Path of Exile is a unique but complex ARPG that reveals complexity in all its aspects which RPG fans have wanted and some more forever. The humongous possibility of its Passive skill tree, the number of Skill Gems that you can mix and match, and the diversity in its classes are second to none. The recent changes to the premium currency coming in the Lake of Kalandra Challenger League have pushed a lot of players not to consider it their favorite game.
On the top of our heads, we see the ever-changing game's difficulty, the class balances now and then, and the reliance on 3rd party tools and trade to talk about. While some of these things are being enhanced with every patch, let's discuss what things may break users' experience in 2022 for the uninitiated. The recent changes in the currency have been the most vocal pushing players to 3rd party PoE currency suppliers due to it. Without further ado, let's begin.
The New Player Experience in PoE 2022 Edition
Let's start where every new player starts: the new player experience. To understand it fully, consider asking your friends to start playing this game so you can have fun together in the coop. We all have wanted that. The 2nd question you should ask yourself is how many of them are still playing; who actually started playing it?
If your answer is Yes, then you are among the lucky few, as many of us who have tried have failed miserably. Search online about Cyberpunk 2077, one of the worst games at launch and most hyped at the same time; as soon as it launched its short anime series online with a big patch, it broke all records. CP 77 has become one of the highest in concurrent online players within two days of the anime. Can we say the same about die-hard PoE fans?
PoE is horrible and downright not fun for new players, even after being such a critically acclaimed free-to-play game out there. You can search the internet and find thousands of comments about how difficult and obtuse the game is right at the start. Surprisingly, the game sets itself so that new players fail at an alarming rate at the start of the game. This is what happens.
Starting Levels – You wake up at the beach after creating the game. Though the game thinks you have a good tutorial right at the start, which pits you against a mini-boss much more powerful than you. Most new players die there and have to come running back to their corpses for their limited loot. You can die more than one time here. This isn't a souls game but an ARPG that players play for their power fantasy itch.
Massive Skill Tree – Right at the start, you get the first glimpse of the colossal Passive Tree as soon as you reach the first town. While most veteran RPG players will love this diversity and options, most new players will immediately be overwhelmed. For new players to stick around, GGG needs to streamline the Passive Tree like for example, the shortcuts are meant for experienced players to min-max but shouldn't be taken in the early game. New players don't know that. The more choices the player has at the beginning, the more chances there are to make a big mistake.
Skill Gems – Many new players aren't familiar with which skill gems they should invest in at the start of the game. They pick something they don't know anything about and regret it later in the game. The game should allow minimal choice for at least 20-30 levels so players can get the game's feel before making essential choices. The campaign should be as enjoyable as possible for new players, at least through half of the game. From there on, the difficulty should ramp up.
The End Game and Boss Fights Scenarios
Now that we have talked in detail about the initial few hours of PoE and how it can lose new players, let's move on to what is wrong when players reach the end game.
Bosses in PoE
In terms of a sweet spot for the boss's difficulty and enjoyable mechanics, Bosses in the end game are at a pretty good place, but when it comes to farming, that's where it takes the cake. For new players to get decent loot out of the end game, Bosses is pretty hard. The new players don't know what loot drops and what loot they can trade with other players to get them one step closer to their final build. The process of grinding bosses is pretty awful to new players if they don't have a proper road map that can help them.
Map Scenarios
Even though GGG adds new and diverse mechanics each season, the underlying concept in some of them is to punish inexperienced players is not good. The 'Stay away from Lava' mechanic deters most new players. Players can get killed quickly if they stand on one of those mechanic areas as they punish you with debilitating effects that most new players aren't aware of, which only experienced players know how to circumvent properly. Many builds incorporate totems, traps, and minions for these end-game scenarios, so your class can mostly run around while their minions do all the bidding for them. This makes it frustrating if you want to try any build other than these we mentioned.
Multiplayer Experience
More and more players are not playing coop as they used to, even when leveling or farming. The prime reason behind this is some players can actually clear maps in record time, but the power gap you have with them is enormous. When and if you play with these players, it will be challenging to catch up with them, and you won't be having fun just running around and doing nothing. You join multiplayer to have fun and make your farming efficient, but you don't have the build to compete if you are not playing with friends.
So the main problem here is how streamers and YouTubers promote the game more efficiently per hour instead of having fun. Currently, the meta has shifted so far that the casual drop-in dropout is slowly dying.
3rd Party Tools
3rd party tools like Path of Building, Excellence, the Wiki, Craft of Exile, and so many more are there to make the game more QoL and increase your efficiency in the game. But they are so many of them that it gets out of hand for more experienced players to keep up. A couple of these integrating with the main game is fine, but so many break the game's immersion. Either they should become a part of the game or shouldn't be allowed.
The reason behind this is that the Devs should be the ones that should improve and add QoL features in the game or incorporate them all into one place instead of what we have today. GGG, even though it is adding new mechanics to the game to make it more enjoyable but initially, there are so obscure that it is difficult for new players. Community modders stand up and do the job of the Devs.
Trading in PoE
The current state of trading in the game sucks big time, even though it is pretty expansive, and players who know their way around it benefit big time. Whispering to others in the game chat is quite cumbersome and takes the fun out of the game.
The Future of Path of Exile
If the game stays in a 3-month league cycle where the Devs have to conjure new mechanics and themes, it will eventually crash. The Devs don't get enough time to fine-tune each Challenger League. They don't have enough time to QA each new addition from the player's perspective.
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