Feedback From Across the Playtest

I want to start off by saying that I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of Path of Exile 2's EA. I decided that one of the best uses of my time with the current state of the game was to practice the campaign and really learn it. Many of my characters have been simply doing runs of the campaign, trying to find what works and what doesn't for my tastes. Even at the hardest of the 0.2 patch, I found the campaign enjoyable. For reference, Most of my playtime has been on the warrior class, with some sorc and gemling thrown in.

Another thing I have decided to spend my time on was the endgame. While I mainly play in the trade league, i mainly trade just for some upgrades and other things. I don't play the market or try to buy everything I need. I wanted to try out the crafting systems and get a feel for the game in its entirety.

With all of that being said, I have some issues with the endgame. If I am being honest on what I feel of many complaints in regards to the endgame, I disagree on the core issues that many have. I do not feel that the game kills you too fast, I do not feel like upgrades come in too slowly, I do not dread running any maps. If anything I understand that, especially this early on, devs want to make people run all of the content they are creating, both to see if players respond well to it but also just to have their efforts seen, heard, and played.

That said, I do think that inevitably more player choice needs to be included into the endgame. Coming from Path of Exile 1 where the maps you run, the content you see, the rewards you get are all choices you as the player have and can make, it is a very stark contrast to what we have before us at this time in PoE2's lifecycle. I feel like I have an idea for this.

In Poe 2 we use Waystones to cross the larger world map. I believe this makes sense in the context of what the game has as an endgame currently. But what about the larger context of Path of Exile Lore, with the Eldritch beings, realms, time travel, and the illusion? How can we provide players with more agency? The answer? Maps.

Now let me explain. These are not the maps of Path of Exile 1. Waystones are already used for that purpose. But what if we could collect the pieces to create a new map device, one that lets us delve into the atlas of worlds like never before? A quest chain to find the pieces, to collect something more precious then any waystone. To collect a map. A fragment of reality that opens and creates alternate overworlds, smaller, more idealized, more SHAPED to fit what the player wants. Maps that create a world of breach monsters, leading to boss maps, the breach lords, and their leader. Maps that open into a world where the Vaal have overtaken it all, with Atziri their demonic queen. Maps dominated by the First one and nature waystones. Maps of scourge dominated worlds, maps of eldritch abominations.

Each "map" is a separate world, a separate reality. I don't know whether they should close naturally after you have killed their capstone boss, or give players the option to stay in it indefinitely. That's a numbers/balance thing. The maps waypoints will always have the capstone mechanic, bosses of the mechanic, and focus on specific layouts/maps. This combines increasing the chances of favored maps while minimizing the likelihood of maps the player does not wish to run. Maps give regional positive and negative effects similar to the tower system, but without the harsh gameplay of chasing towers.

Just some thoughts on a possible change to the endgame.

Other random thoughts:
- Crafting feels better as of 0.2.1, but the most useful crafting tools are still too rare for players to use in a normal way. I love that top end crafters can create perfect gear for tons of currency, as they should be able to. I just want to be able to create 85% perfect gear without the same crazy price tag. When there is only 1 good way to create beyond average gear, prices sky rocket. Idk if adding more power into current alternate crafting methods is the correct play, or adding more systems naturally is the preferred choice.

- Can we think about adding base spell damage back to spell weapons? It kills a lot of the potential of certain skills when the only way to heavily scale base damage is + skill level gear. This would also help reduce some of the prices in + skill gear if it didn't add as much as it currently does to skill viability. I realize the "gain as" on spell weapons is supposed to act similarly, but it really doesn't do enough and unless you are able to convert it back into the damage type you want, its not as usable as you might think.

- I believe this has been mentioned in interviews, but could we get rid of the skill speed/attack speed reduction in the warrior side of the tree? I do not believe that having unscalable time in the attacks themselves as WELL as actively hindering speed in the passive tree is ideal. First, it simply does not feel good, especially if you play other classes and realize they hit just as hard and are not effected by these speed hindrances. Which, effect every aspect of the warrior as they rely on movement skills to clear more efficiently, despite being vastly outdone in speed by many classes naturally. Despite stating this, I do appreciate the warrior gameplay. I just don't think it has to be so unnaturally hamstrung, and besides that it devalues scaling attack speed/skill speed by taking away player agency.

- I can't make a post this long without stating that I feel item rarity does not feel like a necessary addition to the affix system and that it causes more harm then it helps. I don't mind rarity being include in soul core systems, because that is alternatively controlled by socket pressure. However, rarity in the gear simply does not promote character strength, it promotes builds that do not rely on item affixes to warpspeed their currency creation. In the end, does justifying item rarity on gear with build diversity make for a better game? Why is this preferrable to a game which allows the builds that can do the hardest content win? I would at least allow the game a brief period of trying out taking the affixes away, and seeing how the game/economy feels without it before disregarding the idea. Even just shifting it into other sources, such as maps/waystones, would be a good starting point.

- Have armor increase "weight" stat. This gives armor a significant purpose other then damage reduction.

Good feedback.

Endgame should be a placeholder that will have massive changes going forward.

I agree that there's too little player agency there, I think the Atlas passive tree is REALLY boring right now especially if you go and compare it with PoE1's where each Atlas point seems to matter and impact your endgame experience.