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Between choose my content or progress fast, I think it would depend on when in the league I do it. First character on new league I think I would choose my content. Second character would be progress fast.
Right, so I'm primarily talking about the first character of a league. It is not as consequential for subsequent play-throughs.
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I have no issue with people who enjoy the campaign. If you only want to do that and as soon as maps are unlocked you start over, more power to you. But that is something I would never want to do. Its just not in me. Its pure speed clicking through the forced conversations and interactions for me now.
It's not so much a "campaign or endgame" dichotomy of preference. I like both, and I like the progression and transition from one to the other. I usually make one character, sometimes 2 (in 0.3 I made 3) and then I spend the remainder of my time in the league grinding endgame. Endgame is where most players who play quite a bit, spend their time. So it's not that I don't like the endgame; on the contrary.
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When my friends and I play we usually start at a similar time but our play schedules are different so we progress at different rates. Usually I tend to play the most early while my one friend tends to play more total hours a season and the other is hit and miss. To give you perspective, when the slowest person is on, we usually go back and help them since the game nerfs you when you go to lower levels so we can play together and just have fun in chat. Its times like this where the campaign is a massive annoyance. He has seen it all, we all have. So we just want to get him to where he gets his build online and he has more fun that way. He hates the slow progress and tends to just not play instead.
Your friend(s) would still fall behind in an alternate progression system, so it just becomes the same question of linearity (for a first league character). Unless we're talking about a progression skip on first characters, I don't think this changes much. Unless I'm missing something.
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As for a campaign skip, that is actually something I would want but you suggested the extras like res, life, skill points, etc carrying over so you dont have to hunt for the body to get the letter and stuff each time. This would be great but the imbalance you mentioned would be there with even that since you start off tankier and have more points to inflate damage early.
You wouldn't start off with those buffs, you would get them at appropriate character levels relative to the campaign.
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The question I have for what I call the campaign purists is why do you not want a skip? The most common answer from that is the economy standpoint of being behind. My initial thought when I hear that answer is then you care more about the economy than the campaign being fun to repeat. If a skip was available, the option to play the campaign would always be there for you to repeat so it is not about it being "forced" outside the economy standpoint.
Yeah so, those two things are not mutually exclusive. You can enjoy the campaign, and want a competitive / level playing field between all players. So if someone cares about being a mile behind someone who skips campaign, that doesn't tell us what they think about the progression through the campaign, or which they would prefer.
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From a leaderboard standpoint it should be obvious you have to do the campaign to be eligible. From an economy standpoint its about being the most efficient and being the fastest. That difference in economy argument falls apart as it is now. Your build choice, your time invested, your efficiency in speeding the campaign all effect the economy difference now. Just thinking "out loud" with this part...
I think those things you mentioned (build, time, efficiency) I think are all valid ways that players can get through the campaign faster. I am talking about players being equal in terms of the content they have to complete, not forcing them to be equal in terms of how they choose to play, or when they arrive at the end game.
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If they sped up the campaign such as remove all the god awful dead ends, shrunk zones, removed pointless stuff such as the halani gates part I previously mentioned and increased the leveling speed to match it would be much better. By increased leveling speed I mean if you finish at 65 on average now then by shortening the campaign you might end up at 55 so speed up leveling enough to be at 65 again on the shorter version. I hope that makes sense they way I explained it.
In the end, this point is probably all about preference. The way I view it, since I am going to possibly be spending hundreds of hours in endgame during a league, I don't mind if I spend a little more time with friends in the campaign before we diverge to do our own atlas.
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All in all, once you have played the campaign dozens of times, it just becomes a speed run each time. Perfect world for me might be something like on new league you have to do the campaign but once its done and you have unlocked maps, your next character for the league would get some alternate way to level and not have to do the campaign. Like some cow level or something that just scales with your level up to 65 and once you hit 65 maps open. The bonus skill points, res, life etc all can be set up to apply at specific level increments so nothing is missed.
I agree that it becomes a speed run, and I have gone through it many times in PoE1 & PoE2. Yet I still value the time spent there. I surmise that when you get to maps, you like to go fast and blast through them to progress and find loot. But you probably also wouldn't feel like this means you don't like the process.
cheers.
Dernière édition par WhisperSlade#0532, le 14 nov. 2025 à 04:03:32
