Abyss Astrolabe Mapping Win/Loss condition feels RNG gated and unfun

"

Pizzarugi#6258 wrote:

Try using Blight of Contagion

Pretty simple, even something like Blight of Contagion follows the same pattern as mentioned before.
If your build isn’t strong enough yet, just lower the difficulty. If you want to run harder content, improve and optimize your build first.
It's the same story since forever with how PoE works.

That said, I’d be careful about labeling random abilities as bad or not viable, because someone might take their time to showcase the complete opposite, that a “trash” ability can actually work really well. We’ve seen that happen plenty of times before on this forum.

In the end, it all comes back to the same thing, understanding how the game works and putting the right pieces together. If your build doesn’t feel great yet, chances are you either haven’t invested much gear into your character, or you’re trying to brute force content outside your current comfort zone. In some cases, it might just be that the setup itself isn’t well-assembled yet, leading to underwhelming performance. That’s usually the issue, rather than the ability you chose being inherently at fault or “not viable.”

With years of added content and power creep, pretty much everything is all content-viable without trying hard, we’re not in the 2015 era anymore, where options for scaling damage or layering defenses above the required thresholds were much more limited.

"

Lonnie455Rich#2087 wrote:

One of the reasons experimenting or playing off meta is perceived as a waste of time.

That’s a misconception. Both popular and unpopular builds are worth using, and experimenting with different or unconventional abilities is not a waste of time. The idea that only popular builds are viable usually comes from a limited understanding of the game, or from relying too heavily on content creators and simply copying what’s trending instead of thinking independently.

In that sense, the content creator scene has really shaped the game and its player base quite a bit, not necessarily in a good way, though.