so proud right now.... oh wait a minute!

The reward points were created during race adjustments in OB. The devs expect you to grind certain areas till the end of the race and that's the big issue here.


10 Points = perfect items dropped no dead ends.
7 Points = top racer
6 points = good racer
5 points = average racer
4 points = no mobs skipped racer
3 points = racer with a rip/beginner
1 point = late rip/new to the game

It would be better for everybody if it would turn into a progressionbased rewardsystem meaning a top player beating piety with level 31 would receive more points than a dockgrinder with level 37.

While I agree that the pointsystem should change I wouldn't take levels as a point scale but completed quests and quest states.

This would reward far more players.

For example something like that:
Fetid cleared < level 8 1 point
Hailtake done with < level 8 1 point
Dweller done with < level 8 1 point
Fairgraves done < level 15 1 point
Killing the Bear < level 17 1 Point
Completing Sins < level 23 1 Point
Completing Weaver < level 23 1 point
Completing The Hand < level 23 1 point
Completing the Bandits < level 25 1 point
Rescuing Clarissa < level 29 1 point
Getting Tolmans Bracelent < level 29 1 point
Each Sewer Bust < level 31 1 point
Getting Thaumatic Sulfite < level 33 1 point
Getting Ribbon Spool < level 33 1 point
Destroying the undying wall and completing Ribbon spool < level 33 1 point
Killing Gravicius < level 35 1 point
Killing Piety < level 36 1 point
Doing the second Fairgraves quest < 36 1 point
Golden Pages < level 36 1 point
Dominus < level 36 1 point

You could even make it far harsher or reward more points on harder races for example brutus in Blamt 5 points or Create Subchallenges such as killing merv at level 8 2 points.

This system only takes into account that you are NOT grinding certain spots for a long time such as sins level 1, sarn or docks because Queststates get rewarded.

You possibly get 2 points for killing the Dweller first but in the end somebody reaching docks at 3h will receive the same amount of points as somebody reaching the docks at 2h and exping there.


Casual racers receive more points because they are rewarded depending on their quest states.

Regular racers will be punished for skipping quests or doing them quiet late or they will race on subchallenges which might be really hard to pull off.

But this doesn't result in a joke like: you get punished in a 90 min race because you went to the thicket and somebody staying in sins gets more points because he reached more exp/higher levels.

checkpoint-based points are an excellent idea, Hilbert - but there is work to be done, ensuring the sum of checkpoint points does not surpass the amount of points the top guys can get, by finishing top-class and top-overall, potentially while skipping most checkpoints.

and the checkpoints need to be challenging. Medicine Chest at level 3 is a challenge. at level 6-7 it's a stroll through the park - so "do at level < 5" makes a lot more sense.

also, I completely agree that points awarded need to be directly connected to the type of race.
I remember doing an "Ancestral Immolation" race, and moving so agonizingly slow I just gave up at some point, and logged off.
bigger "payout" can make me try that race again.
then again, maybe not :)

Well on Immolation Races I wouldn't be stricter with points because they are really trivial after level 11 and the only nice surprise is Vaals Explosion. Maybe a subchallenge like do not wear Ruby Rings.

The idea would be that top racers would do hard subchallenges.

Imagine points such as "5 points for the player killing X at the lowest level"
Leveling would become far less important and to complete challenges racers would lose time because they have lower tier weapons.


Of course this was only a suggestion but the main idea would be to rework some "First player cleared/killing X" rewards and put racers focus on those rewards.

This would even allow races in Default with Exp penalty because players will commit suicide to keep their levels low as possible.

But a player standing at Vaal would receive more points than a player grinding sins.

Sure it would affect me in a bad way too because I do dweller and fairgraces heavily overleveled when I need some skillpoints, so I would lose points with my current style of playing but that's the main idea of this type of rewards.


There are already achievements such as put a skill into each notable.

So why not have some kind of race subchallenge like that?

For example(some stupid ones but it's just an example)
Become Top 20 Duelist without using "Master of the Arena"
Become Top 20 Templar without using "Catalyse"
Become Top 20 Marauder while using "Purity of Essence" for 3 levels.
Become Top 20 Witch and do 5 level ups with "Chaos Inoculation"(yeah dumb I know)
Become Top 20 Scion while having "Elemental Elequilibrium" allocated for at last 5 levels
Become Top 20 Shadow while having "Soul Raker" allocated
Become Top 20 Ranger while having Phase Acrobatics allocated


Racers would have to figure out different builds to pull off such challenges.
Those challenges may be worth quiet many points.


A good start for such a model would be CT Races.

Having subchallenges like that:
Players having a maximum of 3 levels below you are counted.
Killing players being 4 or more levels below you result in negative score

Kill players worth 40 levels(1 points)
Kill players worth 100 levels 3 points)
Kill players worth 170 levels 5 points)
.....


You could acquire a lot of points going the CT way during CT races and killing players around your level.
And it's not easy to kill that many same level/higher level players without dying.
I had 3 solo CTs I think 2 1h and 1 2h where I fought against an equally strong equipped player and we both died at the same time.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/496802

Scroll down a bit and the ladder shows that NOBODY here went the Expway.I think only a few players even killed merveil. The ladder also speaks for itself. This is how CT should be.
Not the first page level 19-20 not hurting a fly.

There was a dev post that the CT rewarding system might change and I hope it does while it punishes bad bannered play such as having a level 13 and kill level 1-3 characters in terraces/mud flats.

But regular races should also have a change because it punishes progressing far too much.

Many ideas. Some of them may work. But in general, I think they are too complicated. Simple is, for the most part, good.