Why the XP penalty?

So, I've been getting into the game a lot lately. But the one thing that keeps holding me back and wanting to progress is the xp penalty! The game could be so much more satisfying if it just held back on the penalty or at least nerfed it.

I'm lvl 89, and every time I die, it takes the wind out of me. I know the simple answer is not to die, but when you only have a split second to react, or you lag for a second too much and thats it, you dead.

So, my question is, why the xp penalty? It's not the complexity, or extreme min/maxing or trading or countless game mechanic systems, but the xp penalty is the most de-motivating factor in the game, for me anyway.

this has been talked multiple times around the community, and this will not be changed anytime soon.

Your thread reference : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2676180

This mechanic exist to punish you whenever you die in softcore, the purpose is to force you to take account into defensive mechanics, balancing it with your offensive stats.

Else people would just ignore all the defensive stats on the character and just go offense, the game wouldn't be fun otherwise when everyone dies left and right by making a bad character without getting punished.

What are your thoughts when you've spent a couple of months and years learning to do the hard contents, but in a sudden all the people completed all the hard contents in the game in 2 weeks by suiciding their way through and learnt nothing? Do you think this is fun?

If you're put off by dying at level 89, start playing easier content. You can level to 92 or so simply running T6-8 maps. If you're dying to those, you've got bigger problems.

They want a way to encourage people to not do content that is too hard for them.

Unfortunately for the most part death in PoE feels arbitrary and malicious on the side of the devs. Due to the lack of feedback on how to improve in the game, by not revealing anything about how you died, the idea of using death as a learning tool is quite lost here.

Because the Developers know that frustrating your goals will keep most people engaged for longer. That's the honest harsh truth.

The traditional RPG balance of player versus content is so borked in this game that the Devs really don't know how else to manage this.

Usually you'll encounter a monster too high level for you and you'll deal little damage to it while taking significantly more yourself. After a few moments you realise your peril and can back away, engage more appropriate content and try again later.

Here it's - poof - you're dead, thanks for coming. The problem is that making your character more powerful really means acquiring better gear... but you're rarely going to find that gear by playing content that's not going to kill you. Actually, the average players is never going to 'find' that gear anyway.

So you jump on the grinding wheel and play dull content until the RNG gods deliver you an item you can sell for more than a few chaos and then maybe upgrade a single piece of gear. Then you do that some more, and then again even more. Eventually you'll be well equipped and you'll still end up dead because apparently the Developers believe that killing players is a fun experience for you!

Of course, you can play Path of Trading instead and upgrade that way, because heaven knows I want to engage a stockmarket simulator in order to play an entertaining game in my spare time. That option is so popular they even built it into the game as Delving, forcing you to collect Sulphite just so you can play the content you actually want to play.

Or you can just 'acquire' Exalts in a manner that is Voldemorted here and gear up your character so you can actually play the game.

Ultimately, GGG will implement a balance that satisfies the players who pay them the most. If that happens to be the uber-efficient life-style players then that's what the rest of us will be stuck with. Basically the game is a giant slot machine simulator and the manufacturer knows, the longer we are conditioned to play and rewarded with flashy lights and sounds, the more likely the house is to win and make money. It doesn't matter that the consequence of this is bitterness and disappointment with the game.

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Remicaster1 wrote:

this has been talked multiple times around the community, and this will not be changed anytime soon.

Your thread reference : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2676180

This mechanic exist to punish you whenever you die in softcore, the purpose is to force you to take account into defensive mechanics, balancing it with your offensive stats.

Else people would just ignore all the defensive stats on the character and just go offense, the game wouldn't be fun otherwise when everyone dies left and right by making a bad character without getting punished.

What are your thoughts when you've spent a couple of months and years learning to do the hard contents, but in a sudden all the people completed all the hard contents in the game in 2 weeks by suiciding their way through and learnt nothing? Do you think this is fun?

I literally do this for every story boss if my build sucks just damage till i die and repeat till i win: i learn nothing from this :D

Also people already have builds they dont share that are 100% glass cannons and can do all content... this rule is outdated

Adding on to that even if you had 1 damage and full defenses you would still die so im not sure this is why it punishes you in the first place

There is no ex penalty on lvl 100
Just saying.

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Lynerus wrote:

Also people already have builds they dont share that are 100% glass cannons and can do all content... this rule is outdated

those lvl 100 1hp builds are just people who did deep delving, they reached lvl 100 by chayula rotas which is the safest and easiest way for lvl 100, but expensive. They can just use a normal build, do rota, reach 100, respec the build then done. And from what you saw on paper "oh they reached lvl 100 with 1hp"

"

Lynerus wrote:

Adding on to that even if you had 1 damage and full defenses you would still die so im not sure this is why it punishes you in the first place

Well if your statement is true then there won't be any lvl 100 hardcore characters :shrug:. Though yes you would still die when you are zdps, it depends on how you play, like sitting in front of all monsters and intentionally dying is one way to die with full defenses.

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xspawnx wrote:

So, I've been getting into the game a lot lately. But the one thing that keeps holding me back and wanting to progress is the xp penalty! The game could be so much more satisfying if it just held back on the penalty or at least nerfed it.

I'm lvl 89, and every time I die, it takes the wind out of me. I know the simple answer is not to die, but when you only have a split second to react, or you lag for a second too much and thats it, you dead.

So, my question is, why the xp penalty? It's not the complexity, or extreme min/maxing or trading or countless game mechanic systems, but the xp penalty is the most de-motivating factor in the game, for me anyway.

The direct answer to your question is that GGG won't likely change the experience point penalty on death because GGG loves the level 100 chase goal and they don't want to make any modifications to that chase goal.

The practical response to your frustration is to follow Shagsbeard's wise advice. Just play lower level maps or avoid map mods that are particularly difficult for your build. For example, another thing you might try is to use the wiki PoE and skip the particularly difficult map bosses. I mean do the map just consider skipping the boss.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Map