video we made about the 1.0.1 patch useful? It takes considerable time to make videos like that but if people like them then we'll keep doing them.
Last edit: The decision has been overturned by Chris, thank you everyone who voiced your opinion to set this straight! I'll see you guys on the dueling grounds.
I can't hope enough that the PvP will be league specific.
I can't hope enough that the PvP will be league specific.
In 1.0.2, Standard and Hardcore can fight each other. Domination and Nemesis can fight each other. The old leagues cannot fight the new leagues because that's unfair.
The Unfairness of PvPing against Softcore Characters as a Hardcore Character
To me this is quite mind boggling obvious that the thought process behind this decision is extremely lacking. The only thing I can possibly come up with is logistical reasons (remember that Chris posted that roughly ~2% of the players are playing hardcore currently). Forcing hardcore players--and Nemesis by comparison--is completely unfair and not inline at all with the competitive nature of PvP.
Winning in PvP should prove that you are the best player on your respective league--regardless of how many players play in that league. I would like to quote Mark who put it very eloquently when asked why Anarchy (the softcore league from last season) players who finished the league with a character that had zero deaths couldn't be moved to Hardcore instead of Standard.
In Hardcore, if a character dies, they're out of the league. This doesn't only affect the character, it affects the economy, because all items that character had died with them, and as far as HC is concerned, are gone forever. It is never possible in HC for you to be using an item that belonged to a character that died, because their items were taken out with them.
In Anarchy, characters can continue when they die. While we track character deaths and could move to hardcore only characters that never died in Anarchy, they would be carrying items that do not belong in a hardcore economy, because they've traded with characters who died, and obtained items tainted by death. These characters managed not to die by directly benefiting from a non-HC economy, where far more items are easily available because they aren't constantly leaving, and would carry hundreds of death-tainted items to HC with them, should such a transfer occur.
Even if we kept death counts for every individual item in the league, and didn't transfer those, we'd have characters arriving in hardcore without most of their gear, losing HC gems that were socketed in non-HC items, and fundamentally, we're still putting characters in HC who didn't avoid dying in hardcore.
Not dying in a softcore league and not dying in a hardcore league are not the same, because the softcore league has far more easily available items in the economy, due to them not leaving when characters with them die. It's easier to gear up.
A character who only "didn't die" in Anarchy did not achieve the same as a character who didn't die in HC. They probably used items that wouldn't exist in a hardcore economy. They almost certainly benefited from the larger numbers of items in the economy. If they ever played in parties with characters that died, then they made progress they could not have made in HC.
A character who didn't die in Anarchy, or any other softcore league, is not equivalent to one who doesn't die in hardcore. As such, moving characters from such leagues to hardcore would not be reasonable.
Replace Anarchy with Domination and you have summed up all the reasons that this should not be allowed in the single most competitive aspect of any game--fighting against an intelligent non-AI opponent to the death.
Let's take a quick look at the current availability of certain levels of items in the Domination marketplace (thanks to poe.xyz.is) and compare them to those on Nemesis. (I will not be going into the differences of HC and Standard in this post as I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who reads Reddit and sees the vast amount absolutely absurd perfectly rolled items for all slots available there for mirroring and other means.)
Quality of Loot - Best for Sale at Time of Posting 2H Swords DPS
Domination: 553 DPS
Nemesis: 518 DPS
Dagger DPS
Domination: 347 DPS
Nemesis: 263 DPS
I could go on but the trend is the same. Some items are a bit closer but some are so skewed
Availability of Loot - Seemingly rarest item in game? Kaom's Heart
Domination: 5
Nemesis: 1
Most items are this way for obvious reasons, nothing moves, it's all permanent for one league, and everything is liquid in the other.
