{
"post": {
"title": "Skill gem changes",
"selftext": "I'm absolutely stoked for the game because of this one single change. The skills being so inherently tied to your gear sockets was one of the things that I hated to the point it made me stop playing POE1. I might be a casual player, but this single change was enough to get me so excited for the game I simply cannot wait!",
"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1f3i24x/skill_gem_changes/"
},
"comments": [
{
"body": "It was also so ugly, the red blue green holes covering the art really pulled me out of the game.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "You can hide it btw so socets are visible only when you hover over them.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "How?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "options UI scroll down to items unpin \"always show sockets\"",
"replies": [
{
"body": "thank you"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Hiding sockets is even the default option of the game, so if you just always see sockets it's definitely because at some point you willingly changed that..."
}
]
},
{
"body": "You’re kidding, right? Art for jewel sockets pulled you out of the game because you couldn’t look at the art in your inventory as you don’t have open at all while you actually play the game?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm not kidding. I think it's ugly AF to have sockets like that in gear, can't see the artwork in the shops at all. And looking for a perfect socket item on the ground is tedious.\n\n\nThat being said I resent your hostile attitude towards someone with a different view than you. We are allowed to have different opinions its okay.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "You are free to have an opinion. You shouldn’t expect to be free of challenges to your opinion though.\n\nLooking for sockets on the ground is currently filterable and can be displayed on the item banner while it’s on the ground. \n\nIt seems like you’re letting things affect you that you can customize in the settings of the game. It’s a weird situation that you seem to accept the game design as set in stone without asking if there’s a way to change it. Then you voice your disdain at the design in a public forum and get challenged about it and get upset at that. \n\nResent me all you want honeybear, but you’re bringing this upon yourself and then trying to play victim. Instead of doing that, you could choose to learn about the options you have available to make things better for yourself. POE2 isn’t going to fix this mindset. Only you can do that for yourself.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "From someone that played diablo 1 and 2 I really liked the artwork. I can't do that right now in the shops I don't think I can toggle it off either. That's definitely only a minor issue I have with the game, there is worse issues for sure. But I just think the sockets, it doesn't look good. Also what pulls someone out of a game can be different for anyone.\n\n\nYour reaction seems a bit much for someone with a different opinion. I'm not upset about it, just surprised. Instead \"are you kidding me, followed with how absurd the other person is, you could ask a question as to why. But I guess norms have changed since last time I played (10 years ago)\n\n\nJust doesn't seem very polite to me.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I played D1 and 2 as a kid. The artwork at the time was okay, but nothing amazing.\n\nYou can certainly toggle sockets off in the poe UI. It's under UI > Items > Always show sockets. Once it's off, you can hold alt to see sockets or mouse over an item.\n\nJust as my reaction may seem a bit much to you, your reliance on inventory artwork to pull you into a game where the gameplay doesn't consist of you looking at your inventory seems a bit much to me. Commenting about it when you could have fixed it seems a bit much to me.\n\nThe whole world isn't here to agree with you and serve your specific wants, and it's not impolite to disagree and point out why your opinions are weak. It allows you an opportunity to reflect and adjust your opinion given new information. This is how people grow... or fail to grow. Up to you.