I believe Path Of Exile offers less build diversity than it advertises.

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Phrazz escribió:

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ZACHWILDCAT escribió:

Thoughts?

But a guy, playing since 2013, basing his statistics on PoE Ninja, that only takes level 96-100* into account, may be looking at this from a very narrow point of view.

* I don't know this, it only seems lik it. I don't use PoE Nina that much, and I might be mistaken here.

I hear ya, when I wrote this I wanted to convey what I was saying with some examples. I barely use poe ninja myself but that's the only source of information I can access with my limited skill set. After reading what people have been replying with, it seems there's at least a bit of agreement that alot of skills feel the same.

For me, It can be so hard to try to convey exactly what I'm trying to say. I feel like I've done a terrible job at trying to convey what I tried to say lol. There's so many variable's to cover or mention but of course you can't do that or we would have a 10 page essay.

Very wise post. I notice this phenomena too very simply by loading old toons in standard formerly GG and total shit after various nerfs. They drive a meta to keep you scratching. Much like everything else skinner boxed to fuck in this game.


Make no mistake I have no regrets like falling for some good pussy. But you're being manipulated..

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ZACHWILDCAT escribió:

After reading what people have been replying with, it seems there's at least a bit of agreement that alot of skills feel the same.

Agreed. And in many ways, that's a byproduct of clearspeed, monster density and power creep. In the current META of the game, where players scream "got to go fast" while they raise havoc if they go one screen length vithout a huge pack of monster. In that META, all skills need a certain AoE. They need a certain animation speed and they need a certain damage output/scaling.

So when people demand to go faster than light, kill 40 monster each time they press the right mouse button and one-shot bosses, things/skills inevitably get narrowed down in terms of... Diversity/difference. Because it's all about DPS and clear, and not about interaction and mechanics. And if a new skill doesn't meet the "demands" from the crowd? It's deemed "dogshit" from the getgo.

My point? For skills to feel different, they need to be different. And if a skill becomes too different, it's "clunky", "dogshit" or "crap" pretty soon.

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ZACHWILDCAT escribió:

...
Claiming a game is diverse because you can use a few different skills many different ways does not make a diverse/customizable game. ....

that's not true. there are so many different builds/skills that can do everything with ease.

have you pushed these builds to the max?

like all crafted/mirrored goodies?

if no, then go leveling your gear :P

When I make a build (usually melee),...

1. I have some base lines:
- 6k+ life
- "Some defense"
- 1kk+ boss dps
- Enough area coverage/damage that I spend little time per pack/screen

I want to be able to survive random nonsense the game throws at me, I want some leeway to not instantly die when I fucked up.
... and I want to clear reasonably fast.

2. I want some "theme" in my build.
Last league I played a jugg with pure lightning damage smite, I wouldn't add a hatred aura or flat fire damage on a ring to his setup. It was interesting building around the high int requirements, finding the right gear...

3. I want to play comfortably. I detest support gem swaps, I don't like to press dozens of buttons to keep buffs up etc.

4. I have a financial limit. I will not be able to spend a mirror per gear slot, but maybe 50-100 ex total.

---

Some of the base lines lead to similar decisions in every build:
- life node pathing kind of dictates the base skilltree, all melee trees look similar (same for casters I guess)
- if you want certain buffs like intimidate, you need certain items
- flat life and resists are put to the usual gear slots
- you cannot really expect 1kk dps without crit and/or elemental conversion and certain support gems
- some skills just cannot provide AoE and/or single target, I will try them, but eventually abandon them.

But still, I feel like there is plenty of room for different approaches, personalisation.
I don't think I am done yet, still a lot to explore.

Build diversity isn't equal to "anything works".

I'm biased af because for me a build is not viable if it can't do uber elder.

The damned thing spawns too easily in my playstyle and I dislike buying completion.

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ZACHWILDCAT escribió:

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lurker14ownz escribió:

Have seen Mathil builds? Takes literally any skill and turns it into uber elder killer.. Are all builds budget viable? No.
With enough investment the game has alot of builds available, but every game has a Meta where some are more powerful.

I would say alot of his builds are the same thing over and over and over. The only thing that really changes might be the skills but even then it's the same few skills.

Fundamentally, every build has to solve the same problems:

Enough health not to die to spike damage.
Enough health restoration not to die to attrition damage.
Enough movement to get out of red circles.
Some kind of mana restore to keep going.
Something to kill groups.
Something to kill single targets.

So every build is going to be somewhat similar just due to the common problems they all have to solve.

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ZACHWILDCAT escribió:

Claiming a game is diverse because you can use a few different skills many different ways does not make a diverse/customizable game. POE has a huge amount of different mechanics but many of them are barely usable outside of very specific circumstances and some are just not used at all and I would consider those mechanics "garbage".

Thoughts?

I think you're wrong, but correct within your defined frame of reference.

Addendum: I checked your characters and am impressed that your hierophant is using a bow to cast magma orb. It can't have been easy to get 5 blue sockets on that.

Oh, I thought PoE is only for arctraps! ;)

Traps`n`Spiders!

xD