Can we have slow methodical gameplay from act 1 back please?

Act 1 was the freshest experience I've ever had in an ARPG. It was slow, methodical, and calculative, and combined with the WASD + dodge mechanics, it worked brilliantly. With proper positioning and dodging, it was even possible to defeat Geonor at level 16. It felt like playing Elden Ring within an arpg.

However, by the time you reach endgame T15 mapping, the gameplay takes a completely different turn. At this stage, you're either expected to one-shot everything or be overwhelmed and killed by mobs. The slow and strategic approach of Act 1 is abandoned in favor of frantic, high-paced combat. Honestly, this change begins to show as early as Act 3 Cruel. At this point, the game feels like it's in a "Frankenstein" state, with the campaign heading in one direction while Cruel and mapping take a completely different path.

It would be incredible if the devs revisited the direction they embraced in Act 1 and brought more of that deliberate, tactical gameplay into the later stages of the game.

I think it's easier for GGG to make endgame POE 1.5 :D

sadly you are right :(

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Lebotsumaru#5011 wrote:

Act 1 was the freshest experience I've ever had in an ARPG. It was slow, methodical, and calculative, and combined with the WASD + dodge mechanics, it worked brilliantly. With proper positioning and dodging, it was even possible to defeat Geonor at level 16. It felt like playing Elden Ring within an arpg.

However, by the time you reach endgame T15 mapping, the gameplay takes a completely different turn. At this stage, you're either expected to one-shot everything or be overwhelmed and killed by mobs. The slow and strategic approach of Act 1 is abandoned in favor of frantic, high-paced combat. Honestly, this change begins to show as early as Act 3 Cruel. At this point, the game feels like it's in a "Frankenstein" state, with the campaign heading in one direction while Cruel and mapping take a completely different path.

It would be incredible if the devs revisited the direction they embraced in Act 1 and brought more of that deliberate, tactical gameplay into the later stages of the game.

+1 to that. I do not like zoom-zooming from PoE 1 and I would like to feel heaviness of the fight, as it is on the early stage of the storyline in the PoE 2.

Less dopamine loops, lets face it, the reason people stuck with POE1's endgame.

Clear-Enternewmap-clear-etc etc, the loop was addicting, its like tiktok.
But I can appreciate the forum gameplay too, the youtube gameplay etc.
Hopefully that makes sense. Though to be fair they failed to make the gameplay appropriate.

At first its like "wow! what a thrill to battle these bosses!" but then it gets boring, because every boss just feels like an excuse to flex on the roll mechanic, and it shows. There are lots of things to dodge roll from, when there are too many skills to dodge then it feels like roll spam, and on top of that it feels like we only care for iframes rather than real dodging. Its strange. I didnt like the bosses after act 1, not as much. Again... they felt like they were made with the roll in mind and the game is not path of rolling...

I hope they notice that and address it because its missing some serious elements that even POE1 had, bosses still feel like dps racing pinnatas and disco-ball dodging. Which is fine if you play something like a FFXIV Raid but here it doesnt feel that good. Especially considring all the clutter, clutter on the ground, clutter on the abilities, its everywhere.

Chimera boss with lots of flowers and weird textures on that map and the ground, then it throws some random elements that BLEND with the ground and you cant see why you get damaged, so you roll around like LINK to get out of it.
The experience is not that good.

I really hope the guys at GGG see this, because its important to me that a game can be the best it can possibly be.
Bosses should feel unique, rather than excuses to slap a dodge mechanic on the character (vice versa). Also, big one-shot slaps doesnt equate to good quality gameplay, it does not force our attention, it just makes it frustrating, especially if you cant tell whats going on!

ENDGAME is exactly like poe1 without flamedash or similar, its just a walking version of poe1. Its a bit worse in the sense that you cant be the "mesa" guy or the "defined cathedral" guy, you cant specialize on one map and the bosses can be time consuming to beat, thats alright I suppose. People do not seem to appreciate that when they are used to poe1 though (map-go-map-go) thats probably because the look in poe1 was more filled with smaller stuff that are junk with a loot roll possibility that amongst those thousands of junks you MAY get something good, or great, or legendary etc.

Agree. First 2 acts felt like actually playing the game. Late game is same brain rot as PoE1 and judging by the league selection (time limited enemy spam leagues like Breach, Delirium, Ritual requiring extremely fast builds to be able to do anything completely killing off any slower builds) it's deliberate which I absolutely hate. I quit PoE1 long time ago because I could take that garbage gameplay anymore and had high hopes for PoE2 after all the demos and interviews but I guess my hopes were for nothing.

The problem is, you will never ever loot that much with a slow, methodical gameplay as with the faster. It's a fact. Delirium? You have to run and clear fast, or you get nothing. Breach? Same. Maybe Expedition can be cleared with slow gameplay, but with a faster build you clear 3x more maps and expedition encounter.
The whole game and every mechnaic should be changed if you want a slow and "methodical" gameplay. It would be PoE3. Whole new leauge mechanics, without time limits. Even with that, fast builds will have always the upper hand.
This was always a problem. GGG wants to slow us but in the same time GGG force us to play fast builds with time limited mechanics. In PoE2 is even worse, because the maps are way to big and the layouts are terrible. If you want to play the game effective, you need something fast.
Without full change of the game, slow and methodical gameplay will never ever work.

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Albundy_84#7604 wrote:

The problem is, you will never ever loot that much with a slow, methodical gameplay as with the faster. It's a fact. Delirium? You have to run and clear fast, or you get nothing. Breach? Same. Maybe Expedition can be cleared with slow gameplay, but with a faster build you clear 3x more maps and expedition encounter.
The whole game and every mechnaic should be changed if you want a slow and "methodical" gameplay. It would be PoE3. Whole new leauge mechanics, without time limits. Even with that, fast builds will have always the upper hand.
This was always a problem. GGG wants to slow us but in the same time GGG force us to play fast builds with time limited mechanics. In PoE2 is even worse, because the maps are way to big and the layouts are terrible. If you want to play the game effective, you need something fast.
Without full change of the game, slow and methodical gameplay will never ever work.

That's why all PoE2 leagues need a complete overhaul. Just throw out current Breach, Delirium and Ritual and remake them from scratch. Keep assets and bosses and redo everything else.

There's definitely a disconnect between campaign and endgame.

My warrior felt powerful right to the end of Cruel. Then at endgame everything becomes about density and he's just not fast enough, with lots of mobs around every Rolling slam is a risk of dying before the hit lands. The same methodical approach, while still fun, doesn't feel rewarding it just feels slow and dangerous which has been decreed an illegitimate way to play.

Contrast with my monk where endgame is all about holding one button that has auto-movement, buffing occasionally, drop a bell on the Elites and Bosses. If bosses don't die quickly enough watch out for their big hits and dodge.

High density combined with too many screen effects like mist and darkness means I have no idea what's really happening most of the time, I am just holding attack and praying there isn't some sudden random damage spike from something I can't see (which is pretty much everything). If I think I'm getting surrounded I occasionally dodge roll to reposition and hope there isn't some invisible ground barrier.

But basically my monk is about holding one button while hoping my defenses are sufficient.

My warrior would be much more fun to play but the lack of progression was demoralising.

Josh Strife has put out a good video on this pointing out (among other things) how people are making farming characters to farm the gear for the character they actually want to play. I guess that's somewhat unavoidable in a typical ARPG but the barriers to progression really just punish experimentation and build variety.

It won't happen. There is too much tangible power, too much power in items for that to ever happen.