Endgame Readability and Why Off-Screen Clear Becomes Mandatory

With the upcoming League focusing on endgame, visual readability and gameplay flow deserve closer attention

Readability is not the same as difficulty.
The core issue is not that endgame content is hard, but that it often lacks clear visual information. Dying because you made a mistake is fair; dying because you couldn’t reasonably understand what was happening on screen is not. When multiple effects overlap, players are frequently punished without having the tools to react meaningfully.

Reactive punishment versus preventive gameplay.
Many endgame deaths happen after you have already entered a dangerous area, with little to no opportunity to respond.
This naturally pushes players toward a preventive playstyle: killing enemies off-screen, stacking speed, and removing threats before they can act.
This meta doesn’t emerge because it is inherently fun, but because it is the most rational way to survive.

Loss of identity in overlapping mechanics.
When multiple mechanics stack together — league content, rare modifiers, map mods — they lose both visual and mechanical identity.
Instead of distinct, readable encounters, they become visual noise.
If the next League focuses on expanding endgame, adding more layers without addressing this issue risks making the experience even less readable.

Inconsistent learning between campaign and endgame.
The campaign encourages positioning, timing, and reactive gameplay.
Endgame, on the other hand, rewards speed, range, and risk removal.
This creates a disconnect where the skills players learn during the campaign are no longer applicable later on, which can be especially confusing and punishing for newer players entering endgame for the first time.

Fast endgame does not have to mean chaotic endgame.
Speed and efficiency are not the problem.
The problem is that, in the current state of the game, speed and efficiency become the only reliable way to survive. A fast endgame can still be readable and fair, but without better visual clarity and mechanical telegraphing, players will always gravitate toward off-screen clears as the safest solution.

When you say offscreen clears,
you mean something like spamming sparks in an area where i haven't been yet right?

I agree with the readability statement for endgame, especially from what i have seen from players around lvl 90.

It's like being max level in megabonk with millions of bananas flying in a spiral.

I'm not going to lie, playing an indie game like that is what made me want to try POE2.

but i still agree, all of the passive points stacked up with some support skills and it gets crazy.

for example trying to see the cull orb when there are living lightnings flying around and the sparks are all over.

it's mostly an endgame problem and I do enjoy the gameplay readability during the acts a lot.

in terms of FOV

map developers should consider the aspect ratio of monitors.
for example moving upwards and downwards gives you less FOV of what is ahead,
while traveling left or right of the screen gives you more FOV of what is ahead.

so ergonomically it would be nice to have dungeons that are linear horizontal

+1

Speed, Offscreen and Autobombing became necessary when they enemy are fast, offscreen, one shot, clusterfk aoe/puddle.

I want to see a slower, methodological POE2 adhering to it's original campaign when it's more about timing, positioning rather speed speed speed coz I don't have the reflex for that.

Alot people don't have the reflex to reach to everything being thrown. Those 3 end up being a necessity, because it's the only solution.