Development Manifesto: Harvest Crafting

welp... i disagree.
The reason i haven't played much poe is just because my isp is shit and i only enjoy hc. Harvest crafting system isnt a problem, its a solution for mobs that are getting buffed over and over and builds that need to get more and more DPS in order to be competitive with bosses and creeps that can one shot even strong+end-game+tanky builds.

But you know whats a problem? 6s to DC. I'm still waiting for a fix for this, and whats worst: they already told us its an easy fix: to customize the time for DCs. Easy. Simple. And not done until today. Why? Idk.

Yikes. This is definitely on par with the Diablo Immortal announcement disconnect that Blizzard went through after losing touch with its player base. Year after year they grew further and further apart from their player base until they thought they were doing something that was good for the whole community and what everyone really wanted.. yet it was rejected by the overwhelming majority. It's very sad to see this happen to a company like GGG.

I have some real concerns with some of the... statements that Chris mentioned in the original post. For example, who exalt slams items hoping to get what they want?!? Who chaos spams items to get what they want? Was this even a thing before Harvest? Because it never was for me. Another point of interest, what does Chris mean Harvest made other systems obsolete? Are people not still using Fossils to up quality before moving on? Or just good old fashion Transmutation + Alteration to get the Prefix or Suffix to get started on their pieces? Are people not still Essence crafting to get the base the way they want it? The truth of the matter is, more people are using the crafting features in this game now because of Harvest than ever before.

As far as the actual issue at hand, there really isn't one. Everyone benefited from Harvest being in the game, and if you didn't want to do it then you didn't have to and you could keep on playing the game as usual. The harsh reality that GGG is facing right now is, the very core principles that the game was founded on, regarding crafting, is not what the majority of players ever wanted. The minority of players who actually do like this change, who are either walking around with garbage tier items, or items only they can craft after playing 1000's of hours a season are the true issue at hand. And I will explain why in further detail in the concluding paragraph. They are not the ones that this game should be built around, especially considering that they are going to play regardless of the change.

Meanwhile, a player like myself who played on and off since Synthesis League came back to play in Ritual to find that the Ritual mechanic itself wasn't fun and barely worth doing, but Harvest was. I pushed to 100 for the first time, made my own build, and have been thoroughly impressed with the overall feel of the entire season. However, after reflecting further on my experience and what made it so great, it was almost completely carried on what Harvest crafting had to offer... Maven and it's 10 unique map boss requirements for encounters was a flop and a horrendous grind that felt worthless. I have an entire stash tab full of invitations that I will never get to use. Ritual was fun at first because it allowed us to get insane amounts of currency at a very fast clip, but then it died off once you were set in motion as it became more of a chore. So long story short, myself and many many other people would have just quit playing this league after killing Maven for the first time if it were not for Harvest crafting giving us a reason to continue playing and grinding going for amazingly fine tuned items (which are still incredibly hard to obtain).

I'll end on this, if this Harvest change goes through, it will not be in this games best interest, but instead it will be a massive regression. This would have been the equivalent of World of Warcraft removing Mythic+ dungeons after Legion because "gearing became too easy outside of having to join a raid team." Mythic+ was a massive improvement to WoW just like Harvest was to PoE. It gave you alternative paths to gearing your character, while still putting in the hard work, or "grind." And lastly, back to what I was hinting at earlier, guess who is always upset when games get a quality of life rework or a strong "deterministic" progression feature? The elitists and the 1%'ers the very people who push new comers away from playing the game trying it out and expanding the player base. It's disgusting if you think about it. The no-lifers who sit on the game all day grinding endlessly or with 6 man magic find teams to farm Headhunters and Mirrors, just so they can run the market.. By the way, I'm fine with them doing that, but who cares what they have to say about this? The players effected most are the 90% in between the bottom 5% and top 5%. Why not listen to the majority of players who actually want to play this game because of what is now possible through crafting?

Deterministic crafting has allowed me to get to Awakener 8 and stay interested in end game content in a way that other leagues outside of Harvest optional ones just have not.

I have left the game before when I felt that I would be unable to realistically reach the end game content. If this change results in the same situation, I will leave again.

I hope that you are right but I don't think that you are.


**No one except the top 1% are using Exalts in the way you just described. Whomever it was on your design team who said that is completely removed from the other 99% of your player base and that speaks to a larger issue.

just remove harvest completley hate it

There are exactly two leagues I burned alot more time in than in any other leagues. Those were Harvest League and the current Ritual League. I even decided in Ritual do spend some money on supporter packs bc I thought this is the most fun I ever had with the game - take my money GGG ...

But yeah - makeing Harvest useless for 3.14 isn't a smart move. Path of Matth is totally right with what he said and I almost agree in every aspect of his critic...

I used to farm Haewark Hamlet for Harvest with +1 Zana Map Missions and the extra Missions from the tree for hours. Any yeah - I can't say I was overwhelmed by the outcome. IF u really have to change something about Harvest - GGG - make them untradable. The self farming doesn't even feel bonkers. Honestly - regarding crafts are not tradeable I wished for a buff or just an oppertunity to store more crafts with more invest. But completly destroying Harvest ... Wow ... such non sense ...

To the people saying it's too easy to craft mirror tier items with harvest, can you show us what you crafted? waiting.

To the people saying it's too easy to craft mirror tier items with harvest, can you show us what you crafted? waiting.

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SuperDrop wrote:

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astrartea wrote:

Hilarious to see people saying that it is too easy to make GG mirror tier items with harvest who don't have a single GG mirror tier item on their characters.
Like if it's so easy why tf are you running around with t6 ES on your gloves and 20% MS boots lmao.

bcs they have listed them for sale. they dont need those items. they want currency to gamble hh. think before you quack like a crow.

You are beyond [Removed by Support] if you think anyone is listing mirror gear for sale to buy or gamble a headhunter lmao. HH costs a fraction of what a mirror tier item costs. Not to mention that if you craft a GG item you're just gonna do mirror service, not fucking sell it.

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astrartea wrote:

Hilarious to see people saying that it is too easy to make GG mirror tier items with harvest who don't have a single GG mirror tier item on their characters.
Like if it's so easy why tf are you running around with t6 ES on your gloves and 20% MS boots lmao.

so fucking true.

Saw people having fun.

Ruined it.