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Manakel2 wrote:

Trade : i understand GGG want an economy in the game but i feel it's a little to much. the good thing in an hack&slash is to find your gear by killing monsters, you are happy when you finally kill this big boss and he drops the boots or the weapon improving your character. But in the game, most of the time (hopefully not always) items found yourself are average if not bad : itemlevel 70 with +20 life, who would equip that ? So you trade for good and very expensive items because you can't find them. That is a very bad point. Trading for unique items that's ok, they are not easy to find (and that's good) but other gear should be found or crafted without the need to sacrifice an arm and 2 legs. It is too late for 1.2 but that's something to look for the next version(s)

I agree self found players need a bit more love. Uniques being build changers feels like a punishment for self found players because you simply will never find the end game unique(s) that will be good for the builds you play. To build around Uniques trading is an absolute must. To expect a 6-link, ever in your entire time playing, trading is a must (or more hours playing than I would wager 99% of players have time to put in sadly.)

It's a small gripe and this is still the best game of its genre, even for those who treat it like a one player (or multi-player with friends) rpg and stick to self found. Also crafting fixed a lot of the issues, but not for sockets, as gathering that much of just one orb as a self found player is not viable. Maybe tailoring for this minority demographic would have to adverse an effect on the economy and trade systems which seem to be a major highlight for a lot of people.

Some thoughts on the preliminary 1.3 skilltree:

1. first impressions:
- nice and cleaner looking pathing, more streamlined, less nodes wasted to travel
- lack of life obtainable in the left side of the tree compared to the right (scion lifewheel mandatory?)
- block is mostly gone (maybe indicating either extra blockchance or some type of retaliation attack when blocking via some of the new reactive skills)
- almost no crit multiplier available at all in the lower left side of the tree
- Templar start region looks very nice, really like the repositioning of the Zealot's Oath keystone
- less life per node for Marauder start (7 points for 32%), especially compared to the easy 3 point 24% incr max life the Shadow gets. armor/life hybrid nodes still all weaker than the life/eva for the ranger
- very weak Duelist start nodes but insane 'Art of the Galdiator' notable -> will be must have for each and every build that is remotely in the area


2. more detailed analysis of different regions/passives and possible implifications
Note: since i don't know what other changes will be present in 1.3, i can only base my analysis on what we curently have and what changes i can assume will happen.
Duelist starting area:
It took me a seond look to understand the changes made in the pathing but they do make sense once i understood them. While the later nodes are generally very good, the first few ones seem very inefficient compare to the ranger and shadow start.
I like the fact that the first two damage nodes are now generic physical damage instead of melee but the values of most of the nodes seem just a little bit too low overall, especially those 3% attack speed nodes are extremely inefficient to get. The 6% ar/eva + 3% life nodes are also downright worse than what one can get in the ranger start area and only mildly attractive for an armor/evasion hybrid build but even for that they offer very little effective gain.
Overall i'd say that most of the early nodes could simply get another +1% on their numeric values to make them able to compete with the ranger for any build that touches both starting areas.
Going down from there, the two notables with the mana/life nodes in between look very good and Art of the Gladiator is just insane. It almost looks like some of the boni that the earlier nodes lack had been combined on that notable. Thematically i'd rather put the movement speed penalty remove on Bravery instead since it is centered around life, armor and evasion already.
The 'weapon type clusters' (clunky name i know but not sure how to call them instead^^) look great and i especially like the combination on single handed melee damage and shield nodes. Although it took me a second look to understand it, it does make a lot of sense this way!
The big weapon type wheels below the duelist area also look very nice except for the two 3% attack speed nodes before Wreckingball, which offer way less than the respective nodes in the other wheels (8% damage/ 3% attack speed for DW, 10/2 for shield). An additional bonus like maybe a little extra life, aoe radius or movement speed would help bring them more in line with the others.

Summary of suggested balancing changes: Balancing wise i would suggest moving the movement penalty reduction from Art of the Gladiator to Bravery, increaseing the 3% attack speed nodes to 4% and the ar/eva/life hybrid nodes to 8%/4% (or 10/3) to bring it better in line with the ranger starting area. I would also love to see some additonal small bonus on the single 10% physical damage node, maybe +20 accuracy or some movement speed (i mean flat, not %) or something along that line. Additionally, the low attack speed nodes before Wrecking ball need a little extra in my opinion since they are downright weaker than each and every other comparable node on the whole skilltree.
Thinking some more about it, it would also be interesting to see an aditional small movement speed bonus (2-4% maybe) on some or even all of the lackluster nodes instead of an increase of their numerical value. This would make the duelist feel more like a fast and agile warrior instead of being merely someting in between the marauder and ranger.


