Author:
Simulacrum
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Date:
12/17/2024 8:15:52 AM
Subject:
RE: Path of Exile 2
To clarify, the $30 early-access price is a rip-off since POE2 is supposed to be a free game, but I liken it to the money I spent on V-Rising. Both are easily worth $30 as ongoing entertainment.
If anything makes me stop playing, it will not be the bosses. It will be the way support skills are designed. Skills come in the form of "uncut gems." You "cut" them by extracting and deploying them. They run the usual gamut of melee, projectile, elemental, etc. Sometimes you'll get lesser "support" gems that alter the nature of the skills.
The problem I have is that most of these so-called support augmentations come with give-take conditions. As an example, the game has a firewall skill. It works how you expect, except that it doesn't really do any damage on its own. It amplifies another damage type passing through it. The Spark skill, for instance, does a lot more damage if you can cast a firewall in front of enemies and let the Spark effects pass through it. A certain support gem will change your firewall from a wonky straight line into a circle, which is much more manageable. But for this convenience, the damage amplification is reduced by quite a lot.
I hate this. I hate it in every game that does it. Somehow it's become trendy to hold out something that makes a skill better but also craps it up, as a kind of price. Since Diablo 3, this is how practically the entire Wizard/Sorceress skill selections and paragon choices are handled, and it's in other games as well. It probably derives from some sadistic D&D rulebook. I don't care. If you're going to support me, do so. I don't see what's so bad about simply making something better instead of creating another problem to solve.
I shouldn't have written this because now I'm raging in my head about how stupid and unnecessary this mechanic is. It's obviously made to appeal to sweaty players and streamers, but it's only going to piss off people like me. So there.