\n\nEdit: I didn't realize you said \"shops\". Yes, in this one specific instance you can't toggle off sockets. It's a very weird thing to dislike the one little instance of it in a shop, when most really good players of the game probably look at vendor shops for no more than 5 minutes a character during leveling. If that's what kills it for you, then I really don't think anything is going to help you. You'll probably find something in poe2 to hate as well in this same vein. Maybe it'll be that they colored a fire effect with some blue, or a water effect with red. If shops in poe1 bother you this much though, there's bound to be some other little thing that will eventually bother you in every game. It's up to you to realize that's an exhausting way to live life when you like playing video games.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It's weird to call other people weird for a esthetic preference. It's just that, esthetic preference. I play Ruthless HC so im looking at vendors a lot so for me it matters.\n\nAlso where did I say this is the only feature that is pulling me out of the game? I did not, it's minor in the grand scheme of thing, but considering the topic of sockets specifically It's also the having to look what sockets are on any item that drops on the ground for example. The whole socket system was shit tbh, that's why they are changing it. Or the having the find the right color sockets or right order of sockets (or changing them with currency). Just tedious and boring to me.\n\nAgain if you like the look and the mechanics good on you, but why have a discussion with someone that doesn't like it, or call them weird. Just doesn't make any sense to me. Of course you don't have to agree with me, I don't understand your comment about that. Im totally fine with you liking the socket system, do whatever you feel like, its not really a discussion worth having is it? Everyone has their own personal preference esthetic wise. It's like discussing whether you like green and I like red, there isn't a point to it.\n\nGood luck and have fun.",
"replies": [
{
"body": ">It's weird to call other people weird for a esthetic preference. It's just that, esthetic preference. I play Ruthless HC so im looking at vendors a lot so for me it matters.\n\nYour aesthetic preference isn't weird. Allowing it to cloud your opinion on a game because it breaks you out of some immersion is what's weird. It's such a tiny thing that doesn't bother or even come to mind for the majority of players. Should I break out my thesaurus so that we can choose the correct synonym for you? Odd? Unusual? Eccentric? Bizarre? Peculiar? \n \n \n\n> its not really a discussion worth having is it?\n\n \nIt seems like it was worthy of discussion. I'm not alone in this thread for calling it into question. I'm not the only person you've responded to. If you didn't think it worthy of discussion then you could have moved on a while ago.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Now you are just ignoring what I said, I said its only a minor thing thats part of a lot more.\n\nI think its worth discussing how people interact with each other. I don't think its worth discussing what color you like.\n\nI find you pretty rude so im just going to mute you, good bye."
}
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}
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}
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}
]
},
{
"body": "Mate that sounds like it doesn’t take much…",
"replies": [
{
"body": "No need to be like that man just be chill.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "???? I’m chill mate. But it’s a simple UI feature that can be toggled off. I just cant stand people using these silly excuses why they don’t like poe1 but are hyped for 2.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Personal attacks on a different opinion of ui is not chill dude haha. People have different opinions learn to deal with it.\n\n\nCan't be toggled off for stores afaik.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Personal attack? You need to take a good hard look at yourself",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Classic double down. So sad you are this upset about someone disliking something about your game. Get a grip.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Wdym you are \"dislike\" something which is not even an issue if you would know how to use google. Like sorry to bring it to you but the problem here it is you. So stop before it becomes even more cringe. Btw if you are wrong maybe admit it and learn from your mistakes instead of being a fool."