I urge you to reconsider this. I can't believe that I'm really having to plea the case for not pitting Hardcore leagues against Softcore leagues against each other in PvP. This completely kills the spirit of the game and everything that I know many people have worked for since the introduction of this game at Open Beta with the promise of PvP on the horizon. Now that time has come and I feel like everything I've put countless hours in for already on the new leagues to be as ready as I can be for PvP against other players who have to deal with mortality and the perils that await in Wraeclast. I have lost a level 75 character already, and many other players have lost characters already in these leagues and they have to rebuild from scratch. On top of this we are forced to fight an uphill battle against softcore players that lose at the very most 10% of their current level, and can plow their body against a ridiculously hard boss in extremely high maps after a fresh ding with no risk of losing anything to try and push ahead in the item and--more importantly--map hunt that those of us with a single life dare never risk for the reward will never be outweight the chance of losing hundreds of hours of work and all of your best items.
I am probably one of the biggest proponents of PvP and I'm sure many people in the community can vouch that this is the only reason I play this game. For me to play handicapped--by this I mean choosing to play in a perma-death league--against softcore players is an utterly disgusting thought for me to have to deal with, and frankly I just won't do it. It really feels to me like you just punched my lovely mother in her face while looking me in the eyes, then walked away.
Thanks for the feedback about the lack of Domination vs Nemesis PvP segregation. There are problems with too much segregation (especially in leagues like Hardcore that don't have as many players) but we'll take it on board. I'd love to have it entirely league-specific but only if there are enough players to make it awesome.
While I think the video for the 1.0.1 patch was very enjoyable, if it takes time away from development or otherwise improving them game then I am disinclined to approve of them.
As you said, they take considerable time.
It's just my weekend really :P
This brings to my attention the fact that this decision seems solely based on the fact that there are 2% total population on the hardcore realm. Keep in mind that the decision for pitting hardcore against softcore still doesn't help the fact that it will not be awesome for now more like 25% of the population that plays on all the hardcore ruleset leagues. Chris, come on man.
A well written post by FreeMark discussing some discrepancies of X-Realm PvP
The Unfairness of PvPing against Softcore Characters as a Hardcore Character by: Extremely Pissed, Aux
The Unfairness of PvPing against Softcore Characters as a Hardcore Character
To me this is quite mind boggling obvious that the thought process behind this decision is extremely lacking. The only thing I can possibly come up with is logistical reasons (remember that Chris posted that roughly ~2% of the players are playing hardcore currently). Forcing hardcore players--and Nemesis by comparison--is completely unfair and not inline at all with the competitive nature of PvP.
Winning in PvP should prove that you are the best player on your respective league--regardless of how many players play in that league. I would like to quote Mark who put it very eloquently when asked why Anarchy (the softcore league from last season) players who finished the league with a character that had zero deaths couldn't be moved to Hardcore instead of Standard.
In Hardcore, if a character dies, they're out of the league. This doesn't only affect the character, it affects the economy, because all items that character had died with them, and as far as HC is concerned, are gone forever. It is never possible in HC for you to be using an item that belonged to a character that died, because their items were taken out with them.
In Anarchy, characters can continue when they die. While we track character deaths and could move to hardcore only characters that never died in Anarchy, they would be carrying items that do not belong in a hardcore economy, because they've traded with characters who died, and obtained items tainted by death. These characters managed not to die by directly benefiting from a non-HC economy, where far more items are easily available because they aren't constantly leaving, and would carry hundreds of death-tainted items to HC with them, should such a transfer occur.
Even if we kept death counts for every individual item in the league, and didn't transfer those, we'd have characters arriving in hardcore without most of their gear, losing HC gems that were socketed in non-HC items, and fundamentally, we're still putting characters in HC who didn't avoid dying in hardcore.
Not dying in a softcore league and not dying in a hardcore league are not the same, because the softcore league has far more easily available items in the economy, due to them not leaving when characters with them die. It's easier to gear up.
