Last Epoch: ARPG somewhere between Path of Exile and Diablo.

Welp, the queues for D4 are hilarious, so more of this!

Sure thing! It was actually kind of interesting, while Iā€™ve been playing LE on gamepad for a while now, I started out with KBM and used that for a while and it wasnā€™t until this discussion that I realized the game didnā€™t have a ā€œhold positionā€ button like Iā€™ve used in other ARPGs! Which I thought was a good indicator that the control scheme doesnā€™t call for one.

Hmm, I donā€™t know, man. Controlling it with the (steam deck) controller feels good except dealing with the inventory is a total pain, enough that itā€™s really dragging down the whole experience for me.

Yeah, in these games on PC I play with gamepad and grab a mouse for the inventory fuckery. Not as easily done on the Deck, for sure.

I do have an aggressive loot filter, though. So Iā€™m usually only unloading inventory once or twice a play session.

Yeah I really hope they work to make their inventory more gamepad-friendly because right now itā€™s anything but.

You canā€™t use the touchscreen to move stuff around?

The touchscreen is an interface of last resort in my experience. Unless a thing is made specifically with it in mind it tends to be difficult to place your cursor accurately, and drag and drop is just a non-starter. Itā€™s not just moving things around, either. Simply stopping to compare items is an onerous task as it is, requiring holding down the left stick to see things. Should just be automatic, in my opinion. D2R currently does gamepad inventory miles better.

Last epoch is currently not steam deck supported though - hence the issues.

Yeah, controller support is still partial. Itā€™s my preferred way to play the game, but I do keep a mouse on hand when Iā€™m clearing out my inventory.

That said, Iā€™m not messing with my inventory very often. Set up a loot filter so youā€™re only seeing Rares that might be an upgrade. When Iā€™m playing my Void Knight, that means for weapons Iā€™m only seeing 2H axes, swords, or maces that have at least two of void damage, melee damage, attack speed, and life leech. Now when I see a rare weapon drop, I know itā€™s a potential upgrade. I walk up to the item, the gamepad automatically compares the item on the ground, and I only make the decision to pick it up then.

The filters are really quick to set up. I have a generic ā€œnewbie filterā€ I turn on around L5 so that itā€™s pretty much one rule that hides whites and blues. From there, I just start adding rules tailored to the character Iā€™m playing. It looks something like this and took me just a couple minutes to set up:

-Hide All Items by default
-Show all idols
-Show unique, set, and purple (canā€™t remember the name) items
-Show Rare weapons like I described above
-Show Rare armor with a similar idea

Thatā€™s it. Now Iā€™m barely messing with inventory management, not having to compare a bunch of stuff on my inventory or clear it out by selling to a merchant very often. Iā€™m only picking up yellows that are upgrades or because I want to shatter them. The uniques and stuff largely goes in the stash.

Quick PSA: this must be the last filter rule in your list. They are checked in order, the first match that triggers will hide/show/emphasize the item, and then the rest of the rules are ignored.

Another handy filter is to recolor +skill level items for your build because those shards are so rare.

Can you elaborate on this? Is there a setting to have a pop-up display with comparison to the equipped item even without the inventory open?

I mean, yes of course I know this, but that doesnā€™t stop the inventory from being annoying. They may never implement full controller support and it might never get verified, who knows.

Yeah, playing with a gamepad if I walk up to an item on the ground (where I get the prompt to press ā€œAā€ to pick it up), it will compare it to what I have equipped. I donā€™t recall if thereā€™s a setting for it or not, I donā€™t remember turning one on but if I did it was probably quite a while ago and Iā€™ve forgotten about.

I am tired of the game zooming in and out when trying to pick up loot on the ground. want to unbind the zoom from the dpad.

It must be a setting because mine definitely doesnā€™t do that. That plus your loot filter would probably take care of my inventory gripes.

Is that with item comparisons always on in the settings?

I canā€™t get over how much I love skill upgrade trees in arpgs now. They can really change the nature of the skill, creates direct synergies with other skills or companions/ transformations, and makes you think about how to create a combination of skills and upgrades that will make you stupidly strong.

Seeing the notification that i can upgrade a skill is even nicer than levelling up in this game.

Anyone know the level cap? Up to my late 30s at the moment (which is sadly true in real life as well).

100, if Iā€™m not mistaken.

Yup, 100.

Iā€™m messing around with an acolyte. Mowing things down at level 20 with hungering souls primarily.

Has anybody tried the dungeons that need a key since the update? Particularly if offline. I ran Lightless Arbor and it let me respawn in the boss room 3 times when previously it was one death and youā€™re out, but it wasnā€™t clear if it was a bug or not. I didnā€™t want to take any chances dying more times only to find out itā€™s an intentional limit on livesā€¦ those keys arenā€™t easy to find ;)

How does one get a key for dungeons?