PoE 2.0 and not so Grinding Gear Games Game

Hi guys after spending 270 hours at the game at this point writing this thread and had multiple friends quiting PoE2 to never return unless some things change drastically i will lay out my thoughts on the game .

First of all i gotta mention that i also got 7000 hours on PoE1 so i got a well understanding of the game .

I consider myself an addicted POE player.
Up until now every League i was willing to do anything to be at the start of every League take Vacation from work play as much as i could even at my age 37 there was no other game that could bring me that excitement.Path of Exile is part of my life along with some good friends that were made on the way.

Now lets talk about PathofExile2

The concept of PathofExile2 has failed me and my friends.GGG has failed me as a company taking proper decisions and thats not something that happened in one night.

The last proper League that was actually fun was Ultimatum for many reasons.GGG has been making terrible just terrible decisions taking fun away from the players and thats something happening consistently the last few years.

Now for PathofExile2 there are some major problems on its fundamental thats is making people quit and never to come back.
I will rank the problems below. Leave your opinions on the subjects if you feel like it.

Number 1 problem:
Skill/Gem System:
Explanation:Personally i understand that GGG wanted to do something different with the gems but taking away the XP grind and Power Walling us on the Campaign is criminal.
Who ever thought,tested and approved the gem system on its current state is a criminal for me.

Number 2 problem:
After death effects:
I think the community had enough with the after death effects and explosions.
Its lazy mechanic it does not offer anything on the game only adds to frustation

Number 3 problem:
XP penalty:
This needs to be removed asap and i hope GGG realy change their mindset and perception on some things because they act like 90 years old Politians and stick on their old fashioned ways

Number 4 problem:
Ascendancies:
Another Example of bad and lazy decision making.Who play tested this and said this is ok for release?? Another Criminal

Number 5 problem:
Crafting:
Game has no crafting what so ever its just gamba braindead casino Exalt spaming for the 99.99% of the player base
Out of all ARPG out there PoE2 has the worst crafting system by far.

Number 6 problem:
Optimisation
The game has terrible optimisation and i am pretty sure this is gonna be it.
Lets not forget PoE1 has never fixed its optimisations issues game runs terrible on endgame. I know they gonna improve it but i dont expect miracles because thats what GGG realy needs on this section.

Unless some drastic decisions are made regarding the fundemendals mechanics of the game PoE2 is just an one time playthough ARPG.

Anyway all the above are my opinion and my friends feedback that i got and i wanted to share.
I hope more people contribute their opinions.
See ya.

As a HC SSF player, I can only agree with 5 and 6. Crafting will probably be improved together with optimisation. Ascendencies are not so bad, but need to be fine-tuned a bit.
Number 3 is just ridiculous to me. If you play standard trading league and still complain about difficulty or XP penalty you are extremely bad at this game. Git gut man.

I agree with 2/5/6.

As for death penalty….just give us the 6 portals to return. Like in PoE1.

Why are support gems so boring? You can't do shit with them. Cant lvl them. Can't add quality. I have to assume they already planned on changing them for release.

Xp penalty only makes sense when your throwing your body at something with 6 portal lives. It's a give and take situation. Giving us one life and xp loss is just a big ass f*** you.

Edit: Losing your map, your drops, and your sanity as well as xp loss is just an insane amount of punishment like seriously. GGG do you want my wedding ring too? You got a PO box i can send it too?

1) I like the new skill system but also agree it removed a useful source of player progression during campaign. I'm fine with how it is though.

2) Agreed, only one i dont mind is the huge guys with the very long, very noticeable detonate after death.

3) Disagree. Without xp penalty character level may as well be tied to distance travelled in game. Item requirement levels stop well below 100. Reaching 100 is an optional source of power and the difference in power gained from a couple skill points isn't much when a character already has 120~

4) I love my infernalists (multiple), can't comment on other classes yet.

5) Agreed. Other than essences most crafting feels like a scratch off lottery ticket, we aren't influencing the odds of what mods get added. Instead it feels like I'm revealinng what was already there but dormant.

