POE 2 Feels Unfriendly to New Players

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Paragon1#4769 wrote:

I’ve been playing Path of Exile since the 2012 beta, and I’ve always loved the depth and challenge the game offers. For me personally, leveling has never been an issue for the most part, although I do struggle with certain classes at times. That said, for the first time in POE 2—even as a veteran—I find the early leveling experience in a new league to be noticeably rougher than in the past.

What really stands out to me, though, is how discouraging the game feels for new players. I’ve introduced several friends to POE 2 recently, and almost all of them quit in Act 1. They didn’t get far enough to see what makes this game special because the early pacing felt punishing and frustrating. For example, some classes feel like they’re struggling against the game itself from the start, with clunky mechanics, weak damage, or poor defenses before you can even get your build going.

Of course, for veteran players with twink gear, or those who already know how to optimize leveling routes, this isn’t really a problem. Experienced players can blast through the campaign. But the average gamer—especially someone brand new to ARPGs or to POE—will often hit a wall right out of the gate. Watching my friends struggle so badly in the first hour of play, before they’ve even had a chance to enjoy experimenting with builds, was frustrating for me as well. It’s discouraging when you want to share a game you love, only to see people bounce off it immediately.

I’m not one to complain lightly, but I do believe POE 2 would benefit from a closer look at its new player experience. A smoother difficulty curve, more forgiving pacing in the early acts, or some extra support tools (better tutorialization, or just clearer guidance could go a long way toward making the game more welcoming.

POE has always had a reputation for depth, complexity, and mastery—but if the goal is to grow the community, it’s important that new players feel they can enjoy the journey without having to be experts right from the start. Right now, POE 2 risks pushing away the very players it could be winning over.

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Some people like the game to be very complex, very difficult, very annoying, very time-consuming, very time-wasting, a lot of rng to make life hell for the players, a lot of random and unpredictable and unexpected things to surprise and confuse the players. I am one of these people. If such people want things to be easy, then they will not stay around and play poe2. Such people will go play last epoch or play diablo4 or things like that.

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MykroPsykoz#6286 wrote:

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Some people like the game to be very complex, very difficult, very annoying, very time-consuming, very time-wasting, a lot of rng to make life hell for the players, a lot of random and unpredictable and unexpected things to surprise and confuse the players. I am one of these people. If such people want things to be easy, then they will not stay around and play poe2. Such people will go play last epoch or play diablo4 or things like that.

Amen. But that's not the point here, it's about how makes the game less rude in the first hours for newcommers, not nerfing the game.

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but that is exactly the point. if new players are not able to "handle it", are not able to "face up to it", are not able get over the rudeness and the initial shock that they are going to get from the first hours of the game, then it's better that they leave and don't come on board the game.

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MykroPsykoz#6286 wrote:

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but that is exactly the point. if new players are not able to "handle it", are not able to "face up to it", are not able get over the rudeness and the initial shock that they are going to get from the first hours of the game, then it's better that they leave and don't come on board the game.

Here i totally disagree. You want to gatekeep. The thing is, very early game is hard with a lot of class, then in mid game with some stuff and skill setup, it become totally enjoyable. But people dropping the game early don't know it.