The seemingly ultra-hard and complex action RPG Path of Exile has a new expansion called Legion. There, after just about a week, a player has already reached the new max level. Has the game become too easy and casual now?
What happened? The new expansion Legion for Path of Exile was released on June 11, 2019. Just a few days later, a dedicated player had already reached the new maximum level of 100. And that in hardcore mode, where permadeath exists, and everything is lost after death.
It was also the case that SSF (Solo Self Found) applies. You cannot trade there and must find everything you use by yourself.
It was therefore not possible to trade ideal gear from other players.
Thus, the hardest conditions applied, and yet, just a few days after the release of Legion, the new highest level was reached.
Is Path of Exile becoming too easy or are the players just too good?
Is the game not hardcore enough anymore? Given the fact that after just a few days the maximum level has already been reached, some players are slowly skeptical about whether Path of Exile is becoming too easy.
After all, such accomplishments should take many weeks and months. How can it be that it went so quickly? Is the once highly praised, ultra-hard action RPG alternative now following the path of Diablo 3, i.e., the game that many PoE players vehemently reject due to its alleged casualness?
That’s why the player was so successful: However, the fortunate master of the maximum level was not just any casual bob, but Steelmage202 from Method.
Method are the guys who regularly steamroll the hardest new raids worldwide in WoW.
This ambition was likely also at work in Path of Exile, and Steelmage202 has been grinding for hours with great dedication using a particularly effective build.
He primarily uses damage-over-time effects, which he distributes across numerous enemies, who then gradually perish miserably while further damaging their comrades. This is how he grinds through high-level instances.
He kills simply like on an assembly line and does not take much time with looting and other distractions. Thus, he earns XP at a crazy speed and can level up continuously.
That’s why Path of Exile seems to have become easier: The game itself still seems quite tough, it was simply an extremely strong, ambitious player. Nevertheless, it has become less difficult to go wild in Path of Exile.
Because the developers no longer nerf overpowered builds as strongly as they used to, there are better items from league to league, and the overall skill of the players is steadily increasing. Those who have been around for a long time know the systems and can adapt faster than before.
Thus, it is less about the supposed ease of the game, but rather about the rising skill and better equipment of the players that makes Path of Exile seem too easy for some now.
