I want to rant about Magic Finding and Item Rarity in PoE2.

This is a complicated and controversial topic, but I think it's important to voice concerns about it.

It's existence (and the context it's in) in PoE2 currently creates an unfortunate meta.

Let's dive in

1/n What does "increased rarity of items" affect?

- More drops magic/rare drops
- Number of uniques dropped
- Increase the TIER of rares
- Improves currency drops (you might get a Exalt instead of an Augment or a Regal Orb)

Player rarity is multiplied with map/monster rarity.

2/n

I want to talk a bit about my thoughts on the 1-portal gameplay and emerging issues.

I just defeated the "final boss" after... 7 attempts and spending around 750ex on extra keys (broke now and no longer sane).

No unwarned spoilers.
Drop in screenshot.

1/n Context:

I'm playing a monk, I've beaten a ton of T15-16 maps, Difficulty 3 breach bosses, have 70armor, 75%evasion, ghost dance, res capped, 2.5k life etc.

My DPS is also quite high and I usually destroy T15 map bosses within 10 seconds.

2/n

PoE2's endgame difficulty balance is a pretty controversial topic right now.

It has amazing moments, but it also has some pretty serious issues.

I'd like to offer insights on the endgame after playing it intensively for several days.

Maybe @pathofexile will find it useful

1/X For context:
- I reached level 88 on my monk-invoker
- Clearing T13-T15 maps
- Defenses: 2.5k HP, 800ES, 71%EV, 63%AR, capped resists, shrouds, freeze, enfeeble
- Tried and experimented with all kind of content

2/X

I wanted to share some more thoughts on PoE2 after finishing the campaign and mapping for almost a day.

Overall I think PoE2 is a great game, that is being held back by some fairly easy-to-fix issues.

Context: not trying to blindly praise the game or bash it here

1/n The focus here will be on my overall experiences, but I'm going to talk more about the endgame.

Context:
- Played monk
- Still running T1-T4 maps
- Tried all leagues (also found untainted)

2/n

I want to talk a bit about #Diablo4 Vessel of Hatred endgame.

I have finished the season journey, done all activities, fought all bosses and am comfortably zooming torment 3 on my build.

So how's the endgame?

1/n The Good #1 - Many endgame activities

There's a lot to do: undercity, pits, whispers, troves, bossing etc. Overall there's always some next upgrade waiting or resource bottleneck and a place to farm it.

Especially the troves are imo very well designed and a fun activity.

2/n

I'd like to share my thoughts on the recombinator,

Over the past week I've been using the recombinator to destroy a large variety of items in hopes of creating valuable combinations.

I've arrived at this formula:

ANYTHING + ANYTHING => TRASH

Here's why.

1/n The recombinator SEEMS to have a bias against rare or high tier mods.

I've fed it 4 or 5 pairs of items each with at least 1 highly rare mod and in 90% of the time the result had NEITHER of the 2 mods from the parent items.

2/n

I wanted to talk about Boat League:

- Gold sustain strategies
- Upgrade priorities
- How much currency it can make (a lot)
- Town strat

My town is fully upgraded and this is going to be an indepth breakdown.

1/n A fully upgraded Kingsmarch can provide a lot of semi-passive income.

Auto-Mapping:
I've made 40+ divs (~10 pure+sales), multiple valdo/keys and more.

Also a TON of bubblegun currency, such as ~13k of each harvest color.

Shipping is less profitable, but also good.

2/n

Time for another in-depth Twitter/X Rant.

Today I want to ramble on my experiences with PoE2 after Live Testing it in LA during the Exile Meetup.

I'll cover what I liked, disliked, concerns and hopes!

I also talked to 30+ content creators and exchanged experiences.

1/n I want to post this in good faith, but be honest.

I liked a lot, but not all. Many things are still in development and some good things caused new issues.

I also have 3h sorceress-footage and a short interview with Jonathan. I'll upload these over the next days!

Gameplay:

2/n

A lot of people have troubles finding the KING IN THE MIST stronghold fight in POE.

I think i have figured out a somewhat solid strategy to consistently find him.

If you're interested read on and also please share your experiences.

I fought him around 7+ times already.

1/n Rule #1:

1) (basic knowledge) he only spawns in T14 maps. With this strategy you should be finding him around once in 15-20 maps tops.

You can even chain through poor T14 maps if you want to farm him for his loot or want to find him fast.

2/n

I wanted to share my thoughts on Path of Exile 2.

I've experienced ExileCon live, played the beta, talked to several devs and streamers and even had my chance to talk with Chris for a bit.

I also had some time to process these thoughts.

Let's jump right in!

1/n When they initially announced the split I shocked:

Lots of thoughts went through my head: 'double leagues?', 'split dev teams', 'sunsetting PoE1?', 'double filters?!'.

My initial reception was rough, but now I think it's a clever and brave choice... with some risks.

