Hardcore has ruined me

I made 27 characters before reaching endgame. But the last 5 all of them reached endgame.

So it's just as simple as get good and have patience

This is my first arpg and halfway through the game I learned about leagues.

Now im of the opinion that everything about this game is a "waste of time" either way, so I'm just enjoying the journey. I'm purposely stalling at level 80 right now just tweaking my playstyle, my hideout and my general knowledge of the game.

I suppose its normal, i can play SC (with my dead HC chars) just for trying build idea.

And i too feel that mix of "I'm to scare to try the next area in HC, and can't be arsed to play SC anymore..."

Probably just coming to the realization while the game is good needs to be cleaned up around the edges. I await the day I see patch notes that actually mean something. Hardcore should definitely be rewarding, but standards need to be more than lazy stock simulators.

Always down to make HC adventurer friends! Dm if you ever want to play

I've just taken a deadeye to lvl 84 in hardcore, can confirm I feel the same going back to standard now. I think a large part of that however is down to the fact it was my first hardcore character so I had nothing and had to earn everything again, whereas in standard I've had multiple chars through the campaign and am sitting on tonnes of gear I can use already.

Progression is kind of a formality if you are using items from previous chars or if you have a build you played over and over, or if your build is overturned even for the first playthrough.

Changing chars and trying to use only what you get (as if it was the first playthrough) can make things sound more fresh.

But yeah... doing a character in SC with leveling items is exactly a formality. Some hours you will just be going through the motions to get to the place you will, hopefully, have fun or whatever you aim at.

Trying to play as well as possible even if you don't need to, may help with this, but it won't always be the case.

So I used to fall down this very same loophole.

What helped me out is understanding that Hardcore is often a waste of time. If you’re cool with that aspect, then stay cruising.

I wasn’t and got familiar with standard/softcore. I work to die as little as possible but if it happens, it’s not a day ruiner.

Practice HC until you get even more comfortable. Its a great feeling to watch you get better and better with every run, while your character is at stakes. You cant just run in and smash your head against the game like in SC, you actually need to understand things. It demands your attention. It's a much more measured experience.

My first arpg was D4 and I absolutely loved HC. This game ruined Diablo for me and I don't see myself going back.

With that being said I am not brave enough to play hardcore on this game. Lol.

i want to play hardcore but poe1 endgame is not hardcore friendly and poe2 acts are too long to start again, i did reach to maps in hardcore and got to like lvl80, it was peak gaming for sure

HC trade is the ultimate PoE experience imo. The economy is so much better. People you trade with tend to be more social, or at least more likely to respond. Gameplay is so much more intense and rewarding with one life. On death you've built up your stash with leveling uniques and gear so it's not a total loss.

I know how ya feel though. This game is tough and I'm not sure I have the time or patience anymore so I'm just playing standard for now. If I can start consistently beating campaign with zero deaths I'll probably switch to HC , played poe 1 HC for years and loved it.

Standard SSF I think is the next best experience. More of a challenge, don't have to worry about standards cookie clicker economy, and always have the option to start trading if you want to speed things up.

This is pretty common. Barely anyone among myself and my friends can play arpgs outside of HC. hcssf is were these games shine.

I was new to poe so I played an easy HC class, just to really learn the game.

That’s the advice I’d leave to you. Infernalist is a very easy class to play HC when you’re new to this game.

I was happy to manage about lvl 80 on ssfhc and 86 on HC before dying to some really stupid mistake.

Before that I had a few toons die before maps

just get better and have a will to learn bro im 10 years of PoE1 with around 7-8k hours, i played 0 hours of SC. Only HC HCSSF and HCRuthless

Time to git gud

I do not understand how anyone plays this game (in early access) in Hardcore. I die to so much dumb and/or wildly unbalanced stuff.

Dont be afraid to die. Its part of what makes hardcore what it is. You will become a better player. Everytime I die I end up getting better and better stuff anyway. You also get faster at leveling back up.

Did your char die recently? If so, feeling like this is pretty normal in this stage. A couple of days and you will want to comeback to “get further this time” if you have the “hardcore mindset”.

It is hard to get used to it until you are able to reach maps consistently. Once there, you get more control over the content you are going to do, so you can avoid some risks that you dont feel prepared to.

Been there, done that.

I usually start a league in Softcore, get to end game, feeling out the changes and how my build plays. Then I'll finish off a league in HC or SSF just playing around with ideas.

For me the answer is SSF. I feel accomplishment for what I achieve and if I die I don't have to restart.

It also teaches a lot about crafting, mechanics and and where and how to get what you want.

i started playing this game a few months ago and one thing ive noticed is that the 17 people on my friends list,,, are no longer online anymore

Build your resistance up to fire, ice, lightning and chaos. It’s the most important thing

the game is good. i hate the fucking map layouts and getting stuck on stupid shit like tree roots and rocks which makes breaches and mirrors unfucking fun. some maps are just too fucking twisty and cluttered with bullshit. i like the game but i hate a bunch of the fucking levels. beach? fun. desert? fun. cemetery graveyard? fine. augury? fuck that. anything with trees? fuck that.

Just take it slow. You will get better at HC. You will also die a lot. What helped me improve in POE1 and POE2 was recording my deaths and understanding why I died (bad gameplay/decision making, not overcapping cold res enough and getting hit with cold exposure during a cold attack for example).

SSF needs some love, the loot just isn’t there. HC exacerbates that’s problem imo.

If you do solo self found on Hardcore I can understand the frustration. Try HC trade and see if that isn’t a happy medium.

