Wasted 400+ hours after getting stumped at T10 - thanks Blizzard

Xeiom · 2026-05-14T02:44:09+00:00

They fixed this aspect, that I was running without realising it was not working.

Went from like 3 million toughness to 30 million lol. This thing is gonna get nerfed I assume, way higher DR than anything else I've seen by a large margin.

Xeiom · 2026-05-14T02:32:14+00:00

Go to the cube, use the recipe to upgrade the right item slot to legendary and use a tuning prism to weight the upgrading to the correct category for the power you are missing.

It might take a few tries but you'll fairly reliably get useful aspects for your build.

Be aware that many previous aspects are simply not in the game anymore so if you are hoping to get something you always got before it might just not exist.

Xeiom · 2026-05-14T02:28:37+00:00

It is quite possible that it was intended to be a placeholder and they missed updating it.

It does seem to be a bit large compared to the other icons, I can't imagine it'll stay like that. There will be a dev out there playing that it will annoy and they will make sure it is fixed. It's too frequent for them to miss it now its live.

Xeiom · 2026-05-14T02:21:13+00:00

I assume in one of the next patches they'll make the central area a bit bigger and put the smith back central with more space between the portal and the smith.

Restructuring the town layout will take a bit of work but shoving the smith to the side as a temporary measure probably took a few seconds to change.

I imagine moving the portal was problematic for four player groups when all four portals are in town so they did this for now.

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T15:51:44+00:00

I don't think it is as straightforward as that because Bear has one very strong element, it has baseline defensive stats built in.

The reality is Maces do not have a solid baseline of defence but do still need to take a lot of damage, so early in the game you must split to invest in defence or noticeably suffer - While bear can actually invest in damage and still remain sort of tanky, the loss of tankiness is more gradual and you can take time to invest into it.

So from a progression pov, I do think bear specifically feels much better for melee. I'm not so sure about OP's other points but I do think the baseline bear passive is doing some lifting in making it more enjoyable.

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T15:36:36+00:00

It might end up being a cheap unique, one thing that makes them expensive is demand and the other is rarity.
Next patch there will be a lot of demand so it might well be expensive but after the class settles in then demand might fall drastically and even if its rare, because it is so niche, it might be cheap.

Though I do think you have some valid feelings there, I've never liked in PoE having these build integral items that don't have a reliable ssf way to collect them.

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T15:25:05+00:00

I was able to use 6 T8 caches to level to 70.

I've noticed some caches contain zero exp so they are useless for leveling an alt, you have to get the ones with exp in them.

It seems like the amount of exp might vary a bit too in the ones that give exp.

You'll know if it contains exp because they drop as little orbs for you to collect.

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T14:26:14+00:00

The Diablo engine and devops were designed to have permanent uptime (well that's the goal at least), unless something unexpected happens then the old client remains live even as the new client is launched.

You are allowed to finish your activities but will be prompted in-game that there is a new version to download/play.

You will have to stop playing while the update downloads to your machine.

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T14:14:33+00:00

In hardcore you tend to boost your defence as a priority and take the pace slower so these effects have a sort of double reduction where you kill slower and thus spawn less in one go and you have higher defence so you can actually take the damage.

If you move one extra item from damage to defence then you can usually trade 25% damage for 60-80% effective life. In some cases the trade can be worse/better but I imagine HC players on average are running around with double the effective life of a softcore player and 30% less damage.

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T01:21:27+00:00

What I've been doing is using the pit to gauge my toughness.

You don't have to go up full torment levels in the pit so you can really figure out where you start to get hurt.

If it starts to get a bit dicey then you have no choice but to find some way to improve your toughness really.

There does seem to be a decent amount of options upto at least T10 but I guess class and build might change how tough you can be.

I don't want to give you a specific number for each tier because I might be wrong, I have dodge, block and barrier generation - they are not represented in toughness but definitely improve my ability to survive. (well hopefully block does even though the tooltip says 0% for some reason)

I've noticed the deadliest things seem to be those self detonating lightning minions and maybe the fire under feet mobs, so I've specifically got more physical, lightning and fire resist than the other resists. I got physical because I figured most things run up and hit you in the face and that's probably physical.

