PoE 2 isn't difficult, it is a wake up call

I've now brought two characters to maps and can't help but feel people are exaggerating when it comes to the topic of "difficulty". Vastly though. Some minor issues aside, and early access balancing not being perfect, PoE 2 is more challenging than its predecessor but in a good way. Most importantly it is incredibly fair - animations, attack and audio cues are top tier, nothing charges at you at light speed and most importantly you're not getting randomly one shot by something you can't react to. On top we're literally having infinite dodge rolls, something that's not available in most "souls-like" titles either, since that's what people compare PoE 2 to. It's not a "souls-like", far from it.

Instead we have "veterans" getting skill checked, rug pulled, whatever you name it. No PoB, no solved meta, no awakened PoE trade, no streamer builds to copy paste. PoE 1, while complex, is a solved game. Anyone who knows how to apply a PoB can be "good" where as this isn't a thing in PoE 2 yet.

I legitimately believe a lot of the negativity comes from "veterans" or previously "good players" having a hard time thinking for themselves, making their own builds for once, not having the luxury of easy trade and an abundance of currency. There's a reason GGG decided to make PoE 2 a separate game and now is the time to buckle up and get good, because other than general balancing there's no way they'll turn their new game and it's direction towards whatever you consider PoE 1 to be right now.

Personally I believe this is a good thing. PoE 2 can steer the genre towards something new, something truly innovative and PoE 1 will continue existing as is just fine. In fact, as already seen and proven several times, PoE 1 is actively benefitting from PoE 2 and some of its tech, features and assets. Both games have a bright future ahead of them and if the new one isn't for you hey, we're getting new PoE 1 stuff soon enough.

This is one of those once in a decade games and I'm very excited where this is going.

You're wrong.

If I had to change anything it would be that skill gems could have their levels lowered and increased like how guild wars 1 lets you change attributes. My game is bricked because I swapped gear and lost half my skills.

Holy based

I do have one argument against infinite dodge rolls.

I do think it would have been better to limit them. Because when they are infinite, the game becomes balanced around them being infinite. And what happens is attack patterns get tighter and tighter and you reach a point where you dont have much actual attack time. And while this feels ok in some games, in a game like PoE 2 where you are supposed to combo abilities and whatnot, it starts to feel very tedious spamming dodge every 2 seconds.

I think it would have been better to just limit it to 2 or 3, with a stamina bar or cooldown, and balance boss abilities and big abilities around the fact you cant dodge all the time.

Because as it stands it does turn into a dodge spam fest simply because the game is designed around the fact you can dodge infinitely. Its sort of like how current WoW boss encounters are designed around the fact people have addons, so its insanely complex to combat it. Infinite dodge rolling means the boss attack patterns will get more and more annoying because of how strong dodging is.

I would have rather it been more like Lost Ark's dodge rolls, honestly. As it stands I can see some really hard boss fights being a roll fest late game.

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Destructodave#2478 wrote:

I do have one argument against infinite dodge rolls.

I do think it would have been better to limit them. Because when they are infinite, the game becomes balanced around them being infinite. And what happens is attack patterns get tighter and tighter and you reach a point where you dont have much actual attack time. And while this feels ok in some games, in a game like PoE 2 where you are supposed to combo abilities and whatnot, it starts to feel very tedious spamming dodge every 2 seconds.

I think it would have been better to just limit it to 2 or 3, with a stamina bar or cooldown, and balance boss abilities and big abilities around the fact you cant dodge all the time.

Because as it stands it does turn into a dodge spam fest simply because the game is designed around the fact you can dodge infinitely. Its sort of like how current WoW boss encounters are designed around the fact people have addons, so its insanely complex to combat it. Infinite dodge rolling means the boss attack patterns will get more and more annoying because of how strong dodging is.

I would have rather it been more like Lost Ark's dodge rolls, honestly. As it stands I can see some really hard boss fights being a roll fest late game.

Just saying, the attack patterns being tight is not a problem caused by infinite dodge rolls. Look at souls games. Early games had huge openings in boss fights. With players getting better we arrived at elden ring, where even with finite dodge rolls bosses have the tiniest 1 attack window openings some moves can't even take advantage off.
You also seem to forget that PoE dodge roll does not have iframes. Spamming dodge rolls will just get you killed.

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Destructodave#2478 wrote:

I do have one argument against infinite dodge rolls.

I do think it would have been better to limit them. Because when they are infinite, the game becomes balanced around them being infinite. And what happens is attack patterns get tighter and tighter and you reach a point where you dont have much actual attack time. And while this feels ok in some games, in a game like PoE 2 where you are supposed to combo abilities and whatnot, it starts to feel very tedious spamming dodge every 2 seconds.

I think it would have been better to just limit it to 2 or 3, with a stamina bar or cooldown, and balance boss abilities and big abilities around the fact you cant dodge all the time.

Because as it stands it does turn into a dodge spam fest simply because the game is designed around the fact you can dodge infinitely. Its sort of like how current WoW boss encounters are designed around the fact people have addons, so its insanely complex to combat it. Infinite dodge rolling means the boss attack patterns will get more and more annoying because of how strong dodging is.

I would have rather it been more like Lost Ark's dodge rolls, honestly. As it stands I can see some really hard boss fights being a roll fest late game.

Honestly I agree with that one, though I don't know how GGG can approach that one without breaking their current design and encounters. Stamina probably wouldn't work but I can imagine charges plus a small cooldown could work. Of course that would also allow them to slightly buff it as far as utility goes, perhaps add a short burst of movement speed (so you can reposition after rolling, without granting additional i-frames) or a brief amount of phasing. Passive skills could also work, as long as there's variety that fits different build and archetypes.

All in all it isn't that bad yet though and even on my Monk, as a pure melee, I haven't felt the need to constantly spam it yet. Though that might change in the future as they introduce more bosses. We'll see!

Why do I want to get good at a game thats not enjoyable?

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Torquebow#3124 wrote:

Why do I want to get good at a game thats not enjoyable?

Exactly!

Yes it's a wake up call that any successful ARPG in the history of gaming relied on getting "ground loot" to gear up your character and get stronger as the game goes on. Critically lacking in this poe sequel so far. People don't want to spam a vendor to get a rare every level.