}
]
}
]
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},
{
"body": "All i say, its complete different game than poe1. Its way more slow based, way more complicated, way more bigger, way way way more harder since you really have to combo spells & skills etc. Cant wait for early access😂",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I actually disagree with it being more complicated, many of the systems are streamlined and easier to grok. The fact that players don't have to worry about equipment that having specific sockets and the socket colors for those sockets is massive decrease in the complexity of the early game.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I think it’s definitely more complicated in terms of gameplay as we’re now being incentivised to combo abilities and exploit weaknesses (armour, ele res). Mobs being far more dangerous in general etc.\n\nAlso the socket colour and link management on gear is gone however with the new limitation of 1 type of support per character I’d think this is going to add a degree of complexity, trying to figure out which support should go where across 9 different 6-links.\n\nBut yeah overall not thinking about sockets on gear is going to feel amazing.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Perhaps but what will usually deter a new player are things like the gen system. \n\nA new player not grasping the importance of support and getting confused with link and stuff, which is extremely common, gate keep their ability to progress further into the game. \n\nIt also forces the player to make difficult decisions in their geared process as they can't properly assess wether that new rare is worth loosing a socket link or not (usually not). Since they don't know how to craft (even just an alchemy orb or an essence) it makes for a verious tedious gameplay experience.\n\nAnd because you can't really combo much in poe1, it is much more of a number game. \n\nPoe2 being more combo based and dissociating gear from gems means that a newer player won't have to balance gear stats / sockets colors which will result in better skills and gear overall. When it comes to combo. As they'll press key randomly and do their best, at some point they'll figure out \"hey, the grenade actually explodes when I shoot it with that skill\". \n\nI've watched my boyfriend play and told him nothing. Men you could see the struggle when he got a very nice wand which had no blue socket... And he pondered \"aaw it has no blue socket I can't use my frost bolt..... \" Although his boots were a 3L blue which he threw away because he found \"better boots\" with some int which he thought would boost his damage (but no link). He basically finished act 1 with a 2l in the gray starting wand. And that is actually your typical new player experience who stops playing because it is too hard. (GGG confirmed in an interview that when they look at the characters of players stoping in act 2 or 3 this is pretty much what happens, no link, sockets all over the play, no aura because \"why would you reserve mana? You need it !\" \n\nThose things will simply not happen in poe2 \n\nAlso the fact that skills will have imbedded explanation on what is what which will massively help. \n\nSame goes for damage taken, the amount of times new player get OS by random things in poe1 gatekeep their progress as they don't even understand what kills them. \n\nIn poe2 because attack are more telegraphed, especially boss attack, they'll understand what kills them and be able to react accordingly. \n\nFor a veteran poe2 will most likely be harder but for a newer player, I definitely believe it to be the opposite simply"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "The fact that the Tabula Rasa body armour exists just shows how flawed the current Path of Exile gem system is. It's arguably better to sacrifice the defenses gained from body armour to gain a 6 gem link. Especially so if the build needs off colours or you are experimenting with different colour gems.\n\nI hope such an item is not needed in Path of Exile 2.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Tabula is nice but never required nor best in slot, I don't think its existence reveals any particular flaw.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The flaw is that it feels better to wear a Tabula Rasa for the campaign over the alternative of picking up rare body armour and having to return to town to fix the sockets, links, and colours.\n\nTabula Rasa only purpose is to bypass fixing gem sockets, links, and colours. It's only convenience and quality of life. Yet it's one of the more recommended uniques to use through the campaign.\n\nA lot of players feel like they 'need' it. Just look in any town during acts and there will be players using it."
}
]
},
{
"body": ">It's arguably better to sacrifice the defenses gained from body armour to gain a 6 gem link.\n\nWhat a bad argument. It literally isn't. Tabula has been a noob trap for years now. Any good build will be able to push through maps on a 4 link without a problem, and slowly farm your 5 and 6 links. Tabula is a terrible item, period.\n\n>I hope such an item is not needed in Path of Exile 2.\n\nNeeded? It was literally never a needed item."
}
]
},
{
"body": "But, as I understand it, you don't level them up bit by bit, you're going to need a higher level of uncut to drop to upgrade. The Lower level ones won't do anything for you except maybe getting a new skill you don't have. \n\nEg in chronological order:\n\n- You have 1 lvl 5 skill\n- A lvl 5 uncut drops, you unlock a new skill\n- Now you have 2 lvl 5 skills\n- A lvl 10 uncut drops\n- You can chose to unlock a 3rd skill that will be lvl 10 or upgrade one of your existing ones.\n- You chose to upgrade. You now play with one skill lvl 10 and the other lvl 5\n- A new uncut lvl 10 drops, you upgrade your other skill to play with both lvl 10\n- A new uncut lvl 10 drops. You don't want new skills. This gem does nothing for you as it can't upgrade stuff that's the same lvl or higher.\n- You continue farming for uncut gems that are higher than lvl 10 to upgrade. \n\nAm I getting the facts right here?"
