interesting thread read through.
im coming to this game fresh with no experience of the previous crafting system, i started the game a few days ago with basically 0 knowledge and spent 2 days going at it with my first proper character. i do have a lot of experience with the other arpgs.
my take on this games crafting is that its crazy powerful, more powerful than the other arpgs in practice.
theres a thin line in the sand between “this is insane but its sort of fine and i love it” …vs… “this is a harvest item printer on steroids abomination that shouldnt exist”. this crafting system is cavorting along that line like sheeana dancing her dare to shaitan.
at the end of day 2 i was level 75 i think, was able to breeze through content 5 levels higher than me wearing 2 uniques and then every other item was a rare and every single one of them was heavily crafted, all resists capped, faceroll damage, 0 deaths.
i felt like the power i had to upgrade my gear via crafting was surprisingly strong. obviously theres much deeper endgame and min/maxing than where i was at, but theres no way you log into a game like poe for the first time and day 2 you can craft all your gear like this and smash ur way through maps higher than your character. i dont need to have a grip on this games equiv of a t19 100% delirious or wave 30 sim encounter to know that, know where im at and the equiv in other games.
the thing with deep endgame like that is you dont rly want players in an arpg to be able to make actual perfect gear. the game is about a journey, the ideal situation is the player travels as long as they want and then get off the train, you dont want to run out of track and force them to get off. thats what perfect gear is essentially. the players often think they want the perfect gear, having perfect gear is what drives them, but its a desire, whats driving them is that they dont have perfect gear. wanting it facilitates the journey and the fun happens along that journey, achieving that next step then planning the one after.
this is the dagger im using
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im doing a phys/bleed throwing attack thing, just a noob to the game making it up as i go along. i found this dagger as a 1 stat blue item quite early in the levelling and i kept tinkering with it along the way and its still what i was using in endgame.
i can already see that i can get better, its got three T4 stats that could be T5 and theres a dagger base ive seen that has % phys as an implicit. and then it could be an exalted item, and then it might be able to be printed onto a unique one with 4 legendary potential?
that sounds impossible, and it should be impossible. i think getting the all T5 version on the ideal base should probably be almost impossible tbh, even getting this one given the complete lack of playtime and game knowledge seemed borderline.