Power creep meta ruined builds

What's even the point in having class starter path choices when literally 99% of all builds just do the same:

- shortcut into main lane
- speedrun to 3 cluster nodes
- intentional detour gap to make the path super long for attribute stackers
- flesh & flame bonus asc
- obvious chase items

Each step 100 div, 1000 total or else you suck...
Every single build the same.

Game was better without cluster creeps, when you actually had to make normal tree builds, life, dmg, mitigation etc.


Go ahead and delete the entire tree.
Just make big animated fortnite dancing class models at our starting points with a mtx "emote", and have only 1 outer ring lane; pick your cluster nodes, hard baked into the tree like a blown out ascendancy web, no more physical jewels, just pick what you want, blow up the screen with 500m dmg and 900% speed.

Also reduce all 3d models into top down 2d view for performance boost, make it look like tetris or space invaders where we just fly around a 2d map deleting colored dot explosions with our rainbow explosions blobs effects...
Fucking arcade space shooter piece of shit design.

Megalomaniac jewels are one of the best things ever.

Why is op so angry and why does he use the word "literally" wrong like everyone else here.

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EasyTimes#0919 wrote:

- shortcut into main lane
- speedrun to 3 cluster nodes
- intentional detour gap to make the path super long for attribute stackers

Each step 100 div, 1000 total or else you suck...
Every single build the same.

Wild idea, but have you tried to just make a functional build without all of this stuff? It’s simple and just works. There are so many options now, so I’m not sure where the FOMO is coming from.

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Game was better without cluster creeps, when you actually had to make normal tree builds, life, dmg, mitigation etc.

Nah, cluster added a ton of options for character customization and build diversity.

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EasyTimes#0919 wrote:

Fucking arcade space shooter piece of shit design.

Heh!

You need some coffee, my dude!

It is kind of lame but there is only so much an arpg can do for endgame, technically d3 was also just attribute stacking in the end, poe just makes the overall packaging just look more intellectual and the way to success harder.

I don't think they want the outrage it would cause to just send stacker meta to the dumpster and they might not even have an idea what to offer instead.
The first two weeks of a league is what counts. the league starter meta. As you can see from the player retention, there are only so many players that want to engage with the currency sink attribute stacker meta.

So it is boring design but its pretty much the end point for constant progression and can't really be avoided.

Also its choice, I don't do that on any build - if it isn't interesting why would I play it? Other players are free to play a template for every build but that is their loss (as far as i'm concerned they likely don't care).

What matters is having options available, there are plenty of games where the only choices are templates or set prescribed routes but PoE is not one of them you can play a pretty unique version of just about any build.

No matter what system or game you play, once you get into deep min-maxing, you end up stacking something, one stat, one mechanic, whatever gives the most bang for your buck. That’s just how these things work.

Even back in the tabletop era, the grand-grandfather of most ARPGs today, probably too old for some to remember, you’d dump all your points into your main stat and just sprinkle a little into the essentials, enough to make sure your character still worked.

Same idea in Path of Exile, just with more layers that let you make all kinds of different builds.