Path of Exile: My "Awakening" hasn't happened yet...

I'm putting "The Awakening" to bed...

I've had it.

I really enjoyed Path of Exile but now we've gone from challenging to stupid.  As I say that you should know I'm not just referring to the difficulty I'm also referring to the game mechanics.

You see, I anxiously awaited the content promised by "The Awakening" but so far I've been unable to experience any of it.

I have a level 53 witch who has been trying to complete the Dominus battle for weeks now in cruel mode.  It's bad enough that she can't level up because the opposition always overwhelms her (dying=loss of XP) but throw in the changes made from the update and it's near impossible.

I'm talking about the changes to the skill tree that have effectively gimped all 4 of my characters, horrible lag and frequent disconnects that leave me at the login screen.

I'm sure that all of these are little more than annoyances to hardcore veterans of the game who've long since left behind such basic concerns but for me it's too much.

...and I'm not alone...

There's no shortage of wailing in the forums for the game and it's obvious from Act IV's concentration on boss battles that all of this is geared toward veteran players.

That's too bad because there's plenty for the level 80+ set to do in the game without the need for making it into a soul-crushing grind.

Now compound that with flaky servers and a worsening lag issue and the game has become as much fun to play as waiting for a defrag to finish on a hard drive.

The game is no longer friendly to new players and its only made worse by the frequent disconnects and server issues. 

And before we start blaming the victim for bad Internet connections and not partaking in the lively "trading" communities to get better equipment just stop...

No game should require anything but the base complement of available equipment to complete it.  Yes it may be more challenging but relying on someone else's custom crafting just to finish is a fail in my book.

So too is a skill tree that forces the player to bias toward one discipline even if that character's makeup could take advantage of others.  Play the game long enough and you soon find that some skills are more effective than others against differing types of opponents.  In other words, the skill tree is stupid.

I really don't care if anyone disagrees.  This is a game not a career and when it's not fun anymore I'm not interested.  The rest of you who don't suffer from these shortcomings can go ahead and continue stroking your egos and chastise the rest of us.  But know this, when new players stop coming the game's days are numbered and so too is your glory.

That's reality folks and the problem with Path of Exile right now is that it's as screwed up as the real world which is exactly the thing we're trying to get away from when we play a game!

Maybe someday I'll come back to it but not before they developers get their act together.