This game still basically has the same problem it's always had

The damage a single monster can do is extremely unbalanced given there are multitudes of monsters on the screen at the same time.

You can go in with 12k ES and stellar defenses otherwise and still get burned down or 1 shot by a single monster in 2 seconds. With lag and terrible optimization there's zero time to react. Not to mention the game allows monsters to act before their shaders have fully loaded so you will have invisible monsters at times as well.

I log in occasionally after hitting 99 and doing all the content just to do a map or something. This is the ONLY game I've ever played where I've maxed out and done all the endgame but can still die in 2 seconds to a normal monster in the normal content.

If you made it rain spikes in super mario it would definitely make the game more challenging, but no one would have played it and it wouldn't be the classic it is today. Everyone would just remember it as " that one game with the plumber and the spikes that sucked"

That's how I feel about path of exile after almost a decade of playing it. I log in and remember how bad the expedience was to get to where my char is now and just log off. It doesn't happen right away, but someday you just realize the game at it's core, is really bad. It's unnecessarily punishing for reasons I've never been able to understand. It doesn't make the game fun or challenging it just makes me not have to struggle to remember why I don't want to play it anymore.

I have 2k divines and yes you can have them.

Its been this way since Poe 1. Don't expect it to change. Maxhit is still king of defensive stats.

The devs straight up said in one of the interviews: "The player should have to die sometimes.".
That perfectly summarizes all the issues with defense balancing.

Wut? 12k ES?

I'm running 1.5k life and 2.7k mana as my defense, and have no issues with the unique precursor breach and abyss over run t16 maps. And I'm a Monk using Reap with no trigger spells.

Not sure if you didn't play PoE1, but lag and desync basically doesn't exist in 2 compared to how that game used to be. If you're having issued with shaders have you tried increasing your cache size?

Enjoying a glass cannon playstyle is fine.

But you frame the gameplay as being fun up until you are:

"

"unnecessarily [punished] for reasons I've never been able to understand"

That reaction makes sense when you’re experiencing the downside of a choice without really engaging with why that downside has to exist.

Those costs are what turn builds into meaningful choices instead of defaults. Without them, damage is just a number, and nothing is really being tested or solved. (ie. you can't have upsides without downsides. It's a fundamental relationship. If you remove one, you also remove the other.)

A glass cannon only works by trading safety for power. When the game enforces that trade, it can feel arbitrary if you expected the upside to stand on its own.

That disconnect will feel even sharper if you’re copying someone else’s build, because then you’re playing inside a solution without needing to understand the problem it was trying to solve.

And yes, I don't care how much of any one stat you have, if you are dying to a normal monster in normal content at level 99, but have the damage to do "all the content", that is the game telling you you are a glass cannon with a glaring hole in your defense somewhere.

These types of posts always fail to mention what kind of mods the map / content had when they supposedly get oneshot by "normal mobs".
If you have "12k ES and stellar defences" you dont just "die in 2 seconds to a normal monster in the normal content".

The fact that plenty of people make it very far in HC is proof that the situation youre describing isnt due to some fault of the game, or lack of tools to build defense, but your ignorance or unwillingness to engage with them.

"

Argonlo#6237 wrote:

These types of posts always fail to mention what kind of mods the map / content had when they supposedly get oneshot by "normal mobs".
If you have "12k ES and stellar defences" you dont just "die in 2 seconds to a normal monster in the normal content".

The fact that plenty of people make it very far in HC is proof that the situation youre describing isnt due to some fault of the game, or lack of tools to build defense, but your ignorance or unwillingness to engage with them.

While gitgud posts always fail to mention that playing "normal content" with "normal mobs" is useless in poe (both poe1 and poe2). Normal content has absolutely no loot, you have to overjuice any content, then inevitably die to unhinged enemy damage scaling. While GGG makes innocent eyes with "juicing was your own choice, so go eat exp penalty".

I wasn't there during first years of poe1, but modern poe is malicious hamster wheel filled with scam mechanics for stalling and rolling back player's progress. GGG intentionally sends normal players into deep pit of frustration to provide the small core of gitgud players with someone to look down at. Since no other arpg does that, here is unique retention motive.

"

Echothesis#7320 wrote:

While gitgud posts always fail to mention that playing "normal content" with "normal mobs" is useless in poe (both poe1 and poe2). Normal content has absolutely no loot, you have to overjuice any content, then inevitably die to unhinged enemy damage scaling. While GGG makes innocent eyes with "juicing was your own choice, so go eat exp penalty".

