Why POE2’s Direction Is Worrying for Veterans and Newcomers Alike

If i compare POE2 to the earlier stages of POE1 where it had the same situation of repeated acts with higher difficulty. I dont think POE2 is worse it would be a bad comparison to compare POE1 Final Stage after many years to the first Month of POE2 Early Access. But overall i hoped for a bigger change between POE1 and 2. At the campaign i felt they made it better then POE1 as, for me, i found much more currency and the boss fights felt better (basicly more fair) then in POE1 where it was digital total easy or unbeatable with current gear. In POE2 you could much easier compansate bad gear or level. But in the Trials and Endgame it switched to be much more annoying then POE1 ever was. Those one Try Runs to a Trialmaster Boss or the Citadels or anything Endgame based are just annoying and they give no motivation or fun to do them. If i fail i feel annoyed and frustrated. Even if i whin i only feel some kind of releave but no fun or real joy because it was just pain to go over that border. If there would be a difficult task which in the end is fair and the struggle to pass the task feels like a "game" and makes fun it would be nice. But those one Try mechanics and those gamble mechanics (f.e. get the right 3 parts of the trialmaster key) are not fun never even when i run them with a overpowered char and have no difficulty they dont make fun they are just annoying. I hoped those mechanics would be less or gone on POE2 for the first half of the game it was but the Endgame brought all of the garbage back and added another level of gamble + frustration to it.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

3. Flasks and the “Vision”

im so glad flask piano was removed, it was attrocious to play unless you had mageblood. charms are the way to go. having it automated anyways was a good decision

tbh I agree with everything u said OP, but u forget to mention some vestigial mechanics they still haven't moved on from like no interface customization

Disagree with almost everything. Put in 300 hours into poe2 already, it will easily beat the past 10 years of poe1 for me.

I am a fan of the vision, and I like ruthless' direction.
I despise speed / power creep. I like things being impossible. I love trial of sekhemas.

But you and I are different. I have as much time you spent in elden ring and DS3 instead in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin challenge runs. I hated the casualization of the souls games. So obviously GGG is not targetting the same audience, but I am an old player and the slow direction of PoE2 is for me, just like ruthless was for me.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Utility flasks were something unique in PoE1, setting it apart from other ARPGs. They weren’t just about healing or resource management but offered strategic tools to adapt to different situations. While they weren’t always needed in every fight, they added depth and flexibility, letting players fine-tune their builds for specific challenges.

Late to the conversation, but flasks definitely needed changing. They boiled down to:

*Life flask IF you needed it
*Quicksilver flask
*Defensive flasks (armour/evasion/resistance)
*1-2 actual utility flasks (phasing, onslaught, freeze immune, etc).

And all of these you wanted automated anyway. That's why Mageblood was the best item in the game, and nearly every build wanted one (improved flask effect AND 100% uptime). Even without it, you usually had flask automation, because rolling them manually was terrible, and added unnecessary key presses for buffs you wanted up 100% of the time anyway. With PoE2 trying to have character press more keys instead of being 1-skill ponies, having these buffs automated by default is a no-brainer.

Charms need to remain as they are, as conditional buffs you spec into, with some improvements:

1) 3-slots at endgame, always.
2) Variety and more interesting options, but that will come with time and development. This is still early access, after all.
3) CLARITY. I find this to be a MAJOR issue. The game doesn't tell you when your charm is out of charges or when it's full, so suddenly you get surprise frozen because you didn't realize your thawing charm was expended before.
4) We can discuss whether the point of them should be to have weaker but constantly acting buffs like flasks used to provide, or stronger limited use options. Personally, I think they ARE more interesting as the latter, but I am also a consumables aficionado in games.


Also on gems, the new system is MILES better, though acquiring 6-socket IS kinda hard. The old system completely restricted gear flexibility, and rolling orbs is painstakingly unenjoyable. You only do it because the game drops so much currency you can afford to get that many. What's the difference between looting 1000 orbs and having to roll them all, or looting 1 that does the exact same thing, once and forever on that specific gem? However, I will say that at the very least the game should reward you with a single Lesser, Greater and Perfect Orb at certain levels.

+1 OP

yeah, mostly agree with OP

OP wants another ezy hack and slash like PoE1 or D4. I don't see the need for another one, there are plenty of those.
This game is "Souls-like", according to the Steam profile. The devs should fully commit to that vision. It should be much harder than it's now. The ezy mode where you buy your items has no place in a souls-like game. Also analyze all builds that easily one-shot every non-rare mob in T15 and nerf them, hard. Each fight should be meaningful, even with a trash mob. Also eliminate magic find and reduce the drop rate for the good items.

+1, thoughtful and well written feedback...

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ClockworkShrew#7536 wrote:

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Utility flasks were something unique in PoE1, setting it apart from other ARPGs. They weren’t just about healing or resource management but offered strategic tools to adapt to different situations. While they weren’t always needed in every fight, they added depth and flexibility, letting players fine-tune their builds for specific challenges.

Late to the conversation, but flasks definitely needed changing. They boiled down to:

*Life flask IF you needed it
*Quicksilver flask
*Defensive flasks (armour/evasion/resistance)
*1-2 actual utility flasks (phasing, onslaught, freeze immune, etc).

And all of these you wanted automated anyway. That's why Mageblood was the best item in the game, and nearly every build wanted one (improved flask effect AND 100% uptime). Even without it, you usually had flask automation, because rolling them manually was terrible, and added unnecessary key presses for buffs you wanted up 100% of the time anyway. With PoE2 trying to have character press more keys instead of being 1-skill ponies, having these buffs automated by default is a no-brainer.

Charms need to remain as they are, as conditional buffs you spec into, with some improvements:

1) 3-slots at endgame, always.
2) Variety and more interesting options, but that will come with time and development. This is still early access, after all.
3) CLARITY. I find this to be a MAJOR issue. The game doesn't tell you when your charm is out of charges or when it's full, so suddenly you get surprise frozen because you didn't realize your thawing charm was expended before.
4) We can discuss whether the point of them should be to have weaker but constantly acting buffs like flasks used to provide, or stronger limited use options. Personally, I think they ARE more interesting as the latter, but I am also a consumables aficionado in games.

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