Endgame is really terrible.

+1

I agree with everything.

"

JpPoe2#4703 wrote:

What’s crazy to me is Blizzard got railroaded for the same issues. On launch the dungeons were soooo terribly designed that the amount of back tracking was insufferable and pushing people away. This was all over Reddit, twitter and every streamer and content creator were making vids about it.

Eventually couple seasons later they tried to clean this up and make the dungeons a little more linear. It was my understanding that GGG was watching all of this from a distance and watching all the failures from blizzard with D4 and even occasionally commenting on it.

But yet here we are again with these terrible maps and infinite amount of backtracking.

Yup.

"

dylan33#3435 wrote:

-One portal per map. Another awful decision. Imagine spending hundred hours to find a stupid Citadel boss and then it one shots you in 5 seconds and that's it. What the fuck is this game design decision? Theres no way early beta feedback didnt tell them this was terrible. Its like they are just seeing how much anti-player design decisions they can get away with to increase retention through frustration. I dont think its a good long term strategy for them.

I put up a suggestion for this here https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3662567, bump if you like it :)

the map layouts are awful. and there is no avoding them. if you want to run a map that you like, you need to first do all the dungeon maze maps that surround it

Yup, to each their own though, as it seems some are enjoying overall.

Time will tell re. the player base later on.

Yes, Early Access, but personally, was mediocre at best for me overall. I'm not so keen on maps...especially once I see more of the community talk about it as well (YouTube, etc)...the feedback is more negative and has a long way to go, so that made it even less interesting/appealing. Kinda funny, as I kinda believed the hype from all the videos before release, so many were like "the next thing, Diablo II successor, etc" and I kinda bought into the hype too in a way. Now, I'm on my 3rd class/character and we'll see how that goes (and last most likely [I really doubt real change will happen unfortunately]). But not interesting in trying others out as they're not really for me, and I've already explored quite a few of the gems/skills anyway across classes (trying hybrid tank w/ Merc...was alright at 1st, but then fell off fast in mid 20s level lol). Actually kinda looking forward to this 3rd char as I'll have minions to do the tanking for me instead now haha (Witch). Overall though, again, personally, still lots of room for improvement - balance changes galore (not saying balance is easy) - and honestly expected Early Access to be a bit better but I also understand nowadays...it's getting tougher w/ budget/economy/game dev costs/etc etc etc. Not going to get my hopes up as it's too much outstanding to do lol. Like others in the community have said, the "identity crisis" is a place to start and own - as I still that's important of course...perhaps GGG wants it to be a hybrid (campaign, PoE1 maps, or a mix) - and well not sure how well that'll go lol. I really do hope the player base will remain/grow from solid replayability/longevity, but again, personally, I'm not seeing it. I also feel that many folks have already expressed the woes from PoE1 and that they're still here in PoE2 essentially (like ranged > melee) - that's just unfortunate to hear (and believe now that I've tried it myself and confirmed via various sources, pros, etc) -- again, I'm not saying game-balance is easy, but at least make an effort from the past...seems like not much has changed from PoE1 in that aspect and that's too bad.

Can only really agree on the atlas navigation part.
Would add +Remove empty map nodes/having to run spires, they are uninteresting and for speed I just drop a t1 into them, because I won't bother with no extra mod maps

Its an adventure game want lil maps go play Last Epoch or D4