loading screen takes forever

i double click the POE2 icon on my desktop, the game starts to boot up but takes about 5min to get to the opening screen, after that it seems fine

Which GPU do you have, and what driver version is installed?

all my specs are the same as last league and before, this is a new problem that started this patch

If you're unwilling to provide a non-zero amount of information, it is difficult to see what troubleshooting could be effective.

I ask because, as of Patch 0.3, the game is known to have a compatibility issue with certain driver versions by one of the GPU manufacturers. If you don't want to wait for a fix to be released, the only reliable workaround is to install a driver version outside of the affected range.

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I would also note that, as per my forum signature, GGG has not themselves offered Technical Support for close to a decade now. You're only going to get responses from other members of the community - and if you're not prepared to meaningfully engage with us, the thread is likely to die due to any potential participants writing it off as a waste of their time.

For the 3 days I played this league I had to revert my Nvidia driver to the previous version to fix issues. So try what Sarno is suggesting.