First impressions on POE2 EA?

Playing a cold sorc, with a bunch of pen and damage on the tree. A +3 cold staff with 100% cold/spell damage. Mana sustain is basically impossible so I'm OOM 90% of the time, clarity is a support addon for spirit gems that increase the spirt cost by 10, so thats not an option as there's no extra spirit in act 2. white mobs in act 3 barely take any damage, and the act 2 boss was a war of attrition of me not taking any damage, but it also dealing no damage to it despite it being vuln to cold. I feel like absolutely nothing is balanced right now. The game just feels like how PoE1 did with archnemisis, but also with the added downside of there basically being 0 support scaling synergies now so it feels basically impossible to scale damage.

Honestly I'm really not a fan of the new support gem system nor, the gem leveling system. I just don't feel a growth in power anymore. Also the ruthless level of gear scarcity is...an interesting choice to say the least.

I also have no clue how affixes work in this. The alt inspect is very unhelpful

I personally enjoy it, but man if you don't have the correct build, bosses take so long to kill. They also feel more like mini games instead of actual fights, memorize the pattern and press dodge at the correct times, then use 1 or 2 skills and repeat. Using skills feels really fun, but having to dodge every few seconds really slows the fights down. Dying a few times is fun, dying a lot on a boss really feels slow when it just comes down to missing dodges on long fights with multiple phases. but, most of this game seems to be based around timing dodges, so this is probably intended?

I tried a summoner build, and found myself never using tank summons as most enemies simply ignore them, and they don't seem to effect bosses at all. I don't think the game can actually support tank summons since so much of it is based around dodging. I don't mind going all in on damage skeletons, but then why have melee skeletons as a skill? I tried fully using melee skeletons to block corridors and enemies just jump over them most of the time so i went back to damage skeletons that clear faster.

Zombies and corps based spells cant be used on bosses for the majority of the time as there are simply no corpses to use, so after a while i simply stopped using them in favor of other spells.

Overall i'm having fun and the game definitely feels unique, i'm just having trouble finding a use for a lot of the skills.

PoE 2 is visually overtuned PoE 1 ruthless mod.
I not regret buying an EA key and also have no regrets about Not spending any money on anysupport pack. It is literally not worth it.

VOTE WITH YOUR VALLET!!! It worked in Kalandra league, will work now too.

GGG's VISION about dodge roll without phasing or unique boots Ghostmarch? CRINGE 1/10
EVERYDAY fun police aka nerf fiesta without providing FREE passive skill tree respec? CRINGE 1/10

Audio - excellent 10/10 absolute masterpiece

Graphics and surrounding world 9/10

Path of Exile 2 and 1 REDDIT mods AUTO delete any negative review - MAXUMUM CRINGE minus 10/10

Currently waiting for the 3.26 and enjoying Necro Settlers.

Overall not a fan in the slightest.

-Gem system is worse than poe1 in the name of dumbing it down for noobs
-Areas are massive and take too long to get through
-Tons of skills are actively bad (though this could just be an EA thing)
-Removing movement skills was a huge mistake given the large maps
-Balance hinging on the dodge roll is awful
-The passive tree is a bloated mess filled with uninteresting garbage
-Maps are boring as hell and take 5x as long as they should
-Crafting straight up does not exist
-New ascendancy trials were an awful idea, even people who hated lab are wishing to get my boi Izaro back

I could go on but I'll stop there before I frustrate myself further. And unfortunately most of that isn't EA bugs or lack of polish, it's errors in design philosophy that are likely here to stay.

This game would have been such an easy slam dunk if GGG just made a real sequel to poe1 instead this clunky amalgam of D4, Dark Souls, and ruthless.

The Good:

-Overall like the slightly slower gameplay

-Like that there is less loot, (but its maybe a tad extreme atm)

-Fantastic Boss fights

-Amazing grapics, animations and sounds

- Like that the game is less bloated overall. Like endgame of PoE 1 is just such a large % sorting through splinters, essences, loot, unveils, more splinters, currency, thousands of maps

-The game is less extreme, like less about zooming around with +100 speed. Or life regen thousands a second. All of it meant it became tricky to really balance. Definitely see the potential in what PoE 2 is going for...but its just not there yet.

-Dusl specc system is cool and overall like the simpler gem system.


The Bad

- The Talent tree is a bit dull now, too many similar nodes. It needs more flavour.


- Asendancies are odd. Odd trials, you cant respecc and some skills are just horrible choices for basically any early game build.

-Progressing to endgame takes forever, can definatly see a problem with that in the long run. Overall many levels feel oversized and hate how the mobs reset on death.

-Crafting is kinda meh. Need more options there.

-So far most unique items seem to be super niche or just trash.

-alot of dodge rolling...a bit too much
Feel sorry for the melee characters.

Friday: This is AMAZING! I love this!

Sat-Mon: Uh, this campaign is a SLOG. I dunno about this game.

Tuesday: Got my CoF Comet build running! I am having an amazing time! I feel powerful but not super overpowered. Maps take some strategy, and I need to set up combos. When I get them right, it's great and I do good damage!

Wednesday: ... Fuck this game.

Probably best video game bosses in the history of video gaming. I say that as someone who is probably a mediocre fast-twitch gamer, at best, in their late 40s. I've never played the Souls games and generally stick to PC-centric mouse/keyboard gaming. If I worked in the industry, I'd honestly try to snipe (hire) their boss designer.

Trials of ascendancy are the least fun I've experienced in a game in a long time. I'll just leave it at that.

Graphics are great.

My build didn't feel like it really started to come together until level 40+, and my character kind of felt clunky and low damage before that. The normal campaign often doesn't have enough mob density to make a skill like contagion worth using.

I wish they would move away from the space/demon-themed Halloween party MTX cosmetics and include more down-to-earth clothes. My sorc would like to buy some normal-ish robes.

They need to work on the UI. Some info is just plain wrong (current Hexblast skill explanation video). The recommended support gems setting reminds me of Diablo 3's non-elective mode (it's bad and hides info about other potential supports). I should be able to pull up a menu of all skills at any time, gem or not. It's probably still unclear to new players which supports actually work with certain skills.

The dead ends in the various zones need interesting things to inhabit those areas (chests, events, secret rooms, rare mobs, etc.). I should feel rewarded for exploring zones. Right now, you just repeatedly come to dead ends with absolutely nothing.

Friday: This is AMAZING!

Sat-Mon: This sucks, where's the loot?! What a slog!

Tues: Got my CoF Comet build online and I'm having a fucking BLAST!

Wednesday: Wow, that was uncalled for.

It's been a wild ride so far.

I think new graphics looks very good, but GGG not fixed poor visibility and bad telegraphs.

Campaign Boss fights are another improvement.

Rest is terrible, PoE2 overall is huge steep back. I don't enjoy game, and my will to play is very low.

POE 2 BAD