From what we've seen so far, do you feel you're going to stay with PoE1 or move to PoE2?

It's simple.

Will POE2 be what POE1 can not?
More specifically, will POE2 expand on the action aspect of an Action RPG?


POE1 is a great RPG but barebones as an action game - which is not saying it is bad. POE 1 is a remake of a game design built around certain technological and conceptual constraints of a time, slowly adapted to contemporary expectations, gameplay loop, etc. I can not imagine a more perfect form of making a "remake". It's a great RPG with real time gameplay and I do not think it should change to be something else. It has the RPG elements - the character building elements, the economy, reward, gameplay loop and difficulty - figured out.

But it didn't and couldn't further develop the action aspect. Firstly: it's a point and click game, you do not have that much control over your character's movement. Secondly, its gem system encourages you to focus as many resources as you can to empower few skills and it works for POE1. Thirdly, it already set the expectations on what it is and what it will be, changing the fundamental ways POE1 plays will alienate a portion of its current community. Finally, it's years of code stacked upon code, changing how the game fundamentally works will eventually require changes to how the engine processes things such as speed and momentum, hurtboxes and hitboxes, overlaps, action queueing and netcode. Changing certain things will break many others. POE1 doesn't need to change.

As for POE 2
What i see from multiple MMORPGs that tried to do such implementations is that they made the same mistakes POE2 is making in its design - they made you do more stuff in a given time without making you act upon more stuff. Telegraphed attacks, "combos", "huge bosses", etc. I see these implementations as stemming from a juvenile interpretation of action games, the design of the Parry skill in POE2 shows that - a game designer had trouble with parry timings so he decided to make it a "hold to parry" skill and balanced the game around it, added too many exceptions and caveats and this skill design leads to a passive playstyle and further slows the game down which contradicts the gameplay loop estabilished in POE1.

But POE2 seems to have laid the fundamentals for the implementation of many action game mechanics such as cardinal movement, airborne states, animation cancelling, multiple buttons, invulnerability frames, etc. But instead of letting an action game be born from these design decisions, GGG seems to be pruning everything good that could come from it to make it fit in what they've always been doing. The node that replaces your dodge invulnerability with damage reduction is an example - why not give us two tools instead, something we could use to mitigate slams and other forms of AOE damage (such as a jump skill that would then hard stun you if you got hit by a projectile). The same can be seen regarding the parry and raise shield skills, they keep making exceptions without giving you alternatives to play RPS with the situation, which is a fundamental of action games. It would fit the game nicely if engaging and winning said "RPS" made my clears faster (skills with active parry frames, super armour, things that let me dive at a pack of enemies and get out if i time things right and assess the situation properly).

Attack skill design is also the same it has always been, damage or conditional damage with some really wacky evade options. But no cancelling a skill into another, no emerging cancels and combo MECHANICS (not the property they call a "combo") [example: using spear projectile skills from within the Disengage animation]. Some stuff has been done that does make the game more mechanically engaging but not enough, the game keeps holding itself back.


Due to how it is being built, due to its game systems and mechanics such as weapon set skill points, due to decoupling gems from equipment, due to WASD, due to dodge roll cancelling - POE2 can expand on action game mechanics that POE1 can not. I'm more excited on what POE2 can be than what it currently is.
As for POE1, i already accepted what it is. Now I'm just excited to play a new league in a fresh economy.

If POE2 expands on that, I will have it as my preferred game. If it doesn't, i'll focus on POE1 until it enters maintenance mode. If POE2 becomes POE1, i'll still prefer POE1 as this is the most mature game of the two unless POE2 manages to "out POE1" POE1 itself, but that's unlikely.

Won’t be playing either for a while. Poe1 is a massive time sink, and not a fan of poe2, seems redundant. TQ2 patch just came out so I’ll be playing that when time permits. Wish poe2 was poe1 v4.0.

Imho GGG has a serious problem on their hands with supporting both games. Only 1 can be great.

Stay with POE1. I hate POE2 and dropped it after the third zone

I'm going to continue playing both, because you know, you can do that. It's crazy none of you seem to realize they don't need to compete.

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RitualMurder#3177 wrote:

I dont really have time for either game anymore. I will dabble in both for a little bit but both games are a goddamn second job and I just cant anymore

fair. i got to a similar point tbh. i have challenges this league because my mrs wanted the armour set to use in poe2 but for a long time ive almost exclusively played poe1 in standard on my existing characters. i log in, run some maps, get a few whispers for items ive had listed for years, its a bit like an SSF league with occasional trade whispers thats gonna last the next 10 years. im just doing my own thing i dont care about keeping up with anything.


same way were gonna treat poe2. self found gear, might use currency exchange, just gonna play it for years mostly with same characters and do things at our own pace.

the idea of keeping pace with a league or an economy is just not a vibe i can be bothered with now, and hasnt been for years at this point.