Game Balance in Path of Exile: Expedition

I like most of the changes, except the fact that you state that you want to fix power creep and then ignore to address aurastackers and aurabots, some of the worst offenders in that category.

So many new things year after year and we still use id and portal scrolls... Isn't this fun :)

Last Epoch here it is your chance!
Nonsense League, nothing else

Great, with all that :

Mid range players with OFF META builds won't be able to kill Sirus without a 100+ EX investment and a thousand hours grind...

See ya in PoE 2 in 2023...

Last Epoch here it is your chance!
Nonsense League, nothing else

leveling alts on the normal campaign already was a very bad experience.

After quicksilver nerfs , monster hp buffs , player damage nerfs can we finally get the option to level our alts on down scaled maps?

I mean make it like if you killed sirus once you unlock the alt-map-mode for the league.

Leveling the 50th time in the same campaign is already very booring , but doing alts 1 month into the league is the worst.

I would be behind all nerfs if it would increase build diversity, but I simply fail to see how this can ever be the case. Build diversity will be in the gutter, we'll get 2.0 situations again.
Also why does every boss need to feel like a bullet spunge MMO-style boss? Boss killing is least favorite thing of the average player? ARPG's are about feeling powerful, for me at least.
It's the first time in my 9 years of PoE I feel genuinely worried.

Lots to unpack here, but right off the top, here's my hot take: It's great to see PoE moving away from zoom-zoom-or-bust, and back towards the more measured pace of play that the game had when I first fell in love with it back in Open Beta.

I loved the difficulty level of that game; I loved the feeling of tension, and occasionally terror, that came with watching my Templar's light radius close in on me as my life dropped, while unspeakable horrors kept jumping at me from out of the darkness. I hadn't even realized that I missed darkness or light radius mechanics in ARPGs, until PoE, but I notice now when games don't have them. There's a reason why new ARPGs are now imitating what GGG have done here, rather than still looking all the way back to Diablo II. That original version of PoE redefined the ARPG genre; that's how good it was, and how good it can be again.

It's just a shame that discussion surrounding game difficulty has become so polarized, with apparently everyone convinced that the only options are "games for boomers and babies," or "Dark Souls," with nothing in between those two extremes. PoE was a more difficult game, originally, and it was tough right from Act I, but it has never been "Dark Souls." Trust me, people, new and casual players will be fine. I say that as a casual player myself. No, I've never killed the Shaper, or the Elder, or the Awakener, or the Maven, in spite of having put many thousands of hours into this game; and yet, I'm still looking forward to these changes, and to more like them in 3.16, 3.17, 3.18, etc., all the way up to 4.0.

Make it harder, GGG! I'm tough enough; I can take it.

I really hope that GGG stick to their guns, on this one. In fact, I think GGG should go even further: increase base monster toughness, and reduce base monster density, all the way up to maps. Have each of those tougher monsters give more experience, and drop better (but not more) loot. And don't forget to give us some better defensive options, to offset the nerfs to offense, and maybe reign in some of the ridiculous bullshit mechanics that you'd put on some of those late-game bosses solely because the power creep made it necessary. If you're fixing the power creep, then the ridiculous bullshit mechanics not only won't be necessary anymore, they'll be unfair.

But that's for later. For now, I'm encouraged to see this first step finally being taken. I appreciate that GGG are finally willing to take this risk, and FIX THEIR DAMNED GAME, rather than just continuing to push a zoom-zoom meta which was literally breaking the game's engine. Even if it means that I don't get as far this league as I have in previous leagues, I'm embracing this change, and I'll be sticking around for the next round of changes, too.

Assuming that the game's performance is decent, that is. Please, GGG, that's all I want for this league: better performance than last league, so that I can actually play the game, and feel the fun rather than just frustration.

It really seems like GGG views anyone not playing HCSSF or getting a HH every league as a casual player...

The Devs are fine with you breaking the game - as long as you must pass a massive currency or RNG gate to do it. The very existence of items like Headhunter and Reliquary Keys for dredging up pre-nerf Legacy Gear bears this out.

You will see nerfs when game-breaking power becomes available to the mases without massive currency outputs or lottery-winning luck. This is central to GGG's design philosophy.

People get angry every patch cycle, and insist that GGG is targeting Joe-Average, as "Joe-Average" is the one who takes the brunt of the nerfs. Well, to be brutally honest... then answer to that statement/question is yes they are.

Joe-average is precisely the target. If GGG allows middle-of-the-road budget builds to break their game, it will become too easy and collapse. The treadmill is the game, and it's survival depends on the perpetual motion.

If you didn't pay hundreds of exalt for you build, or win the power-ball, you can expect your build will get zapped to near unplayability. The powerful versions of those builds, gated behind the best gear, will still clear content just fine. The budget copies of those builds will be wrecked.

This is not an unreasonable design concept. When you understand the situation, how it works, and what is coming, you can plan your strategy and adapt accordingly.