Way to cherry pick what I was trying to say.
i said if you STAND STILL and don’t do anything, you die in seconds in PoE, because the enemies are actually threatening and will punish you for being bad and making mistakes. As you should, because that what it means to be punished for not paying attention.
By comparison, ToS is far too forgiving, to the point of being insulting to the player.
Also no, it’s not subjective. You can have the same ‘mowing ■■■■ down’ gameplay that’s fun and relaxing AND much more challenging content in the same game. being able to play this way should be a reward for building smartly and playing skillfuly, and a good game can cater to both the path of least resistance and path of most resistance players. ToS as it currently stands caters WAY too much to the former, and not even in a way that’s good. The enemy ai and the distribution of difficulty is just objectively poorly and lazily designed. Don’t excuse mediocrity. If you compare ToS to other games in the genre, the mob difficulty balance and design is a very poor showing by ARPG standards. ToS absolutely could be in a state to become a strategic and deep experience if IMC would just re-evaluate how they design monsters and some of the systems that limit its potential.
And keep in mind, when I say difficulty, I do not mean ‘monsters hit harder and have more hp’. I mean give us a reason to use some of these interesting class abilities we get in ToS. We have tons of really unique skills with clever ways to control the battlefield, and rarely ever need to use them thoughtfuly because enemies are so brain-dead and nonthreatening for the average player, let alone a well geared one.
Just on principle, players should never be rewarded for playing poorly in any game. You should have the option to play poorly and should be able to succeed if you try hard enough through brute force, but mastery cieling exists to allow a person to form new experiences and get more out of the game as they ‘level up’ as a player.
Think of it like a swimming pool. A kiddie pool is very accessible, but when the swimmer feels like they’ve seen everything the kiddie pool has to offer, they have no option but to leave the pool.
A pool that has a kiddie pool that leads into a deeper area though isn’t as safe, but once the swimmer outgrows the kiddie pool, they’re able to head into the deeper area and learn to swim properly, with the option to retreat back to the kiddie pool if they feel unsafe.
The major difference between the kiddie pool and the regular pool is that the kiddie pool has NO potential for growth. The regular pool has all the benefits of the kiddie pool, and then some more. Therefore as a means of entertainment, the regular pool is just better.