Feedback from a long time poe player

Hi. On the launch of 0.2 I was extremely disappointed. I came back to 0.2 about a week before the loot patch came out. Trying out lich/minions to do something new. I've never played minions outside of leveling through campaign a few times. Not really my thing but Its working decently.

Loot feels like it is a ok spot right now. But I think divines should be more common overall. So we can actually use them to divine items and not just a trade currency.

The new corruption nexus thing is cool. cleansed maps are also cool/fun. The change to towers is ok too but there aren't enough of them.

I really dislike the change to the portal/attempts system. Juiced maps are essentially hardcore in softcore. It doesn't really make sense. Portals in poe generally disappear when used. Having 1 stay open an unlimited amount of times until you die doesn't make sense in poe lore. Portal MTX look better with 6 portals. Map device looks better with 6 portals around it. And no I'm not dying all the time lol.

Minions are bad. Not enough choices. Not enough ways to scale their damage. There is really only + gem levels or %damage. There are a few sources of crit but not enough to make it viable. They are dumb to say the least. Often standing in hazards like burning ground. Often lose focus and all attack different mobs in dense maps. The minion command button (~) makes them stand still for too long making it kind of dangerous to use.

Companions need a better way to farm. The spirit required is also too high for what they give. Its 40% spirit for 1 aura. Companions don't seem to do enough damage to make them useful outside of aurabot.

The downside on support gems need to stop/be removed. A lot of the downsides make the gem not worth using at all. Some of the downsides are outright toxic. Overcharge now reflects the shock back to you. If you are invested into shock you are going to shock yourself for 80+ effect and anything will 1 shot you. Its not fun or engaging its just dumb.

The removal of jewel sockets was a HORRIBLE change. I can't stress that horrible part enough. The tree feels empty. Jewels were good for the game. They helped more builds be viable. It allows creativity. If you weren't happy with the power of jewels then nerfing the specific modifiers or unique jewels directly would have been a much better choice. Removing sockets feels like a rushed/lazy choice.

Some of the nodes on the tree were nerfed in weird ways. For example the quiver bonus section was changed to have stun buildup. Stuff like that will never get spec'd. It would be better to have that section stay as a quiver bonus but nerf the values. Or just remove those nodes entirely.

The skill tree has a lot of downside mixed on subjectively good nodes. While this sometimes can be ok depending on the tradeoff I think it is being used too much. Reserve downsides on the tree for big nodes or keystones. Like vaal pact or "cooked". Those needs a downside or it would be too strong. All the nodes with or like reduced attack speed increased attack damage should be reworked.

Build diversity is at an all-time low. Low powered skills need buffs. High powered skills need small nerfs. Please stop making giant changes. Making many changes at once rarely leads to a better balance. I believe you should suspend the midleague nerfs/changes thing until the game is out on full release. This will allow you to make more frequent balance changes and get skills in a better balance faster.

We need a lot more skills & support gems which I'm sure are on the way. We are only allowed to use 1 of each support which is very limiting. Giving us more supports to counter this would make it acceptable.

With most things you do not understand that downsides offer the good identity. For hammers for example it open gate to make much more powerfull nodes that lower the attack speed and without it so we have just generic +5 to dmg.

if you like your poe 1 go back to your poe 1 with ideas that are great to poe 1 and not to poe 2 which is goin to have more "class identity" with it's systems.