2/n

I wanted to share some thoughts on Path of Exile ExileCon announcements and changes, with focus on:
- PoE 2
- 3.22

Do note that these are my ideas and opinions.

To understand what changes we can expect you need to think like GGG

1/n GGG is a company and there has been an obvious threat to PoE - Diablo 4.

Of course one can't know how successful it would be, but a hyper-successful D4 release could be a major threat.

As it stands D4 is doing quite well, despite it's best attempts at self-destruction.

2/n

I bring 3 things to active POE players today:

- a filter update
- an exclusive way to make big poe bucks (not kidding) and an ethical issue... you might wanna keep reading if you care about this.
- potential market crash...

First the filter:
reddit.com/r/pathofexile/…

1/n This filter update brings a bunch of improvements:

- such as breachstone eco-tiering
- divination card tiering improvements

and here's the critical part:

a rule to highlight rare corrupted quivers with ILVL 80+ and at least one corrupted mod.

So what's the big deal?

2/n

I want to talk about the #Diablo4 druid and also sum up my experiences with all classes and potentially rank them.

I've played the beta extensively and I did enjoy it quite a bit, even if the game has some glaring issues that I hope will be resolved until release!

1/n First of all: all classes have been played on veteran 2 and I've reached level 20-25 on all classes except druid, where I've stuck to level 17.

Also do note that this experience is purely the beta one, I can't tell how things play out in the edgame or the release

2/n

I wanted to expand on my initial impressions with the #DiabloIV beta.

After playing the sorceress until level 25 and also playing the barbarian until level 18, here are some of the highlights and problems for me.

I'll try to stay as objective as possible:

1/n Visuals and audio:

I'd really like to highlight again how good the game looks. The effects on the snow, the armours and NPCs and the animations are all top notch.

The music is sad, dark, dramatic, adventurous and cold. It fits the atmopshere of the icy regions

2/n

Finished #DiabloIV beta (act1 content) on a sorceress here are some of my impressions.

I'll try to stay as objective and unbiased as possible.

1/n Technical things/bugs:

There were some network difficulties regarding disconnects with long queue times, but I believe those are beta-state of the game.

I hope these will not occur on the actual release.

Other than that I did not enounter any bugs.
No complains here!

2/n

I wanted to share thoughts on the Forbidden Sanctum league mechanic.

topics:
- My impressions so far
- Personal tips and strategies how to successfully beat it and get the most out of it
- Thoughts on balance and mechanics
- Personal wishlist of improvements

1/n First of all some context:

I've been playing since the release friday and am now at 115/115 atlas, level 94, playing as a hexblast-trap/seismic saboteur.

I've finished 5 or 6 sanctums completely, including multiple ones consisting out of T16 maps only.

2/n

The NDA on the POE Ruthless alpha just lifted and I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences from participating the alpha!

- Experiences
- Filter stuff
- What to expect
- Alpha testing

1/n I did some testing on Ruthless on 2 characters. I haven't played until maps, because league mechanics were not enabled on Alpha and it's a bit barren, but I got a decent feeling of what the mode is like.

So how is ruthless? Is it fun? Is it hard?

Yes to both!

2/n

I wanted to make a short post about how to make rewarding lakes in PoE.

People often complained that they were not dropping anything, so I hope some of you might find these useful as I found these to be very very rewarding.

1/x Rule #1:

- The most rewarding tiles are counterintuitively NOT league tiles
- The best tiles are EXILE or BOSS ("forged in...") tiles

These always drop currency, uniques, divination cards or gems. Rarely maps/scarabs. After the next patch gems will be replaced by currency.

2/x

Imo the most relevant changes:
- Kalandra lakes will yield 50%+ more currency/mirror
- Fewer dots, fewer on death ground effects

This is not exactly groundbreaking, world-changing stuff, but it's certainly good and will be more than welcome next league.

(1/x?)

https://twitter.com/pathofexile/status/1569523803612672000

The patch certainly doesn't address every single problematic area such as:
- harvest
- other AN issues (lootgoblin style, necromancer...)
- loot balance

I think and hope that these topics will be addressed during the next league. These likely require major reworks.

(2/x)

Finished 38/40 challenges in the kalandra league.

Wanted to share some gathered thoughts that I collected looking back at the progression and wishes regarding the next league.

1/x First of all, I'd like to address the good parts.

Some QOL things were definitely the highlight. Much more comfortable trading, remembering the map craft option are all great things

I love memories and the unique twists they present (even if the kirac ones are 'meh)

2/x

I've read this article today morning and had some thoughts gathered on it.

It's an interesting read, even though I found it quite controversial.

Some context: I've been playing PoE:LoK since day 1 and been playing POE since closed beta.

1/x

https://twitter.com/pathofexile/status/1565526680760119297

I think the initial reactions many liekly felt is the "feeling of disconnect", especially after reading the harvest changes.

I'd like to analyze GGG's words and also try to view the problem form different sides.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's talk archnemesis.

2/x