Was looking through some Grim Dawn builds and noticed that the majority of them are written. Same with Path of Exile. Yes, there are short videos which show the build in action, but most of them are written in forum posts and it is very easy to check what you need.
Meanwhile, Last Epoch builds seem to be exclusively posted on YouTube, which is annoying. A 20-minute video instead of spending less than a minute to check what you need to know? No, thanks.
So, why did the community turn exclusively to YouTube? As a way to earn some money from ads?
Perhaps unlike Grim Dawn gathering all of those required/perfect items is closer to a full time job? With a new game, a high investment cost, and no established youtuber to compete with well sounds like a predicted outcome to me.
As for PoE I think that same āspaceā is taken up by the other aspects of PoE that simply do not translate as well when compared to LE, such as crafting, how toās, and meme builds.
Thisā¦ and the fact that a lot of these are streamers so they just record parts of thier streams / easier to publish a video with their setupsā¦
People also dont really type anymore and unlike a lot of us older players, no-one seems to want to wade through a wall of text explaining things when they can just do nothing and have it shown to them as a vidā¦
Those of us who post builds on YT also almost exclusively offer a planner via the site Fragtal showed (lastepochtools.com) in our descriptions. It gives you the āat-a-glanceā info you need, and if you understand the build you can skip the video section. The video section is generally a thorough explanation of how the build works, and why decisions were made, along with gameplay footage.
I personally love dammits build overview. Makes it easy to search for specific or new builds. If Iām familiar with the skills the build planner is all I need anyway, and if itās a complicated or new interaction a video is usually more helpful anyway.
Ideally yes, with a description of how and why the build works so that people can be educated about LE and understand the decisions the build creator took to allow them a more informed choice if they want to tweak it.
As someone who has posted on the forums and Reddit for a long time and then suddenly stopped, I can give you my main reason. Nobody cares I would go indepth with every single build, and make gigantic guides. Simply put, nobody cared so I just continued doing what works for me, making videos. Technically written guides do nothing for me, so it was not really worth my time to write multiple paragraphs talking about a build that no one would read. I have other things in life to do too, and if something isnāt doing well its just better not to do it and save myself time to do other stuff. Unlike some, I actually grind my characters out, which takes the majority if not most of my time. So if I can save time I will and this was one of those methods to save time.
I think you might overestimate ad revenue on YouTube a bit. Youāre making on average $1 per 1000 views. Thatās not a lot. I donāt think money is the main driver.
Recording a video and discussing the build in a stream-like setup with a facecam is fairly easy, and doesnāt take much effort, which is why you see a lot of those guides on YouTube. Turn on the recording in OBS and go. Creating a script, or making an extensive forum post (in my case, thatās the script with some forum-edits) takes considerable effort. Effort that may not necessarily pay off, for some people. And they might be right. I think it does pay off personally, as it does help out players looking for written guide, and Iām making the script anyway to record.
Itās mostly an effort-thing, not so much a money thing. Itās usually about money, true, but not always
I thought it was annoying at first, but in retrospect I find it very useful.
I mean, if a build is nicely written, I would be tempted to follow it.
But as there is no way in hell I am going to watch these videos. it pushes me to make my own builds.
For a more serious answer:
I think we get this impression because most of the builds we see are showcased by āprofessionalsā (or wannabe pros), the key being this:
People spotted a potentially large emerging market and are trying to position themselves.
(Not blaming, itās a fair thing to do).
The people who just come up with an original build, min-max it, and want to share it, DO write guides. But these trees are hidden by the forest of competing Youtubers.
Exactly! Write-ups allow people to learn how the game works, and also better helps them substitute in items for the build, or be able to intelligently tweak it themselves. Otherwise everyone is just playing the same cookie-cutter build(s), looking to get the EXACT same items in the build planner ā which is not always the best thing, if the planner isnāt a āwish-listā planner, but a real-world āmy gear at the timeā planner.
Same can be done in videos as well! But I guess you mean that you have to watch the entire video to know if they talk about this specifically while you can skim thru a forum post to see if it has the part you want or is just a showcase of gear and skills.
Another thing thatās kinda weird in the forums here is that build guide posts also get locked after no conversation for a certain time like 60 days after last reply. Whereas in GD forums which is similar system, only feedback/discussion threads get locked and not posts in Classes and Builds.
This, nothing better than being able to read and reference a guide, especially having it open on a second monitor. That being said, I feel itās obvious why an aspiring content creator will have builds on YouTube, makes more sense to them.
The only downside is that some people, like myself, rarely use YouTube. I found an amazing Stun Marksman build (by lizard I think?) using LE tools which brought me there, would never have found it otherwise. That build is just amazing, think it puts the bow mage to shame right now, though I havenāt raised corruption on it yet as itās only like 80.
I would go indepth with every single build, and make gigantic guides. Simply put, nobody cared so I just continued doing what works for me, making videos. Technically written guides do nothing for me, so it was not really worth my time to write multiple paragraphs talking about a build that no one would read. I have other things in life to do too, and if something isnāt doing well its just better not to do it and save myself time to do other stuff. Unlike some, I actually grind my characters out, which takes the majority if not most of my time. So if I can save time I will and this was one of those methods to save time.