What Grinding Gear Games Must Fix in the Next Update?

[@archangel5361]

We do need a real SSF league that gives us good loot. PoE2 is still shit path of trading game

[@MysticalLlamaHunter]

I would give a quad tab of temporaliss to see Jim in a Balor shirt and Balor in all black (hair included), green screens showing each other's background.

[@GRIMHOOD99]

Balor as much as I hate to say it, is kinda correct that having multiple attempts on bosses when the bosses are full regening doesn't make them easier, it did make them easier in poe 1 because you could have in theory brute force a lot of stuff with corpse rushing and enough dps but if they would regen to full that would suddenly not be true anymore. However what if there was instead of -mod a to loot for every death a +mod to loot for every remaining portal? In that case people would try harder to kill the boss on first try, good/powerful players get rewarded and it would also lower atractivity of a carry.

[@ruibarian5187]

There's literally no difference between adding or subtracting mods. 6 portals equals 6x loot, if you die you lose 1x loot is the same as not dying gives you 6x.

[@GRIMHOOD99]

@ruibarian5187 what sounds better to you "you get punished every time you make a mistake and you can only make 6 of them" vs. "For every life left you get a bonus?" In practicality it would be the same but psychologically in terms of perception it isn't.

[@Betta-ah]

Poggies no nerfs just massive QOL!

[@Slipperyjim8]

Balor half got his wish with boss portals xD

[@ruibarian5187]

There are DEFINITELY nerfs. GGG never advertises nerfa in their preview posts or videos, and the community acts surprised every time.

[@dhaan5916]

Six attempts on a boss but deminishing returns is actualy a good idea/compromise.

[@Sidnv]

A blanket HP buff to bosses, even difficulty 4 bosses, seems like a bit of a strange take. The gap in build damage right now is 1000x, a blanket buff of 10x HP will mean any even a slightly off meta build will have no chance of killing bosses. An HP buff to bosses might be needed later, but right now, they need to massively rein in the overperforming builds, and see how things shake up.

[@cirian6485]

Have to say, hard disagree with Balor's take on what PoE 2 should end up being, and particularly about there being no value in having similar play cadence between PoE 1 and PoE 2. How can someone who plays Last Epoch, Torchlight Infinite, periodic stints into D4 all on top of PoE claim there is no value in similar games? Having games that are gameplay-wise similar to the best game but content-wise, graphics-wise and system-wise disparate is EXACTLY what is best unless you are one of the very very few people who can handle playing 1 game constantly without breaks for years and years. On the other hand, the PoE 2 campaign was very fun, the more slow methodical game play was very fun, no doubt. Dark Souls and Elden Ring are also very fun, and single player turn based JRPGs are very fun for me too. These games are fun to play through once, maybe a few times even, but then thats it. At least for a couple years until I get a craving to revisit them. There is 0 chance that I would ever replay Elden Ring once every 3 months for 5 years running the way I have PoE 1. If they lean hard into the direction where the end game feels like the campaign thats all its going to be at least for me and for many other players. Fun to play through once or twice and never come back again which is explicitly NOT what GGG wants to happen and is very unideal for games with the PoE monetization strategy. Games that are played through a few times or for a month or two and then done are great when they are box cost games, not so good as free to play microtransaction games.

[@DanboReviews]

I personally would love to see 1-6 divine drops after the final pinnacle boss fight and only have him 1 try. Don't want to work my way there, have 6 tries and see 4 rares, a unique which is about a divine and 5k gold. But it's probably better long-term to give people more tries than less.

[@jakemartin5553]

For the "hacking" problem.. I'd be curious to see how many of the people who were hacked had downloaded a github filter..

[@Detlevboi]

what damage could a .filter file possibly do?

[@lennyghoul]

PoB update is supposed to be the 13th and will support PoE2

[@GRIMHOOD99]

I just hope they will mention when they will be announcing new poe 1 league because last time they said in january. Also btw balor is currently on 13+ hours a day since release if his 520 hours is true, that is mind bogling to me who wasn't able to play for more than 12h without feeling like I am playing modern game that is somehow also stuck in a past running at 0.75x speed.

