Severe difficulty with no option to lower it is The death of creativity

I know my build is shitty and unoptimized but I made it myself and would like to play using it all the way to the end.

Unfortunately the severe difficulty at mid to late game forces players to change builds and follow the optimized guides like a mindless npc yes-man just to progress the story.

I just hope that there was an option to lower the difficulty and continue on with the story even with my weak newbie build.
Last bumped on Aug 29, 2025, 1:38:18 PM
you don't have to mindlessly follow anything, the problem is you don't know how to gear or path on the passive tree, and your gems are probably fked too. it's a you problem, not a game problem
The only thing the game really asks of you in the campaign is capped resists and about 300 life per act which is quite a low bar.

Other than that the game is your oyster for acts and even white tier maps. Yellow and red tier maps do start to ask a bit more of your defenses and damage but once you get a little experience you can homebrew your own builds through the end of tier 16 maps without much trouble.

If your goal was just to beat the campaign and move on from the game then PoE 2 is probably the one you want.

there are few unspoken but widely accepted rules of Path of Exile:

- you build your damage TALL but defences WIDE
- caping resists by late campaign is expected
- you DO NOT have to fight every rare mob. feel free to skip fights you dont think can win
- uniques are not best in slot, use them DELIBERATELY and not because youve dropped one



what i mean by tall and wide?

most POE builds have ONE damaging skill. ONE. not five across several genres. ive seen comments like yours from players who by level 20 hurled Fireball, summoned Zombies, attacked with Tectonic Slam and used Molten Shell offensively.

just DONT. pick ONE main skill, make it count. supporting them with other skills is ok, it is frankly expected by some point, but you can complete the campaign with ONE skill

if you dont like it and like to mix and match - Path of Exile 2 (or one of other games like Grim Dawn) might fit your playstyle better. POE2 in fact forces you to mix and match to some degree.


forcing several archetypes at once in POE == auto-loss, it doesnt work, dont do it

wide defences means the opposite opposite - it is better (speaking about campaign) to have a bit of few things (block, armour, evasion, suppression) rather than stacking one thing. it is cheaper, easier to gear and the first %s make the biggest impact

once you get to 80-90, then you can start to unravel the rest, but until then - do not try to break the 'one main skill' rule
The game is easier now than it ever has been. If you are struggling it has to do with your knowledge of the game. I would recommend picking up a guide and following it, as it can help newer players out tremendously. Good luck!
You're not getting an easy mode. It goes against everything this game stands for. Besides it isn't that difficult to begin with. Just get a better build.
Last edited by Celestriad#0304 on Aug 29, 2025, 11:16:06 AM
Only way you get that is if its SSF or restricted from trading.
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