I wasn't there during first years of poe1, but modern poe is malicious hamster wheel filled with scam mechanics for stalling and rolling back player's progress. GGG intentionally sends normal players into deep pit of frustration to provide the small core of gitgud players with someone to look down at. Since no other arpg does that, here is unique retention motive.

I'm pretty sure everyone agrees it sucks to suck.

What's looked down on in forums is a mentality which postures "get good" as the opposite of "have fun" and is also paired with bad-faith rhetoric like projecting one's own experience onto a hypothetical army of "normal players" in order to lend legitimacy to an opinion or to feedback that boils down to "make the game easier for me".

While technically valid feedback, it's looked down on because it usually falls somewhere on the spectrum between pathetic, lazy, willfully ignorant, and/or entitled.

No one cares if you're bad at a game and you just don't want to play a challenging game, or even if you literally said "I wish the game was easier". No one gets upset that other people have opinions.

It's the bad takes and crappy justifications that people latch onto because when you say something like "you have to overjuice content" you're saying this in the same universe as players who do just fine without overjuicing content. To those people it just seems like you're mad because you're bad - which in all honestly, is usually the case.

But again, it's fine to be bad. Everyone is bad at one point. It's even fine to not want to be good. But if you come here blaming the game, the developers, and everything but yourself for your inability to enjoy or do well in the game, you're going to get that same energy returned to you.

Now, instead of focusing on your experience, try to think why there is so much one-shots and pressure happening.

Infinite player sustain.

You take that away and you can balance the fights. But people will cry because they'd need to use potions well.
Neither solution will make people happy, because those vocal about such issues are those who wants both - zoomzoom and invulnerability.
We cannot have both. Risk of player failure has to be in the game.
Take that into account when complaining please.

"

karsey#2995 wrote:

"

Echothesis#7320 wrote:

While gitgud posts always fail to mention that playing "normal content" with "normal mobs" is useless in poe (both poe1 and poe2). Normal content has absolutely no loot, you have to overjuice any content, then inevitably die to unhinged enemy damage scaling. While GGG makes innocent eyes with "juicing was your own choice, so go eat exp penalty".

I wasn't there during first years of poe1, but modern poe is malicious hamster wheel filled with scam mechanics for stalling and rolling back player's progress. GGG intentionally sends normal players into deep pit of frustration to provide the small core of gitgud players with someone to look down at. Since no other arpg does that, here is unique retention motive.

I'm pretty sure everyone agrees it sucks to suck.

What's looked down on in forums is a mentality which postures "get good" as the opposite of "have fun" and is also paired with bad-faith rhetoric like projecting one's own experience onto a hypothetical army of "normal players" in order to lend legitimacy to an opinion or to feedback that boils down to "make the game easier for me".

While technically valid feedback, it's looked down on because it usually falls somewhere on the spectrum between pathetic, lazy, willfully ignorant, and/or entitled.

No one cares if you're bad at a game and you just don't want to play a challenging game, or even if you literally said "I wish the game was easier". No one gets upset that other people have opinions.

It's the bad takes and crappy justifications that people latch onto because when you say something like "you have to overjuice content" you're saying this in the same universe as players who do just fine without overjuicing content. To those people it just seems like you're mad because you're bad - which in all honestly, is usually the case.

But again, it's fine to be bad. Everyone is bad at one point. It's even fine to not want to be good. But if you come here blaming the game, the developers, and everything but yourself for your inability to enjoy or do well in the game, you're going to get that same energy returned to you.

Inability to enjoy current game state and inability to "do well" in current state are completely different things. Gitgud guys are trying to glue those 2 things together somewhat fiercely, in order to gain universal "you're bad at the game" response to any criticism.

It is not hard to follow some build guide and to gain valid grinder machine of a character. One of my friends had always used guides every league and routinely reached high profit thresholds. While a few times he tried to make his own characters, they all performed badly at T15. Is he "good" or "bad" at the game? What kind of game is it that guides and 3rd party tools are so important?

As for personal enjoyment you have related to, I had long stopped playing poe2 beyond "1 new character to 90 on major patch". And poe1 is uninstalled. So here is not a cry for changing the game, just stating opinion. Don't care who's looking down at me. (Exp penalty + bad combat balance) successfully drove me away from game and from buying any more supporter packs. GGG had also promised to convert poe1 mtx before introducing poe2 mtx, yeah well... something stinks :)

Since GGG locks accounts for prolonged inactivity (and interacting with their support is terrible nightmare), occasionally logging in and putting some posts here is what I do. Opinion about poe is based on reading this forum and TFT since 2021, not just on personal experience. But not looking for dance partner, it is fine that you disagree with me.