Finally got to maps tonight. Wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I switched from poison to lightning ranger and it made a huge difference. Still not as fun as spark mage was but not bad. The rhoa mount is a lot of fun.

Act 3 maps are still way, way too big. The last 3 zones took me longer than all of act 2 combined, even though I finally had the mount. It really is ridiculous how long those zones are.

Not sure how long I'll last running maps this season. The new towers seem fun but having to find a bunch of corrupted nexus nodes feels like it's going to be a pain to get the atlas points. Does it get better after a few?

The latest patch is nice, if only for more affinity tabs and actually being able to get a 3 charm belt!

And new Last Epoch season, tomorrow.

Rule Number 32 said:

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Finally got to maps tonight. Wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I switched from poison to lightning ranger and it made a huge difference. Still not as fun as spark mage was but not bad. The rhoa mount is a lot of fun.

Act 3 maps are still way, way too big. The last 3 zones took me longer than all of act 2 combined, even though I finally had the mount. It really is ridiculous how long those zones are.

Not sure how long I'll last running maps this season. The new towers seem fun but having to find a bunch of corrupted nexus nodes feels like it's going to be a pain to get the atlas points. Does it get better after a few?

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I finally finished the atlas points and they are a bit of a pita. Sounds like they are going to change so you need fewer to get all the points, but advice for now is just go to the closest tower and look for any corruption nodes to path towards. Watch for unique maps because those five points as well.

Maps are actually a lot faster now since they patched in always being able to see rare monsters. That helped me finish the nexus quests lol

Who all is playing the new league, starting tomorrow?

This patch is so massive, it's almost like starting from scratch. The changes to classes and the passive tree has basically meant no one really knows how good any given build will be.

The new in game trading with an in game browser for trading is something I can't wait to check out.

I'm in. Planning to roll a witch. Witch and barb are the two classes I haven't tried out yet. Looking forward to it!

Best part is no more Cruel difficulty!

A lot of fantastic things added:

• Act IV
• Interlude Acts to avoid cruel difficulty
• New abyss league mechanic
• New in game trade system
• Massive passive tree overhaul
• increase of drop rate and quality
• major rebalancing of classes
• Many other changes

It's exciting that no one even knows how the class tier list will end up until we start playing and finally get a look at the new passive tree. I will be starting with Witch, and determine whether to go Lich or Bloodmage after the everyone has time to theorycraft.

Finished the campaign last night. Ended up going lich with contagion and Essence drain since I hadn't played that before. I live dot style builds so it's been a lot of fun.

I've been watching don't videos on creating and man they made it complicated! At least you can kinda tell what is going to happen now though. Not like I'll ever have the money to actually do any high end crafting though!

That level of crafting is not out of reach for anyone. Just gotta get that end game mapping to be time efficient and the currency will come. Hell, I just started mapping, today, and was able to make around 100ex through various currency I had already found while leveling. Then I found a divine orb and omen of light on T1 maps, allowing me to basically buy good enough gear to get me through to T15.

I don't know if they nerfed the crap out of the trials, or if my build is just way stronger than previous seasons, but I just dominated the sekhemas trial at level 81. Got all 4 ascendencies on my own for the first time ever. My gear isn't even all that great and I haven't even gotten to tier 15 maps yet because I just haven't worked up to them. Crazy

Pro tip: with new shops super easy to buy a t15 map if your build can handle it!

The new trading mechanic is so unbelievably better than the old method, it blows my mind it took them this long to roll it out.

Every day I log in, I have anywhere from 5-10 exalts just waiting for me, and I'm only on T11 maps and level 84. I'll just jump to T15, today. My gear is as good as it's going to get until I start finding ilvl 82-84 gear to craft on. I've been saving most of my crafting materials, so really excited to start working through crafting.

About to hit level 90 and probably gonna pay off for the rest of the season. Mapping really isn't that fun and I can't find any more contaminated nodes to get more atlas points (stuck at lvl 12 map quest).

Better news, I got my first divine yesterday. I've been dirt poor all season. Today I had 2 precursor tablets drop, one that sold for 100 ex, the other sold for 4d. Also had a +3 melee skills amulet drop that crafter well that sold for 2d. So now I'm not poor anymore! At least until I reinvest it in my character.

Anyone playing this new league? POE2 0.5.

I've been playing since the league launch and am a lvl 92 Plant Oracle (Plantdaddy). I have to say, I'm having a complete blast with this new league. For anyone out of the know, this is their official end-game launch league. The sheer amount of content they released for this league is astounding.

I personally think this league has surpassed POE1, in my preference. I'm loving the new end-game and it feels like every map I run is actually progressing me through the end-game. I've been mapping since last Monday and I still haven't interacted with all the end-game mechanics.

Also, this new trade look-up feature is such an amazing QoL feature. They just need to allow me to do it while in a map, and not only back in my hideout.

