A question for the community regarding GGG's Vision for POE2.

Based off how the latest update reads and the past couple of interviews, it feels like the devs have abandoned the original vision of engaging combat and that the goal is now just to provide more options for zooming builds in the late game either through lowering the peaks and raising the valleys or by introducing more build defining uniques.

I want an ARPG that has engaging combat and non-trivialized content. In my ideal ARPG, anyone trying to experience a trivialized, immortal character, idol farmer gameplay should be forced to play severely underleveled content. I think whatever is the most efficient content to farm should require responsive combat, fast thinking tactics, and it should reward strategy.

This is the single most important topic I want to hear from the devs. Are they going to spend all this time and artistry creating another idol farming endgame because they were too successful on launch with their initial vision or are they going to attempt something new within the genre? There is clear demand for trivialized content, there's nothing wrong with that gameplay and I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yum. To me, however, abandoning the premise of engaging combat for the safer PoE1 experience would be abandoning the vision they sold my friends and I on.

I’m down with their stated intent - 1.5 to 3 minutes of time to clear the hardest boss your build can handle. It’s not about the 300 divine build taking 3 minutes to clear and the unoptimized build taking 30; it’s about the 300 divine build taking 1.5 minutes to clear T4 pinnacle bosses, while the unoptimized build takes 3 minutes to clear T1, and would be foolish to try T4. *that’s* the sweet spot of balance you shoot for.

If they want slower more engaging fighting, then they need to seriously tone down the exp loss on death.

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CovidPatientZero#0332 wrote:

If they want slower more engaging fighting, then they need to seriously tone down the exp loss on death.

Agreed. Max of 5% loss, with it going down to the closest 5% marker whether that’s a 0% loss or a 4.9% loss, preserves what seems to be their design intent while making it far less punishing and would help build diversity among many other things.

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GiantOctopodes#2562 wrote:

I’m down with their stated intent - 1.5 to 3 minutes of time to clear the hardest boss your build can handle. It’s not about the 300 divine build taking 3 minutes to clear and the unoptimized build taking 30; it’s about the 300 divine build taking 1.5 minutes to clear T4 pinnacle bosses, while the unoptimized build takes 3 minutes to clear T1, and would be foolish to try T4. *that’s* the sweet spot of balance you shoot for.

Except they said that with very good items, it's fine if you one-shot pinnacle bosses, no problem with balance in this case. Just not with bad items.

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PowderD#2198 wrote:

I think you might have misunderstood me. I mean should any build with enough investment and time be able to trivialize content. Not just the 2-3 busted builds from every league. We all get balance patches, but this is a question of overall vision. Is this a power fantasy or is this dark souls? Thats what I'm asking.

Interesting question. I believe at the base power level (EA) no build should be able to trivialize content, instead, gear progression and perhaps clever interactions with uniques/skills/supports should speed boss killing from 3 minutes to 1 minutes. The progression can be felt as you get better gear.

Defensively, the same should apply.

In the far future when inevitable power creep finds its way in the game through forms of currency, uniques, skill tree, ascendancies and other things we can't predict, I spose trivializing content can be something that happens but it should be reserved for those who have extremely good gear, utilizing every current & future mechanic that they can combined with good game knowledge. The cost should be extremely high and long to grind for. In SSF it should be attainable only for those who grind intensely and utilize game knowledge on how to shorten the journey it takes to become very strong.

Same applies for defences. Just like how a build can tank the memory game in poe1, a build should be able to tank some of the strongest hits the game can deliver, maybe not all, it's hard to say.

I really don't believe that it's good for the game if you can slap on some gear for cheap and run the meta skill gem/supports and just delete bosses.

TL;DR - Gear progression/optimization should steadily reduce time it takes to kill bosses, but it should never be trivialized, especially in EA. Same for defenses. Undecided if you should ever be able to tank one-hits.