The Game Just Ain't Catching Me

Finally decided to call it quits with POE2 0.3

Overall, some good, some bad.

First, the good.

Act 4 is really really good. It is incredibly well designed, the storyline is fantastic, and it contains actually entertaining zones. Really interesting boss fights, and the challenge level felt right.
The campaign is quickly becoming a marvel of design. That being said, it does run quite a bit longer than you'd expect, and im not sure "twink" uniques or leveling will alter it so much it won't just inevitably become a slog each league. It will probably need a trim here and there.

Now, the not-so-good.

I don't know how you can make a game as in-depth and interesting as POE, and then just change almost everything in an almost arbitrary way.
The passive tree is underbaked and underpowered. I have encountered way too much pendulum and give-and-take or earn-and-spend mechanics, and I feel that these types of mechanics hurt any possibility of smooth gameplay. Unfortunately, as a result, the skills that *dont* rely on these effects become instantly meta (cough lightning arrow deadeye).

I'm not saying any of these skills and passives aren't able to take the endgame down, to be it wasn't super fun playing them, and not interesting when trying to theorycraft it.

Initially leveling through the acts, and I felt like nothing seemed terribly powerful. The tree seems underbaked, and the notables don't impact too much, making each level feel underwhelming. Ascendancies are uneven and a lot of them don't provide meaningful, noticable power or change in gameplay.

Nothing works the same as POE1, and what remains in some elements don't appear to scale similarly even clearly? Ignite is now kinda just a fire bleed. Bleed has like 4 support notables on the tree, and ailments just don't seem to be that powerful as a damage archetype overall (aside from some broken poison interactions and some chaos dot builds).

Crit multi is now crit damage bonus for some reason. The scaling of "As extra damage" now doesn't scale with increased physical damage before conversion like POE1. They changed so much and I don't understand "WHY".

Ascendancy? As I stated earlier, outside of a few powerful ascend notables (e.g. endless munitions, hulking form), nothing feels all that powerful. An entire ascendancy adding a specific skill (that you have to scale) seems just lazy.

Ascending doesn't feel like it provides much power for a lot of builds, and doesn't hit the same power fantasy as POE1. Ascending through sanctum and ultimatum fucking sucks, and if lab 3 is going to be TOTA, i'm just not impressed.

Passive tree? Underbaked. There are too many give-and-take nodes or just boring passives that give conditional damage. Still very little life on the tree, but plenty of ES and evasion. It is difficult to feel more powerful with each level with so many travel nodes and underpowered notables. Jewel slots are hard to get to, and jewels don't have a ton of interesting affixes (no life again, sorry life bois). Unique jewels are the exception, they contain a metric fuck-ton of power.

Gem system? I'm beginning to have a problem with gems and gem slots. The Gem slot system seems cool in theory but JFC piano flask is here but this time its just skill rotations. Pulling off a 5-button combo (with dodge rolls here and there) is exhausting, and if my ascend gives me more buttons to press I'm not sure if i'm playing an ARPG or World of Warcraft. I don't find it fun. Chronomancer seems really cool but I mean what am I going to do with three more skills and buttons to manage alongside my orbs and snaps and novas and bolts?!?

A lot of the newer support gems add weird or wacky mechanics, and some again have downsides. Again, where is the power fantasy? I dropped two six-link jewelers but adding them doesn't seem to provide all that much power to my build (but it will increase mana cost, so yay another problem to fix).
I find it weird that you can't level up your skills without dropping the uncut gems for upgrade, which can effectively stall your build either due to poor RNG or because they are ilvl drop restricted. Again it simply feels bad to play at times.

Itemization? I can give GGG a pass here because its still early access, but IMO, affixes are quite boring, and runes are strictly worse than a crafting bench. Abyss did add a lot to crafting, but again it is going to strictly reward zoomers and farmers who can afford to miss ono the RNG crafts, leaving casuals to just buy their garbage on trade. To me, thats significantly less fun, I want to use my drops but often times I can just buy the item almost exactly what I want on trade for less than the craft to make it (because im not hunting for 5x T1). This needs a lot more work over time. I miss really special, build-defining gear affixes, like influenced gear.

Endgame atlas? Hahahahaha. Welcome to delve 2.0, this time in 3d! ENDLESS AREAS TO EXPLORE. NONE OF IT IS SATISFYING. Its delve with extra steps, and no endpoint or choice. Towers are old atlas sextants only you cant place them yourself. Mini bosses and end game bosses have to be found but you then have to find their keys? I DONT GET WHY THEY ARE DOING THIS WHEN POE1 DID IT SO FUCKING WELL.

Atlas tree? Ridiculously underbaked and mid, almost as if again they are afraid of it being actually powerful or exciting.

The feel of playing the actual game is also not as satisfying as POE1. You feel weaker and slower than in POE1, and not in a good way. Attack times are slow, movement is also slow. Dodge roll and sprint add something, but the more I play, the more im not even sure WASD is a net improvement. It is different, but not sure if its strictly better.