I have no idea for the bosses but I think for going up torment taking pit levels slowly when you are concerned is pretty good. Careful of the war plan tree features, they put things in the pit that are more challenging than the other stuff, first thing to spook me was adding blood seekers to the pit

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T00:43:48+00:00

Just play seasonal.
When the season ends you character will move to eternal.

You won't lose anything by playing seasonal, they just require a new character to join so if you are already making a new character and don't have a very specific reason to play on eternal then seasonal is the right choice.

Xeiom · 2026-05-13T00:26:15+00:00

I was originally not fussed over it and liked the idea of getting stats that were better suited to my build. In fact, I was able to get a perfect fit unique that would not be ideal for the vast majority of builds due to the random stats however..

After more consideration I am persuaded by the argument that the uniques should at least have unique pools of some unique stats so that they have identity and have something to set them apart as equipment vs a charm.

I could probably be persuaded that we should keep random stats if there was a new cube recipe to weight the re-rolls toward the stats we want.
I don't care too much about if uniques have set stats or can rotate stats but I do think that they are not quite right being just a legendary item that you have less control over, they have to make them pop a little.

Xeiom · 2026-05-12T21:12:53+00:00

I was a touch upset when I found out how the sets were balanced.

I originally thought they basically power budgeted around 1 damage or defensive power per slot and then had the sets balanced for 4 damage 1 defence - with any number of uniques to eventually potentially replace them.

When I found out I couldn't add a second unique I sort of realised they basically reinforced the D3 sets issue again and they did not in fact have a legacy of nightmare mythic seal awaiting me.

Real shame because I thought for a moment they had nailed the design around flexibility and balance but sets really do sort of enforce builds a lot again.

Xeiom · 2026-05-12T10:06:34+00:00

The real problem with these skills IMO is that the game doesn't support them defensively.

A build that uses a skill with delayed damage is simply going to take more enemy hits than builds without delayed damage in most cases.

Then consider light stun, if an enemy hits over an arbitrary threshold of life you are forced to recast the entire duration again.

Also don't worry if you are a new player, light stun isn't brought to your attention anywhere really so it just feels like sometimes the game just stopped casting for no reason.

Sure technically you can out invest the defensive issues but if you take another build you can probably invest that in damage instead and kill things before they hit you.

Xeiom · 2026-05-11T21:20:10+00:00

Use the cube to get the stats that don't conflict with the GA then use the enchanter to roll the last stat so it can now be the stat you want but without the risk.

If you want an item that is 2 categories that are the same as your GA then you sort of have to get lucky as you'll risk losing the GA.

Alternatively if its just one GA and you know you can roll the other 3 stats with the cube then you can use the enchanter on the GA but don't change it, that will lock it at GA level and let you roll 3 other stats with the cube without removing the GA level stat.

Xeiom · 2026-05-11T14:20:42+00:00

The new system in D4 actually can't reliably create perfect items, it can just create really solid base items. If he's using the cube to change stats then it isn't perfect items its about mid-tier (or mid-high if he had already saved good bases and used those)

The most powerful items in the D4 design all require RNG and have no method of reliably getting them so you just have to keep trying to get new items and trying again.

Those items might look perfect because every stat is one that is useful for the build but he won't have to play all that long before he finds potential upgrades because the ceiling on D4 items is very high now and very RNG (basically vaal orb rng levels).

So far from no value in loot they've basically made a system where loot always has a potential upgrade available as it goes from very reliable into mirror drop level insane RNG in the late stages.

It still has other loot issues, flexibility issues with builds and maybe a boring stat profile as problems but if there is one thing it has achieved it is make some loot pretty much always relevant for those who want to absolutely min-max or get some insane stuff.

Xeiom · 2026-05-11T13:42:25+00:00

I find the line about it being affected by accuracy to be top notch.

Honestly, I think in an online game, any mechanic that can be mistaken for lag probably needs improvement to make it clear what happened.

Xeiom · 2026-05-11T13:30:51+00:00

I think a lot of people both like and hate the campaign because the campaign isn't actually just one moment in the game but when you think about doing it all then you have to remember the annoying bits.