6) game runs fairly well for me, but has its kinks still.

I'm going to go out on a limb as say, 270 hours is a lot. Maybe the source of your anger is depression, and not grinding gear games.

The game is pretty decent, better than the competition, and ffs it's still early access.

Try some other hobbies. Somewhere along the line people started expecting a game developer to facilitate every feeling of joy in a person's life by tailoring a game just for them?

Bro. Take a break. Enjoy life.

7) Item filter for consoles and GeforceNow. Without it endgame is unplayable and many ppl will quit soon.

THB, I don't see any changes with crafting until they release all the classes and weapons.

Let me preface this by saying my exposure to PoE1 was showing up on shore, killing some trash tutorial mobs, witnessing the skill tree and immediately "nope"ing out of the game, since Diablo clones have never been my favorite genre to begin with (I don't dislike them, I just fundimentally don't like some of the sacred cows of D2 every game in the genre seems to want to ape). I came into PoE2 because I was told it was trying something different for once, and it peaked my interest, so here I am.

And as a 35 year old man with a family and works full time, I simply don't have the time sink needed to partake in the rat race of leagues outside of just casually approaching them at my own pace. I don't say this because I think anyone would find this interesting moreso as a frame of reference on what this game is from a casual perspective (in this case, casual from a time commitment standpoint, since difficulty itself is not an issue for me per se).


1. Skill/Gems
I may be bias, because I play a Gemling Legionnaire specifically because I wanted freedom to break the Gem system as I saw fit, so it felt like a natural choice for me (I'll never afford the Stat Stacking meta and have cone to terms with that almost immediatly), but my current stance on it is that it's actually extremely cool and I like it a lot, but take away the Gemling perk...yeah, I can see why people don't find it as thrilling as I might. Some of this feels like it will course correct if they decided to introduce more Support Gems to the mix for each attribute, but as it stands today, I can see the frustration.

Skill Gems are cool, attribute/mana costs are too high in a lot of cases. But as an addition to this point, +Skill levels on gear should glst out be removed from the game, while attribute/mana costs in general slightly lowered for the lvl15-20 ones.

2. After Death Effects
I'm just reaching T5 maps, but I really don't understand this issue, and I see it everywhere. The enemies who do it are consistent and are very distinct from the ones who don't. But this is a catch 22 issue, because the solution to this is the polar OPPOSITE of what players zooming through maps wanting to nuke hundreds of enemies for fast loot drops are looking to accomplish; lower the enemy count so you can physically see wyf is going on. But that means less EXP, less loot, less rewards. Personally, I think this is one of the risks you should have for wanting to zip through the maps as fast as possible with zero patience.

3. XP Penalty
Dying needs to have an actual drawback, and EXP loss is clear cut and gets the job done. I've been stuck at lvl75 for a day and a half now. I recognize the issue isn't that I lose EXP from dying, my issue is the manner from which players seem to die, and it's 100% on the fact that there are dozens of enemies on screen at once tossing 1 shot kill attacks at once instead of a few powerful enemies you have drawn out fights against (which I would much prefer). EXP loss on death is only an issue if you die, and dying is only an issue if the cause of death feels unfair.

4. Ascendency
My main issue on this is completely based on the fact you need to farm a key to access them instead of the game giving you unlimited retries. They're already hard enough, but farming keys to even attempt is insult to injury. And while I personally love the trials (when ascendencies AREN'T on the line), some players simply don't have the skills to beat them and neevr will, and alternatives should be provided for these players without gatekeeping them from 70% of the reason they chose the character they did in the first place.

5. "Crafting"
I agree completely. It's pure RNG, and I don't feel like I had any agency on the items I'm dumping resources into, to the point where it's actually detrimental to spend Orbs to make items as it stands. It's akin to using a $100 bill to wipe your dirty ass instead of spending $5 on baby wipes that get the job done 10x better.

6. Optimization
Once again, completely agree. I play on PS5. This game looks like a PS4 game and runs like trash.