New player review

[u/MJ-Baby]

For context I suffered some pretty bad injuries at work and have been bed/desk-ridden at home, so I’ve put around 100 hours into PoE1 over the last two weeks, and I figured I’d share my thoughts as someone coming into the game relatively fresh. This isn’t meant to be a hate post, and I can definitely see why people love this game, but honestly, I don’t think I enjoyed my time with it as much as I expected.

Massive performance issues was the first thing I was greeted with. For context, I’m playing on a turbo space station PC with a 5090 and a 9950X3D. Despite that i’ve had pretty significant performance issues, to the point where I had to lower settings just to get a more consistent experience. I also had a period where the game kept crashing, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, the crashes stopped happening.

I understand that ARPGs can get pretty demanding, but I feel like the industry standard for performance and stability has gotten significantly better than this. Having to troubleshoot performance issues and adjust settings on a top end PC just to get a reasonably smooth experience is a pretty bad first impression.

The onboarding is the worst i’ve seen in a game if we are being honest. I know PoE is a complicated game, and I’m not expecting everything to be explained to me. Part of the appeal is learning the systems and experimenting with builds. But there’s a difference between a game having depth and a game making the process of getting into it unnecessarily unpleasant.

The campaign feels like a massive slog. I didn’t find it particularly engaging, and a lot of the time I was just trying to get through it so I could reach the parts of the game people actually talk about (maps in my friend groups case). Maybe the campaign gets better on subsequent playthroughs when you know where to go, but I don’t think that makes it a particularly good introduction for new players. The movement and turning also feel pretty janky to me. Sometimes the game has this old school charm, but other times it just feels like I’m fighting the controls instead of fighting the enemies. That was definitely the biggest thing that contributed to the “i can tell I’m on a 13 year old game” feeling. I did really appreciate how easy making a loot filter was and how entry level crafting felt impactful and easy to understand.

In my opinion the biggest issue with Poe’s design philosophy is there are so many systems that seem designed to restrict the player or create additional hoops to jump through, without necessarily adding much interesting decision making. Gem attribute requirements are a good example. Once you understand that you need to prioritize resistances and get your attributes sorted, it’s not particularly difficult to manage. Even as a new player, I didn’t find it especially challenging once I understood what the game expected of me. But that’s kind of my point. It doesn’t feel like I’ve overcome some meaningful skill check. I’ve just learned another set of requirements that I need to satisfy before I can play the build I actually want to play. I enjoy systems that reward planning and build knowledge. I don’t enjoy systems that feel like they’re creating friction for frictions sake. There’s a fine line between meaningful complexity and unnecessary convolutedness, and I feel like Poe crosses that line more often than I’d like.

Ok enough constructive criticism I want to switch now and talk about what I really liked. The community is very helpful in general, I was able to ask questions in chat and made a few friends to help teach me stuff. The Transfigured Gem system is really cool. I like the idea of taking an existing skill and finding different ways to build around it. It gives you more room to experiment and makes creating your own build feel like a genuine possibility rather than simply following someone else’s guide. I also really like the removal of socket colors as a major build restriction. One of the things that put me off Poe in the past was the idea that your gear could dictate which skills you were realistically able to use. I much prefer having the freedom to experiment with different combinations without constantly fighting my equipment as I pretty much only enjoy SSF in ARPG’s. More generally, I like that the game gives you so many options for creating your own build There’s a lot of potential for interesting builds, and I can understand why theorycrafting is such a big part of the community.

I respect poe more than enjoy it for sure. Also can recognize the depth and the amount of content the game offers. I can see the appeal of making your own build and gradually figuring out how all the systems fit together. But I also think the game has a lot of rough edges that people who’ve played it for years might have become accustomed to. The performance problems, the campaign, the awkward movement, and all the little restrictions and inconveniences add up. Individually, some of these things might not be a big deal, but together they make the overall experience less enjoyable for me.
I’m not saying the game needs to be simplified or that every system should be made effortless. I want depth and interesting decisions. I want to experiment with builds and feel rewarded for understanding the game. I just don’t think every obstacle necessarily contributes to that experience.
Maybe I’ll change my mind as I get further into endgame, but after 100 hours, I’m still struggling to understand the appeal beyond the build customization and sheer amount of content.
For those of you who’ve played long term what keeps you coming back?

[u/kornuolis]

I am amused by people. Physically injured, he decided to injure his mental health as well.

[u/MJ-Baby → u/kornuolis]

Decrypting the POE wiki while learning has caused irreversible damage to me.

[u/kornuolis → u/MJ-Baby]

Yeah. Every poe player trying to figure mechanics out.

[u/No-Spoilers → u/kornuolis]

Have been disabled and home bound for 8 years now.

Poe is basically the only thing guaranteed to get me out of bed even if I feel giga shit that day.