A character who only "didn't die" in Anarchy did not achieve the same as a character who didn't die in HC. They probably used items that wouldn't exist in a hardcore economy. They almost certainly benefited from the larger numbers of items in the economy. If they ever played in parties with characters that died, then they made progress they could not have made in HC.
A character who didn't die in Anarchy, or any other softcore league, is not equivalent to one who doesn't die in hardcore. As such, moving characters from such leagues to hardcore would not be reasonable.
Replace Anarchy with Domination and you have summed up all the reasons that this should not be allowed in the single most competitive aspect of any game--fighting against an intelligent non-AI opponent to the death.
Let's take a quick look at the current availability of certain levels of items in the Domination marketplace (thanks to poe.xyz.is) and compare them to those on Nemesis. (I will not be going into the differences of HC and Standard in this post as I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who reads Reddit and sees the vast amount absolutely absurd perfectly rolled items for all slots available there for mirroring and other means.)
Quality of Loot - Best for Sale at Time of Posting 2H Swords DPS
Domination: 553 DPS
Nemesis: 518 DPS
Dagger DPS
Domination: 347 DPS
Nemesis: 263 DPS
I could go on but the trend is the same. Some items are a bit closer but some are so skewed
Availability of Loot - Seemingly rarest item in game? Kaom's Heart
Domination: 5
Nemesis: 1
Most items are this way for obvious reasons, nothing moves, it's all permanent for one league, and everything is liquid in the other.
I urge you to reconsider this. I can't believe that I'm really having to plea the case for not pitting Hardcore leagues against Softcore leagues against each other in PvP. This completely kills the spirit of the game and everything that I know many people have worked for since the introduction of this game at Open Beta with the promise of PvP on the horizon. Now that time has come and I feel like everything I've put countless hours in for already on the new leagues to be as ready as I can be for PvP against other players who have to deal with mortality and the perils that await in Wraeclast. I have lost a level 75 character already, and many other players have lost characters already in these leagues and they have to rebuild from scratch. On top of this we are forced to fight an uphill battle against softcore players that lose at the very most 10% of their current level, and can plow their body against a ridiculously hard boss in extremely high maps after a fresh ding with no risk of losing anything to try and push ahead in the item and--more importantly--map hunt that those of us with a single life dare never risk for the reward will never be outweight the chance of losing hundreds of hours of work and all of your best items.
I am probably one of the biggest proponents of PvP and I'm sure many people in the community can vouch that this is the only reason I play this game. For me to play handicapped--by this I mean choosing to play in a perma-death league--against softcore players is an utterly disgusting thought for me to have to deal with, and frankly I just won't do it. It really feels to me like you just punched my lovely mother her face while looking me in the eyes, then walked away.
Extremely Pissed,
Aux
I agree with Aux 100%.
Even looking at the logistical reasons, it still doesn't make sense to me. Ok, there are a LOT fewer people playing hardcore compared to standard and the same for Nemesis to Domination but that doesn't make a difference to me. When I hear of a PvP league, whether it be 1v1, 3v3, 6v6, or with CTF thrown in, I picture fighting your peers who have an equal fighting chance to become the top of your league.
One of the joys (for me) of playing PvP on my hardcore character (currently level 83 in Nemesis) is being able to try crazy skill combinations and PUSH my character to the max, knowing that I can be bested by people I'm fighting and taking the loss, or destroying those people and getting that feeling that I've just won! Also being able to see the limit of what my hardcore character can do in a fight is exhilarating. "Oh, my biggest weakness is chaos damage, glad the PvE monsters don't hit like an Aux painted truck."
To expand on the gear differences that Aux pointed out, I use a physical staff with my build and out of curiosity I checked Standard for staves. There is a staff for mirror service and 7 people have paid on average 60 exalts JUST TO MIRROR IT. I can't think of many items from my time in Hardcore or Onslaught that even sold for close to that (other than kaoms/shavs 6L). If I had all of my currency ever acquired in the three leagues since open beta started, I couldn't craft a staff like that in Hardcore, let alone buy one. So if I take my Nemesis PvPer after the league finishes and queue up only to be pitted against one of the 8 people who already have that staff, what chance in hell do I have at winning that fight?
