PoE2 and what it actually was meant to be: An accounting

So, we are now 6 months into early access. I for one have never played PoE1 (but have played my fair share of arpgs in the past).

As far as I understood it PoE2 was meant to be different from PoE1 in removing bloat, simplifying systems and overall present newcomers with a game that doesn't require thousands of hours of grind to go anywhere. So, let's do an accounting:

XP loss:
To my understanding leveling was made harder in PoE2. And harder once more in patch 0.2.0. The vast majority of maps you run will be lvl80. Being able to run a lvl82 map feels like winning the lottery. XP progression past lvl90 feels like wading through molasses thanks to this and XP loss mechanic on top feels like a kick in the balls punishing you with progression loss.
Every new player I have talked to absolutely hates this. Why is this antiquated progress-loss mechanic that drives away new players still insisted upon?

Itemization and Crafting:
The pure rng nature of drops and crafting makes it so that you will experience a 100 failures for 1 success. Feels terrible. You hit a brick wall in terms of item progression in this game harder than in any other arpg I have ever played.
It makes you rely more on grinding the game like it is your job than any game I ever played. And not even for actual items to use, but for currency, so you can go to a website outside of the game to be robbed of the amazing feeling of a game changing drop and just buy your item.

Reliance on third party services:
I already mentioned how trade, upon which this game absolutely relies if you don't want engage with the infinite time waster that is SSF, makes you go outside of the game and deliberately causes shitty experiences for the player. Why?
The player gets inundated with so many shitty items that they need to install loot filters. Again go to a third party for it. Why?
Tired of sifting through hundreds of maps and tablets in your stash? Go to a thrid party an install a regex instead of us providing you a means to do that. Why?
Absolutely horrid new player experience. I want to play the game not learn third party tools to have an adequate gaming experience.

Monster difficulty:
While I personally like that the game is more difficult, many „casual“ newcomers hate it. I made my gf play. In act 2 endboss she failed like 30 times and had no real means to improve gear or defenses. She gave up on the game and never looked back, sadly. Why not start easy and ramp up the difficulty as you progress through the game? Why completely needlessly bump early game difficulty up to crazy levels like you did in 0.2.0?
I swear, end of act1 and act2 are by far the hardest parts of the game until you hit pinnacle bosses. Why?



How did the game that was meant to be a bloat free, simplified, newcomer-friendly PoE1 turn into Ruthless mode on steroids?

You really should take the chance to play PoE1. You have guzzled the coolaid on it, me thinks. It doesn't take thousands of hours to level or do maps and progress the atlas. It doesn't actually require a PHD to build a character either.

Feel the power.

That is probably the most troll post I have seen. I have plenty of hours in poe1 and yes, it is bloated hardcore. POE2 is starting out larger than the original POE 1 did. It will only get more bloat.

P.S. GGG if you read this post. The old gem system with leveling gems in POE 1 is better and less confusing than POE 2.

XP Loss: It's supposed to take a long time to get to level 100.

Itemization and Crafting: Crafting might as well not be in the game yet. It's coming. Why is trade a bad thing?

3rd Party Services: People have been asking for an auction house. We'll see. Once the Chinese servers are online in-game trade will be a lot easier. If you can't be bothered to learn how to edit a loot filter on a website, what makes you think you'll take the time to make one in the game client? Seriously, go edit one on Filterblade and tell us precisely how it can be made easier. There are too many items and too many variables to make it "simple".

Difficulty: Bro.

People love this game because it is not simple. No more simple. The newcomers who stay will be the type of people this game was meant for in the first place. Less simple. Resist urge to be a simpleton.