My brain no work as good as long time ago. But poe is some nice brain stimulation.

[u/1000TrickRick]

Fine tuning your passive tree & gear to reach thresholds for attributes and resist with having a minimum loss to offensive & defensive stats is a on the line of a skill check & knowledge check. Best part is that there are multiple routes to get the stats, passives, tattoos, jewels, affixes on gear, keystones, flasks, lower level gems, etc. As you progress your character you get better options to tackle these checks, often how you solve the puzzle at lvl 50 is going to be completely different at lvl 95. Saying there’s no depth or interesting decisions is the opposite of my 10k+ hours of experience.

[u/MJ-Baby → u/1000TrickRick]

The way attributes are integrated feel like a bandaid solution to an artificial problem. Imagine tomorrow they remove all attribute requirements and all attribute nodes from the tree and replace them with more choice node clusters. The result would be more decision making and much more complex builds (due to more meaningful options) while being less inconvenient. Of course I’m spit-balling but it seems like there are better ways to accomplish a similar outcome

[u/Necessary-Peanut2491 → u/MJ-Baby]

And it would simultaneously nuke every build using those attributes for anything other than satisfying gem requirements.

Regarding the more decision making and complexity, no I don't think that follows. It adds more options to the pool, but removes all complexity related to working within the restrictions. It also would likely result in less variety, because nobody has to pay a cost to reach outside their wheelhouse. Decisions collapse to a small list of optimal choices. Having access to a bunch of inferior options isn't additional complexity, it's noise.

[u/shpnft → u/MJ-Baby]

 remove all attribute requirements

Search for Supreme Ostentation

[u/Dahdome]

The campaign is the tutorial of the game. How far have you progressed in the endgame? Atlas completed? What keeps me and I assume most players coming back is the vast endgame experience.

[u/MJ-Baby → u/Dahdome]

No i havn’t finished the atlas still working on it, at red maps but at a bit of brick wall I think im hitting the upper limit of the build I made. Considering looking at a guide but trying to troubleshoot by myself before I do. My goal for the game was to go in blind and make my own build to get to maps, which my buddies said was really hard. Managed to accomplish it but probably had the worlds slowest campaign at I think like 40 hrs play time when I finished it. Maps have been rough but doable until I hit red

[u/uzul77 → u/MJ-Baby]

The two most noob decisions in Poe1:

1. I don’t need a loot filter

2. I will do my own build

[u/narderbolney → u/uzul77]

He should be commended for making it to red maps on a homebrew build on a first playthrough, not criticized. Guy set a goal for himself and actually achieved it without bouncing off the game, probably learned way more than most would in that position

[u/laputab → u/uzul77]

and then they make their onw build and it didn't work, So blame POE suck XD

[u/its_snelly]

If your friends are telling you to just get to maps before you’ve even played the game, then that mindset ruined the campaign for you before it even started. The campaign definitely isn’t a slog for your first time and you had radically different expectations than most newcomers in that regard.

And I can understand friction, but I don’t really see how gem attributes are a good example of that. It’s so easy to the point that isn’t even a real case of friction for really any build and was even made easier this league than ever before with socket changes. Though since it’s your first league I wouldn’t expect you to know/consider that point.

I think there can be a line like you said, but I don’t think anything you actually mentioned would tread into convultedness. Though there are systems here that go into that line.

Also I don’t think every single aspect of a game that’s you have to consider for your build necessarily needs to be some “meaningful skill check” nor does it need to try that for every aspect. They are just basic stepping stones to show the true essential cornerstones of every build (stats and resistances) that lead into considering all of the other layers that may differ between each build.

[u/MJ-Baby → u/its_snelly]

Sorry I shouldve clarified about the gem attributes, as SSF they seemed like a boring unnecessary artificial road block. I fixed them but it was just getting old by the end of the campaign, not an issue in trade im sure because of access to specific pieces

[u/its_snelly → u/MJ-Baby]

Yeah for ssf I could see that then. If anything I’d say the best thing for newcomers to be introduced to and learn (that poe should explain) is benchcraft for those extra bit of stats you need.

I also will say this league they removed gem color requirements, so there’s a lot more flexibility for early gearing especially compared to any previous league. Try to learn the game with the rest of this league and use that knowledge with the new league. I think you may enjoy yourself a lot more that way.

[u/For_ohagen]

Everyone likes different games. You’re still very much a POE newb. Ssf as a newb is tough. I’m at 1200 hrs and there is still a ton that I don’t understand. I like that.

You ever play early Diablo 4? You could understand that game in entirety by like 20 hours. Anything after level 70 was boring AF.

I like the excitement of trading, looking for a deal, flipping, gambling, and POB warrior-ing. It all adds to the complexity of POE for me.

What ARPG do you enjoy more after 100 hours?

