Perspective of a Team Player

Every once in a while i still see threads where people complain about team play getting rewarded too much. Since i play most of my time with friends i wanted to add the perspective of someone who actually engages in team play. (Which most players dont seem to do)

What people usually complain about is that team play gets rewarded with way better drops. But this is not at all the experience of the regular team player. Quite the opposite.

Right now, if i do any content on my own i will get 100% of the loot. When i play the same content with 3 friends we get the same amount of loot. So only 25% per player. In terms of rarity, the drops are pretty much the same as in solo play. So effectively for playing the same content your gear progression gets cut by 75%. This means you have to put in 4 times as much play time compared to a solo player to get the same drops.

Now, i know what people are going to say: "but its about the abusers who stack rarity on one character while another farms". Yeah... but... who cares. This is such a small minority of players that it doesnt affect anything. This doesnt affect the economy at all.

The game should not be balanced around a very niche issue that doesnt affect anyone (aside from jealousy maybe) and heavily punish players who simply want to play with their friends.

You didn't consider that the studio uses cheats to follow the player, meaning their loot is 100% all.

Is that fair?

I don't think you've ever looked into how parties actually work. Here's a rundown.

With your 4 person parties, you will get 32% more items, and 0% more rarity. But this is not just it.
There's also a thing that generates more currency, rings and amulets per player. This is a rough multiplier based on how many people there are.

So you're looking at more loot on the baseline, as well as whatever bonus loot you get if you do harder content with the group than you'd do solo.

Source: Wiki. Also I party with a friend a lot.

"

ChuChuMihile#4568 wrote:

I don't think you've ever looked into how parties actually work. Here's a rundown.

With your 4 person parties, you will get 32% more items, and 0% more rarity. But this is not just it.
There's also a thing that generates more currency, rings and amulets per player. This is a rough multiplier based on how many people there are.

So you're looking at more loot on the baseline, as well as whatever bonus loot you get if you do harder content with the group than you'd do solo.

Source: Wiki. Also I party with a friend a lot.

You say that but yet it doesnt show in game at all. Just try looting the room after killing Atziri. Do it one time alone and then with 4 players. Its not even close in terms of how much loot you get. We counted it multiple times. The loot is basically exactly the same... just split between 4 players.

"

ChuChuMihile#4568 wrote:

With your 4 person parties, you will get 32% more items

I mean, even if there is a 32% increase in item drops. For a 4 player party there should be a 300% increase in item drops. Thats probably why it feels so unrewarding.

"

ChuChuMihile#4568 wrote:

I don't think you've ever looked into how parties actually work. Here's a rundown.

With your 4 person parties, you will get 32% more items, and 0% more rarity. But this is not just it.
There's also a thing that generates more currency, rings and amulets per player. This is a rough multiplier based on how many people there are.

So you're looking at more loot on the baseline, as well as whatever bonus loot you get if you do harder content with the group than you'd do solo.

Source: Wiki. Also I party with a friend a lot.

I can't get that to match up with numbers from Wiki.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Partying

How is baseline more if you run the same content as a party vs solo? Juiced content will hit a limit which can be done solo.

Also more jewllery items only convert to sellable items if they are well rolled or you collect to craft yourself.

It's like when a billionaire says " money doesnt buy you happiness"

easy for you to say when you're swimming in a golden pool.

Very easy for a rich person to tell a poor person they dont need money.


Of course a group player is going to claim group play is no better than solo play, because you don't want group play nerfed, since you are a group player.

Cant fool me, I am the gingerbread man.

Even most group players agree that its far too OP to play as a group.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3902411/page/6

so are you seriously going to deny this?

This is easily solved.

GGG simply needs to create a solo-trade server in addition to the regular server.

"

ZaruenVoresu#5823 wrote:

It's like when a billionaire says " money doesnt buy you happiness"

easy for you to say when you're swimming in a golden pool.

Very easy for a rich person to tell a poor person they dont need money.


Of course a group player is going to claim group play is no better than solo play, because you don't want group play nerfed, since you are a group player.

Cant fool me, I am the gingerbread man.

Even most group players agree that its far too OP to play as a group.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3902411/page/6

so are you seriously going to deny this?

You are misinterpreting the issue, team play is not the problem, bots and by extension, bot farms and to a certain extent, drop rates are the issue. Sure, they get increased MF per player but that comes with stronger mobs, so it's more risk for more reward. Unoptimised group play generally end up becoming more of a bane than boon since the mobs are stronger and can wipe out entire parties if they're not careful. Also, visual clarity is going to be an issue so parties are most likely going to die from on death/ground effects cause they can't see anything.

So let's say a group of people figure out how to optimise team play. Why should they be penalised for playing an ARPG, where part of the fun and goals is to optimise your build? Saying that a group of people who worked together and achieved better results than you in a shorter time is unfair, do you not see how childish, petty and selfish that is.

Before you say anything about me being a party player or botter, I am not the former and the latter is against TOS so they should be banned.

"

ZaruenVoresu#5823 wrote:

It's like when a billionaire says " money doesnt buy you happiness"

easy for you to say when you're swimming in a golden pool.

Very easy for a rich person to tell a poor person they dont need money.

Holy socialist take on a game..
Why are you comparing yourself to others in a game?

"

ZaruenVoresu#5823 wrote:

Of course a group player is going to claim group play is no better than solo play, because you don't want group play nerfed, since you are a group player.

Cant fool me, I am the gingerbread man.

Even most group players agree that its far too OP to play as a group.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3902411/page/6

so are you seriously going to deny this?

I dont see the point with the linked post. Someone claiming a devs perfered play is aura bot should confirm group play bias? A chinese person complain about chinese bot farmers? That is on GGG to fix.
Check Chris Wilson recent video, I can only asume GGG implementes that since he was a co-founder.

I hope there will never be a split group/solo market as the uncertainty how that affects market competition is unkown and there will always be bots in both solo/group play. It could also benefit the 1% solo players even more.

As a solo player I've never had an issue adapting my fun to the market so I don't see why you can't.
I guess it all depends on your goals but everything is achievable.