Map layouts are also fucking HUGE, and result in a lot of skipping or backtracking. I like to full-clear maps and I found myself saying, "fuck that" its not worth it after killing the last rare.
Mapping isn't as fun, and I get burned out after a few chained maps. In POE1 I am really excited to set up my atlas and chain farm maps and blast. I find POE2 maps to be waaaaay more exhausting to chain.

Getting to maps in POE1 felt like a new beginning. Each map had to be completed once for the atlas progression, and each map offered a point of progression on the atlas passive tree. This streamlined system was exciting and felt meaningful, because at the end lies GOD MODE MAP/BOSS FARMING with passives and scarabs. The entire journey was fun and exciting (so much that rolling an alt after league start was jarring when you hit maps). In POE2 I just feel lost and directionless, and the "paradox of choice" hits HARD. When you have too many options, nothing feels right. I hope this changes.

TL:DR The game lacks the power fantasy. Its trying to be different, and I find the ways they attempt to differentiate from POE1 to be frustrating and stupefying. Its a beautiful, well-designed game, but the balance and overall development choices are BAFFLING.

You're right. PoE2 doesnt cater the power fantasy. There are only a few builds that can do that right now and these will probably be nerfed, since PoE2 isn't about being almighty powerful.

I think PoE2 tries to be something like Elden Ring when it comes to power scaling. Every boss should be challenging and "meaningful", every encounter you have beaten should feel like a "reward". In Elden Ring, you can only one-shot all bosses with tons of preparation and ingame knowledge. And I think the same is the case in PoE2 (meta-builds with damage calculations etc.).

So I guess if you want your power fantasy to be catered, you need to go to PoE1. I do agree hower, that some ascendencie nodes are really weak and could be simple nodes on the passive tree.

The game has an identity crisis in my opinion and has since 0.1.

Some points I agree with and some I dont

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Act 4 is really really good. It is incredibly well designed, the storyline is fantastic, and it contains actually entertaining zones. Really interesting boss fights, and the challenge level felt right.
The campaign is quickly becoming a marvel of design. That being said, it does run quite a bit longer than you'd expect, and im not sure "twink" uniques or leveling will alter it so much it won't just inevitably become a slog each league. It will probably need a trim here and there.

100% this is so true they did a great job with the acts and even the interlude as well I found really enjoyable.

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I don't know how you can make a game as in-depth and interesting as POE, and then just change almost everything in an almost arbitrary way.
The passive tree is underbaked and underpowered. I have encountered way too much pendulum and give-and-take or earn-and-spend mechanics, and I feel that these types of mechanics hurt any possibility of smooth gameplay. Unfortunately, as a result, the skills that *dont* rely on these effects become instantly meta (cough lightning arrow deadeye).

I agree with this as well, far too many nodes that offer a positive/negative usually either making the build worse or just providing no bonus due to the offset. Also far too many skill interactions, the game is way too fast paced for anyone managing 3 debuffs, cooldowns and dodging the boss at the same time.

Merc is the perfect example of this. I tried using Rapid Fire with the heat and grenades but it was just far too clunky and difficult to manage. Managing the heat was just far too annoying and there was not enough of a payoff for it from what I could see.

I was getting better actuall DPS from Frag Rounds + High Velocity due to having more consistent uptime with the simpler gameplay. Maybe if I practiced Rapid fire but I feel it just lacks and is far too easy to make a mistake.

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Nothing works the same as POE1, and what remains in some elements don't appear to scale similarly even clearly? Ignite is now kinda just a fire bleed. Bleed has like 4 support notables on the tree, and ailments just don't seem to be that powerful as a damage archetype overall (aside from some broken poison interactions and some chaos dot builds).

I don't expect things to work the same as in PoE 1. The game is not meant to be the same. I actually don't mind a lot of the ailment interactions in the game the way they are but they need to figure out a way to actually make the combat better.

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Gem system? I'm beginning to have a problem with gems and gem slots. The Gem slot system seems cool in theory but JFC piano flask is here but this time its just skill rotations. Pulling off a 5-button combo (with dodge rolls here and there) is exhausting, and if my ascend gives me more buttons to press I'm not sure if i'm playing an ARPG or World of Warcraft. I don't find it fun. Chronomancer seems really cool but I mean what am I going to do with three more skills and buttons to manage alongside my orbs and snaps and novas and bolts?!?

The gem system itself is actually fantastic. I absoltely love the way they have created this.

The problem lies with the skills and supports themselves. The supports are atrocious. Honestly the KISS method works best with this Keep it Simple Stupid.

Leave the funky interactions to unique items and give us simple to understand gems that are just there to enhance our skills in meaningful ways.

Now lets talk skills. And oh boy this is a big one,

Mace skills are still far too slow for how fast the game is, as far as I am aware the only truly viable end game is still leap slam? Unless something has changed I have not played one for a while.

Bow skills are far too simple, which is why they are top tier currently, you slap on a bow and quiver, you shoot stuff and it dies. No funky interactions required. You CAN add interactions, EG tornado shot and lightning rods but guess what, you just need to shoot them out. No weird debuff or buff timer to manage once they disapear from teh ground shoot them again.

