I just can't really find myself liking PoE2, for several reasons

inb4 "it's beta". Yes I'm very well aware of that fact. This is the best time as any to bring up my issues with the game now, in fact, before everything essentially becomes set in stone when 1.0 eventually happens.

1. Summoning feels "Diablo 3"-ified
This is my most passionate opinion, so it shall be my first reason. I came to Path of Exile in 2012 as a diehard Diablo 2 fan, disgusted by how badly Diablo 3 turned out to be. The necromancer was gone, replaced with a witchdoctor who was more of a jungle-themed spellcaster than a summoner (only had gargantuan as a permanent summon). PoE 1 gave me everything I wanted from a summoner necro, even expanded upon it. I'd go so far to say GGG perfected it to such an extent that no other ARPG can compete. Whoever was in charge of summons must've been passionate about it, and it's made the game so much better to play for me.

I won't mince words here, but what the hell happened with summoning in PoE2? Your permanent minions take up aura resource and can be summoned passively without corpses. Your temporary summons require corpses, but not all bosses have adds or too few to matter. Desecrate doesn't exist (last I played). The only good minions are arsonists due to synergy with fire spells which in turn synergize with SRS. There is no true dedicated summoner ascendancy.

Look at how they massacred my boy! GGG took everything that made summoning great and made it feel similar to the necromancer in Diablo 3. If I wanted such a horribly gutted and streamlined archetype, I wouldn't be playing Path of Exile.

Where's the passionate developer(s) who made PoE1 summoning? Did you lay them off? Please hire them back.

2. Conflict in game pacing
One thing I will say I like about PoE2 is that GGG tried to make the campaign slow, more tactical, with bosses you have to be more strategic against or risk being punished harshly. This is good, bringing everyone down to the same speed and pacing so no one build will feel meta for currency farming over another. I was under the impression this would remain consistent even into the endgame.

Turns out I was wrong. The pacing changes considerably when you reach endgame. Of all the leagues you could've taken from PoE1, why did you mostly reintroduce the timed leagues to the main mapping content? You can't feasibly encourage slow gameplay then foist content that demands breakneck speeds to get any reasonable reward. This is a huge conflict in interest on what the endgame should be, especially where pacing is concerned.

And this doesn't even cover how important it is to run this content for the rewards in order to sustain your maps. If your build is too slow (ex. summoner), you're absolutely screwed in map sustain since you can't run this content.

In fact, I ran out of T6 waystones for the progression quest due to lack of sustain from not engaging in Breach and Delirium, which lead me to making this thread in the first place.

And speaking of rewards...

3. If you don't build around IIR, you'll forever be poor
With the atlas passive being close to nonexistent, getting currency to afford better gear for your build is very important. It's been well established at this point that stacking high IIR grants you a lot more divines than you otherwise would find without it. So not only do you need to pay a lot for the stats you need to be strong and/or defensive, you'll also have to pay a premium to add IIR on top of that.

Can you run without it? Sure. Will you regret not running it? Absolutely. Good luck being able to afford better gear without spending several times longer farming.

bump

The pacing for me felt off. Very slow gameplay for the acts, then all of the sudden you're zooming.

I would've expected a gradual climb, or for it to stay relatively the same. Not be so drastic.

As for the IIR. I've made many posts about loot in this game being god awful. ARPG's are about the loot. I love magic find in some ARPG's, but the base game also needs to be adequate, and PoE just isn't.

Exploding enemies is only fun for so long till you get bored, because you're not getting that reward.

I know nothing about summoning in PoE 2. So i won't comment on that.

The discrepancy between campaign and end game is really sad, and the worst part is that ggg can't see the problem they created

I'm not asking for a dark souls clone when i say i want a more meaningful combat, i just want poe 2 to be it's own game and not poe 1.5

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Vyend#2601 wrote:

the worst part is that ggg can't see the problem they created

I'm sure they see it, just decided to pretend that it doesn't exist. I have no idea what's their plan is, hoping that it will disappear if they ignore it long enough? Well, I guess they will not be able to ignore it anymore after few seasons with constantly decreasing player base each season.

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Suchka_777#4336 wrote:

"

Vyend#2601 wrote:

the worst part is that ggg can't see the problem they created

I'm sure they see it, just decided to pretend that it doesn't exist. I have no idea what's their plan is, hoping that it will disappear if they ignore it long enough? Well, I guess they will not be able to ignore it anymore after few seasons with constantly decreasing player base each season.

I learned how stubborn and old fashioned ggg can get sometimes so i don't think they see this as a problem, at least for now

But if enough ppl constantly points it out then MAYBE we can get it to change one day, they already did this with flasks after numerous playtests of ppl telling them the exact same thing so yeah, there's a small chance

"

Vyend#2601 wrote:

I learned how stubborn and old fashioned ggg can get sometimes so i don't think they see this as a problem, at least for now

It seems weird for me, that they decided to not give any interviews to streamers who play Poe 2, only to some gut who don't care much about it. They probably don't want answer hard questions, so they aware the problem exist. Maybe they stopped being transparent and communicate for some other reason, but maybe they are trying to avoid addressing those issues.

"

Vyend#2601 wrote:

if enough ppl constantly points it out then MAYBE we can get it to change one day

When enough people leave the game, they certainly will think about it more seriously.

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Vyend#2601 wrote:

"

Suchka_777#4336 wrote:

"

Vyend#2601 wrote:

the worst part is that ggg can't see the problem they created

I'm sure they see it, just decided to pretend that it doesn't exist. I have no idea what's their plan is, hoping that it will disappear if they ignore it long enough? Well, I guess they will not be able to ignore it anymore after few seasons with constantly decreasing player base each season.

I learned how stubborn and old fashioned ggg can get sometimes so i don't think they see this as a problem, at least for now

But if enough ppl constantly points it out then MAYBE we can get it to change one day, they already did this with flasks after numerous playtests of ppl telling them the exact same thing so yeah, there's a small chance

The way I consider it, is PoE 1 and 2 is their child and they have very high "standards" their 'child' has to meet. PoE2 has even higher standards in order to be their favourite child. That's why, I believe.

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They probably don't want answer hard questions, so they aware the problem exist. Maybe they stopped being transparent and communicate for some other reason, but maybe they are trying to avoid addressing those issues.

The answer is they know they f up completely with everything concerning balance everywhere at its very core (skills, supports, items, trees, monsters) and this is too hard to fix so they decided to simply ignore it (prenending that everything is actually okay) as long as people keep playing the game and buying tabs/packs.

+1000

You don't have that avatar for no reason, Agree on all counts.