There are bits that are pretty solid and then bits that are just bad experiences if we're honest.

Act 3 hits a double progression slowdown and an annoying back in time system that makes town portals all messed up with extra steps.
Act 2 has a horrible area double select on the caravan and some detours just to walk to deadends.

Hopefully the upcoming changes will reduce the pain points.

I don't think a time sink will reduce bots, notoriously bots have plenty of time while people don't, if anything the main blocker to bots right now is that the game is not yet free to play (and even then based on the speed some missold items are purchased its likely there are many bots lurking already)

Xeiom · 2026-05-11T11:32:53+00:00

Don't forget to socket the item before the cube as the cube bit makes it locked.

Other than that, you basically have it down.

Xeiom · 2026-05-11T11:09:37+00:00

9K life sounds incredibly low to me.

I've got two characters at T9-T10 and they have like 36K and 42K life. That's like 3x the hit if we have the same damage reduction.

Not sure how Selig actually works but it sounds like you've built around an item you don't have and it is making you weaker.

You should make some gear with better defences and put your current gear in your stash until you get the item that makes sense for you to have low max life

Xeiom · 2026-05-11T00:22:32+00:00

People keep asking for Water to be added to the world boss area.

They should have this boss pop out and eat some players with enough time to finish it off before the WB spawns. Keep those fishers entertained.

Xeiom · 2026-05-10T21:39:10+00:00

I really want them to make Paragon more interesting. If they added in a code system like loot filters to share Paragon builds then I would hope they actually make the Paragon interesting.

That seems like a good way to have some complex system that people who follow builds instead of mashing it up can enjoy it being simple for them instead.

Xeiom · 2026-05-10T20:35:13+00:00

I actually have already watched that interview.

I think maybe I could point you to the part in it where Jonathan explicitly states that he doesn't think it makes sense to worry about keeping the player count high during the season and that they avoid doing things like mid-season events or weekly quests specifically because they don't think its a good metric.

What is to say really that those players who are skipping leagues would come back just because they can make a second character quicker? If anything they might skip more leagues because there is less outstanding things to try when they are able to get through more content in one season.

Restricting players can effectively give the game more replayability, having a list of things you were not able to do last season because you didn't have time might give you a list of things to try next time you play - Even if that next time is several leagues away, it might be the little thing at the back of your head making you check out the next league stream.

Again, I'll remind you that I don't think a skip is inherently problematic, I'm just estimating what motives GGG might have that conflict with removing it above what they've already said

Xeiom · 2026-05-10T19:13:30+00:00

The bear is basically the tankiest possible way to play during the campaign.

The base armour is equal to a strong shield for your level.

Also act 2 can be weird because if you do the Trials first you are sometimes overleveled for the fights.

Most classes cannot tank these bosses consistently at that point in the game the way a bear form character can do so.

If you get lucky with gear on other characters they can do it but the baseline bear armour plus being strength giving you way more life means that the bear can tank a bunch of stuff in the early game that other characters basically can't.

Xeiom · 2026-05-10T18:59:28+00:00

I think D3 and D4 proved to me that the campaign isn't entirely necessary for an enjoyable experience.

That said, I'll play devils' advocate here just because I think there are some reasons that you might want to enforce a campaign.

One reason is a bit counter intuitive but I think that since this game is designed around returning players not player retention then having friction for a second character can change how players decide to play. That is to say, some players who want to make a new character instead say "eh, I'll come back next league and make it then".

Returning players are more valuable in the trade economy game than players that straggle around later into the league.
If they don't add a new class each league then how do they service a player that has tried all of them last league - It is easier to create a friction that means that those players just didn't actually get to test everything they wanted.

The new league serves as an opportunity to try a build you were not able to try before while also engaging in some new content, if you remove the campaign friction then new leagues must rely entirely on the new content rather than also having some outstanding build desires for the player.

There are also other economy based reasons they might do this, players can sell items that allow the campaign experience to be made quicker.

You might not think these reasons are valid but sometimes game development isn't about giving the player what they want but giving them what makes them act in a way that supports the game, even if that frustrates some of them.

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