2.3.0 Changes to the High-level Experience Equation

is this why streamers quit on this league or whats with this post

Worst change ever

Why keep adding higher level content when it directly goes against wanting to slow down the grind to 100? It seems like if you want to add higher level content, you have to raise the level cap, otherwise you are squishing the grind from the soft level cap (used to be 85? Now 90? soon 95?) to 100.

Looks like you're painting yourself into a corner without raising the level cap.

I don't want to sound rude, but for this quote:

"

Chris wrote:

We've found that players who aim for max level enjoy a harder grind to reach this goal. The harder grind also more clearly signals to players who like building alternate characters roughly when to reroll.

How, exactly, do you "find" supporting information such as this?

How do you define "harder" grind?

Mindless spamming Canyon/Gorge/Plat is not a "harder" grind. Should be rephrased to "longer" instead, in my opinion, and those two definitions are very, VERY different. I think you're confusing "drooling and spamming Whirling Blades and doing low maps 24/7 on stream" with "roll Red Maps with 30%+ Pack Size" in this case.

I am disappointed that with this change, it wasn't accompanied by some compensation for map drops. Also the absolute irony in admitting that with patch changes, characters get stronger, but you want to relegate these character to low Red Maps or Yellow Maps. That doesn't make any sense from a game design standpoint at all. I really think this change should have come with the adjustments to end game that are coming next patch, not this one.

Let's be honest, coordinated groups have figured out your game. Whether it's people taking advantage of the Trade API for better deals, Uber Lords, or 24/7 players with Aurabots and slaves to preroll maps/channel currency (or all of the above), what the top 1% does shouldn't fuck over the rest of the player base.

From a business standpoint you obviously cannot share everything here, but for fuck sake I would sign an NDA just to be able to talk to you about this. How could this have been a good idea?

Do you realize that even less people will try since it will become even more time consuming? People who reach 100 first are literally playing 14+ hours a day and I'm not even exaggerating. What do you wanna achieve nerfing the XP so hard? People keep saying this but you don't seem to understand: You can't balance around 1%. What incentive is there to continue playing if 100 is unattainable for people who don't wanna dedicate their whole life to PoE? With the current XP rate it takes approximately 2 month to reach 100 playing ~6h a day. Most of the people get burned out after 1-2 month, especially playing only one single build.

these changes backfired.

its now better to level to 100 at T8 maps, then it is at T15, cause the risk and cost are now so high, that they dont compare with simply spamming tons of easy cheap maps.

"

Chris wrote:

"

Achilion wrote:

#makeFrogsGreatAgain

I spoke to the art team. While they won't be gigantic, they and some other pets will probably be increased in size. I can't promise a timeline on this, but maybe soon.

Aaargh :(
It looks like many people like their frogs huge, but i don't and may not have bought one if they had the new size.
they were fine in the original size and now look out of sort compared to other pets (cat or hedgehog for instance).

My frog will be sad if it ends up staying hidden in my mtx tab instead of following me through Wraeclast.

As a level 98 marauder, I didn't really notice the penalty, and now I see why. The maps I do are usually tier 9-11, which are the top end of the yellow maps. The maps hit the hardest by this penalty are the red tier maps (of which maintaining is a real challenge, and why I don't generally do them). I'm not sure this is entirely the right way to go because of the clear speed meta, but it makes more sense.

"

eXecut1on wrote:

Do you realize that even less people will try since it will become even more time consuming? People who reach 100 first are literally playing 14+ hours a day and I'm not even exaggerating. What do you wanna achieve nerfing the XP so hard? People keep saying this but you don't seem to understand: You can't balance around 1%. What incentive is there to continue playing if 100 is unattainable for people who don't wanna dedicate their whole life to PoE? With the current XP rate it takes approximately 2 month to reach 100 playing ~6h a day. Most of the people get burned out after 1-2 month, especially playing only one single build.

Ye, I hope he sees this part of my post mainly:

"

Let's be honest, coordinated groups have figured out your game. Whether it's people taking advantage of the Trade API for better deals, Uber Lords, or 24/7 players with Aurabots and slaves to preroll maps/channel currency (or all of the above), what the top 1% does shouldn't fuck over the rest of the player base.

I mapped as support this league with a few of the top 5 PSC players to hit 100. While I understand and agree with the stimulus which Chris & GGG have for these exp changes, I advocate that the chosen methodology of implementation has exacerbated disincentives to running endgame challenging content, and has reinforced the pervasively growing speed mapping meta which detracts from the fun, challenge, and loot of the highest tier map content in Path of Exile.

In PSC, and progressively for a number of development cycles since the overhaul of map modifiers, the players I see successfully pushing the ladder are speed running mid tier maps (Tier 9-12) in lieu of playing content appropriate for their ability.

I think it is critical to expound upon what I mean by "Speed Running" because it is a playstyle that I only observe in this tiny niche of the POE community. Builds, groups, and Map Rolling revolve around the ability to one shot every monster in the chosen tier of maps, the vast majority of loot is disabled and ignored, and there is significant priority given to sustaining obscenely high Movement Speed.

The gravitation towards this Movespeed=Clearspeed, nodowntimeinstapopmapaftermapinonehideout, playstyle is Phrenetic. For me it has detracted a good deal from the depth and enrichment of what Path of Exile once was because this "Efficiency Mapping" incentives players to actively ignore many aspects of the Game Design and map in Cliques or small groups of like minded players, or Solo in this style to achieve ladder position.

While there has always been a no-life element to the POE ladder, these changes further skew towards the extreme.

I do not fault the players for adapting, responding, to the GGG changes in this fashion. As Chris and GGG has pointed out many times, the playerbase, even in the absence of "Access to Information" on many of the mathematical fine points of the game, the players are becoming ever more efficient at MinMaxing their builds and their playstyle.

The tier 9-12 maps are sustainable indefinitely with minimal currency investment and can be run at max speed with negligible risk to grind exp. Higher tier maps are not sustainable and require currency investment that doesn't return maps or appropriate reward to the risk and differential time it takes to run them (except maybe for the first week of the league). The risks in the highest end maps often appear in Spiky forms, and are not a elegant counterbalance to play skill but rather a direct developer response to expected meta and playstyle.

As more and more players and groups gravitate to this playstyle, they also withdraw, in my experience, from the broader community, trading, crafting, social aspect of POE. The SpeedMapping meta being sustainable as a solo playstyle or clique playstyle supports a narrow band focus on the "Game". It is so much more efficient at accomplishing the niche goal of pushing the ladder that traditional mapping feels slow and wasteful. It is more difficult to make new friends to play with as the lightspeed jump from normal mapping to "SpeedMapping" is very jarring for new players, or longtime players who have never pushed ladder in this fashion. This, by design, has created a, barrier to entry, a monumental disincentive to players who consider jumping into the ladder race.

Basically, what I am arguing here, is to push the ladder these days, you either have to go it alone, or conform to the very narrow and xenophobic speed meta, and it just instantly trashes so much of the richness and depth of an awesome game and encourages elitism as a zeitgeist. I don't think it is healthy or sustainable for the long term of the community.

VOC