To Johnny Rogers

Saw your interview with Zizaran. I just want to say thanks for always putting yourself out there man. You and the whole team are making an amazing game and doing one heck of a job. I am loving it.


I too am an enjoyer of the nodes feeling extra powerful in the warrior section of the tree. I love when decisions have weight and consequence. And I don't care how slow my dang character is, as long as I can hit like a dump truck. My rolling slam has an attack time of over 2.5 seconds currently and I am loving every minute of it. I may attack ay the speed of smell, but my hits are deadly.


The Marohi Erqi was my absolute favorite weapon in PoE 1, and if it comes back to PoE 2 I will sure as heck enjoy it here too.


I know it's not easy sticking to your guns and having the hard conversations in interviews like that one with Ziz. Just know there are DEFINITELY people out there who share your opinions.


I too broke down all my rares I wasn't using in the campaign. And if I want more drops? Well I slap on some good old fashioned magic find. Have 200 on my build and the loot seems plentiful to me.


I think some newer players may not understand the importance of having at least a little item rarity in their builds. As an old school veteran of Diablo 2, the love of magic find runs in my veins.


I am not sure how you would be able to explain this importance of Item Rarity to newer players in game. That is a tough puzzle. Many folks skip all the dialogue in tutorials. I have no doubt you will figure it out though, you guys are the best in the business.


Keep on trucking my dudes.

generally, i admire your attitude, kudos and keep it up.

the one point i do wanna add something however, is precisely the magic find.
precisely because stats do have so much weight in this game, which i do absolutely like, magic find is an issue imho.

where as in other games, you sacrifice a few % dmg here, or 2% crit chance there, to get more magic find. yeah that's a tradeoff that is very much worth it.

but in PoE2 it's very different. until you're that late in the game, where you can afford having a few less stats (the more i.e. +%dmg you have, the less difference +10% dmg it makes %wise), you are kinda forced to get +raw and +%dmg on your weapon, aswell as +ele resi on your gear. precisely because they do matter that much.

quick math:
in many games, your def stats are calculated by the following
dmg/(1+resi)
example if dmg = 100
meaning even if you have 100% resi, you still take 50% dmg. 100/(1+1) = 50
75% resi 100/(1+.75) = 57.14
50% resi 100/(1+.5) = 66.67

the more you already have, the less weight does added resi make.

in PoE2 it's the opposite
formula (for resi, not armour!): dmg*(1-resi)
100% resi 100*0 = 0
75% resi 100*.25 = 25
50% resi 100*.5 = 50

meaning:
in most other games, going from 0-10% resi makes the biggest difference, while going from 50%-60% is a lot less impactful.
in PoE2 going from 0-10% makes the least difference, while going from 50%-60% makes a much much bigger difference.
extreme example in PoE2: 75% to 65% is going from 25% dmg taken to 35% dmg taken, that's almost 29% dmg difference! unlike in other games the same example would be almost 6% difference.

thus, not only you're kinda forced to not take magic find until late in the endgame, precisely because this game is no zoom zoom loot loot game (which is awesome!), if you then enter endgame content, you are kinda even more forced to not sacrifice resistances at the cost of magic find. it just makes that much of a difference so you're crippling yourself enough so you have to run lower tier waystones, or less difficult mods. so is it even worth it? in higher tiers/more mods you get better rewards, not requiring magic find for that.

now add to this issue, so we have a gambling crafting system. if we had a proper, actual CRAFTING system, something we can actively farm for, and customize our gear to our needs (i.e. in Slormancer, singlehandedly the best crafting system i have ever seen anywhere), yes ok maybe then. but when you already are relying solely on a gambling mechanic, meaning you likely already have plenty of stats that won't fit your build, adding magic find to that just is an issue as a whole.

tl;dr imho: magic find does not suit PoE2 precisely because the stats do have so much weight. adding the fact so we can't craft our gear, but have to gamble for it, makes it counter-productive.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I appreciate the input. Indeed, I completely agree that not using item rarity on gear makes it a LOT easier to gear up and get the defenses/strength that we want to achieve in game. I was not quite aware of the mathematical difference between this and other games, but that does make sense because defenses do feel a lot more impactful in this game.



Item rarity I think has always been a contentious statistic in games. Many would say it is a relic of a bygone age. Why should players "have to" have a stat that lets them get more loot? Shouldn't everyone get the same amount of loot when playing the same content on average? The fact that item rarity exists makes people who feel like they are unable to use it, feel as though they are "lesser" than others who choose to use it. It does slow down gameplay a certain amount and certain builds are more readily able to utilize it on gear than others.



One thing this game has that many others do not, is trade. Trade gives us more power than anything else, very easily. An item that costs a single exalt can skyrocket someone's build during the campaign. These will be the biggest upgrades that most people receive in a trade league. The trading may have friction built into it, because of just how powerful it can be, but for the most part it is instant gratification.



