PoE 2 Feels Clunky Due to Animation Delays and Post-Skill Slowdowns

I've been trying to get into Path of Exile 2, but I keep running into the same issue — the game feels slow and unresponsive, not because of my build or gear, but due to how the animations work.

There's a noticeable delay after using skills or rolling, where my character seems to be "locked" for a moment before I can do anything else. This makes the whole experience feel sluggish and choppy, especially in a game that otherwise demands quick reactions and precise timing.

They should be aiming for more grounded combat and smoother animations, but right now it just feels like I'm constantly being punished for using my abilities. The flow of combat gets interrupted too often, and it takes away from the excitement and fluidity that ARPGs are known for.

What's worse is that I'm playing a Lich build that doesn't even rely on active skill use — my spectres handle most of the work. But even then, the game still feels clunky and borderline unplayable due to the constant post-action slowdowns and animation locks.

Anyone else feeling this way? I really want to love the game, but the current feel of moment-to-moment gameplay is dragging it down for me.

is it just me?

You're not alone at all. That's one of the reasons people are actually using the basic attack so much. It's one of the few things in the game that matches this more manual gameplay because you just press a button, and something immediately takes damage. Lightning Spear is the same.

But so many of the other skills are just a component of these combos where you basically have to maintain the equivalent of an MMO raid healer rotation to actually get the full damage out of it... I don't know. The combos and the general speed of combat in this game just don't go together in my opinion.

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GregoryAdams#7051 wrote:

You're not alone at all. That's one of the reasons people are actually using the basic attack so much. It's one of the few things in the game that matches this more manual gameplay because you just press a button, and something immediately takes damage. Lightning Spear is the same.

But so many of the other skills are just a component of these combos where you basically have to maintain the equivalent of an MMO raid healer rotation to actually get the full damage out of it... I don't know. The combos and the general speed of combat in this game just don't go together in my opinion.

The combat would probably feel super fluid if they just got rid of the stalls at the end of every animation. They showed oooooold gameplay footage at one point (before the split between poe1 and 2) and they showed huntress in the footage. Combat looked SO FUN AND FLUID.

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darsoma#4164 wrote:

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GregoryAdams#7051 wrote:

You're not alone at all. That's one of the reasons people are actually using the basic attack so much. It's one of the few things in the game that matches this more manual gameplay because you just press a button, and something immediately takes damage. Lightning Spear is the same.

But so many of the other skills are just a component of these combos where you basically have to maintain the equivalent of an MMO raid healer rotation to actually get the full damage out of it... I don't know. The combos and the general speed of combat in this game just don't go together in my opinion.

The combat would probably feel super fluid if they just got rid of the stalls at the end of every animation. They showed oooooold gameplay footage at one point (before the split between poe1 and 2) and they showed huntress in the footage. Combat looked SO FUN AND FLUID.

Yeah. I kinda feel tricked.

I dunno, I never use any channeling skills or skills with cooldowns

I kind of forgot how much of that shit there is in the game, cause most builds just centre around basic skills you get at lvl 1 and 3 lol

second u. If u play warrior smash BD, the gameplay will be a totally disaster.

I mean I'm on hardcore and I'm grabbing every MS and AS node I can get my hands on, desperately trying to get the game to start to feel more responsive lol. at the sacrifice of damage nodes or other nice-to-have, because speed is a must-to-have and it does feel rather bad needing to reach for so many nodes just to barely get to a tolerable nimbleness.

Skills should work more fluidly with each other without investing heavily into AS/CS. This is the buff players need.

Exactly !!!

The animations are cool and all, but, its too much. Warriors Charge stalls you when you begin the charge, and full out stops you as you end the charge. Just one example, a good example, of how clunky it all feels.

They should get rid of the fucking stalls and stand stills, let the skills smoothly transition to movement. Thats just a movement skill though, other seem entirely to long for what they do.

Roll Slam ... looks cool, but its just way over the top.