Bring Back "Respawn at Checkpoint" in HC - At least for Campaign

Could we please have the "Respawn at Checkpoint" button back in HC leagues? It was inexplicably removed 2 patches ago, but maybe the HC population has grown enough to speak about this! Removing this button has completely changed the dynamic of campaign speed running between HC and SC leagues. The difference between a SC and HC campaign run is substantial now given this change.

I was watching a great speed run tutorial from Angormous and quickly realized that almost half the useful tips and skips he used were not possible in HC. This is because the respawn at checkpoint button is now gone in HC. Lots of dialogue skips are not possible, as well as some useful backtracking and objective hunting in the campaign. If respawn at checkpoint is not meant for this function, I understand. But with SC players being able to do this, it is inconsistent with GGG's past philosophy of keeping HC and SC mechanics the same apart from the character loss on death.

This should be standardized between both leagues. I don't want to be the fun police that gets it removed from SC, so the preferred solution is to add it back to HC. If GGG wants HC to be a more challenging mode by default, that makes sense. I think a reasonable compromise is having the button present through the campaign, but remove in endgame. That's just one suggestion for a relatively simple solution.

I'm not a legendary speed runner myself. Just a longtime POE1 and 2 HC player who occasionally practices cutting down my campaign times. But this issue affects everybody who plays HC regardless of effort and skill level. Any campaign guide you find will eventually mention these skips throughout the campaign as they are pivotal to saving time. We do not have access to most of these by default just because we are playing in HC.

Hopefully we can get a few HC players to chime in here and show some support, despite how few of us there are. As the game matures and gets closer to 1.0, I think the HC population will start growing. Many people and even HC POE1 streamers currently play SC to learn the game or not deal with bug issues during the beta. But I suspect as 1.0 launch looms, the HC population will grow. Hopefully by then we at least have some consistency between SC and HC in regards to the Respawn at Checkpoint works. Any other HC players that are bothered by this or have different opinions, feel free to chime in!

Hi Explicitskill,

thanks for writing this feedback, I was about to write a thread like this one as well as soon I could buy some time for it. But I have to admit I couldn't write it better (because my english is lousy and I'm sure I would have needed about 4 hours more to keep it completely free of my usual sarcasm, hehe). So many thanks from my side :)

For some context: This thread refers to the YT vid from Angormus (commentated by CrimsonCast) "[0.5] Fastest Warrior Leaguestarter! Fully Explained Campaign".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy2JXIwXU8c

I can recommend it for everybody who asked himself how the campaign can be kept a little bit shorter, so it's definetely not only for warriors. I knew some of the tipps and tricks but they show so many insider knowledge of the actual speedrunners that you can learn a lot from it.

But....the speedrun already starts with a "Respawn at Checkpoint" after getting the first weapon to get another one from the game. This already excludes every HC player from getting a second one like all SC players can. Of course, its not a big issue. But as soon as you watch it further you just realize that the respawn button is one of the key functions in every single speedrun. And it's the summary of all that matters in the end.

I'm playing HCSSF only and because I had to skip 0.3 with the introduction of Act4 completely, I had to learn everything in ACt4 and interludes from scratch. And because I am a total Loony I went in blind in HCSSF without testing everything in SC nefore or watching video guides. Long story short, I had little to no issues with my first ED/Cont Witches and Oracle. But as I wanted to play a Ranger in endgame I've realized that the mechanics on some bosses can be quite lethal on a squishier character....and the dying fest and replaying began.

Don't get me wrong, I know every single mechanic of every boss now and each death was helpful to expand my knowledge of all bosses (especially in endgame). Hell I could write guides now.