Ive done HCSSF so many times that I can roll through the campaign easily now, just keep dying and you eventually you wont die haha! Im excited for a new class and act so i can roll blind into it!

HC SSF is the only way I can play. The best and worst feeling is deleting a char when you die once. Off to the next adventure

As someone who used to play hc and nothing else in poe1 I found lategame standard the perfect compromise, when you die you feel it, but you don't lose a week of progress but just like half an hour to an hour or so. Pretty good imho.

I don't really care for the campaign though so I'm not bothered that dying doesn't mean anything while levelling. If that's an issue then you have to play hc and treat the game more like a roguelike I guess.

Yes, sadly PoE has 2 extremes in terms of difficulty, SC feels too casual and HC can be too extreme. There's no "middle ground", SSF just doesn't feel like it fits in that spectrum.

I really hoped that PoE 2 would make SC more punishing and it kind of has, but it still seems like HC will be the only mode to play to make the game fun in the long term. It just feels nice knowing your decisions matter and every play session where you didn't die feels like a minor achievement.

My two cents,

don't think of it as a waste of time, you learned a lot on that run where you died and you gathered wealth for your next run.

If you play hardcore you are going to die eventually that's inevitable no matter if you're a noob or a god gamer.

Hardcore is like a rogue like, its all about learning to get further and further each run and enjoying the journey not the destination.

In my own personal opinion HC is a challenge and progressing in it is an accomplishment. (even MORE so ssf)

SC (trade league) is just meaningless. There isn't really skill or accomplishment involved. It's hard to motivate yourself when you don't feel you are accomplishing anything.

My advice is keep on keeping on in HC, you will get better each run and can genuinely be proud of your accomplishments (Even more so if you play ssf and don't follow guides).

I find the most enjoyable way to play the game is hc ssf and ignore what everyone else is doing in the game. Just enjoy it at the speed and pace you like, and if you never even beat the campaign on HC so what? Be proud you got as far as you did its more than most people are willing to stomach.

If you're looking for a middle ground play SC ssf, some skill and accomplishment but you don't loose your character on death.

I started PoE1 Closed beta after not even playing Diablo 2 and went hardcore with out even fully knowing what it ment lol, been playing HC since and insta delete any dead char lol

I'm on the same boat. Every character that dies one time, I lose interest.

I've done like 5 warriors and either Blackjaw or Queen of Filth are my banes.

Let me guess, did you got one shotted by the mf that shoot the lightning ball?

Honestly dude, getting to endgame is not that difficult, you should realistically kill about 10 characters learning the ropes if you’re not a super good player but beyond that you should comfortably be able to get to endgame. Utilize trade, put together effective leveling builds. There’s many combinations of cheap uniques that can get you through campaign easily…

How are you dying so much???

I don't understand the point of hardcore, do you get anything for doing it?

One of us... one of us...

u cant play hardcore until u know how to make builds in this game and u will never learn it on hardcore

I finally made it to cruel in HC SSF and I actually stopped playing. I played ~300 hours and died SO MANY times that I just need a break.

I had the same situation in POE1; it was so costly to die in HC with the time I had to play.
That got much better for me with the death penalties, in POE2, which many POE1 players are angry about. Essentially, the harsher death penalties do not ruin your whole time investment, but hinder the progression in late game if you are not good enough, which gives the progression a meaning.

I fully feel ya. Made 50 characters (only sorc and rangers) bufore my LA deadeye went into endgame. And through this journey i had same feeling, no softcore anymore. I suggest to focus more of defence in passive tree, constant check vendors for weapons esspecially, and resistances esspecially through res ring. Good luck! You can make it.

I played HC for the first time this league and while I did eventually rage quit (lost my level 85 Invoker to invisible explosions in a breach) I never thought I would enjoy it so much. Honestly my favorite thing about HC is actually how much better trade is over there - the economy is much smaller, and because items leave the economy when players die the odds of a random high ilevel rare on a good base being actually useful are way higher.

I honestly may try HC again once the game is a bit more balanced and there are more build options for it because man that was a blast.

I'll definitely try hardcore next league. But mostly for the campaign, I don't think I'll restart the endgame process.

I actually hit this exact point in the PoE 1.X patch series over a decade ago. I'm currently in my SSF phase, which will likely last until I either deem it impossible to achieve my league goals without trade, or until GGG implements a real auction house. But I do it on softcore most of the time. I feel that's a decent compromise, partly because I'm unwilling to suffer the consequences of losing my character on death.

That's all entirely subjective, though. The best thing you can do is figure out where the fun is for you, and play that way.

Solution!

Play softcore, but whenever you die, sack tap yourself with a metal spoon. Now you've got punishment while not having to start all over!

I take Venmo if you want to reward my genius....

had a lot of fun in campaign in HCSSF. most of my deaths were pretty unsatisfying though, recently had a level 76 character died when opening a chest with no enemies on screen. maxed ele resists, cloak of flame. first time doing the artifact map.

It took me 20 something characters to reach endgame. You're gaming and having fun, no time is wasted

Well, after I played hc d2r, I can never go back to sc. Then I played sc poe2 for 2 months just to learn the game. After that, all in for hc. It is so addictive. I think you should play hc with trading instead of ssf. It will make the game much easier but still have fun feeling of winning hc.

I just lost my lv97 monk due to one shotted bossing a month ago, lost all hard farming items TT about 200div worth. Still come back to playing it again. So addictive

I just play standard and pretend it’s hardcore. So I try not to die. But then again I think sanity is overrated