},
{
"body": "Personally I’m kinda over the whole process of \n\nFind new boots, they have better stats! Great! Ok time to… go back to town, hit um with some quality, ok now for some jewelers, alright now for a few fusings, annnnnd last but not least let’s just spam a few chromes until the colors are right! I just want to put the fucking boots on, man."
},
{
"body": "While I agree it's a good change overall, this has been solved for quite awhile now in poe1. Off coloring of sockets hasn't been an issue for years and has only become progressively easier. We've had vorici coloring since master missions, but now we also have tainted chromes and white sockets from harvest. The cases you would need like 6 blue links on pure Armour base are so tiny it's not worth mentioning and even then it's still completely doable with what I mentioned above.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I mean, these fixes are all restricted to endgame, and mostly fixed on PC economy where you have an over abundance of supply. It still feels terrible when going the the beginning of a new league, where you have to skip gear that might be good for you because you can fit your gems in it because it doesn't enough sockets or the correct colors. I still hope they bring these gem changes to PoE 1 or the chances of me going back are slim personally.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ok, many off colour mechanisms are more aimed towards endgame. However you can always just use different bases... If you're playing a build that uses armour/ev, and you for some reason need 6 blue sockets, well. You don't ABSOLUTELY NEED to have a 6 link armour/ev base from the very beginning, you can just start with hybrid ES bases and work on your final armour/ev item slowly.\n\n>where you have to skip gear that might be good for you because you can fit your gems in it because it doesn't enough sockets or the correct colors.\n\nI can only see this being the case very early game, like doing acts. At which point any gear you get will likely be replaced very quickly regardless. Besides, PoE was never really a game with character specific drops like D3 or other RPGs. You will absolutely drop insanely good items that have no use for your build, that's just how the game is. Having a good item with bad colors just happen to be one of the good items that isn't good for you at that moment, just like the other hundreds of other items that might have dropped with good stats, that you didn't even bother to ID because they weren't good for you"
},
{
"body": "Except that chromes are very easy to get in the campaign and there are very useful crafts to get guaranteed colours. Messing around with sockets in the campaign was actually quite fun to me. It was one of the few challenges you had gearing in the campaign. I wonder what they have done to make gear an interesting challenge in the campaign. Especially now that they plan to show you which item has better DPS, health, etc.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> Especially now that they plan to show you which item has better DPS, health, etc.\n\nSomething which everyone was doing with PoB anyway.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "No one was doing that with every item they picked up in the campaign. So during the campaign we had a few interesting things to consider but now it's going to be trivial to know if the gear you found is an upgrade.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "More information in the game isn't bad. Just because something is obtrusive for the sake of it, doesn't mean it's good. Know what your item does without having to go to an external tool is a good thing, not sure why some people are obsessed with keeping PoE clunky. I'd rather more difficult gameplay challenges to overcome than to go three acts without changing my weapon because I didn't get the right colors, right amount of sockets, or links on the gear I'm using even that stat wise it's better.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "What you call clunky is literally the half of what ARPGs are about. If items are too simple the game might as well just be Elden Ring or something. It's not hard to learn how to gear up it just takes some research. I do agree the clunkiness does need to go. But what worries me is that they removed sockets which was a fun part of gear (at least for me). What's left is fairly easy stuff. You basically just get more health, resistances and more DPS.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Sockets is just a terrible system because it makes gearing through the campaign a bad experience plain and simple. It doesn't feel good to be stuck with a shit piece of gear when you've found an upgrade and can't use it because of the socket system. Then, once you get to endgame, it stops being an issue at all. It goes from overly punishing to non-issue, no in-between. You may like that, but I'm sure you can see why it's bad game design, especially in the campaign. \n\nYo your point about the gearing getting simplified, as far as I'm aware, the complexity is still there, it's not as simple as an arrow pointing up like in d4 because the stats in this game are far more complex, it's just how you have clear information instead of guessing if something feels better or having to check on PoB. Like, you have to also remember, console players also play this game and having to walk over to the PC constantly to check your character just feels like shit.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I totally disagree about sockets. It's one of the few things you can do incremental crafting on. Now... thankfully they changed how chaos orbs work so that might help make crafting more enjoyable. Basically, I wish they had some closer to Last Epoch. Because currently in PoE you either find a good item, or you find a base and roll the dice on whether it becomes usable or not. You get one shot per item (alchemy orb). With sockets you have so many more options. If you have a good base you can try and roll jewelers and fusings on it. If you have the right number of linked sockets you can roll chromes on them or bench crafts for the right colours.\n\nThe complexity in gearing only really happens late in PoE1. Even early mapping is pretty damn easy to gear for. The reason for this is that, at least in PoE1 the campaign is so easy that min-maxing isn't required. You can often get by with shitty life rolls, bench crafts, or partial resistances. Hopefully they fix this in PoE2 BUT that would mean it would also have to be harder. If the entire point is to make the campaign easy like a tutorial then that's probably not going to happen."