But the more I had to restart at the beach the more I've started to miss the Respawn at Checkpoint button every now and then:

- Listening to Lachlann at the cemetary until the boss fight begins without the possibility to skip it completely. Believe me, it starts to matter when you listen to it more than 10 times in a league, hehe.
- Figthing an Ariagne as a LA Ranger (Level2) who had resistance to lightning (an easy respawn could solve this, but instead the fight takes two or three times longer or you log out and restart the whole map just to seek out for the hut again)
- Running in the complete wrong direction of a map just to realize that you either go all the way back or port to town and port to the WP and using a checkpint pylon to somewhere instead of pressing "Respawn to Checkpoint"
- You've reached Jamanra on the Dreadnought and want to reach the next level before you fight? Instead on just respawning at the checkpoint which respawns enemies as well without losing the whole map you have to port out and open a new instance while you want to keep the old one alive (So you better have no emergency in real life during the next 10-15 minutes^^)
- You want to tame a beast in the jungle ruins or infested barrens with the right affixes like everybody does in SC? Have fun without respawning at the vendors there. Replaying the whole map for 10 times or more for the right beast is really beyond fun.
- A boss bugs out (Happened to me three times this season, once I got stuck in the soldiers at the viper fight, two time I couldn't finish Tavakai because Sin refused to build the weapon). Respawn at Checkpoint has always solved this issue. Now you have to log out and do the whole map again and fight yourself to the boss one more time. I know this is EA and bugs happen...but why can't we use a workaround like all the SC players can. I've even wrote a bug report in the forum here on one occasion https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3908160. Sadly I have died on a oneshot after the restart and that really frustrated me, because I have already killed him.
- and all the dozens of dozens of tipps and tricks from speedrunners to make the campaign faster.

Conclusion: Let's be honest. We HC guys are the ones who have to run the campaign way more often than the normal SC guys. Most of us do even practice runs for the next season when the current season ends. Just to be in touch with being prepared playing a weak character again after we've melted endgame. It would be nice if we wouldn't be punished by keeping the removal of this feature. And yes, it really feels like a little punishment and friction to me.

I know this isn't an issue for SC players but maybe you can feel with us and support this even when it isn't your matter at all. And I hope Angormus, Crimson and many others would mention this from time to time in their videos and comments...just like Cato the Elders "Ceterum censeo....". The more often it is said, the more it will affect the people in charge^^

Greetings to all the Devs and to everyone who reads this as well.

Cow

"

The difference between a SC and HC campaign run is substantial now given this change.

Good. Something would be off if it was the other way around, don't you agree?

If the HC community grows as much as you're predicting, then there will be campaign guides tailored to that aspect of the game.

"

And yes, it really feels like a little punishment and friction to me.

Good.

Frictionless arpgs that will never punish you:

diablo 3/4
last epoch
titan quest 2
torchlight infinite

Take your pick, instead of trying to turn another one into mush.

"

Quest27#4670 wrote:

Respawn at checkpoint trivializes the game. It is a better product with it gone.

If there is a change to be made, it should be removed from softcore as well. It is a checkpoint system, not a tool to despawn aggro'd mobs, respawn unfavorable rares, or create advantages in other ways. Fast travel and resurrect - those should be the only options.

Thanks for your reply. I do understand your point, but to be honest: The game can be trivialized in many different ways. In my opinion it is already trivialized completely by playing Softcore and/or trade. But I wouldn't demand to remove that, because I get it, why people want to play it that way. In my opinion the game is quite balanced around SSF modes so SC and/or trade make the game only easier (and people still complain about the game being too easy).

The thing I want is that we all should have the same game mechanics, no matter if it is HC or SC. I can't get it why SC players have one more advantage over us when they are already playing the much easier version of the game. It's not only that they can die themselves through the campaign, they also have the tools to speed up everything in the campaign while they mostly play it only once per season. They can reset a boss when it buggs out (like Viper when you dodge into the guards) and restart exactly in front of the arena while we HC players have to discover the whole map again and fight ourselves through it one more time.

I don't want the game to be made easier. I want the same QoL features that the SC players have. And let's be honest: using tipps of speedrunners doesn't trivialize the game at all. It's a absolutely high risk play (what I usually don't even do on my first char for the whole campaign...just here and there) and can end at the beach again any time.

To be clear: I don't want any removal of things that make the game challenging. I'm opposed to every campaign skip, Sekhemas nerf, furhter boss nerfs. Those things would trivialize the game. I wouldn't even mind if they would bring back the bosses like they were in 0.1. I just want to have the same tools for us HC guys to make the campaign faster by using knowledge of the game. Because we are usually running the campaign more than only once or twice in a season. Nothing more, nothing less.

Edit: As the OP already mentioned, I also don't see any reason why it should be removed from SC. I can see its purpose and in lots of cases it is helpful. Not everything has to be removed because some don't like it.