Spear skills requiring charges with literally only one or two ways of getting charges is just disgusting, and no ways to get charges consistantly on a boss fight when you actually NEED that damage boost.

Anything that grants charges on kill should have X% Chance to grant charges when hitting a unique or rare monster. This would solve this issue and maybe bring some of these charge skills back in line with the top contenders.

Now lets talk infusions, great idea executed poorly. Just give the infusion to the character! WE.DO.NOT.WANT.TO.PICK.THEM.UP there problem solved, lets move on.

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Ascending doesn't feel like it provides much power for a lot of builds, and doesn't hit the same power fantasy as POE1. Ascending through sanctum and ultimatum fucking sucks, and if lab 3 is going to be TOTA, i'm just not impressed.

I don't agree with ascendancy being underpowered at all, ascending is literally build defining for a LOT of the classes. Deadeye, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Lich, Infernalist, Amazon, Ritualist all have nodes that significantly change gearing choices or stat requirement choices.

For this exact reason the trials for ascendency are too steep a curve for most of the builds. Builds that can reliably clear T15 6 affix maps can still struggle to complete a 10 tier ToC this should not be the case.

Saying to avoid ToC and Use Sekhemas instead of just scape goating, Sekhemas can be just as bad if not worse as half your build does not matter. If you rely on regen or life leech as your primary defences then you are royally screwed in Sekhemas as it does nothing for your honor.

PoE 1 Labrynth was simple. It had the traps in it for a bit of a different concept but it did not break builds. The problem with both Sekhemas and ToC is that build either matters too much or not enough. ToC is basically running a t16 map with 100% increased waystone modifiers or something stupid. With some of the most difficult boss fights in the game (Looking at you tornado bird).

Sekhemas basically says screw whatever build your playing, don't get hit.

While these are both intersting mechanics in their own right, gating some of the most build defining aspects of PoE 2 behind these over the top RNG mechanics was a poor move.

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Itemization? I can give GGG a pass here because its still early access, but IMO, affixes are quite boring, and runes are strictly worse than a crafting bench. Abyss did add a lot to crafting, but again it is going to strictly reward zoomers and farmers who can afford to miss ono the RNG crafts, leaving casuals to just buy their garbage on trade. To me, thats significantly less fun, I want to use my drops but often times I can just buy the item almost exactly what I want on trade for less than the craft to make it (because im not hunting for 5x T1). This needs a lot more work over time. I miss really special, build-defining gear affixes, like influenced gear.

I like the itemisation of PoE 2. It needs some work but I think they are on track pretty well with this. A few more build defining uniques to play with and we should be in a good place.

I will continue to say that they need to remove move speed as a stat and increase base character move speed to 40-50%


Overall PoE 2 is not PoE 1 and should not be. It was meant to be a slower game and while a lot of the skills cater to this the monster and boss interactions do not. GGG needs to figure out this balance before release. I would like them to be able to create there concept and maybe it is time to consider seperating bosses from mapping further.

An idea could be to have clear designated AoE and single target skills and put a bit more emphasis on weapon swap passives to maximise your damage with each skill type. Weapon swap feels like it is underused and is a potential to satisfy both the zoomers and those who want more challenge.

Put the challenge in the bosses and have our single target abilities shine in boss fights and give us skills that can zoom maps.

Or just slow down monsters and make the trash monstesrs easier to kill they are just there as cannon fodder then. Make the rares and magic packs more powerful and interesting. This gives us the chance to just blow up tons of trash without risk and, providing that power fantasy and provides a challenge with the occasional rare or magic pack.

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Morghus#4174 wrote:

The game has an identity crisis in my opinion and has since 0.1.

This

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Overall PoE 2 is not PoE 1 and should not be. It was meant to be a slower game and while a lot of the skills cater to this the monster and boss interactions do not. GGG needs to figure out this balance before release. I would like them to be able to create there concept and maybe it is time to consider seperating bosses from mapping further.

Yup, that's currently the main problem with POE2.

It wants to be a "slower and meaningful" game, but the current loot behaviour and mobs in endgame sadly require us to be the exact opposite.

POE2 feels more like an ARPG successor of Warframe than POE1...because ground items are not that great most of the time it's all about zooming through maps afap from rare pack to rare pack and farm certain currency (white bases with negative rarity farm included as "currency").

But the loot behavior is all about zoom zoom and most people even hide rares with the lootfilter.

POE2 is currently a game that wants to be slow with a loot behavior that requires us to go fast...one of the main reason why Deadeye is meta or MS a BIS stat on items and even more worth than damage (because we currently 1-tap the whole game anyway, even with avarage gear...so MS is king).

I hope that till 1.0 they adjust the ground loot to the point that we player are excited about every rare drop becasue it could be one with BIS rolls that can even be build defining....excited about turning every stone, because they could hide amazing rare gloves f.e. better than mirror crafted.

Loot that is exciting to pick up, instead of hiding it with the lootfilter and just zoom for raw Exalts, Divines and other generic stuff.....Loot that is worth it to go slow and spend time in the map to even open the last chest or even a secret room, becaue it could contain an amazing rare. ;)