[@rubikmonat6589]

that's about right, seen him on twitch pretty much all day every day in aussie timezone.

[@lennyghoul]

I think spliting the games was a mistake. I love the new campaign but would love the PoE 1 endgame.

[@Warplux]

I feel for Balor! The others are just gatekeepers ffs. GGG made poe2 to refine the state of arpgs, to make the game more accessible therefore increasing the standard in the industry. No matter the implementation needed, and Balor puts forward a rather simple solution, the content that is produced is made for the players to experience Any situation in that a player gives up experiencing content is a no gain situation. T0 content is for any player to try. Simple as that

[@Verulen22]

On the point balor makes at 1:00:00 you could argue that a sequel should feel like the same game with new and better stuff and not change how it feels. If you want to make a different game you call it something else completely. But that's semantics that don't matter, there's penty of examples of both in gaming history. I do hope poe 2 just becomes poe 1 with better graphics and animations, cause I never wanted anything different from it beside that in the first place (except actual ssf support like jim said, gggpls).

[@jbaris]

Agreed with you - I want PoE 2 to be the same speed as PoE1 - that's what makes 1 so fun. I literally stopped playing 2 after a week cause it's so slow

[@CyrilFrantzen]

6-portals, first bosses need to be a quest, not a tradeable token (tier5 token is the same as tier1 token = garbanzo). Make citadels a lot more common and reliable, make all the mechanic bosses a lot easier to get. Let us practice on tier1-tier3 bosses and then make it a sweatfest for the highest tier. Regarding balance: Lower the roof, raise the floor. Make the base characters better, make the top 1% builds weaker. Dont nerf any characters in a way where the bottom 25% of players are getting punished. Slipperyjim makes so many good points. Catmasters takes are pure "i stream this game and make money playing the game" takes. Its so disconnected from the rest of the community.

[@catmasterOP]

I would 100% agree with "Lower the roof, raise the floor" since both builds I made are barely scraping above the floor. I have a real life full time occupation outside of the game/stream since August 2024, I am not sure where you know me from but I don't nearly make enough money from content to warrant the "Catmasters takes are pure "i stream this game and make money playing the game" takes statement, but I am curious what makes you think so. Either way thanks for watching and feedback!

[@CyrilFrantzen]

@@catmasterOP I only really know you from the podcasts you make which i appreciate a lot, and which I will 100% continue to watch. I appreciate the response and I will be happy to answer what I was aggitated by. It was arguing for the gatekeeping and low accessability of the endgame. There are people who are 200++ hrs into the game and havent even seen the arbiter or any of the other mechanic bosses yet. Its way too inaccessible. It needs to be adjusted, we need to be able to PLAY the game if we want to, and people need to be allowed to access the endgame content in less than 200 hours. I could spend an entire week trying to get an audience with the king, and not see one. Thats not how it should be, and to me, any other take is a "I stream this game and make money playing the game" take to me. Moreover, if they make it accessable for players, but then make the content so hard that you need some broken above the curve one-shotting sick build just to kill the endgame content (e.g. ubers in poe1) I also think its a mistake. In my opinion should be able to take a mechanic in the face once or twice and not die, oneshots are lazy design. Arbiter of Ash should have 1000% more hp, but his damage should be lowered tons, so its a battle of attrition, not a matter of who oneshots who first. You cant get hit ten times and expect to win, but you should be able to get hit once or twice. If you were arguing for it from a general point of view (not your own) I get it, but I think there should be a lot more focus on the general population, rather than balancing the game around what ruetoo, captainlance, or zizaran are doing. If i misunderstood you, my apologies, and thank you for the response. Raise the floor, lower the roof! Raise the floor, lower the roof! Raise the floor, lower the roof!

