Collection of suggestions for 0.5

Long story short. I am playing POE2 EA since it release. Participated in all major updates except 0.2 Total playtime currently - 900 hours. I am no mean "pro" in this game. Just enjoying the game doing my own stuff. Some stuff I want to talk about here.

Mandatory campaign needs to be removed.
It takes 13-15 hours to beat the campaign for one character. (Several days basically for the employed ppl) Maybe faster depends on the build. I know you put much effort into this but... Doing this for 20-30 times is already too much for me. I am afraid it will be even longer once you add act 5 into it. You are too slow. Maps are too big. Too much dead ends. Too much backtracking.
I prefer the pacing of the endgame. Where everything works, where your speed is optimal enough to satisfy you. In my case, not too fast but aint slow either. I am not the only one who asking for alternative leveling method that will not lock you in progression because you being story gated all the time. Just unlock all the zones in the campaign so ppl can level up faster and where they want to level up. Slap some "Sandbox mode" into it or something like that. Of course it's not an replacement for the original campaign only the mode that will exist alongside it.

Plus X Levels to Skill needs to go from the weapon
Basically this stat is mandatory on the weapon and making so many possibly good items without it, unviable. As well as certain uniques. Rework all the weapons that way so they will have better stats depends on level of item. For example Spear having T1 affix like 90% Increased Elemental Damage can be pushed up to 180% instead. And so on. Or alternatively...

Increase the power Passive Tree nodes
To be honest there is too much power comes from the weapon alone which is a problem. Some Notables can give you a good Oomph, but outside of that everything feels non-impactful and mediocre. It also feels that way because too much power come from the weapon alone and passive tree barely contributes to anything.
Most of the time you spending like half of your passive points into attributes because you forced to solve your attributes every time. It's not a bad thing but it is what it is.

Infusion mechanic for Spells is bad design choice
Nothing feels good about it. It feels restrictive. You need to jump hoops before doing good damage. Especially in the campaign early spells can be a torture to play. When you not doing consistent damage in this game - it means you are vulnerable. It means you are potential walking corpse. Blow the monster with Living Bomb to generate a Fire Infusion, Cast Orb of Storms to get a Lightning Infusion. It's all downtime. Spells have been good enough in 0.1, what are we doing here?

Stormweaver is on existential crisis
Chronomancer despite being niche ascendancy still can give you a full picture what is all about. Stormweaver in other hand seems like doesn't know what it want to be.
Storm Recollection feels like a mandatory solution to a problem that you are created with forcing us to juggle Infusions. But if you look at it closely it's an glorified Remnant Potency III support gem
Elelemental Storm is good for only one thing. Applying elemental exposure with support gem. And thats it. Nothing about it looks good. Mostly it's an waste of ascendancy point. It doesn't even giving you an Infusion.
I strongly feel that Stormweaver should live up it's given name and provide a unique way to play spells. Chronomancer and Varashta can do that. An unique way to play spells that cannot be replicated by other classes.

Remove or rework Flameblast spell skill
It simply doesn't work in this game where everything trying to rushdown kill you. Simply too much effort for no output. Fire Spells still in some iffy state to this day.

Dueling Wand overshadowing every other wands in the game and make them undesireable to craft
It all boils down to imprinted skills that other wands have, that is too much niche compare to Spellslinger. Which makes Dueling Wand the wand that doesn't even have it's own model in the game since 0.3, more appealing.

Consider to make several methods to complete the map in the endgame outside of every time killing the map boss
For example if you place Breach Precursor Tablet you can complete the map by finishing the Breach run or killing the map bosses. That would greatly improve mapping in my opinion making map more flexible for farming mechanics.


And I feel like thats it from me. I am still enjoying the game. I am like 250 hours in this League already and still playing from time to time. This is a collection of my thought. Well I am not good at giving solutions I am not a game designer but want to help you improve the game anyway.

Share guys your opinions about this.

