Path of Exile - Streamer Interview - ItsYoji

Posted: 04 Nov 2021 01:57 PM PDT

From his "ACTUAL" Path of Exile trailers to his awesome Path of Exile content on Youtube, you're sure to have come across some of the many types of content produced by ItsYoji! Continuing our series of interviews with community streamers, we took a moment to chat with him about his life inside and outside of streaming.

Hi ItsYoji, thank you for taking part in the interview! For those who may not be familiar with you, can you please introduce yourself?

I'm Yoji, a 34 year old gamer, dad, RPG nerd and chemist from Germany who also happens to be a legacy content creator based around Path of Exile.

When did you first get into Path of Exile?

Shortly before Path of Exile released the 1.0 version a friend back during uni started bugging me to try this weird, deep, crazy difficult, complex Action RPG he recently started playing. He was relentless about it and insisted it was a game I would enjoy. Eventually I got around to try it. I started out in Hardcore, which was the predominant game mode back in the day. I created quite a few freezing pulse CI witches that somehow all died during the campaign. Apparently going for Chaos Inoculation straight away was not the most optimal way to build, who knew. I eventually gave up on the game for a while and returned in early October 2013 a few weeks before Nemesis league and haven't stopped playing since.

What one thing caught your attention in the beginning and what was one thing that kept you coming back?

Unlike many people in the Path of Exile community I don't come from a Diablo background. I grew up mostly with JRPGs and ARPGs on console such as the Final Fantasy series, Champions of Norrath and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

Those influences immediately made Path of Exile click for me. The passive tree reminded me of the Final Fantasy X sphere grid and the support gem system was familiar from playing around with Final Fantasy VII's materia system.

What keeps me coming back is the variety in playstyles and builds combined with the meaningful and deep character progression. PoE does that part better than any other game I have played.

Are there any highlights from your time playing Path of Exile that stand out in your memory?

I got a Headhunter from Gwennen in the Expedition league which was pretty neat. Since I was playing in a small group found private league in Expedition this made it possible for everyone in the league to try it out and have some fun with that crazy item.

Do you have a favourite build from your time playing Path of Exile?

Probably my Righteous Fire Mjölner Chieftain Tank from Harvest league. I have been wanting to make an RF Mjölner character for some time and when the insane crafting capability from Harvest became apparent I realized it was finally time.

Other than that I just really enjoy melee in general, from Slams to Strikes to Slashes, Bonks and Flickers. Melee is my jam.

Which was your favourite league or expansion?

Even though by current standards the league was very simplistic and had huge flaws, I have very fond memories of the Tempest league. The way players were always communicating and trying to find the best tempests in maps quickly after the change of Tempest areas each hour was a fun experience. Also some of the Tempests such as Corrupting loot or the Exiles and Ghosts everywhere ones were extremely crazy mods at the time and really stood out.

You're known to make "ACTUAL" trailers each expansion. Which was your favourite to make?

I always have so much fun making the trailers, coming up with jokes and memes that fit the current climate in the community and poke fun at the game and you developers, the players and some content creators at the same time. As for the writing part I had a really good time with the Ultimatum ACTUAL Trailer as I feel there was a good narrative I could tell with the some of the more obvious jokes while weaving in a few smaller points.

When it comes to the editing and production part I got a bit carried away with the Heist trailer. Following the theme of the league and experimenting with the theme in music and editing style led to me making the longest trailer yet. That was a ton of fun too.

When did you first start streaming? How did you get into it?

Around six years ago during Tempest league I ended up with a lot of extra time on my hands when I was about to finish university. So I played a lot of PoE which I've been playing for 2 years by then. None of my friends played the game anymore however which means I had no one to talk to about my silly hipster meme builds.

When I finally made my Resolute Technique Elemental Split Arrow Totems build work and got it to endgame in Hardcore I needed to tell someone about it.So I booted up a Twitch stream and a few people came by who I could tell all about this silly character and my other build creations.Then I made a video guide for the Split Arrow totem build as my first PoE YouTube video and thousands of people watched it. My stream grew and shortly after I decided to go all in on content creation for a while. But eventually I went back to becoming a regular IRL Andy who has a stream and makes videos in his freetime. It just works way better than being a content creator who does chemistry in his freetime.

What can people expect from your stream and schedule?

The schedule is an illusion, Exile.

That's what the !schedule command in my stream chat would give you. As a part time content creator, full-time dad and full-time chemist, it's quite tricky to maintain a regular schedule. So I recommend people to follow my stream on twitch and if you see me online, know that it might be a once in a lifetime event, so make sure to come and say hi while I am live.

You've become a father since you started your journey with Path of Exile. What's one tip you would give to other Exiles who may be future parents?

From a PoE perspective I think it is important to find a way to enjoy the game while having less time to play than you previously had. I found a lot of people have trouble with that and sometimes get frustrated when they can't progress as much. But there is a lot of fun to be had even with the earlier progression of the game and especially if you have experience and a decent knowledge base and play a league over the whole 3 months you can get pretty far even with little playtime. And if not then permanent leagues are always a great option that shouldn't be discarded!

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of streaming?

When I am not streaming, making videos or gaming in my freetime, I am probably in the gym, doing something tabletop RPG related (Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder) or playing with the kids. I recently started to learn digital drawing which is an awesome experience.

Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the streaming community?

I'm always happy when I see collaborations happening between content creators so the more people get together to talk and meme about PoE the better in my eyes.

Do you have any projects on the horizon you'd like to talk about?

I am currently on a bit of a break content wise and the Scourge league announcement stream happens right in the middle of my upcoming vacation. But if at all possible, there will be a Scourge League Actual Trailer coming before the league launches with the usual memes, jokes and trolling.

Note: ItsYoji's Scourge League ACTUAL Trailer has been published since the writing of this interview. Check it out below!

Thank you so much for participating in the interview! If you'd like to follow ItsYoji, you can do so on Twitter, Youtube and {LINK REMOVED}. Also, don't forget that you can support both ItsYoji and the development of Path of Exile by buying microtransactions from his {LINK REMOVED} page!