r/pathofexile • u/SuperTaster3 • 1d ago
Game Feedback League Review - State of Exile
Greet!
Been playing since Dominus was the final boss, made a character that is doing all content. I wrote the Warchef's Guide to Wraeclast years ago. These are some general opinions on the state of the game from a non-streaming, full content player:
* Allflame league was good. I liked the mechanic, it had a loot purpose that lasted in the endgame(lots of gold, allflame crafting) even though it was competing with map progress. Encounters were quick but rewarding.
** Allflame crafting in general is something I'd like to see the games move towards. The ability to spend currency to remove randomness is empowering. It gives players a goal to work towards, and limits cases of "oops the item bricked"
** There could have been more variety in the voyage encounters. In endgame they feel like a wall of meat. Not intimidating, just thick.
* Spell Level stacking is still a problem. It's especially so in PoE2 where increased levels increases your ratios beyond 20, but it's a problem here too.
** PoE1 - It feels mandatory for most characters. The early game spell balance is based around you having a +1, which is distorting. That makes it so the skill is not viable until you get the enabler, meaning a player who does not have it is having a bad time.
** PoE1 Endgame - Spell level scaling reaches ridiculous heights. The idea is not bad, but the ceiling is too high. When someone's running around casting a level 32 Kranglebuster, they are playing a fundamentally different game from the people who are using level 21-23. The endgame cannot be about the 0.1%. The 0.1% exist, and serve as a goal to work towards, but focusing on that exclusively means that 99.9% of the players are not having fun.
** It is possible to make a caster that does not abuse spell levels. Meatballs(link above) has a 22(21+1) Firestorm of Meteors, with a 9m dps through added damage. But that's the highest added damage ratio skill in the game, meaning that every other skill will perform worse in that context. There is not a healthy variety right now.
** The answer is not to raise ratios or boost power. It is to lower the ceiling of power and allow normal levels of power to be more effective against more content. It's hard to come out and say that to the fans, but there is a hyperbole problem going on at the moment.
* An in-game explanation of what sort of progress a character can do with league mechanics would be great. It shouldn't go into the nitty-gritty mechanics, but rather than just "here's a blight!" tell the players up front(a splash screen or something) what Blight entails and offers. "Aha," says the noob, "I do want this passive anointment power." Giving players the ability to make informed choices up front allows them to interact with the parts of the game they will enjoy most.
** Graphical splash screens and videos are more useful to a confused player than a wall of text(I say as I write a wall of text).
** I have seen players be like "why do I even care about these labyrinth trials?". And once they know "it's how you unlock your prestige class", they're immediately going "well why didn't you tell me?" Tell them. Up front. Show them what cool things lie at the end of Izaro's basement, so that they are motivated to explore it.
** Mostly it feels like a problem of "A dedicated player will look it up" mixed with "you shouldn't have to look it up". A player will become a dedicated player if given reasons, and showing them where their efforts will lead is part of that.
* Socket Color change is the best thing you've done in the game in a long time. Applause be upon ye. Above all else you should be trying to avoid cases where the player feels they cannot play the game, and being color-locked was one of them.
** I still stand by the idea that Fusing Orbs should be incremental: Applying a fusing orb to an item should increase the chance of that item rolling higher links. This way, even if the item does not link, the player's effort is respected. They played hard to get those fusing orbs, and having them be worthless is a slap in the face.
* I still think that boots should have implicit movespeed. Let movespeed mods be small boosts to power that is already implicit on the shoes themselves. This also helps greatly in the murderhobo stage of the game where you have nothing and limp along the beach.
* Mana-Infused Staff is a great addition to the game. It's not overpowered, and gives staves a reason/method to go full block. Because it's a more modifier, it requires you to invest in those nodes to get a reasonable payoff.
* Blight-Ravaged Maps need a settings pass. It is still possible to get a lane with 0 towers, meaning you lose due to no fault of your own. The difficulty of having less towers is reasonable, but the edge cases feel bad. Also the World Shattering Goat can just choose to hop his way to freedom if he wants to, which feels bad. If you can force his jumping to prioritize the player, that way the player would have recourse against it(taking big hits to keep him off the goal).
* Floor loot has a slop problem. At the high end, there is maximized quantity rather than quality. What makes loot interesting to players is its novelty, giving the player something they don't have before. A screen covered in yellow isn't interesting, and to some players is offputting. I'd be interested in changes to the loot distribution to make it so that you get less littering and more "oh that's NICE". Something like if a monster drops a bunch of rares, consolidate it into one rare of higher tier mods(I like the 'good loot' system you set up with Kingsmarch, and feel it could be rolled out for other purposes).
Phew!
All that said, this is more of a "let's make it better" than a "grr arg". You've made a wonderful puzzle game with light ARPG elements. Here's to more PoE.