1. +1
2. +1
3. +1
4. +1
5. +1
6. +1
7. +1
8. +1

Mandatory campaign skip - big disagree from me, not to mention they simply won`t do that so don`t even bother. Too much effort put into campaign. Also they made it much smoother to finish campaign already.

+x level on weapon - how about other mandatory stats? ms on boots, spirit on amu/chest? Should they be removed too?

Infusions - guess its a design alligning with vision of combo/build up gameplay.

Flameblast - Hey GGG Remove all skills default_mp3 ain`t using from game. NOW! Are You aware there are people playing flameblast and having a lot of fun as it is?

Dueling Wand - well, +1 for that. It`s narrowing wand meta too much.

"

SalamiHaze#9389 wrote:

Mandatory campaign skip - big disagree from me, not to mention they simply won`t do that so don`t even bother. Too much effort put into campaign. Also they made it much smoother to finish campaign already.

Guess I'm not explained it correctly. I want alternative method for leveling that can exists alongside the og campaign. Or make it work after you do the campaign properly at the start of new league.

As far as a campaign skip, I get both sides. Yes the campaign is a big part of the experience and should be ran to completion upon league start. However there should be an OPTIONAL way to level to after that. If you want to skip it you can or if you want to play through it, you can. Especially if you play multiple builds.

"

default_mp3#9394 wrote:

Mandatory campaign needs to be removed.
It takes 13-15 hours to beat the campaign for one character. (Several days basically for the employed ppl) Maybe faster depends on the build. I know you put much effort into this but... Doing this for 20-30 times is already too much for me. I am afraid it will be even longer once you add act 5 into it. You are too slow. Maps are too big. Too much dead ends. Too much backtracking.
I prefer the pacing of the endgame. Where everything works, where your speed is optimal enough to satisfy you. In my case, not too fast but aint slow either. I am not the only one who asking for alternative leveling method that will not lock you in progression because you being story gated all the time. Just unlock all the zones in the campaign so ppl can level up faster and where they want to level up. Slap some "Sandbox mode" into it or something like that. Of course it's not an replacement for the original campaign only the mode that will exist alongside it.

I think there could be a middle ground here that doesn’t remove the campaign or hurt immersion.

GGG could keep the campaign mandatory for the first character of a league, but allow an alternative leveling option for characters created after that.
For example: once you complete the campaign on your first character, and maybe reach a certain early endgame milestone (like clearing maps up to a specific tier, say Tier 5), you unlock a campaign skip for subsequent characters.

When you create a new character and use the skip, you would start at a pre-set level (around 65, for example), with:

-a pre-configured passive tree (but with a free full respec)
-basic starter gear that cannot be traded, sold, or used by other characters
-gear that can only be replaced by items you personally drop on that character
-cannot send trades or invite other players who haven’t completed the campaign yet, at least until they reach a certain progression point.

This way the campaign still matters, immersion is preserved, and players who enjoy rerolling or experimenting with builds don’t have to repeat the full campaign 20+ times every league.


It wouldn’t replace the campaign, just exist alongside it as an unlocked option.

"

Babonzo#0016 wrote:

When you create a new character and use the skip, you would start at a pre-set level (around 65, for example), with:

-a pre-configured passive tree (but with a free full respec)
-basic starter gear that cannot be traded, sold, or used by other characters
-gear that can only be replaced by items you personally drop on that character
-cannot send trades or invite other players who haven’t completed the campaign yet, at least until they reach a certain progression point.

This way the campaign still matters, immersion is preserved, and players who enjoy rerolling or experimenting with builds don’t have to repeat the full campaign 20+ times every league.


It wouldn’t replace the campaign, just exist alongside it as an unlocked option.

This is too much complicated to be honest. Starting from 65 will be much boring in my opinion. Leveling characters from zero is still fun.
Here is the thing.
You start in the Riverbank as usual. Once you reach Clearfell - every zone in the game is unlocked. Except the Ziggurat Refuge till you reach like level 60. You still need to level up, you still need to do side quests for stats. Yet there is no story gates, you can jump in any map as long as you powerful enough to do so. Which means you can level up much faster. Like 5-7 hours which is more bearable.