Feedback - Has the Bad Really Changed?

I played POE1 off and on for 12 years. Been playing the early access since it launched.

And it occurred to me - are the problems I had with POE1 really any better?
What was bad about POE1?

1) Felt like I had to map out my build before I played it.

This has gotten better, somewhat. I still feel like I have to map things out - especially since Ascendancies aren’t refundable - but at least the basic passives are.

I do want more build variety though. The freedom to take a skill I really like and make an out game build out of it. This is one reason I classify Grim Dawn as an unsung hero of the ARPG genre. I can take basically any skill - even auto attacks, or thorns - and make a reasonable build out of it, often with a choice of multiple damage types (physical, lightning, etc). But in POE I can’t, for example, make a Fire Comet build.

2) Felt like I never got any drops for myself, or could craft any.

This did get better with later leagues and rituals and such.

This is very much a problem right now though. Everything I’m wearing, I’ve bought. I want more freedom to actually gear my own character and have a reasonable chance at success. I’ve tried to roll so many tier 2-4 items, and they usually get bricked along the way by rolling terrible stats with a low value. And I don’t have enough currency to fix any of it, because apparently currency only has a decent chance of dropping at T15 with a bunch of rarity gear. Merchants are mostly useless for gear, too, since they only refresh inventory on leveling up.

Perhaps we could get a bone here? People will probably hate this suggestion or anything like it, but what about something like soulbound items where I have more freedom to roll and reroll stats if I’m not going to sell it?

I don’t want the game to shower loot on me. At the same time though, I want to feel like I’m being rewarded for the grind.

3) Currency was too rare.

I still feel this way. I can’t use my currency to roll items because it never works, so I have to hoard it to buy upgrades instead. But I’m getting to the point where I need Divine Orbs to buy (or cry when using them for crafting) and they just don’t drop. It’s one of the things that killed my desire to play POE1 - I felt like I wasn’t loot hunting but currency hunting to buy loot. And while I might have enjoyed trying SSF mode, I just feel like the drop rates aren’t good enough for it.

Still only seen 2 Greater Jeweler’s Orbs and 0 Perfects, too.

4) I feel like I didn’t understand the endgame.

Okay, sure, some discovery is required. At the same time though, a basic explanation would be nice for some things.

The Atlas tree, for example? 3% increase to Magic pack size? What’s the base Magic pack size? 10% rarity increase? What’s the base rarity? 10% chance to drop at a higher tier? What’s the base chance to drop at a higher tier? Why do some yellow maps have a 150% increased drop rate and others have a 300% drop rate?

What’s a map implicit or explicit? What does a 3% increase do?

What are Citadels? How do I find Citadels?

How do the expeditions work? Where do I even find books? How do the merchants work?

How do Soul cores work? Where do they even drop?

How does crafting work? Is this base good, is that base good? What are good targets for Alchemy orbs?

How do Breaches and Deliriums work? How does their mats work?

5) I feel like I don’t understand the stats.

Still a problem.

What are implicits?

What are affixes and suffixes, and how do I tell? How many can an item have of each? What are my odds of getting certain stats?

What does quality do?

How do I add passive nodes to amulets?

What’s my base crit chance? What does adding 83% chance to crit for spells do?

What’s my base cast speed? Is it per spell? Is it applied differently per spell if I have 60% increases cast speed or does it reduced some base cast speed I don’t even know about?

What the heck is my stun threshold, and what does adding 12% to it do? What doss adding 90 to it do? 250? 500?

What’s my base spell damage, cold damage, fire damage? Which one is calculated first if I have spell damage and then cold damage?

The game doesn’t tell me jack except for the main stats, and mana and health. It’s almost impossible to make gearing decisions when I don’t know what anything does.

6) Multiplayer wasn’t fun or encouraged.

POE1 was largely solo play and mapping was anathema because if you had 6 people everyone only had 1 life.

POE2 seems to be doing the same kind of thing. One life in maps, can’t revive each other, can barely see the screen because of so many effects going off, minion players make seeing anything almost impossible..

I have had some good times in POE2 with multiplayer. However, the endgame it doesn’t really encourage grouping. That’s fine, if that’s not the direction everyone wants to go. I’d like a neutral base, though, so I could group and not feel like it’s a punishment.

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Point being, this is a brand new game, but it seems like the worst things followed it over. And there’s any chance they’re going to be addressed, it’s going to be now, right?

Maybe with the loot thing, what we need is an explanation of what the devs think we should be doing. Should we be crafting our gear? Then we’re gonna need some tools to reliably do that. Should we be buying our gear and thriving off the market? Then we need more ways to acquire currency.

I realize a lot of these questions might have Google or Wiki answers. But those were gained somehow. IMO, the game needs to be a lot better at explaining how things work so players A) don’t feel overwhelmed - which was a very common criticism of POE1 - and B) can make educated guesses about gear and progress and skill points.