Clarification of my expectationa

I just wantes to ask a simple question: POE1 was a power fantasy, pickung certain skills and using the skill tree yielded characters that can steam roll through the game with a time investment.

POE2 in its current state, feels more like a power struggle (Ive been playing melee) Ive noticed that I habe to maintain good gear, although I hit hard, I can die just as quickly if I am not careful. It is as if I am always slightly weaker than the enemy struggling to get the upper hand.

Is it intentional to make some classes play like a power fantasy while others are more of a power struggle?

Also armor,vs energy shield vs evasion, should these defenses be equal after with investment? Currently it feels like energy shield is powerful conpares to armor and evasion.

Should this game get easier approaching end game or be a constant steuggle bwing just strong enough? I am just twmpering my expectations.

Thanks!

To me PoE 1 and 2 are very similar in that sense. But for PoE 1 you have more than 10 years of balancing whereas PoE 2 is still in early access with no balancing whatsoever.

Furthermore because PoE 1 is that old, it is pretty much completely solved. The strongest builds are widely known and basically every starter build is strong enough to go through the campaign naked, finish the atlas in magic items and kill pinnacle bosses. If you go in blind it might very well be the same struggle.

Then you have the specialized builds that delete pinnacle bosses in a second, or the other ones that can tank pretty much everything or whatever else. In PoE 2 that is simply missing knowledge. Although some outliers are already there.

In the end 90% comes down to investment. With enough currency invested almost every build can do everything. But the "better" builds can usually do it with less investment.