Do you think POE 2 has the build variety in classes that you imagined prior to EA?

Or do you feel like your class is forcing you into a limited number of builds?

The warrior class seems like 2-H armor breaker is the best high DPS way to go, but are there other strong DPS warrior builds?

Sorceress appears to have a good fireball build, but did CoX nerfs strangle class variety?

Feel free to address any classes build variety as the above two examples were to get the ball rolling. Do you feel that it's just a matter of time to see a flood of other builds? Does it matter to you if the builds are limited?

Your class doesn't force you into any build. It's positioning on the tree as well any complimentary ascendancy choices will lean you in a direction, but that's it.

Your warrior example with the armor break node shows what I'm talking about. Yes, if you really want that node then there's some obvious ways of trying to get the most out of it. But there's a reason there's more choices then points for your ascendancy, you can pick something else.


Also, it's been 6 days. The majority of players aren't even at maps yet, and just like every game only a small handful of total players will be willing to experiment, while the rest just wait to copy a YouTube guide. Couple that with the fact we're missing over half the skills and 24 more ascendancies and it's obvious it'll take awhile to get more variety.

So no, I don't think classes are forcing you into anything.

Theres definitely a more rigid start because of steep attribute requirements for certain skills and weapons.


There's also a ton more power tied to gear than in PoE


So early on its definitely more restrictive than Poe1.


End game when people get gear, it will be better. Pre maps in Poe2 attribute rolls on gear are meager from what I've seen.

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Bleu42#4018 wrote:

Also, it's been 6 days. The majority of players aren't even at maps yet, and just like every game only a small handful of total players will be willing to experiment, while the rest just wait to copy a YouTube guide. Couple that with the fact we're missing over half the skills and 24 more ascendancies and it's obvious it'll take awhile to get more variety.

So no, I don't think classes are forcing you into anything.

Right, even though it's early on, I thought people theory-crafting before EA would have a few more things out there than I'm seeing. Maybe we will see a lot of the off-meta builds once more skills and classes come out.

There is a lot to do already, and after working on three different classes myself, I'm fine with the variation so far.

It's a positive for me to see you stating the freedom is there to work out more builds, and I am looking forward to what interesting combinations people come up with.

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grepman#2451 wrote:

So early on its definitely more restrictive than Poe1.


End game when people get gear, it will be better. Pre maps in Poe2 attribute rolls on gear are meager from what I've seen.

That's a good point having the limitations early on. Also, the more people get into end game, the more I think people will have ideas on incorporating new uniques in. I hope it will be viable to make some quality builds based around a unique.

It may also take time for people people to familiarize themselves with multiple classes to spark the creativity for more build variety.

I don't like how most gems are restricted to certain weapons, its not like we have 20 options per weapon.

It also bothers me how little support gem options we have, especially in the early game. This is also made worse by the fact that we can't use the same support.

Do i want to add poison support? No. Do i have better options after the good ones for my main skill? No.

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DragonBreaker#2632 wrote:

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grepman#2451 wrote:

So early on its definitely more restrictive than Poe1.


End game when people get gear, it will be better. Pre maps in Poe2 attribute rolls on gear are meager from what I've seen.

That's a good point having the limitations early on. Also, the more people get into end game, the more I think people will have ideas on incorporating new uniques in. I hope it will be viable to make some quality builds based around a unique.

It may also take time for people people to familiarize themselves with multiple classes to spark the creativity for more build variety.

Uniques right now have a huge opportunity costs. Hp pools are small for endgame so by losing a gear slot you could lose ~200 life or es or mana which isn't ideal.

Don't worry people will come up with stuff. The more stuff is introduced the wackier it will be.


I do agree in that I think newer players got a reality check in a game they were told any class could do anything and probably expected it for the campaign.


Ngl it was fun to use crossbow on weapon swap as a warrior in the first act.

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DragonBreaker#2632 wrote:

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Bleu42#4018 wrote:

Also, it's been 6 days. The majority of players aren't even at maps yet, and just like every game only a small handful of total players will be willing to experiment, while the rest just wait to copy a YouTube guide. Couple that with the fact we're missing over half the skills and 24 more ascendancies and it's obvious it'll take awhile to get more variety.

So no, I don't think classes are forcing you into anything.

Right, even though it's early on, I thought people theory-crafting before EA would have a few more things out there than I'm seeing. Maybe we will see a lot of the off-meta builds once more skills and classes come out.

There is a lot to do already, and after working on three different classes myself, I'm fine with the variation so far.

It's a positive for me to see you stating the freedom is there to work out more builds, and I am looking forward to what interesting combinations people come up with.

Oh yea, with 36 ascendancies and hundreds of skills, not to mention hundreds of supports, there's going to be MANY builds. But, like I stated earlier, most players just want to be told what to do. So just like poe1, it's going to seem like there's only a couple "viable" builds, when in reality the goal is to make every skill work to varying degrees. What "work" means though is subjective.

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Bleu42#4018 wrote:

Oh yea, with 36 ascendancies and hundreds of skills, not to mention hundreds of supports, there's going to be MANY builds. But, like I stated earlier, most players just want to be told what to do. So just like poe1, it's going to seem like there's only a couple "viable" builds, when in reality the goal is to make every skill work to varying degrees. What "work" means though is subjective.

Yes, you touched on something I was hoping we would move past from POE 1, and that is ease of making a viable build without following a cookie cutter guide. But, on the flip side, I'm seeing people from other games joining our ranks to see what builds they can make.

If the building process is enjoyable and straightforward to work out, POE 2 build variety could really take off. And if there are so many people making good builds, I'll be excited to give them a try.

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SkilloSkillo#0062 wrote:

I don't like how most gems are restricted to certain weapons, its not like we have 20 options per weapon.

I was thinking about this a few days ago, and the conclusion I came to was they may be doing this to limit the number of combinations until they iron out what they have. After overcoming those growth pains, maybe they can open it up more.

But, today I read someone's post that they are restricted that way so that animations won't look weird by having for instance, a mace using a wand skill. That made sense to me, and would require a lot of animation work to fix. This is a tough problem, but I agree with your point.

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SkilloSkillo#0062 wrote:

It also bothers me how little support gem options we have, especially in the early game. This is also made worse by the fact that we can't use the same support.

Do i want to add poison support? No. Do i have better options after the good ones for my main skill? No.

I think the same holds true for the limited support gem options being in place until they can iron out any issues with what they have now. Most people will agree more options is better, and hopefully posts like this will push that barrier.