GGG should stop chalking things up to RNG and start balancing POE2

This goes all the way back to Arch nemesis. one thing that i fondly hate to remember is when chris mentioned how the mods were all random. if you got a particular set of mods, its all due to the roll of your die and how sometimes it would create "MEMORABLE ENCOUNTERS".

on one hand thats true. on another its just a lazy way of blaming a games imbalance on the roll of the dice.

i'll always point out how pre AN, nemesis mods were balanced in a way by making nemesis mods a core feature of "nemesis league". it didnt interrupt or cause imbalance to other league mechanics as you would not see dangerous nemesis mods while doing league mechanics. but by adding all of them into the monster mod pool everything just gets imbalanced.

a huge portion of "melee bad" comes from this leaving everything to RNG mindset. if you're truemelee, doing blight, some monsters could have volatile orbs on death or have lightning mirages. you're supposed to run and avoid them but at the same time you're supposed to kill mobs. if you're ranged. it doesnt matter.

i've also had a few times where i fought a pack killed everything all of them left a huge amount of overlapping delayed on death aoe. but i m smart. i run away. then i realize a voodoo doll of me smack in the middle. thanks chris i ll remember that. its so fucking memorable.

this reminds me of my time playing sanctum on release. how i initially hated it but grew to love it. it was a test of pure skill. i was weak, i was poor, but i could supplement whatever i lacked with skill. and i got rewarded for it. everything was deliberate. albeit the afflictions.

there was a great degree of predictability, which allowed a great deal of skill based deliberate gameplay.

when they reworked sanctum they introduced rare mods in. i remember how some players essentially bricked their entire sanctum run because of encountering a mob with adaptive resists and regen. lololol very funny chris. i m sure that player will remember it very well.

to me sanctum is a good representative of poe1 and poe2. deliberate gameplay and chaos. poe1 is imho pure chaos. it ends up becoming largely a gear check instead of anything else.

poe2 seems to start off with sanctum on release in mind. the campaign even tho punishing felt balanced somewhat.

maps on the other hand goes back to "RNG". you're kinda forced to roll your maps or else you might not sustain. and if you roll your maps you might get some nasty mods.

i've mentioned this in other threads. speed mods and increased aoe/projectile mods simply are the antithesis of deliberate gameplay. players are not accustomed to a change of speed or aoe.

if you were to argue, "oh you're supposed to git gud". then how does mace trumelee do it? i know how to fight balbala VERY well. but with certain speed mods, i have NO opening to hit her without her hitting me first.

also, didnt GGG design poe2 to be more accessible for more players? if ggg's idea of deliberate gameplay include having to react in a splitsecond, any random person will say its just gonna make people avoid running the content.

it reminds me of ggg's trade manifesto where ggg made trade hard to encourage players to run content.

pretty contradictory aint it? you want us to play more but you leave it up to fate to give us a bad roll and just expect us to not run the content? maps are consumables. map sustain is still not good. all this does is make players want to play the game less.

i will highlight that random mods ARE THE NORM and the STAPLE of arpgs/diablo likes.

i will acknowledge that fact but i would also point out that DELIBERATE gameplay is something FOREIGN to arpg/diablo likes. poe2 goes into a territory that is somewhat uncharted.

please ggg. realize that RNG is the antithesis of deliberate combat. you want randomized mod pool? fine. but its about time that theres pruning done to remove some offending map mods.

i do realize that reflect is not in poe2. most devs implement reflect to penalize players from being too powerful. but to me its a clear sign of the devs giving up on balancing the game. i hope reflect never comes to poe2.

it is still early. pruning must be done.

pruning is not enough. identify problematic combos and code it so they do not appear together.

i recently ended my chaos trial at the room 10 boss. i had impending doom. it was huge enough that there literally was no edge for me to run away, while in the center i had a huge ass cyclone. where the fuck is my safe zone? there also is no clear indicator when the impending doom aoe would explode. everywhere is a death zone.

pruning afflictions and detriments in sekhema and chaos trials must be done too.

i like how players are not handed large movespeed boosts. this keeps the combat tight without needing huge ass aoes and split second reaction time.

but how the fuck are players supposed to complete the last floor sekhema trial if they were somehow afflicted with the movespeed affliction? unless they can burst the boss down so fast he doesnt go to the clock phase, then the player is fucked.

or are we supposed to have tons of movespeed to counter that affliction?

for me it takes near an hour to clear the 4 floors. to brick the entire run because of an affliction is just a good way to make players rage quit.


balance the game please.

if you leave everything up to fate and want to leave players with memorable moments. i can tell you. poe as a franchise to ME will be only in my memories.