My SSF adventure review in 0.2 (so far)

Greetings

Here is a complete review of my ups and down, aswell as thoughts on this 0.2 update .

Before i delve in, it should be said that I have a good bit of playtime on poe 1 , and my experience could differ from that of a new player .

I decided to play the campaign with ED/Contagion as a Lich .

Act 1 was a breathe , as my build didnt instant kill bosses , I got to engage with some of the mechanics and it is exhilarating to face some punitive mechanics that require you to react accordingly .

In act 2 , I started looking for items worth equipping / socket , i recycled any socketed items I found, but it was not nearly enough ( I know it is a quest reward now).
I did not have difficulties playing through this act, even though I died a couple times due to body block .

Act 3 is where things got a bit more hectic , I tried to wear armor , and increase my Health pool as to not suffer too much from the increase in difficulty ( expecially once you go in the past ) .
Some of those rare monsters and their minions were a bit overwhelming , but is has been fixed during my going through this act .

I found very funny my encounter with this big ass column in the jungle, aswell as the vaal commander , which took me a fair amount of tries to put down .


From cruel onward , I played a lot more carefully , abusing the dodge roll , as most stunning hits proved fatal , it is also where i tried my hand at binding diverse spectres , with any spare gem I had left , and I deemed it a failure as most of those spectres felt weak .

That is in act 3 cruel that I watched some reddit posts and guides , and found about the vaal spectres , which I adopted as I transitionned to a minion build .

My GPU was dying , unfortunately , and I had to wait a week before I resume playing the game , with a new one I bought .
Because I did not have pixel art screen and a growing headache , I had a lot more fun playing the game ( any one that has this issue , I feel you) .

Upon entering maps , I didnt realize that my gear , which topped me at 300 spirit and +4 minion gems was incredibly lucky to have .
Also, I had enough of those minion flashbangs , and used storm mages , which slowed my playthrough quite a bit .

I enjoyed a lot finding rares , and crafting from scratch the base items I found which fit me , since I was not hitting any dps wall so far ( an update had been made about minion base stats ) .

I must have ran around 30 T1 maps before I understood how going to upper map tiers worked , and I wish players had explanations for it .
Still , I wanted to play it slow , and might have done around 10 or less maps of each tiers before going up , which proved a valuable decision, as upgrading my gear started to be harder .

Going around the atlas looking for corruption was fun at first , but once you have done it 7-8 times , it grows frustrating, you already are farming highest tier maps , and could use additionnal content (granted by the precursor tablets) to find interecting items , sadly , it feels bad to not go for more atlas tree points .

On the bright side , I enjoyed learning about the different map layouts , bosses , and knowing which to never enter again , or sparsingly ( sulfuric caverns - vaal factory ) , trying out map modifiers ( not the minus max or the likes, reforge only)

Starting with T12 maps , which i strugled to survive in ( dodge backward upon seeing any enemy until my minions clear it out), I started using my currencies more actively , tried out recombination , and ascended for the 3rd time .

Of course I lost my trial run to being super confused after walking on this clock symbol (4th floor) , and I believe it to be great to learn about trials and error in this specific content .

Getting the Lich defensive node ( about life) was incredible , once I hit around 1k es .

I am now farming T15 maps , trying to get to my 12th corruption nexus , I have not been allowed entry yet into the arbiter of ash encounter ( where are those iron citadels ..) .

Now it should be said that I like the feeling of playing with minions , that take hits for you , and attack ennemies on sight , It is a bit hard to keep those alive at times ( the essence unique map with 2 infinity essence on boss was 10 minutes of running and watching almost instant minion death )


About crafting , it is a bit disheartening to find promising rares/magic items , spam exalt on it and get nothing .

I changed my way of crafting early in maps , picking up any base items that fits me , alch/transmute/identify for a chance at upgrade , and hoarding some specific items/mods for reforging/recombine (it forces you to have a big stash capability though) .

I did some rookie mistakes with the recombinator at first , but now I usually aim to recombine a max tier modifier (+4 minions on scepter for example) with a lesser one I want ( i try to aim for 10%+ chance of the craft) .

It is a bit frustrating that there is now way of getting deterministic chances at minion modifier on items .

I do have way too many ultimatums and barya ( half of it would be enough ) , runes, which i found a bit sad there is no way of salvaging (a bit like cube recipes in d2)

Now , there are things I have issues with :

First is getting anything else than ire/guilt/or greed distillations to anoint my amulet, my build is not complete OP , 4 tiers of rewards on delirium is my max , along with 6 splinters .

Getting exile atlas nodes did not feel meaningfull at all ( they are still as rare as ever ), and if I go for dexterity armor items , the 15 ish I have encountered didt not wear any unique at all (probably RNG though)

The hidden grotto map boss and its invisible burning ground is triggering .

This map modifier : (50% lower quant , 150% higher rarity) did a poof on my contain 1 additionnal unique strongbox ( i still had a magic item though) , I dont believe this should be intended behaviour .

Server issues can be annoying at times .
Also , I noticed having a lasting decrease in action speed when I pause during a lag spike in map ( until i leave/reenter the map).

And finally , this (unique essence map):


He s dead as can be , where is quest reward ?

Thoughs :

All in all , I found the game to be an enjoyment .

I like having a slower game to leave you time to react ( I did rage quite a bit on poe 1 about these ultra mega fast oneshots on juiced content ) .
Indeed I dont have a movement skill , I dont enjoy dying because getting experience is way harder now as of level 92 (it does feel slow) .

Getting gear upgrade is more thrilling with the actual mechanics , aswell as frustrating depending on RNG when you grind and it all goes wrong .

The gem levels and their sockets now are a big part of your scaling , which is a better implementation than in poe 1 .

Piano flask is gone and shall not be missed .

Minion AI (and their misses at max range for storm mages) could need a little improvement , but not relying on tp'ing them all on your position is good .

I am ranged ( even better , ranged minions) and I dread the times I would decide to go for a slow melee build in maps ( they got me to quit the game in 0.1), I did notice some bosses behaviour tends to vary when you are close to them .

Obviously I plan on continuing my SSF playthrough ( playing trade league is about build performance which leads to few build diversity) .

Great game , very different to the numbing off/screen deletion from poe1 , again, dodge roll vs bosses feels good .

Thank you for anyone that read me so far , feel free to comment/reply as my viewpoint is relative .