[@synistargg2502]

Rarity is a joke. I couldnt care less if its broken or not, its not a good mechanic to engage with on gear because it is infact manditory even if your argument is "its only to 100%" well thats stats im missing to make my character stronger. Not only that, but now any build that cannot put more rarity on its gear is now bottom tier trash and the builds that can afford to lose power for rarity are the only builds that matter. Which is exactly the opposite of the power fantasy design of an arpg is for. Its a stat that no matter what your build is, you want it which is unlike hp, unlike mana, unlike lightning damage, unlike any other stat except movespeed which is yet another mandatory stat on the only gear piece it can roll naturally on It also creates a problem and a solution when the problem simply doesnt need to exist, doesnt affect or create engagement beyond the need to solve the problem itself. If rarity didnt exist, drop rates would go higher. Since rarity does exist, drop rates are lower till you engage needlessly with the very thing causing the problem itself. And then it also takes constant attention every time a new season comes with new crazy content and thats just wasted dev time when the clear solution is to just get rid of the problem in the first place

[@FaesRollTroll]

Great podcast as always

[@AbsurdRenegade]

Poe community is just toxic gatekeepers that think they're better than they actually are. The community is cringe

[@aaronlong7215]

@Balormage i agree they should have kept their original idea of poe2 being a campaign and graphical update to poe1. Heres why, casual players wont be able to play if they make endgame take as long as the campaign. If they make maps take 20-30 min per then people like me that have 1-2 hours to play a day thats 4 maps. And god forbid if you die in one or more of those maps. If this happens casual players will never be able to complete enough maps to even get to the point of finding citadels. And at that point why even log in. Also, i think there should be endgame chase builds that are super strong. It seems to me like most youtubers or streamers are basing their opinion on the fact they can play 12+ hours a day. I play a fifth of that. Yall are advocating for taking away all endgame goals from poe2 and for years yall have all been saying that goals are the best thing to have in poe1

[@championchrisplays3611]

Idk who this betta-ah guy is, but boy his takes are not only bad, but like the opposite of things happening in the game. Is he delusional?

[@yoshiitsune]

"Quantity instead of Rarity would fix the game". Yeah sure buddy...

[@championchrisplays3611]

@yoshiitsune he's literally the only person out of hundreds I've heard say that. The fact that quantity was removed from poe1 makes me think he hasn't even played the game 🤣

[@UIMcocodog]

I feel like he got MEGA shut down and pushed out of the discussion because of this. Maybe he didnt articulate his point super well but what I understood was that in his opinion, map level should really be the only thing that's giving higher quality. And if that was the case then players being able to wear some gear that gives more quantity wouldnt be such a big deal...... whereas rn, trade league is basically a non useful testing enviroment because its so fucking broken by rarity.

[@TheMongobasher]

Mygod the rarity discussion.. Let people stack it all they want and die if they've failed to balance their character. Let the bigtops stack rarity and become richer. The community spearheaded by some streamers and other loud voices has a tendency to make anything into a big bleeding issue.

[@PSL1969]

Slopperyjim :)

[@thermatico2980]

I hope GGG ignores rarity all together, or gives us a "deal with it" response.... just so everyone can stop talking about it.

[@MikeyJ28]

It’s a significant problem that’s going to only hold the game back in the long run because they made the choice to make rarity a required stat to progress your character. PoE 1 for all of its flaws does it right with the scarab system and ability to juice maps with map altering items not attached to your gear. The power fantasy and power progression is the single most important aspect of an ARPG and rarity as it is currently goes against that. This system is designed so that only the builds that can push endgame content with as little item power possible are worth playing. In PoE 1 rarity has been somewhat of a useless stat for some time due to how useless most uniques are outside of Heist and rarity not affecting Heist chests. If rarity in PoE 1 affected currency drops, it would be the only stat anyone cared about and the power fantasy would be ruined.

[@WraeclastRoadhouse]

wtf lol my map is covered with nameless seers. i can easily get a screenshot of 3 on screen without zoom trick. also jim must be as big a stoner as i am with how much he is forgetting his train of thought

[@BGriffith85]

Didnt know thisbwas a political podcast.. 👎

[@siipis7766]

CatMaster play elden ring, if you die, start the game all over. Have fun

[@catmasterOP]

I don’t think that compares at all but 👍

[@siipis7766]

@catmasterOP well we got what we wanted from the patch notes. Huge changes