We welcome First Impression posts! Please be nice to those posts.

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GCAussie wrote:

In that post GGG state: "We expect and encourage most players to play in the default leagues..."
(ie Standard, SSF, Hardcore etc)
If that is the case WHY IS SUCH A HUGE PROPORTION OF GGGs' RESOURCES USED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEAGUES?

When you create a new character, the default is indeed the current temporary league, not permanent standard. That is where GGG expects and encourages people to play, just as they say.

Standard is widely panned as the "dumpster league," though with your solo play style, which is unaffected by the economy, it may be a better fit for you (since you already have playtime there). You will miss out on the newest league mechanics, but most of the best ones get rolled into the base game anyhow, albeit at a lower rate.

Fix the atlas and T15 elder first.

I am a new player. Been here less than 2 weeks. Let me start by saying that I have mostly enjoyed this game. The storyline is good, the gameplay pretty smooth, and the boss fights are extremely challenging.

But there some things I'm not keen on. For one, where's the auction/barter house? For a game that promotes trading among players (evidenced by the plethora of drops you get that are not suited at all to the build/class you are currently in}, there's no place for it except on a third party site that isn't user friendly at all to new players. Second, what's up with all of the one shot mechanics? It's frustrating to not even get a chance to figure out what's going on when you get one shotted by things. There's no way to look at a combat log to find out what killed you to learn how to avoid it. I have died soooooooooooooooooooooo many times to one shot mechanics that it's not even surprising anymore. I am to the point where I'm more surprised when I'm not the victim of a one shot than when I am. Third, the experience loss. Come on guys. This was taken out of games after all the complaints by its player base in EQ. What's the point of experience loss other than to irritate your player base? Especially with all of the one shot mechanics I previously mentioned. Fourth, why is character progression locked behind completing the Labyrinth? I HATE this place with a passion and don't find it fun or engaging. I was almost level 70 before I was able to complete the level 55 labyrinth for the first time. I was almost 50 before I was able to complete it for the very first time. Getting booted back to town and having to go inside again is disheartening. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it bumped you back a room or 2 or was shorter. When I completed it for the first time ever, I felt completely drained and had a headache. The entire definition of game is "fun" and having something in the game that blocks progression and is nigh impossible to complete at the appropriate level is the exact opposite. Fifth, why is there no recommended level for maps? I have done 2 of them and the experience was awful. On the first map, I was one shotted by things until I only had one portal remaining. I barely made it to the end boss of the map and he didn't even drop a rare item. Really?! The second map, I didn't even get to complete. It was a dungeon map and I got utterly destroyed. Managed to get 2 rare item drops before all portals were exhausted and like much of the loot I have gotten before, useless.

I'm by no means a novice to games. I have been a gamer since my Atari 2600 in 1978. Now that I have completed Act 10, I don't know what to do. The maps are impossible and gear doesn't seem to be dropping that I can use when I go back to earlier acts. Trading doesn't seem to be an option since I have to go to a third party site to do that. The Trade channel is full of "bots" it seems and apparently not used to actually trade items that are useful. EVERY answer when asking if something is worth trading is met with "poe trade". The thing these individuals don't understand is that site is not user friendly AT ALL for new players.

My initial first impression of the "end game" here is that absolutely no thought is given in how to attract/keep new players playing. All of the "end game" content seems to be geared towards those individuals that have already been playing for years. When asking for guidance from other players in how to proceed, am met with "git gud". I know I'm probably in the minority here but this is MY observation.

This was my first serious attempt at playing PoE
I was striving for the 24 challenge for the wings and my experience was overall very positive, but I am suddenly finding myself extremely bored and didn't even log in today and probably won't tomorrow or the next.
So I'll give some feedback as to way.
It's mostly one reason
XP loss on death.

You see I'd really like to continue progressing my atlas, it's a pretty interesting end game system.
I am up to tier 6-7
But because I am progressing in new maps that I've never played and fighting bosses where I have never learned the mechanics, the chances of dieing are high.
That means losing out on a lot of exp which is still a valued path of progression for me, as I haven't even reached 90 yet.

