Endgame is unplayable for casual players

I not mind the way things are, I have the time to play but not the health, think best I've got to is T10 maps before running into issues.

But at end of the day it is what it is, my only gripe is the lack of group play, but I've resided myself to the fact POE is now a solo game and always will be, no idea about POE2 as no access to it yet.

Maybe us casual players should all get together and do casual stuff together whenever more than one of us are on. :)

I don’t know if I agree with that. I’m 40ish, not a streamer, only played one league of poe1 to endgame, and I’m playing endgame t15 maps pretty easily. Even got all 4 of my ascendancies by myself. I think the difference is, I’m a researcher. If I don’t know something, I seek it out. Many people don’t/wont bother to do that. There are definitely things that could make the game friendlier to new players, but I would not call it unplayable, unless you don’t put in any effort to learn and understand the game. It’s still a complex game and doubt it will ever be casual to the same extent something like d4 is. If it went that direction, it wouldn’t be POE.

I'm a casual player. Played few leagues of poe 1 as aurabot just helping my brother. In PoE 2 I play monk and easily beat pinnacle boss ob my first try. Guys if you don't understands something it's ok. You can find all the information on YouTube.

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Seonora#7837 wrote:

I am over 45, with two children. I play regularly for fun and slow progression. I still always max out my characters.


After one week trying to progress on the Atlas Map, I came to the conclusion, if you are not a professional, there is no way for a casual player to progress.

[...]

Unlimited unplayable endgame is worse than no endgame.


I would also quote Raxxanterax, that last points of Ascensions are almost impossible to get.

I would have liked to know before starting PoE2.

I've got a wife, a house to renovate, a dog to walk regularly, in short, a life that's not limited to playing on my computer (fortunately or unfortunately, I do miss my 20s a bit, not gonna lie).

the game is extremely punishing and even more difficult if you haven't played the ten or so build metas at the time, and even more so if you only have one or two hours a day to devote to it.

- The game is painfully slow,
- the loot isn't consistent enough in quality, which makes it difficult or impossible to improve your equipment from what you find without farming for very long hours
- crafting is almost non-existent (Russian roulette) and doesn't make up for the lack of loot
- ultra-punitive endgame mechanics (one shot, one death effect, useless armour/escape/life, monster movement speed)
- the layout of the maps and the need to backtrack if a rare watch was hidden in a corner.

All these shortcomings add up to a feeling of progression that can be non-existent over a two-hour gaming session.

When I get home from work in the evening and I've finished walking the dog / eating with my wife / sharing a moment with her, the last thing I want to experience is frustration... With PoE1, no matter what strategy you put in place, you have the feeling that the time invested in your session is ‘rewarding. With PoE2, I have the feeling that I'm wasting my time and I quickly lost the desire to play in the evening after my day's work.

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All these shortcomings add up to a feeling of progression that can be non-existent over a two-hour gaming session.

This exactly summarizes me feeling. No reward for the time invested, and no fun.


I also looked at builds Maxroll for caster:

https://maxroll.gg/poe2/build-guides/frost-mage-infernalist-build-guide

They stack-up as much as possible Energy Shield both on gear and passive tree. Meaning I have to take down my build to follow that unique way to build my character for the end game.

I had the same build since Act 3...

I thought PoE2 was about the liberty to create your own build?


Since, I have uninstalled the game, I am clearly not the targeted audience.

I have same feeling in real life guys. I start learning new things and when I don't see immediate results i feel frustrated and i want to quit. Guys cmon PoE2 is the game when you get results on distance. Just like in life. Trading is thr big part of gaming. Understanding all the of the game mechanics and constant learning. Can you be successful in real life spending 1 or 2 hours per day? Ofc to be good at something you need to invest a lot of time.

ive not even reach further than cruel act 1 and im fed up.
Can't imagine how they will screw your soul up in the end game.

my personal reaons has to do with the boring trials and currently a casual player like myself who is very bad at building characters correctly is too hard. ive tried respecing a billion times with full defense, full energy shield or full damage etc but it looks like you need to be very very precise and hit all the exact balance between things and that's just not casual. that is gamer expert stuff.

poe2 is not for casuals.

Why do nolifes feel the need to come in here and flex over pixels in a game?

There is no skill in this game, the best builds hold one button and skip mechanics.

This game is a gambling machine with trading - you literally kill enemies and roll loot and you do this x100000000000000 times until your gear improves bit by bit.

Random favors people who dump tons of hours into the game, you quickly gloss over the deaths because it starts to become a smaller portion of your game experience, and trails off to near zero once you get a certain amount of power.

I promise if you played SSF you wouldn't be running your mouth.

I'm not a casual player, but I also think their quadruple stack of penalties surrounding maps creates a perceived wall of discouragement. In addition, I just hate the cumbersome map item system with Waystones. They should have innovated on that further and trashed this stupid system for a more streamlined one with the same customization depth of risk vs. reward.

To all the people saying it is easy, yes it is if ur playing one of the few builds able to trash the end game. If this is what u want poe to be it will be a bigger meta fest then poe 1 ever was.

In poe the meme off meta builds actually worked and u had 6 portals so dying wasnt THAT bad. For custimization poe 2 in its current state is reqlly bad. Yes ive done pinnacle and do 15s with ease - but thats a meta spec.

Bring back 6 portals so shit builds stands a chance. Its whats fun about poe.