I play in softcore trade leagues. I play a warrior. I use mostly rolling slam. I am the slowest, most dangerous class to play in the entire game probably. The campaign feels a bit like dark souls to me. I enjoy the heck out of it personally. Even with that being the case, I make use of item rarity during the campaign. I make use of trade to get more item rarity and stronger items when I feel as though I'm lagging behind a bit in damage. Doesn't cost more than an exalt or two usually to double my damage output and last me a good long while. Even on release of early access I played this way, and I did not struggle too much with campaign. I would say that I struggled just the right amount to make winning feel meaningful. This is just my personal experience, but it is important to know from where I speak.



When I speak about item rarity, I am talking about softcore trade leagues. SSF and Hardcore are completely different beasts. They are much more difficult and should probably be balanced individually from softcore trade leagues. I do not know if this is currently the case as I do not play them. There is definitely a STRONG case to be made that item rarity should not exist in these more difficult modes of play and that drop rates should be much more plentiful because of that.



Currently, to me, the only thing that FEELS a little off with loot is the strongboxes that say they have close to 200 rarity and end up dropping a bunch of orbs of augment. I think in PoE 1 player rarity did not affect containers, so my rarity will not affect them, and I don't always get rarity on my maps, but a strongbox having close to 200 rarity and dropping a bunch of useless poop does feel a little odd. Sometimes they do drop one or two good things and that feels a lot better.




One thing to remember is that this game is meant to feel a bit more difficult than PoE 1 and that the game is balanced around having mostly positive resists, rather than max resists at all times. These words come straight from the devs. Now there are definitely bugs, and things that are out of balance. Although on the whole I would say they are doing phenomenal. Especially for Early Access.




One thing a lot of people are doing, are treating this game as if it was a full release. This is not the case. It is in a beta state. This game's beta state may FEEL like a full game, because of just how dang good it is, but it is not a complete game. This is another thing to think about when talking about power deltas and the effects of item rarity existing. They did say they increased the diminishing returns of item rarity, although that statement is a bit cryptic without knowing the exact formulas behind everything. The 200 Item rarity that I run is probably overkill realistically, I just enjoy the stat myself and the challenge that having it brings.



I could go on forever honestly, because I am really passionate about this game. If they end up changing item rarity I will not begrudge them for it. I think a majority of the playerbase would even welcome it. A lot of players, especially the more casual ones, just don't like it at all. Probably for the reasons you mentioned. Tala Moana fellow exile, may your days be filled with plentiful loot and good times.

"

Nicolai Vladof#8996 wrote:

One thing this game has that many others do not, is trade. Trade gives us more power than anything else, very easily. An item that costs a single exalt can skyrocket someone's build during the campaign. These will be the biggest upgrades that most people receive in a trade league. The trading may have friction built into it, because of just how powerful it can be, but for the most part it is instant gratification.

Trade shouldn't be a mandatory thing to begin with honestly. When you're forced to use the few resources this games gives, i.e. exalts or worse, divines, just to continue playing the game and not getting gatelocked behind poor loot, it does heavely favor certain individuals while punishing everyone else.
It'd be different if we would get plenty of stuff we actually could trade with, but when you only get 1-2 exalts on a day or that, trading them away for an item that you'll have to replace eventually, for which you then either lack mats to roll yourself, or mats for trade because stuff will be more expensive higher up (generally speaking) just is a bad idea in my book.
One should be able to play a game like this with the stuff the game offers you, on your end. if you wanna min-max stuff, or rush endgame content. yes trade can be great, ofc. not saying trade as a whole is an evil thing.
but being required to trade, just to not be gatelocked from your own progress. that feels horrible, and imho isn't what an arpg should be about.
You're in campaign, you may think you have plenty of resources. just wait till you're in end-game.

"

Nicolai Vladof#8996 wrote:

One thing to remember is that this game is meant to feel a bit more difficult than PoE 1 and that the game is balanced around having mostly positive resists, rather than max resists at all times. These words come straight from the devs.

Great idea, doesn't hold up in practice.
Whether you have 75% resist, or 70% resist, does not seem like much difference on the surface. but as i have shown, it makes a worlds difference.

whether you take 25%dmg or 30%dmg, is a difference of 20% more dmg taken solely because you're not max-ed out. not only does this mean you are required to have maxed out resistances, because the difference of +20% dmg can make the difference of stuff oneshotting you, or not, especially when you have i.e. +crit chance modifier on your map (enemies crit chance being modified, not yours), it gets worse when there also is light-stun and heavy-stun mechanic that also do get a lot more punishing when you are not maxed-out.

it's a little times a little times a little, which on their own each may not seem like much. but in practice, it is a worlds difference. it makes the difference of running lower tiers, or not. which again, makes magic find an even bigger issue, since on higher tiers you do get higher-lvl rewards, which can get higher-tier stats, and so on.

it's many small things, that all come together and then as a result, most certainly do force you to run maxed out resists, on top of heavely favoring certain individual ppl while punishing everyone else.