So I am faced with a choice, progress atlas and not level up, or grind hundreds of low level maps to level up, which is just terribly boring.
If I want to mindlessly grind maps I'll run grifts on diablo 3


- I'd also like to add that over all the balance feels a bit wonky
Some mobs or bosses are easy while others will destroy me in a few hits so I have to run around kiting them and let my dots kill them.
It's not a resistance issue since those are capped, even my chaos res is fairly high.
I'm not sure what else it could be aside from shoddy balance tuning.
The league stuff especially is way more powerful than most things you encounter.

This isn't a first impression as I have been playing poe since beta but I just wanted to voice my experience and issue with the game. First of all, this game has went from "grinding gear games" to "buying gear games". There is no end game sustain on maps or an adequate amount of currency like chisels and alchemy orbs to roll these maps unless you buy them. It feels like for every step forward (map gained on the atlas) you have to take 2 steps back because map drops just don't happen frequent enough...not next tier maps anyway. I am having to grind way to long and hard just to progress my atlas. I don't feel like the "bonus" system for map drops is working at all. I haven't noticed an increase in maps drop from 1 to the 139 I am currently at on my atlas. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the grind when I feel like I am making progress but instead I feel like I am wasting my time having....being forced to buy maps, chisels and alchemy orbs because they just don't drop enough even with loads of quantity stats on gear which still doesn't allow me to sustain.Its starting to feel like GGG nerfs anything that is fun or is trying adamantly to halt progress. GGG, I don't know what you want out of the game but I know what I am looking for and it's not poe.trade.

My first impression of the game: IT'S AWESOME.

Even though a lot of people are complaining about this league, I like it. Why? Because it's something different from what we are used to do. It also includes 4 new bosses for me to take on. Just because it doesn't provide increased pack size, it isn't a bad league.

Every league I enjoyed playing this game more and more. So just keep up the good work GGG, you are doing a fantastic job.

For Axxehole, mooniepwns and other new players that are struggling with progress in the game don´t hesitate to ask for help here:

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Rakiii wrote:

For Axxehole, mooniepwns and other new players that are struggling with progress in the game don´t hesitate to ask for help here:

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-forum/gameplay-discussion

+1.

The community is super-helpful, if you ask for help courteously. People like to feel needed. :)

While this is not a first impression per se it is a first impression of the beastiary league.
I am not sure if GGG understands what a genius idee they would be squadering if they deleted the beastiary mechanic after the league ends. With decent amount of polish and thought this could be a new and inovative way to craft items. They could introduce rare and super rare monster to catch and if they made it tradeble it could open a new market like the essences did.
I really hope they find a way to keep this mechanic after league end.

I tried the game a long time ago, quit, and just came back a few weeks ago. The first time around it didn't catch my attention, but I have really been enjoying the game this time...mostly.

Before I give my complaint I want to say I really, really like the gameplay, style, and feel of the game. The game its-self is really enjoyable. My complaints come from mostly technical issues. My system has 16 GB RAM, Intel Core I-5 6600K, and an RX 480 graphics card. So, more than enough to run the game. However, the game frequently freezes on load screens, frequently disconnects, and I have had to reinstall the game twice now just to get it to actually load. These are the reasons why my highest character is only level 25 (I believe). I really, really, really want to play the game for longer sessions, but when you disconnect on a load screen and get kicked back to the central hub for that act you get frustrated and quit for the evening. I have tried tweaking settings (I'm not hardcore about graphics, performance is far more important), looking around to see if there are other tips, and all I've come across are other individuals complaining about optimization.

I have been heavily debating dropping $60 for one of the packs that would come with enough currency to get the specialized stash tabs (since $60 is about the price for a normal game, I thought it'd be fair). But, it is hard to convince myself to do so if the game isn't running properly on my system. I'm not even concerned with it running perfectly, just not frustratingly often disconnects. One here and there would only mean I don't play hardcore.

Basically, I want to love this game, but technical issues are keeping me from doing so. Please spend some time optimizing the game's performance and stretch out the time between content dumps here and there. Retaining new players is just as important as keeping older players engaged.

Edit: Finally decided to move the files from my large storage HDD to my SSD to see if that would help at all and most of the issues seem to have disappeared. Honestly, though, you shouldn't have to run the game off of an SSD for it to not crash on load screens.