Current leveling curve / XP punishments detrimental to the experience?

I buy access to the game, support the developers, and they do this to me? They are simply stealing my time. If I die somewhere during the game, then there are two options: either it is random (technical failure), or I really can't handle this level yet. I can understand this perfectly. Don't take away my honestly earned experience. I will go farm some more, get some equipment and return to this map again. I recently died on the Sekhem and Chaos trial locations, and you know what? I am no longer drawn to them. For me, it is like a visit to the dentist, if the doctor hurts you, you don't really want to go there anymore. I really don't want POE to become such a "toothache" for me.

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TheFriggenBest#6781 wrote:

There's always 2 sides to this, one group says there's no reward at 100 anyway so just let me get there and finish the game.

The other side says the same thing except, there's no reward at 100 anyway so why care about getting there.

Why does GGG go with the latter group and leave it the way it is? Probably because everyone in the first group always says the word "finish" or "complete" or I want my build to be "done".

When people are finished or complete or done something, they quit it. If all you want is level 100 too claim to finished the game then the only thing keeping you playing is the death penalty. And that's exactly what GGG wants is for you to keep playing.

i must admit i used to be from the former group. to me reaching 100 is an achievement. you're not MEANT to hit 100. and back in the day reaching 100 was a big achievement. t16s cost roughly 25 chaos each and players were actually crafting t16s. back then it took month(s?) to reach 100.

but i have changed my views a long time ago. reaching 100 no longer has the same prestige it did. if you're poor, all you need to do is to get a ton of t16s, set your atlas to abyss. juice it out with sextants for MORE monsters. alt spam the t16s for more monsters and nothing harmful. prepare a few omens for insurance.

every map you do gives you between 0.5 to 2% xp. its just a slog. anyone can do it.

there is no prestige. and if you want to P2W, you could cough up divines to do pure chayula runs, 5 ways or some other shit.

with so many ways that makes reaching 100 easier, i kinda feel that anyone saying its for having weight or for the sense of achievement is really over selling it.

theres a reason why hardcore exists, and i find it a little ironic that people would argue for xp penalty when hardcore exists. its like "i want to have weight but NOT THAT MUCH weight". to me i find this mindset kind of selfish. you're happy with the game the way it is because it is exactly the way you like it.

as i have said, getting to 100 is just a slog. its no longer a huge achievement. which to me, the reason why i play "NON HARDCORE" is so i can have fun. the way it currently is, is players who are actively trying to hit 100 will AVOID all possibly difficult/dangerous encounters. for example in settlers, me and my friends avoided the black knight and even the pirate dude. theyre not too difficult but the risk of dying was enough of a deterrent NOT to run them.

in affliction this is worse. going into the wildwoods increased the difficulty of the map but if you found the king, getting a TWWT was an easy 10-20 divines. players had to choose. do i want to have fun or do i want to level up?

in the end all the xp penalty does is act as a mud barrier. anyone and everyone CAN overcome it. play safe. heck run t14s white. its all a matter of how much fun you're willing to lose out to maximize your safety.

and you mentioned GGG wanted it this way to keep players playing.

i've played this game (POE1) for over a decade. i want to have some actual fun. xp penalties are simply not fun. and coz of that i just decide to not play. if poe2 is just gonna follow suit. then poe2 isnt for me too.

lol lurking in these forums are fun tho. but i guess i should take my cue to leave the forums.

i m just hanging around until i see how poe2 ends up. i like games to be difficult but fun. punishing and difficult are not necessarily the same thing.

xp penalty is punishing and serves as a perfect reason for players to quit.

this is not 2013. back then i had no other arpgs to play. poe was my jam. i persisted. its 2025. poe no longer has that hold over me.

Feedback on Experience system ( Level 100 - Rank 177 perspective)


Personal feelings
- If I weren't already dead inside I would probably feel great about reaching level 100. However you have to be dead inside to even consider grinding to 100. Hence I don't have any sense of achievement.

Boring and Repetitive
- You basically stack xp tablets and run maps. Just same shit for 120+ hours from level 99 to level 100. I did it with temporalisis. If you dont run any broken build, you are looking at 240 hours minimum. I cant be doing that while having 10 wifes and 20 kids on the side.
- After reaching level 100 I burned out. I only tried 3 builds this season. Grinding took away my time to be creative and experiment with new things.

Content avoidance
- I avoided every possible risk. This make the grind even more repetitive, unrewarding and boring. You know, the things that makes you quit the game. XP loss on death has to go. I don't want to lose hours of progress (even with the omen) in case I wanted to switch up the gameplay and run pinnacle content, including pure suffix waystones for crisis-Tablets. I even avoided expeditions in maps because at one time I gone one-shot by basic mobs while having 12k energy shield. (possible due to bleeding).

Bonus Experience
- I'm perplexed about the system. Whats the purpose? If you want to level, you have to stack xp-tablets. Otherwise your grind is slowed down by 30% or more.
- Reaching level 100 should reflect the amount of content you did, not the amount of tablets or bonus xp-waystones you done in your maps. I would rather create a map with diverse gameplay/content, than 'buffing' basic mobs with bonus xp gain.
- The design is bad, without any considerations about incentives it creates. It restrict variety by limiting your options.

Suggestions
Remove bonus experience, and redesign the amount of experience you receive based on the content you complete. Simulacrum, Chaos, Sekhema, Pinnacle etc. Please don't add any items that increase your experience gain, as it would enable the option of being 'carried' and hence diminishes the 'value' your level is meant to refflect - The content you completed.