}
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{
"body": "This isn't even really the issue this change is solving. No longer having to 6 link gear (or 3-4 link during campaign) and being able to just equip something with better stats is the much wider reaching benefit of this change. 6 links are the more limiting factor in early league/endgame gearing so I either get a shit corrupted 6 link or pay for an uncorrupted 6link to craft myself. Just buying an actually good item is never a good idea because now I'm down 1-2 supports since I don't have currency to 6 link yet.\n\nIt's also aimed at helping new players out like many other changes. Have you ever looked at a new player builds? The majority of them are either following a build guide but have no good socketed items or are blind and running like 6 skills with no supports.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I mean, 6-linking is quite affordable now. Of course it is still confusing for a newer player, etc. There are a lot of things where one have to ask if this \"mechanic\" or \"challenge\" (like early gearing, 6 linking) is necessary or not for having fun. The limiting factor as you called it can be a nice challenge to overcome.\n\nI am really eager to try out the EA to see for myself how it plays out."
}
]
},
{
"body": "It's more of an annoyance when going through the game. It still gets on my nerves. You're starved for currency in the beginning, and trying to swap stuff around and get the right sockets feels bad. It feels so much better in PoE 2 from the get-go."
},
{
"body": "The real problem this is solving is that if a better item drops for you in PoE1 you have to do work to it to be able to use it. \n\nIn PoE2 campaign or endgame, if an upgrade drops in the middle of a map you can equip it right away. \n\nIt'll also make testing out gear and different setups a lot easier as well. \n\nOh, and allowing weapon swapping to be an actual thing."
},
{
"body": "Vorici white socket craft was removed from the game last league, somewhat replaced by tradable omen of blanching for 1-3 white sockets instead of vorici's 1-6.\n\nNot much of a fan of jewellers orbs myself, best fix for poe1 sockets might be changing all items to have their maximum sockets and links by default, but unlocking those sockets would happen gradually during the campaign and maybe the uber labyrinth which is somewhat comparable to what poe2 is going to do.\n\nChange to game balance would be trivial to nonexistent since most people are rocking 5-links by the time they hit maps anyway and this would mostly result in less tedium on gear swaps when you find better items, not needing to play the 6-linking minigame and be forced to pass potential upgrades because of bad links.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I never said anything about vorici white sockets. Google vorici method to color sockets.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "this is, to be fair, a really old and vestigial title for this method (especially considering vorici went on to be associated with a different socket coloring option) \n\nI generally just try to refer to it as bench crafting colors and save calling it the vorici method for lil fun trivia tbh",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Buddy...that's what it's called. The vorici calculator exists and is extremely useful...its not the bench crafting calculator. You can use the wrong terminology, but it's still the generally accepted terminology.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "it's so what it's called that it confused somebody who didn't already know what it was! now that's a good sign of effective and up to date terminology \n\nI know the calculator is called the vorici chromatic calculator still but that's because it hasn't been touched in seven years, lol -- I've seen a lot of people move on from calling it that ever since vorici started being much more directly connected to a very different socket color function and I think it's the right choice, there's no need to get all sanctimonious about calling it the objectively ambiguous \"vorici coloring\" just because some calculator from before betrayal is still the go-to tool for finding the odds",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I think I'll start calling cats dogs just because that's what I think they should be called."
