(Act 1) A review of PoE 2 so far from a casual player of PoE 1 since Closed Beta

PC casual player since CB in PoE 1. Played almost every league. I am probably not a very good poe player in most people's eyes since I have never fought Sirus/Shaper/Elder/Minotaur. Highest tier maps I've done was T15 and that was in Settlers with the Frostbearers heavily carrying me.

I didn't watch any guides or videos on builds or bosses, I read here and there that Heralds are broken(OP) so I know to stay away from them. I am a hybrid minion, Ember Fus/Spark build. I'm sure most of this has already been said by many but wanted to throw in my two cents for what its worth. This is purely from my own experience, I'm sure everyone else's is different. I am not asking for buffs or nerfs, maybe some quality of life?

I finished Act 1 last night and got a little bit into Act 2. Got my trial and tried that at lvl 23. Out of four attempts, 3 of them failed at the last boss due to running out of resolve. Right now, that would be my biggest gripe of PoE 2. So far, I am loving the game, keep it up GGG.

*** PROS ***

1 - I like the pace so far. Not really into the zoom of poe 1.

2 - Difficulty is nice, died a few time to bosses and had to learn their mechanics.

3 - I like the graphics, but had to disable the DYNAMIC RESOLUTION as it was making it look like NES graphics (RTX 4060 mobile).

4 - No more flask piano.

5 - I'm not totally naked through the first 3 acts of the game anymore.

6 - The music is underrated.

** CONS **

1 - Resolve in trials. I am not the best at poe nor am I the worst but I think its terrible that the quest/area is for level 22 and I'm lvl 23 and I feel I have to play "perfect" to even have a chance of beating the trial. I understand making things difficult, but this isn't difficult, its annoying like eating spaghetti with chopsticks. Losing due to Resolve negates things you've worked on and earned in the game up to this point, flasks, gear, currency. Imagine Steph Curry going back in time to 1920's to play bball, he still shooting all them deep shots but they're worth only 2 points. Taking away something Steph worked on his whole life just cuz you want to make it more difficult or something. I feel terrible for melee players. Maybe after each room, give us the option to spend currency to restore Resolve. Win/Win for everyone, its a currency sync and people have to spend more time in game to farm currency.

2 - The movement in the game feels odd. Like my character has "momentum" or some people stated it was floaty. It should be like poe 1. Movement feels terrible and is annoying to have to re-click to get behind my minions. I remember back in the old madden days on SNES, we would make a big fat 7'0 450lb middle linebacker and called him Taco Salad and when he would miss a tackle, his body would slide on the field for 10 yards. Thats what the movement to me feels like.

3 - Locking spells/ablities to weapons. I know some of poe 1 did this, but it didn't stop you from making builds. Poe2 seems to want to pigeonhole us into weapon types, which is the same as classes to me. Sad. I should be able to melee with an axe and have minions, not be limited to spirit cuz only scepter has it.

4 - Some of the story line or questing to areas make no sense, like the Halani Gates, go there just to be told I can't go there and I need to go back to the Caravan to find out why. Like when the wife tells me to go to Target to pick up some coffee creamer for her while she waits in the car, then when I get back, she needs tampons too. Then when I get back, she needs perfume too. Then when I get back she needs, this and that, rinse and repeat. Like just give me the whole damn list already.

5 - You can only use one type of support gem. Unlike PoE1 where you can have multiple Conc Effect gems you can only use it once in PoE2.

Level 27, I just beat the trial. I got lucky and got a couple rooms that restored Resolve. Doubt I would have beat it without it.

Couple other things I noticed:

** CONS **

1 - Must select Ascendancy at altar, it wouldn't let me select it any other way. Feels terrible if you couldn't decide and decide to go look online more and then game crashes and you have to redo it.

2 - Cannot redo trial after beating it for FREE. I was hoping it would let me back in to do it again for free but nope. Im assuming i will need to find it again or go for trial #2. Sads.

I also much prefer the pace and initial power level of this game versus POE1.
Finally: mobs actually chase you!

I would also agree that a lot of players get hung up on how to progress in Act 2, between the various areas and use of the Desert Map. From a story perspective, I like the flavour but having so many steps is confusing many players and may seem ambiguous.


When it comes to the Trial of the Sekhemas and the later Chaos Trials, be assured that you will start dropping more and more Djinn Barya and Inscribed Ultimatum items from random mobs as you progress in the game.

Many of them will initially not serve to get you your next ascendancy points (as their item level may be too low), but would allow you to repeat the Trials. They each only allow for one attempt, unlike the initial quest items.


As a warning for Act 5 (Act 2 Cruel): the same quest will appear, talking about searching Traitor's Passage in relation to your ascendancy trials. Unlike Act 2, however, Balbala will not drop a quest item and any Baryas dropped in Act 5 will not be sufficient to obtain your third set of ascendancy points. The quest text is currently misleading -- you will find suitable items for your third trial starting in areas of level 60+ (Act 6 and maps).

Don't worry too much, if you can make it through normal cruel is a lot better as u start finding - buying from trade site- much better items..

The Trials are total trash and need to be redone - you'll probably be able to do the 1st 2 trials, the last 2 are a pain in the arse and I was never able to do them on any of the characters I've made so far, I had a helpful person get the last 2 for me on my Titan..

Maps are a Pita - one portal and lose it all when u die, which u will a few times but they are making some decent changes to Mapping so maybe it will get better soon...

GOOD LUCK !!

Fought Jamanra in Act 2, The Spires of Deshar, fight wasn't bad at all except for being body blocked 3 times by his fire breath and it caused me to die. Hopefully that gets fixed.

**LAST POST**

I finished the campaign last week, did some maps, spent most of my time after campagin catching spectres and companions. I feel like this is PoE's attempt to dumb down the skills/trees to be more like D4 but keep it hard for no reason other than to use it as a time sync. I do not feel like my time is respected as much as poe1. My overall thoughts below.


*CONS*

1 - Too many 1 shot mechanics. Alot of the fights, I felt like I won because of RNG, I don't even feel accomplished just glad that it was over. I don't like that feeling.

2 - There is no customization of skills like in PoE1. Feels like I'm going to be pigeonholed into specific things if I want to use certain things.

3 - I never really got used to the 'weight' or 'floaty' feeling of movement. Compared to Last Epoch, D4 and even PoE1, why do the devs feel the need to put everyone on skates? dumb.

4 - Watching some of the interviews where Jonathon has a vision of 'combos' yet we have monsters rushing to our faces and I'm constantly rolling backwards and trying to get instant cast spells off.... feels like Jonathon is playing a different game.

5 - Loot drops are terribad. I do feel underpowered all the time.

6 - Alot of the support gems are useless, alot of skills are very underpowered.

7 - Stop hurting the 99% because the 1% is awesome. I can't NO LIFE this game. I'm ok with stuff being diffult, but again, 1 shots are terribad.

8 - Resolve still sucks.

9 - Loading screens.



*PROS*

1 - Campaign is awesome. Maps system is ok.

2 - I can't think much of pros. The cons def outweight the pros. Last Epoch season 2 is def better than poe2 at this point and poe1 is def better than poe2.

My 2 cents. /endrant