The Campaign Is Going to Be a Bit of A Problem Every League

So, I didn't hate the campaign the first time through. It was mostly enjoyable and the slower more methodical gameplay compared to PoE1 was a nice change of pace. But it had just enough tediousness, particularly in Act 3, and then having to repeat everything again in cruel, that I can't see myself ever really wanting to do that again. I made a second character and basically quit immediatly upon entering Act 3, and haven't touched that character since.

I'm not sure what can be changed about it, but I can't be the only one who basically has no interest in doing the campaign more than one time. Which is going to be a bit of a problem when we start doing leagues and redo the campaign every 3-4 months. Maybe getting the real acts 4-6 and trimming down some of the insane zones in Act 3 will make everything better... but if it doesn't, I struggle to see how I'd keep coming back to this game every league.

I have been playing the game since Poe1 Beta. Me and my group have always hated going through the campaign to get to end game, but we did it every season (for 12 years). Sadly, we may have contributed to the argument "people will do it though".

That being said: It is true. We will be back every season, we will begrudgingly go through campaign again and again... It is because it is always worth it.

Over the years they kept adding things to the campaign and story just enough to keep it interesting but every playthrough got faster because of gear gotten from first character through season.



To clarify: I do not like playing through the campaign over and over, but I really do not see this changing.

Can i ask what you want the alternative to be?

What im imagining is a player creates a new level 1 character and is given a tier negative 65 waystone and then only ever does maps.

On your 3rd playthrough, you should more or less already know which direction to go in areas. The most tedious areas in Act 3 are Apex of Filth, the canals, and the inner chamber to find the medium soul cores.

Beginning of Act 3, I rush to Chimaera and Azak just to activate their waypoints before reversing to find the waypoint in front of the canals entrance. Then reverse again to Venom Drought and Silverfist. Reason is because Silverfist is the most dangerous in all of these areas mentioned. Dying to him resets monsters in the area and it's a waste of time.

For these 3 areas below, they are not that large once you've established the pattern:

Drowned City - head southeast just to find and activate Forge waypoint (so you can return here once you are 10 levels over, because Forgemaster is a DPS check), then return to Drowned City and head north to Apex of Filth.

Utzaal - Head north. Beat Viper. Continue to Aggorat.

Aggorat - Head northwest to claim the 2 passive points. Then west to Black Chambers.

the acts got progressively worse as the campaign advanced, act 3 is terrible and a hateful slog. Its like they were made by different teams.
I can only hope the trend doesnt continue, can you imagine acts 4,5,6 if it keeps getting crapper....oh lord and to make us repeat it every time

well thats a deal breaker

For me it is not the difficulty that is a problem. The area are to boring and poorly designed to grind over and over again to find what I need to pass the dps checks. Getting lucky on getting MS boots is pretty much mandatory at this point. That alone points to bad design.

Upon unlocking the Atlas, you should unlock (account-wide) the ability to use crafting materials on campaign areas to apply various mods to them so that they aren't so repetitive. Perhaps they could apply a League mechanic, shuffle enemies around, add a new challenging ability to a mob in that area, etc. Just something to spice things up on future playthroughs.

Your first character every league start is going to be TOUGH for sure. I have 4 lvl 90s a cpl lvl 80s and a few other lower lvls, I HAVE done the campaign a lot. Mainly to experience the game, but also to learn the campaign for league starts( as Im sure the streamers are doing as well) But GGG doesnt want ppl to burn to lvl 100 on day 2 so this is the way(Mando) Get use to it, get prepared for it, bring fresh lube at every league start!!

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Direfell#7544 wrote:

Can i ask what you want the alternative to be?

What im imagining is a player creates a new level 1 character and is given a tier negative 65 waystone and then only ever does maps.

I'm not sure. It really wasn't a slog until Act 3. I'd probably start there in terms of retooling a few things.

It's hard to know exactly how it will feel once we get acts 4-6 in the game... but I do know Act 3 is where my enjoyment of the campaign ended.

Yeah I'm open to something being different because I am not a campaign enjoyer. But I also haven't really heard alternatives that I really like. Just staying directly in scaled down maps maybe, but I can also see some cons to that.