The slowdown bug is really terrible, but the inability to pause during it is just unacceptable.

Yes, PoE2 has a very bad bug in some systems where it just gets super slow for about a minute. It seems related to the amount of simultaneous Sound and Visual effects. GPU frequency comes to a grind so it might be related to some system locking the CPU.

But this issue would be far more manageable if we were just allowed to pause the game when it happens. Instead if you press start/escape during a slowdown moment, the input will most likely be ignored. Worse, the AI starts to take over your character and tries to play during the slowdown. You have to try multiple times to press escape until it manages to pause.

I just lost a chance to get my 4th ascendancy point. Was in the last room before the last boss and the run was going great. But of course it picked the worst moment to slow down.