In between Duelist and Marauder:
I really like the way in between with its different pathing options. The inner path allows for a quick transition in the other respective starting area while gaining much needed dex/int and can later be respecced when the stats are less important and one wants to get to all the juicy clusters along the outer two paths. This type of a partial, strategic respec is fun to play and plan and i included it in several of my builds. glad to see that is still possible and even more effective to do so now with the small armor cluster in the duelist starting area gone :)
It's a bit sad to see the life boni on the small axe/sword clusters gone but the Juggernaught and Bloodless clusters are relatively close to both starts so that doesn't hurt as much.
I was really hoping to see a 2H AoE dedicated cluster here but maybe the base AoE of 2H melee skills will get buffed instead so it can compete with 1H Reave + Multistrike.


Marauder starting area:
The first thing to notice is that the boni in the first few armor/life nodes still is lower compared to the ranger, which i hoped would be changed to at least 8%/4% on the smaller nodes. Generally, there is now slightly less life available in the marauder starting area than before. The Heart of the Warrior notable might be nice early on but does pretty much nothing in late game so it would be nice to have an additional 5% max life increase on it.
The exit towards the weapon clusters to the left is great with its pathing through the Endurance Charge or the Juggernaut and Barbarism clusters.
The weapon clusters are great too and i especially like the little 10% chance of extra effects on the notables but swords feel simply forgotten in that regard. '10% chance to inflict bleeding for 2 seconds on target' on the Razor's Edge notable would fit very well thematically in my opinion.


In between Marauder and Templar:
Generally more streamlined and easier to traverse but the almost complete removal of a maruder (or generally anyone going for the lower left side) being able to go crit bothers me. It is not so much the fact that crit is limited to basically the right and upper side of the tree but that a 2H build (besides crit staff) will still not be able to do even remotely as much damage as a 1H crit build made with a ranger or shadow, even with the slight crit multiplier nerf.
Unless there are more changes coming to 2H that i don't know of yet, i cannot see them being any more viable than before.


Templar starting area:
Interesting changes that put the Templar now much more into the elemental damage category. The only thing i miss a bit here is something that would tell a new player 'hey btw, you could also do physical damage with staves' in the first few nodes. Other than that it looks very good in my opinion.

Some thoughts on the changes in the updated version of the preliminary 1.3 skilltree:

1. first impressions:
- hurray for chance to inflict bleeding on the sword cluster! :D
- Duelist starting armor/eva/life nodes are now better in line with the other starting areas' respective defense/life nodes
- Duelist and Ranger still got some of the inefficient 3% attack speed nodes
- weapon clusters below the Duelist area are now overall better balanced with a slightly stronger focus on the notables
- Mortal Conviction bonus got reduced (maybe there are other alternatives?)
- Marauder starting area now has more life and also got a nice buff to the weapon clusters
- was that 4% additional phys damage reduction on the Soul of Steel notable there before? will have to check tomorrow but either way it is great for builds based on armor as their main defense
- slightly confused whether the meta boni on the notables of the sword/axe/staff cluster notables apply to all attacks or just ones that use the respective weapon. If the bonus is global things could get a bit out of hand with the endurance charge on crit and daggers


2. more detailed analysis:
Duelist starting area:
The starting nodes got a slight buff which is really nice although the extra life pretty much cancels out with the reduced bonus from Bravery. Overall a good change since it makes it a bit more attractive to play a Duelist instead of rolling another class and just getting the juicy nodes from the Duelist area. Only that 3% attack speed nodes feel left out and really need a buff in my opinion. At least the 2nd node should have some extra value like +10% or +20 (flat) accuracy or some movement speed to make it more viable to go that way.
I also still think that the 'ignore all movement penalty from armor/evasion' bonus should be moved from Art of the Gladiator to Bravery since it better fits thematically there. This is more for consistency reasons since everyone in the area will want to get both notables anyway.
The weapon clusters in the area got a nice little buff and the large weapon wheels below the starting area are better balanced, which gives the Duelist more of a feel like 'the master of all weapon classes' than before.

