A recent nerf in Path of Exile has all but done away with a fan favorite crafting system known as Harvest Crafting. With the introduction of last year's Harvest league, players could gather caches of seeds, plant them, and kill the monsters that spawned out of them in order to craft items. The most beloved feature of the Harvest league in Path of Exile was that it facilitate deterministic crafting.
Players that wanted to search for a specific modifier could do just that. The net result was that the Harvest league offered a relatively inexpensive and low-entry way for players to craft high-level items. With the recent nerf in Path of Exile, that has all been reversed.
In an effort to reintroduce randomness to the game, Grinding Gear Games, the studio behind Path of Exile, decided to phase out the deterministic crafting that was happening through Harvest Crafting. Players who had heavily relied on the system were understandably upset. To make matters worse, many players had spent their time farming orbs—items that are used during crafting that also facilitate in-game trade in Path of Exile. Now, with the nerf to Harvest Crafting, players who had hoarded orbs as currency are forced to consume massive quantities of them just to have a chance at a usable item.
In defense of the nerf, Grinding Gear Games admitted that it felt Harvest Crafting had lent too much power to players, allowing them to bypass the built-in randomness within Path of Exile. Since nearly all other means to obtaining items are random, Harvest Crafting needed to be brought in line with the rest of the game. Unfortunately, fans view this nerf as hurting new players and only benefiting the top echelon of players who have accrued enough orbs by this point.
Path Of Exile is available to play on iOS, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.