Honestly, this is some of the most fun I've had with POE or POE2. The biggest downside has been many bugs, but that is excusable, in my opinion, due to the sheer amount of content they released. GGG really demonstrated by they are just outclassing the devs at Blizzard, when it comes to the content they release.

For those who are interested in the new end-game and how it works, I recommend watching Ghazzy's review of the current league. I completely agree with all of his opinions:

I just got back into this game and am having a good time working my way through Act 1.

I don't recall why I stopped playing it a couple years ago, perhaps it was buggy at launch?

A great conversation with Mark and Jonathan at GGG, for anyone who cares. It's so refreshing to listen to devs be completely open to call out the issues with their game and what needs to be fixed. This is an example of why these smaller studios are just superior to the AAA studios.

If you played on initial release, then it definitely wasn't balanced well. I think we're at a point where the majority of the game feels great. They aren't going to release the last several Acts until the full release, at the end of the year, but the end game content was fantastically implemented.

I still think they need to shorten some of A2 and A3. Right now, I think Act 1 feels great. Act 4 is really fun because you can tackle it in any order you want. They shortened a few maps in A2 and A3 for this league, but I hope they reduce them a bit more. I would love to be able to clear the main campaign on the first day of the league. I know that requiring the campaign to play the endgame is a barrier to entry for some people.

Personally, as long as I don't have to do bull**** follow quests, like D4 had, I don't mind campaigns that much. At the end of the day, you need to level anyways. As you get familiar with the Acts, and if you're playing a good league starter build, you can cruise through the campaign fairly quickly.

I think I am just about ready to give this a go. Getting too impatient for new Grim Dawn DLC. I also thought that the EA fee was a one and done and gone forever and didn't realize you got that back in the in game currency to buy the stash tabs. Meaning I thought I would have to pay to play now, and then start over from zero and pay a lot more to upgrade later. Oops. Stupid misinterpretation on my part that had me waiting for 1.0 this whole time.

ETA: JK. Forgot new Rogue Trader DLC dropped today. That of course, takes precedent. It also means a whole new play through as their DLCs are steeped in the entire game so to get the full experience with full impacts of the decisions, gotta go through it again. I am perfectly ok with that.

Anyone playing this new POE2 event league? This is the last one before the official 1.0 release in December.

For those who haven't played recently, POE2 has now surpassed POE, for me. Definitely worth the play if you are an ARPG fan. I would still recommend following a guide unless you love theorycrafting.

I'm playing and just finished act 2 last night. Trying out disciple of verashta. Single target damage is pretty insane but I am struggling a bit with just clearing out things quickly. Granted last season I played plants Oracle which is the opposite. I figured I hadn't tried minions yet so I'm going full minions.

When I inevitably get bored I may roll a shield wall warrior. It's about the only class I haven't tried yet.

I did plants last league, as well. Are you going Monkey build, for minions?

I've only played poe1. Is this a lot better?

Not sure yet, right now I'm running a random assortment of skeletons and then smashing everything with the sand djinn. I believe the end goal is to find an ice trail pet and use that with the water djinn to blow up the whole screen. I'm still a bit from that though. I'm about halfway through act 4 and about level 46. About level 35 I started demolishing everything and it hadn't slowed down. It's been a ton of fun

I only played poe 1 a bit. I never could get into that one. 2 is a little more beginner friendly. I've played it since the very first beta

Completely subjective. After the last league, which was their end-game overhaul league, many of the big POE streamers have come to the conclusion that POE2 has surpassed POE. I personally prefer POE2 to POE. I really like the end game to POE2.

Lathspell said:

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Completely subjective. After the last league, which was their end-game overhaul league, many of the big POE streamers have come to the conclusion that POE2 has surpassed POE. I personally prefer POE2 to POE. I really like the end game to POE2.

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I think this is a great summary of the situation, because while I am playing 0.5.5, I would switch each of those statements to a POE1 preference.

But I think 2 is the overall future of the game. They can swear up and down that they'll continue to support both, but you know that the more profitable one will eventually win. With the huge influx of new players they got for POE2 early access, and the next wave that will come when 1.0 officially launches and goes F2P, the future seems pretty clear. (When 3.29 launched and they admitted to using POE2 models for the league stuff in the underwater zone... that screamed second thought project to me)

And POE1 has got to be dying a slow death of attrition. New players coming in can't possibly be larger than old players leaving... it's a 13 year old game with a massive learning curve.

I'm up to lvl 90 playing flame blast gemling. Fun build for the most part, biggest gripe is how long it takes to unlock stuff in the endgame, just feel like you're spinning wheels until you can start actually making money.

Here's what I posted on the texags discord:
So second time through end game still a slog to me… and even more now since first "quest" kill of arbiter doesn't unlock part of the fortress. I've killed arbiter but haven't unlocked any masters or started any of the other trees. Dreading having to path to them all. Probably going to start with ritual since it's in every map… missed that quest kill didn't unlock anything so had been banking on that getting me closer to the ritual start point, but no dice!