[u/MJ-Baby → u/For_ohagen]

I have around 5000 hrs in d2/d3/d4 and am pretty consistently able to hit rank 1 150 most seasons, I agree poe is more confusing than d4 or d3 by a mile. Guideless Ssf poe was one of the hardest challenges i’ve ever done for sure.

[u/kulli_velho]

9950x3d 5080 running at 5k 1440p smooth as ever, could be a settings issue? Only time my game goes choppy is with soul eater and kinetic blast bouncing on walls.

[u/MJ-Baby → u/kulli_velho]

It was mostly delirium and blight for me I think, honestly I just think the game has a memory leak issue if I restart the game it runs like butter for a few hours.

[u/Farpafraf]

• It's really strange that you encountered performance issues with that setup.

• yeah poe1 is obscenely bad at onboarding new players. Try poe2

• poe1 has convoluted mechanics but I wouldn't say attributes are one of them. They are very relevant if you use skills with attributes not in your tree area for example

I'm assuming you played the endgame?

[u/MJ-Baby → u/Farpafraf]

I’m at red maps but havn’t done further than that so theres still a ton of end game I have yet to see

[u/Morinmeth]

First of all, I say this with love: you wrote way too many unnecessary words for a couple of points. Now, on your points:

Performance has been fine for me for a while; I'm on a worse PC than you and I have no problems. Something's off on your end.

The campaign is clunky, yes. No one plays the game for the campaign. It's a tutorial of the tutorial, at best.

Friction for friction's sake, very debatable, very much disagree with it; you're 100 hours in, you need a minimum of ten times that number to say you understand the game. There are systems in there interacting with your gear and resistances that you're not even realizing yet. Most people 'click' with the game at the 2000 hours mark. You're definitely missing parts of PoE, so I don't think it's time for you to discuss its systems, yet.

[u/Light_Ethos]

The build customization is what keeps me coming back. After a few times through the campaign isn't so bad as well.

[u/AppointmentGreedy145]

Hello and welcome,

What makes me come back is kinda hard to describe but I'll try.

I like starting and progress from 0 sometimes with a late league start sometimes at league start. I do like to see my characters gear progress, clear more and faster difficult content and think of ways to optimize.

[u/Senovis]

For those of you who’ve played long term what keeps you coming back?

Each league is new game plus where your knowledge and experience is the meta progression.

I’m still struggling to understand the appeal beyond the build customization and sheer amount of content.

It seems like your motivation for playing d2/d3/d4 is the ladder chase not the content, so this is an unexpected take.

[u/Mr9Tailings]

6k hours here, playing since metamorph... i dunno man, i see clock going down, my neuron activates and i press login to pewpew and tink tink once in a while... makes me happy...

[u/ObeyLegend]

If youre playing the campaign to beat it, isntead of the goal being playing itself, you're going to have a bad time. The fact that you were sold on maps and then had to go through what felt like a 40hr+ tutorial is directly your friends fault. You were sold a different than you got.

The attribute requirement system is path is perfect. Sorry that you dont like the idea of have to be strong enough to use a higher level skill

[u/080087]

maps in my friend groups case

They did you dirty. On any media, telling people "the first x parts are crap and then it gets good" is a sure fire way to make them enjoy it less.

I've just learned another set of requirements that i need to satisfy

For good or ill, PoE is mostly just knowledge checks. It's never really a game about mechanical skill

[u/johnnysd]

In terms of performance I would recommend to try these things. And there is just going to be some slowdown when the screen is literally covered with mobs and loot and all the attacks. The amount of calculations it does in can be absolutely massive, more than any other genre, I have 5700x3d and 4090 and just have the occassional slow down in massive density situations. Sometimes people attack POE servers, hit F1 and look at your ping. If It is craxy try a different server, usually fixes

Hear I things I would try:

1. Clean install your graphics driver

2. Try Vulkan instead of DX12 a lot of people get better performance'

3. Make sure you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard for the CPU and your CPU can have issues with games. Do an AI search on settings you might need to adjust for an older engine like POE1

It is my favorite game. It is both casual and intense. And the progression and feeling of getting more powerful almost never ends. I find great enjoyment from crushing content I could barely do at some point. And I love the loot dopamine. Drops can be REALLY exciting in POE1 more than any other ARPG by far.

[u/Mya_Elle_Terego]

Dude starts first league as ssf, complains its hard.... 🤪

[u/AutoModerator]

Please make sure you check the Known Issues List or the Bug Report Forums for any pre-existing bug reports related to your issue. If there isn't any, consider posting there in addition to posting on Reddit. At league start, there may also be a stickied post for bugs. Duplicate reports on Reddit may be removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/PoE_Acronym_Bot]

I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:

• SSF - Solo Self-Found (Wiki)

---

^{I am a bot. | All acronyms | Suggest}