And that isn't just based on the gear. Imagine the difference in the passive trees. I would struggle to pick up damage nodes while leveling because I constantly need to grab life nodes. If I wanted to be on a fair playing field once I hit ~level 90, then I would have to spend multiple exalts worth of regret orbs just to even the passive tree [playing field]. Then I'm stuck at what ever level I choose to respec to because I would be worthless in PvE.
In my opinion, this is the worst proposed change I've seen in PoE yet and I've been around since July 2012.
Equally pissed,
FreeMark.
please...
don't do this GGG.
An emotional tale of the highs of PoE and the lows of the PvP announcement by Cyrenus
Chris and GGG,
I have been playing PoE off and on since closed beta. I have tried to find other games to take the place of Path of Exile and I can never fill the void. This game is my methamphetamine, my cocaine, my Breaking Bad. I skip school for this game, pass up social time, it has probably destroyed my relationship. Does this heartache, lack of judgment, or sheer stupidity keep me away from this glorious game? Hell no. I have recruited two people, a trivial amount, to the Path of Exile universe. They thank me for introducing them to a great game. Also, I just received my Support Package goody bag. That key chain is heavy as hell in my pocket but whenever people see it they ask what the game is like. I respond
Path of Exile is like that morning cup of coffee after a long night of partying. You have the shakes from the hang over but you know that once it hits your lips you feel instantly rejuvenated. Path of Exile is that ridiculously long hot shower that you cannot get out of on a winter morning even though you know you're going to be late for work. Path of Exile is better than your first kiss in that once DJ Piesta rocks your face off with a lightning orb you just keep going back for more.
I wish money weren't an issue for me because I would back GGG effortlessly.
BUT, what really GRINDS MY GEARS is after having spent countless hours on my FIRST Hardcore/Nemesis character, sucking cotton into my asshole from near misses, getting trucked on by Hillock, taking Vaal smashes straight to that beautifully designed Scion dome, eating Piety's lightning orbs like shock tarts (get it?), that you Christopher (insert middle name) Wilson feed your community this line of bullshit about how Domination/Nemesis or Fairy Land/Big Dickville have the opportunity to engage in a Player vs Player tournament.
You already shit in your bed when you destroyed the awesome Cast on Damage Taken trigger gem but right now you all might as well string each other's assholes to your mouths and defecate there!
I am absolutely appalled at this lack of better judgment. Fairy Land/Domination players have the opportunity to never have their items taken away, they have the ability to taint their items with their deaths, whereas we Hardcore/Nemesis players have to go through stressful, mind numbing, trials and tribulations to avoid the next RIP and losing everything we hold dear to our characters (our bragging rights) let alone where we end up if we die!
GGG I highly ask you to reconsider what you are doing to us. We are your children and we are being punished for your horrible parenting as of late. Open your eyes to the abuse!
Don
A old Diamond Supporter makes his first post ever voicing his concerns on X-Realm PvP
I've been playing PoE off and on since closed Beta, and I can honestly say it is one of my favorite games of all time. I frequent the forums and have always felt that GGG has moved in the right direction, so I've never felt obliged to post. HOWEVER, I can't stand and watch this mishap come to fruition. I don't PvP, but even I can see that pitting Domination against Nemesis provides an unfair advantage in favor of Domination. The economic imbalance is far too great to consider the competition fair. Therefore I will use my first forum post to argue in behalf of Aux, who has nailed the exact reasoning of why this is a bad move.
I can't hope enough that the PvP will be league specific.
In 1.0.2, Standard and Hardcore can fight each other. Domination and Nemesis can fight each other. The old leagues cannot fight the new leagues because that's unfair.
Edit: the above is now incorrect. They will be separate. Logistics be damned :p