"

Nicolai Vladof#8996 wrote:

One thing a lot of people are doing, are treating this game as if it was a full release. This is not the case. It is in a beta state.

totally agree, thus feedback is even more important because now stuff still can get changed more easely than if we were in full-released.

i hope they adapt their "meaningful combat" mentality, which i absolutely do love and is the reason i am here to begin with, to the crafting system as well.

a proper crafting system, that doesn't rely on gambling, can hold player retention just as much if not better than gambling. getting screwed over by rng is plenty around irl, and then getting screwed over in-game by rng will just make ppl go mad and quit the game.

if we had a proper crafting system, the entire discussion would be a very different one. because then, ppl could decide on their own:
- do i wanna put in the effort, crafting my stuff myself?
- do i not wanna craft, and just trade stuff?

it would be just a much nicer experience for everyone involved.

*fingers crossed* i hope they adapt their "meaningful combat" mentality to the crafting system. imho it is very much needed

this game IS freaking awesome! i love every minute of the combat. heck i can't get enough of my melee-dot bleed ritualist. i absolutely love it.
it's sad when so much potential get's thrown out the window because of gambling stuff.

"

JunkHeadJoePC#0361 wrote:

This has to be some AI shit. It has to be. No eFFing way real people are typing this stuff.

xD

i'd like to add to the "being progress blocked by your gear" the experience i personally had.

keep in mind i'm a diehard tryhard, i like having a difficult game. so my experience may, or will, differ from many ppl in the community. while some folks struggle having to fight the same boss 10 times over just to kill them, i have no issue with that what so ever.

my issue with gatelocked by my gear was in end-game.
i had a lucky roll on my weapon. i am able to do t14's no prob dmg-wise, including when monster have +80% maxhealth and that, with that same weapon. most likely also t15 or even t16 but i wasn't able to try yet because:

i was stuck on t11 and got oneshotted by regular white trash mob. but the game still was boring to me personally because i dealt ridiculous dmg, for as long as i didn't get hit that is. i just couldn't get enough resi+maxhealth.

i met some awesome guys that gave me rings and amuletts, so my resistance is almost maxxed out, but i just can't get nearly enough maxhealth. i'm melee i need that maxhealth. it's crucial to me.
i'm tryharding t14's, getting oneshot by white trashmob every here and there, yet they also die super quickly on their own.
also i must not play mods that further enhance white trash mobs oneshotting me, i.e. +critical chance on enemies and many more.

i can kinda live with that, being a diehard tryhard. but i see a lot of potential frustration to other folks that don't wanna tryhard high-tiers just because their weapon deals "crazy dmg" on lower tiers. i bet some folks might also enjoy precisely that. zooming through maps one after another because their dmg is that high. and GGG doesn't want us zooming (which i personally agree on, but to each their own). i just hope GGG does have the experience to not balance stuff around "lower-tier zoomers" precisely because at times, you're kinda forced to do so. it's not in our hands being unable to craft our own gear!


i guess the opposite might also happen: you being so tanky so you kinda can't die to most mobs, yet you lack the dmg to progress into higher tiers. a lot less likely, but possible.

a crafting system that we could grind mats for, and then invest those into the stats we didn't get lucky enough to find on our own, would solve this issue on oh so many different lvls.

a proper crafting system doesn't mean you'll be zooming through entire endgame and hit max-tier with max-mods in 2 days. it still can be grindy, in some games even too grindy to some folks preferences.

but being able to "work towards the stats you can't get with gambling" not only would solve a lot of frustration, it also would allow one to compensate for tough luck. it generally would just be such a better experience when we can get the stats ourself that we don't roll by sheer luck.

i.e.:
hey i deal great dmg, but i can't take any hit. what do i need? ah max health, lemme farm crafting mats so i can get more maxhealth on my gear.

^ this would be awesome experience. you can set your own goals working towards, have a feeling of progression that isn't bound to gambling, and yet it still can be grindy to get the mats in the first place.

just generally, a much much better experience overall, for everyone involved. including the forum supports and devs, since that singlehandedly would solve a lot of complaints about end-game progression.

edit: heck that might even allow one to get Magic Find on your gear, without crippling yourself that much so you have to run lower tiers because of that --> which makes Magic Find counter-productive in the first place.

addendum: it might even solve campaign-related issues, aswell as "you're getting punished for playing melee in this game"-type of complaints.
we're melee and can't take a hit? get more maxhealth, resi, what ever is needed.

a proper crafting system would just solve so many complaints all in one.