I agree, it could be better if it was quicker to unlock all the passive points. However, are you interacting with any league mechanics while in early maps? I literally b-line it straight to the boss until I unlock most passives and then focus on the league trees.

This is a conversation I had with a friend regarding expectations for a new league. What should the expected average play time be? How much of that do the devs want to be the campaign, the early end game, and the late game? How many hours are you expecting your community to play in a given league and, as a player, how many hours should I expect to invest before i'm done with the league.

I would argue that POE1 requires MUCH more time investment to get through to the end-game. And the ground loot of POE is absolute trash. I feel POE2 is much better at identifying items to pick up and then craft on, giving me much more opportunities to actually find upgrades. In POE, you either have to look up crafting guides on how to craft items, or you basically just live on the trade site. I don't want to play an ARGP where all I'm doing is mapping to find currency and then buying everything off the trade site.

Ultimately, everyone's experience is different. I started the event league on Friday and didn't finish the campaign and interludes until late Sunday. I would say it probably took me around 14hrs or so to get through the entire campaign. There are some people who are able to rush it in 4.5hrs. Unfortunately, I don't see a world where the devs allow you to skip the campaign, so I will be stuck always spending the first two days campaigning.

However, POE and POE2 are NOT Diablo. The devs will never want you to be at the end game on day 1, with all the best gear. I think that's a good thing. But should it take you 2 weeks of playing to get to the endgame? I don't know.

Also, is there a TexAgs guild for POE or POE2? I haven't been on the TexAgs discord for a while.

I'm doing rituals for some stupid reason with no points lol

It takes me between 4-6 mins per map. Next time I have a chance to play I'll prob skip rituals until I get some points unlocked and that should bring it down to 3-4 per map… still crazy the amount of ground you have to cover to even get to the spots to unlock the other trees. Build I picked by dumb luck 5 mins before league happens to be super OP and cruises through maps with junk gear… can't imagine a slower build slogging through that many maps just to unlock the points required to even have a chance at worthwhile loot.

My fav league remains the juiced temple one since the tabs that let you run any map in the radius of the tower you used them in were super common so you could use them in every tower and had so much freedom moving around the map looking for what you wanted.

Lathspell said:

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Also, is there a TexAgs guild for POE or POE2? I haven't been on the TexAgs discord for a while.

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Yeah, Texas Aggies I think it's called in POE2. I'm the leader and can invite you if you want to join it. Usually just a few of us playing each league start.

There is one in poe1 too, but rarely have seen anyone on it.

It took me around 20 tries to kill the Arbiter of Ash. I've been following Raxx's Gemling Arc Totem legionnaire and I probably did the respec a little early. I can smoothly walk through maps as things die, but bossing still takes a bit because I don't get all the chaining, I think. I'm also very weak, defensively, because I only have around 1div worth of equipment, aside from my wand, scepter, and amulet.

They definitely cut down on the divine drops, this update. I probably need to be closer to 90 before I get the Arbiter of Divinity an attempt. Currently cruising through T13 maps and will see if I can knock out T15 ones, after work.

I ended up hitting 89 this weekend and have stalled a bit. I'm sitting at 9k ES with 60% armour due to my verashta specialty and I still just randomly blow up in maps sometimes.

Damage is unreal though. I killed divinity once pretty easily but I can't find the damn temple things to get to play him again. Thought they were supposed to be easier to find this patch but so far that has not been the case at all.

I still can't figure out all the different things to do. I feel like I've played a ton but I still haven't gotten the first atlas points for anything except delirium.

I completed both the Abyss and delirium trees. I haven't done the ritual tree nor the second Arbiter, either.

The first arbiter kill took me a while. I clear T15 200% delirium maps fairly easily, but my survivability is questionable. I don't think I'll be able to kill the second arbiter with my current gear. I'm gonna start pathing for Ritual because my end goal for every season is to complete all the challenges.

Once i complete all challenges, I basically go back to my other games.

Rule Number 32 said:

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I ended up hitting 89 this weekend and have stalled a bit. I'm sitting at 9k ES with 60% armour due to my verashta specialty and I still just randomly blow up in maps sometimes.

Damage is unreal though. I killed divinity once pretty easily but I can't find the damn temple things to get to play him again. Thought they were supposed to be easier to find this patch but so far that has not been the case at all.

I still can't figure out all the different things to do. I feel like I've played a ton but I still haven't gotten the first atlas points for anything except delirium.

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Verashta is insanely OP. I was easily clearing 6 mod TH15s before I even opened the gates to go to the matriarch/patriarch halls.

To get the league mechanic points, you have to go to their various areas on the atlas and run maps over there. You get 1 point per map and usually 3-6 for killing the mechanic's boss. I do wish they moved those areas inside the citadel or something.

Also, I think it's like 7 div to buy the origin core to run the full strength arbiter. Between raw div drops, getting lucky with a couple of Omen of Lights, and the low cost to gear the Verashta, I had that pretty easily once I finished quest Arbiter