Please reconsider merging Early Access Standard league with post-launch Standard league

I would like to raise a concern about the current plan for Early Access (EA) Standard servers.

According to an official FAQ (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3587981), EA Standard will be separate from the post-launch Standard league. At the time, the EA phase was expected to last about 6 months, so separation seemed reasonable. However, EA has now lasted nearly two years (until the 0.5 announcement), and many of us have invested a huge amount of time and effort into our characters in EA Standard.

If EA Standard becomes isolated after launch — with no new content, no updates, and essentially no future — it would be the same as deleting our progress. I truly don't want to see my characters become "dead" in a stagnant league.

I am also a heavy supporter, having bought many of the top-tier supporter packs since EA started. From a practical perspective, maintaining a separate, abandoned server would cost extra resources. More importantly, if EA Standard is isolated, I believe many players will simply quit the game entirely.

I understand the concern that a merged Standard league might reduce player numbers in seasonal leagues. But as long as Standard does not receive seasonal mechanics (just like it works now), players will still flock to temporary leagues for new content. There would be no negative impact.

Consider keeping EA Standard characters in the same post-launch Standard league, rather than creating a separate graveyard server.

Thank you for listening.

Id imagine the reason is because many people (usually myself included) wait out EA in order to play 1.0 release, for those that choose too, it would be in essence an economy reset so its not as saturated and also using what might be out of date items etc and broken things etc. I can see why at least for 1.0 for a clean reset moving forward.

At the end of the day, Early access is just beta builds, there was always the chance with any EA that there will be hard 1.0 resets. I cant personally think of many games that wouldnt reset.

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TrueAussie#1752 wrote:

Id imagine the reason is because many people (usually myself included) wait out EA in order to play 1.0 release, for those that choose too, it would be in essence an economy reset so its not as saturated and also using what might be out of date items etc and broken things etc. I can see why at least for 1.0 for a clean reset moving forward.

At the end of the day, Early access is just beta builds, there was always the chance with any EA that there will be hard 1.0 resets. I cant personally think of many games that wouldnt reset.

I agree with you that an economy reset for seasonal/league content is perfectly fine — in fact, I support it. That’s how PoE has always worked, and it’s healthy for the game.

However, the issue here is about the EA Standard league, not the seasonal leagues. Standard league has always been a dumping ground where old characters and gear go after each league ends. Players in Standard invest a lot of time and effort into their gear, knowing that they won’t get new league mechanics, but at least the league remains alive in the sense that it still receives patches, balance updates, and can be played alongside new expansions.

What GGG is planning now is different: after 1.0 launch, EA Standard will be completely isolated — no new content, no updates, no future. That’s not “preserving” characters; that’s creating a dead graveyard server. A server with no updates and very few players is effectively dead, even if the characters are technically still there.

Also, the EA Standard population is small. Keeping it merged into the post-launch Standard league would not harm the seasonal league economy at all — players who want fresh content will always play leagues. There’s no good reason to isolate EA Standard and kill it.

So yes, reset leagues for 1.0? Absolutely fine. But don’t kill the Standard server that people have spent nearly two years building.

Standard EA is gonna be separate from Standard Live?
Why?
It's a museum realm anyways.
If someone plays there it's one of these 9h/month or emotionally attached to the character players. Just let them keep their stuff imo. Or gate it to be unlocked somehow for the game release balance reasons.

I play Standard since the start of the game. I didn't play any League and i don't care becouse every League has an end. Standard not and my efforts so far not. I'll continue play Standard becouse i learned to play RPG games from 1990 where no bulshit Leagues inserted to games.

It won’t happen. Standard launch will present a fresh economy as an incentive for new players who only want to join a standard league to play. EA was never intended to allow EA standard players to receive an advantage over non EA standard players. If anything the extended duration of EA is MORE of a reason for an economy reset as the advantage that EA standard players would have over non-EA standard players only increases as EA continues.