Soul of Steel:
Great cluster with a lot of value in that notable! This looks like a small but still significant buff to armour based builds. Now i have to replan the respec of my 2H sword Marauder xD

Blood Magic + Mortal Conviction:
I put some thought into it but haven't really found a solution for the dilemma that BM is mostly used by low life builds instead of its original inteded use. I like tha fact that low life builds can use this mechanic since it is an interesting idea but they shouldn't be able to abuse it.
Personally i'd rather see something like. [Blood Magic]: X% of mana converted to life, has no mana, uses life instead of mana; [Mortal Conviction]: 60% less mana reserved, 30% less energy shield.
An implementation like this would mean that life BM builds essentially get a free aura depending on how high X is and low life builds can still use the mechanic to stack a ton of auras but loose a chunk of energy shield to do so.

Marauder starting area:
Great changes in Heart of the Warrior and the weapon cluster and overall more life available in and around the starting area. In my opinion this really helps the Marauder distinguish himself from the other classes since he is just that big dude with a ton of strength and armor (or rather: can be if one chooses to play him that way).
I especially like the fact that the chance to inflict bleeding made it on the sword cluster since it just fits so well thematically with swords!
My only concern for the meta mods on the weapon clusters on the left edge is whether the 'chance to X' mods are global or restricted to using the respective weapon type. Although it would mean a significant investment to go through those essentially 'empty' nodes to get there when using another weapon type, it could still lead to 100% uptime of full endurance charges on builds like the infamous crit dagger low life spectral throw or some cast on crit builds.

edit:
Bloodletting cluster:
looks like i will have to make a sword/bleeding build, GG.

Templar starting area:
The very first node on the life/mana side looks a bit weak compared to the other classes. maybe a change to a small relative bonus like 5% life + mana (as in the 2nd node) or an added +14 to maximum energy shield would make it more attractive.

No innate abilities? Yaaay... i can pick one of six wooden dummies...
XP penalties? Who would ever want to level up again anyway, - right GGG.

edited after this line:

In fact, I did not care much for these two miscalculation when I getting my self into rush ... of course as you know until a handful pack of handsome mobs cooled my ardor. Then I feel a craving to leave the game for an hour or two to calm my tits.

post update v.1.1

Please get Path of Exile to the CIS countries! My friends of Steam are anxiously awaiting it!
This game seems good enough as a continuation of the Diablo games! Love the gothic feel to it.

Brilliant game when you can actually Login.

The constant "You are logging in from a different location" error forces me to have to login to my emails to retreive an unlock code. every. single. time.

FFS I AM LOGGING IN FROM THE EXACT SAME LOCATION SINCE I DOWNLOADING THE GAME. SAME AS YESTERDAY, AND THE DAY BEFORE etc etc

This is a deal breaker for me. POE is an absolute fantastic creation( and hopefully continues to patch into more wondrous things) but the tiresome login circus is enough for me to stop playing till this is resolved.

yeah so ... my first impression of the game is its freaking awesome. I've been play DDO for years and was sick to death of the frequent dc's and crippling lag so i get here and there's none of that headache to deal with. so I'm going about my business killin stuff having a good time and come across a gem box or jewelers box or some such thing click on it to start the fight as the mouse over says it contains an extra vaal gem and guess what happens? you guessed it. f'n dc! really? wtf? are you f'n serious? I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I was. Is this going to be habitual with you too? great game but I'm not sure I can take the aggravation of this type of service any longer. Yes I know these things happen with any game and I don't expect disconnects not to happen but at that time? maybe it was nothing to get excited about but I was and to have it snatched from underneath me.... well, i can't say much more without possibly offending a great deal of people. Other than that... great game love the skill tree love the mobs and the loot. Great job.

Yesterday my 85lvl witch died on easy 68 map (no dmg mod, etc) - just because poe client has crashed - i beg you gentlemen please implement some simple AI, that would take over disconnect character and just try to run to safety/get out of burning/desecrated ground/pop healing flask/whatever. I suppose detecting a disconnected condition from server should be relatively easy (I mean i wouldn't be pissed if i died to d/c being 3/4 dead already or surrounded by deadly creatures, but i bet it took mobs from this map 15-20 sec to chop me down)

Came over from D3 and I have to say, POE is a complete breath of fresh air. I love the complexity of the game and sheer build diversity the community has been able to create. I just hope that GGG doesn't have any plans on dumbing down or otherwise making POE more 'accessible'.