What I wish GGG learned from Racing.

When I play this game I have tons of fun. I enjoy the flow, I enjoy the challenges, I enjoy most of the things people complain about (trading, gear acquisition, etc).

And every time I race, I hate this game more and more. Racing, since it forces those of us who want to win and be the best, to always choose the most optimal strategy for completion (with a much higher risk of failure of course). Since racing is all or nothing, meaning you either get first and win a Demigod, or you get any rank other than rank 1 and win nothing, this is the correct method to race for this subset of people.


And for them, all of the changes in PoE are harmful, not thought out, and ruin the game. When you play the game in a more casual manner, it is easy to gloss over these problems (opening boxes that freeze you, meaning your computer, not "freezes you" mod on the box, etc) since there are methods to deal with some of them (never playing a party, aka only Solo Racing).

To me this robs you of a crucial aspect of what made PoE great. Now everything that has been implemented into this game without any thought of the real consequences has been us sacrificing long term happiness for short term gains.

Masters is a great addition to the game, except when you consider all the domino effects they have on the game. Since boxes\Shrines\exiles are in races, I can only assume masters will at some point show up in races, and I don't even know what to say about that. A chance to get a free exile\endless monster spawn or some other thing in a race?


At one point we had absolutely overpowered puncture dogs in climb. I can't remember the season, but it was a long time ago. These were removed as they were totally insane for that level in the game....

And here we are, all this time later, and we have PUNCTURE DOGS IN LEDGE. This just absolutely defies any sort of logic that I can apply to this game.

I am totally disillusioned with you GGG, all I see is a company with a sunk cost of Invasion that is now forcing everyone to play this terrible version of a really great game, and its working only because so many people are inexperienced, don't know better, or didn't pay attention way back when.

Your real customers, who come back again and again to play, are extremely dissatisfied.

Slight correction - exiles are not in normal races, only in Endless Ledge or from boxes.

I still don't know why boxes are still in races, Artisan's are OP for attack based builds, Chemist's can give you quicksilvers I think (I can't confirm because 20+ chemists in races and none for me LOL)...

Gemcutter's can give you a drop that can change the entire race. Faster attacks for a marauder/duelist can be found in Docks. Increased AoE. Finding Lightning Warp or Leap Slam on a caster (or better yet, leap slam on a ranger). Vaal gems. Herald of Ash, The list goes on...

And then there's Arcanist's which I haven't seen in a signature yet. But I can't imagine what those do.

In all honestly, though, as someone that's played mostly casters for the signature races, the boxes haven't really affected me yet in a positive way. I have yet to have a run where I feel like I'm op because of something a box dropped, other than getting a seething grand life from one. But I wouldn't be surprised if I have lost races because someone got a 2nd quicksilver from a box while I'm still searching for one.

This may sound like I'm in favour of them, but I'm not. The problem is that they haven't done anything positive yet. When I say positive, I mean "holy fuck I'm super fast/op now." The point remains that it's theoretically possible to be a game changer and create a record that is nearly impossible to beat without the same RNG.

Now, the counter-argument is that uniques exist and can drop or gems can drop normally. Sure, but how many times are you going to have a good run get even better from a unique dropping? Often times when the unique drops or the gem drops, it's too little too late. Boxes boost the gem chance to a point where it is way more possible for something like this to happen - maybe not so much for the uniques, though.

Just my 2 cents on the boxes. This is especially for the signature race since they're not fixed there.

Shrines still are ridiculous, I had 1 12 minute burst where I got 6 in Coast. SIX. I was level 3 before I even got to mud flats. But on the plus side, they're fixed in the fixed seed races.

Also, I fully agree, wtf at puncture dogs in ledge. Here, have 5 seconds where you can't heal from a small life flask but still have to use it in order to not degen while moving, and if you stand still you die.

Shrines are absolutely retarded with poe rng type. You either get a zone with a 3-4 shrines or you dont get any for 20 zones in a row.
And this fucken boxes is so stupid. Like I'm dying only because of them. Probably should gave up and never open them in any remotely dangerous zone.

In the end all of these RNG factors + stupid unbalanced invader mobs were added on top of already RNG heavy game aspect. It's been long since i quit hoping that GGG would start paying attention to race balance, reward system, season ladder structure, RNG.

I'm newer to racing, but I have to agree with most of what everyone is saying here.

Would it be prudent to ask how the races were developed, who of the racing community was consulted about it, and if any type of "testing" was incorporated to see if there were any balancing issues, such as the crazy shadow ele/trap racing tree?

"

Ins0mn1ac wrote:

consulted


testing

Invaders/Guest monsters: I have no problem with these appearing in Cruel difficulty and onward. But I have to agree, they don't feel right in most races. Also if they remain when more difficult race mods (turbo, ancestral, etc) reappear, that may be an even bigger issue.

Strongboxes: I think these (along with shrines) are fine in non-signature races. I agree they can have a huge impact in shorter races, but personally I've always seen those as more of fun/whatever events.

For this season's signature I'm torn on strongboxes. Yolo-opening a box and getting an easy exile or 3 packs of magic monsters is a huge difference than getting frozen and having to log out. However, being a famine race, flasks are much more important and chemist boxes can help avoid a lot of problems. So while boxes may overall even out, its also quite likely that they won't. What I'm getting at is, although I may be OK with boxes in a sig, I think it would be completely reasonable if they were removed, just like exiles.

Casters and Strongboxes: Just wanted to add my results like Uber did. I have definitely gotten that string of chemists not dropping a QS. The few times a gemcutter box dropped a potential useful gem, I didn't have links or enough blue sockets to use.

Consulting?

This ain't PvP bro, that's where the future is!

"

boof wrote:

"

Ins0mn1ac wrote:

consulted


testing

And now the thread will devolve into this sort of thing. But at the end of the day it helps me laugh since the other option is just being sad.

I have nothing more to contribute so i will post a man getting hit by a train



4Head