Never was, never will be in this specific genre.
Achieving 2000 corruption is done by basically nobody (despite being possible, mostly cumbersome though) because it doesn’t provide relevant rewards accordingly.
Sure, you can say ‘I reached 2k corruption!’… but what does it give you?
Especially in the loot-focused Hack’N’Slash genre the rewards are the primary factor as to why people attempt something, even going so far as doing absolutely un-fun things for the sake of achieving those rewards.
What you describe is not FOMO.
FOMO is the ‘fear of missing out’, missing out being the primary factor. To miss something it needs to be time-based, hence passing.
Uber-Abby doesn’t get removed, you got endless time, hence FOMO doesn’t apply.
It’s the feeling of being insufficient which applies, but that is something inherently to be overcome in a challenge anyway. It’s bona-fide difficulty, and difficulty is a flavor since everyone likes another, it’s not really up for discussion. If the difficulty doesn’t aling with your own expected experience then that simply means it’s not something for you.
FOMO would apply if you get rewards only in a specific timeframe (during a Cycle for example) instead.
Once more, not FOMO.
Difficulty solely. That’s a very distinct and very important difference.
Also optimizing a build is the bread and butter of the genre. The ultimate goal of Hack’N’Slash ARPGs has never been the gameplay itself but the itemization road towards the limit. In the majority of the games content itself becomes trivial along this road.
Be it through corruption pushing as before Abberroth nothing was locked beyond Empowered timelines… be the speed of running echos or anything else. They are all ‘non-goals’, the actual goal there is ‘number go brrrr’ plainly spoken.
What you’re asking for is that there’s no hard difficulty attached to higher numerical top-end possibilities, just more time investment instead. That’s flavor.
Yes, and that why trade exists. That’s the mechanic to alleviate this issue ever since it was introduced into games.
You want the best of both worlds… but the best of both worlds doesn’t exist.
Either you get no difficulty at all and everyone can achieve everything freely, no skill needed.
Or you get difficulty and not everyone will achieve everything, as inherently people have higher or lower skill levels, as well as their maximum achievable skill no matter how much they work for it. Talent is a major factor, as well as time investment itself. So there’ll always be people unable to achieve everything.
So… where’s the line? You can’t have both. Either/or. Want a piss-easy game a 5 year old can handle while providing the results nonetheless? Or want something challenging you? The moment it challenges you it’s skill-based for success and you lost all options to complain about content not being able to be achieved by everyone. If you want it then… you need to work towards it and see how far you come.
Or… go into trade and bypass it.
And it still upholds. CoF lets you farm everything without having a major downside. Heck… actually several massive upsides long-term even!
But it requires the skill to do it as well.
Don’t have the skill? Then why are you playing CoF? That’s inherent with it, always was, always will be. No way around it.
Obviously, as much as the new idols do fatten mine since I’m one of the few people putting every…single…one I find into the market painstakenly. 5-10 mil per day currently without issue. Won’t last forever.
The broader content variety is the more venues for profit. The less people do something the more profit for the same effort. The more effort required the more value in it.
Normal, as it should be, if you’re good at something you should get rewarded. If you’re bad at something you obviously shouldn’t be.
Games also need you to overcome obstacles, they’re just vastly smaller then in real life commonly, and a lot more directly explained on how to overcome them.
Absolutely against it, hard so. If EHG goes this route I’ll state right here and now: I’ll quit at that moment.
In the second this happens the game will loose every bit of value to be played in my eyes. If I don’t get rewarded for doing content which requires high skill, effort to create a character and dedication to the game then I don’t wanna play it.
Mind you, I suck, I have a hard time with normal abby… so uber-abby is out of my reach. I’m not one of the people which will get that stuff reasonably, but nonetheless I actively say that if I get into the reach of those specific items because uber-abby is de-valued entirely then I’ll quit.
What everyone else gets is a game which doesn’t reward skill or effort. Nope, not in for it.
That is out of context though.
Difficult and punishing first and foremost are 2 separate things. One is to achieve a state of success. One is what happens when the state of failure happens. Don’t combine them, that doesn’t bode well, they need to be handled different.
Agreed that if only a small portion of skills can achieve something then people will be shoehorned into doing those specific builds. All the more reason for absolutely stomping OP builds, to remove that factor and enforce personal skill to be the bar to achieve it, not picking the right build.
So, if everything has troubles dealing with specific content then nobody is forced into a specific direction which is un-fun for them. Hence that aspect falls away.
If builds don’t have any disparity then there’s no diversity. Everything is basically ‘the same’.
I’ll also quote here: ‘Hack’N’SLash ARPGs are played because players search for ways to break the game’ so they need the ability to at least partially break the game.