}
]
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},
{
"body": "Yeah all fair points. As I said I'm all for the change. I also l9ve the travel node change and the support/attribute change"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "why would anyone hate the skills being tied to gear sockets? so weird",
"replies": [
{
"body": "1. it makes itemization much less flexible.\n2. one handed builds can't have two 6-links.\n3. it's unintuitive, the socketing system was created in Diablo 2 for improving gear, that's why the sockets are on gear. When I first played PoE, I was constantly wondering what's the difference is between weapon / armor sockets, is one for weapon skills, while the other for auras etc.? Turns out there is no difference, because gems don't even belong on gear, they have nothing to do with gear.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "1. how? you can have any socket on any item\n\n2. nothing wrong with this, and there's always squire\n\n3. I agree, this was also confusing to me when I started but it's a thing you learn very quickly and doesn't matter in the end",
"replies": [
{
"body": "1. because it's much more expensive to replace a gear and also keep the exact colors and links. It's also never worth it on trade leagues.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about. It's extremely easy to get off-colours with the socket craft method. This is only a problem for like a few hours during a league launch",
"replies": [
{
"body": "So during the time gear swapping is needed the most.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "gear barely matters in the first acts though",
"replies": [
{
"body": "well it shouldn't be like that, because that's like the core of the genre, so I hope PoE 2 changes that.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "poe 2 will change it for sure, campaign is expected to be a bigger part of the game"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "This is only a problem during the first few hours where you litteraly would swap gear every 15-20 mins... So it is only a problem when it actually matters and irrelevant once you don't swap gear often. \n\nIt's like a bank only whiling to land you money when you dont need it."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "You see that through the lens of a high level player with access to a lot of currency.\n\nThis is litteraly the number 1 reason new players can't go beyond act 3-4 because they usually end up with gear with good stats but no sockets. \n\nIt is very confusing and it does matter.\nYou learn it if you're willing to. The thousands of new players who reach act 3-4 and stopped playing never to look back didn't and it is a massive loss for GGG. \n\nThe issue with the current gem socket is that, as you said, it doesn't matter at high level but makes lower level experience all the more harder. Hence making it a very poor system as it only results in less players reaching higher level and a mer annoyance for those who manage.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "and do you think poe 2 will change this in any positive way? poe 2's campaign is way more complicated and difficult than poe 1\n\n>You see that through the lens of a high level player with access to a lot of currency.\n\nnobody has currency during a league start, but this has never been a problem for me maybe except synthesis league, which was my first league",
"replies": [
{
"body": ">nobody has currency during a league start, but this has never been a problem for me maybe except synthesis league, which was my first league\n\n.... so you agree it's an issue for new players?"
},
{
"body": "Bruh, how are you being so deflective of the argument? \n\nThey are talking about a particular issue that sockets cause for new players, not just the difficulty of the game overall.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "it's not an issue because sockets don't even matter until the later acts. new players have this issue because they try to fit a random active skill in every single socket they have on their gear and try to play with 7 skills when they're level 15, which is completely pointless and unnecessary",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That's maybe like 1% of the real problem. I had sooo many times when i dropped an upgrade for my weapon or body armor but i cant change it cuz of the sockets and i have very little currency to change the sockets. when you arrive into the maps and play for like maybe 10-15 maps this becomes a non-issue, so why even have this system if it brings nothing but frustration?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "maps? it's only an issue until like act 4 lol\n\nand it's not 1%, it's what EVERY new player does"
}
]
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}