[A4ET8a8uTh0]

<< If you mean the skill tree, most people just follow a guide.

At the beginning? Sure. Eventually though a boredom does set it and a player seeks their own fun be it lore, own builds or something else like gauntlet. I am saying this as a person, who spent too much time on it already.

[nottorp]

I quit when I realized getting +2 to minions on my headgear meant farming 100k of <whatever that item was called> to roll the helmet endlessly.

It's just like lootboxes but you farm them ingame. Still boring.

[notTooFarGone]

You really didn't understand crafting then. It's an optimization problem that you have to solve.

Analogy: You don't try to brute force passwords as it takes far too long, you look for smarter options. Same in PoE - you NEVER roll your gear with chaos orbs, you look for vectors to increase your chances.

The whole game is one optimization simulator and it tingles that part of my brain.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

Thank you. I was trying to find the words for why it seems so addictive and this captures it. I am now playing ruthless ( ssf hc btw ) and even though I keep getting smacked down, I keep trying to get back up. The mode forces you to work with what you have and optimize at all times.

[nottorp]

I'm not talking about progression, which is pretty fun. I'm talking about what happens when you've done all content except those few last bosses...

[nottorp]

Heh, I've been on all PoE crafting simulators and learned about the optimized paths.

The only difference is you don't use the relatively common chaos orbs but the much less common <whatever orbs>. Time spent grinding is the same.

Still a nope.