Also that.
And there wouldn’t even be FOMO for build enabling stuff… that would solely be shit design to include with those enemies 
FOMO is once again… time based. You can’t miss out if it never leaves.
Not only ideally, that’s actually mandatory. So yes, agreed there 
If disparity exists and it’s also aspirational content which nigh nobody will manage to handle then yes… it needs to be in the discussion.
Wouldn’t need to be if it weren’t existant… but it is.
Modern problems cause modern solutions (yes, I know not the right way to say it… but the right way for that situation sadly :p)
That’s the exact goal of the whole genre though? From zero to hero… from pleb to god, farmer to harmer.
Otherwise… why did you ever play beyond corruption 100? Nothing there after all, what content have you aspired towards?
The whole premise of the genre is and always was ‘min-max’. Not the story, not the combat mechanics, not everything else… it’s the ability for long-term min-max, everything else being more or less important, but lower in importance then the min-maxing. Progressing your character for the sake of numbers being higher.
Pinnacle content hence allows people which need direly a goal in front that’s clear cut to work towards something, and that not being easily achievable. But if that content also doesn’t provide rewards… why attempt it? For a very large portion of people it has no meaning then. Rewards = meaning.
That’s how all of that comes together.
Until 1.1 I guess it would be unlocking empowered monos, since nothing is left to go beyond?
More difficult, yes… but not ‘new’.
That’s a major problem with unclear progression systems like corruption. And why systems like those of Torchlight Infinite and PoE do so much better for the feeling of progression. If there’s a end-goal available (T8 for Torchlight, T16/17 for PoE as examples) then reaching that is a primary marker for success. In LE it’s… really wishy-washy. 300? 500? 1000? Where is the actual line? People argue about that all the time already, nobody argues in PoE about what content to reach is counted as ‘viable’… it’s farming T16 maps, the end. Very very clear, we got a benchmark hence… and there’s nothing above either. Sure you can ‘juice’ your maps and they become insane, but it’s a simple solid baseline to go by.
Exactly. 
And watcher’s eyes are neither build enabling nor a limited time event. Purely a skill-gate. And also a really low one.
If Abby gates items behind it… many don’t reach or are able to comfortably play empowered monoliths. What the majority here in the forums takes a ‘granted’ is not a thing for the average joe.
So, should all boss-drops which enforce being in empowered monoliths be reduced to also drop in normal monoliths?
Where is the line? And why is it there?
Normal Abby was ‘comfortably’ killed at 500c 1.1, a bit less now. Uber-abby will be 700-1000 I imagine to ‘comfortably’ attempt. Anything below as a common content to be run will cause you to struggle. Simple as that.
Me included, not my skill-level simply.
That’s no ‘progression’, that’s so called ‘empty content’. Pure min-maxing. Which is the goal of the game itself. Everything around is just a support to make it happen.
Nah, you’re just using the term wrongly. You can’t miss out if it’s still there. FOMO is solely a term based on time-limited stuff. Permanence and FOMO don’t mash, wrong terminology.
Yes, so you use the mechanic meant to alleviate the issue you have and it functions? Great! So it works. Use it in LE too then.
Or you simply play in Legacy and enjoy the time, playing what you find fun and pushing that… and if Abby happens it happens.
The vast majority of builds can nowadays clear all content in PoE 1. Be it my shitty old-school Tornado Shot build (which is absolutely atrocious for bossing) or my phys only Cyclone build (which is shit at everything since pure phys and no triggers)… not to speak of actually decent characters not meant for farming.
Also… do I need to remind that Uber-Elder was killed at level 32 even. It’s a extremely skill-based fight.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/cz907k/level_32_uber_elder_kill_deathless_37/
Here you go.
Abby also is a skill based fight.
Plainly spoken hence… git gud… because that’s all that it is. React in a fraction of a second, know the mechanics in and out, train… train and train again.
That’s a hit and miss solution. Many people simply don’t care about MTX at all, and if you already have your slot filled why even take it? Has to look amazing beyond what the shop offers too to be viable. Like the Shaper Hideout in PoE 1 which not only had a really straightforward layout but also looked stunning with the galaxy background design.
For a casual player most season specific things are simply not achievable, they feel bad.
I’m generally against FOMO inducing things, of all kinds, period. And it seems like the EU laws are also on my side when it comes to the monetary side of games already, like season passes or payable content that gets shifted out again (MTX rotations or supporter packs fall into the category).
Hope that gets hard-written into law instead of only highlighted for now.
As usual… he is
I do it for the collector in me… not the skins themselves. Effort based only, no FOMO but permanence included though, otherwise I quit generally if that’s not existent. I know where I’m endangered to cause myself problems so I just go away instead.
