So POE 2 is just POE 1 now?

I thought the whole point of making a new game was to make a different game.

When POE 2 originally released the combat was deliberate and you didn't just roll your face on the keyboard like in POE 1. The latest update does nothing but increase player power and bloat, and the updates ever since the release of Early Access have been doing the same thing. One button LA screen clears. One button Lightning Spear screen clears. The current meta is spamming CoC Comet with one button, usually Spark. And don't even get me started on Temple.

If you're just going to remake POE 1 you may as well stop development on it and lean entirely into POE 2 to replace it. My only hope remaining for this game is when GGG said the main focus was balancing the game before release they actually meant it.

Player power needs to be nerfed drastically to add any semblance of actual combat back to the game.

If you are not a person sinking 100h or more into a season, then are you really going to reach that point? Sure, an expert player given 100h will explode the screen by that time, but the more casual audience is not likely to reach that point, if you ask me.

When it comes to the Top 10% of the players, I get the impression they want this gameplay consisting of exploding the screen with one button. This is the core payoff mechanic the game has for investing time. The thing you have to show for after spending the time and a yardstick by which to measure yourself against the rest. This is the competitiveness of the game.

What I do believe is that the ARPG genre as a whole is still leaving a lot on the table when it comes to multiplyer and group coordination. By that I mean boss encounters which are more mechanical in nature instead of being checks whether you have the dps or the resistances. Warcraft and Destiny being the prime examples for games with more complicated boss mechanics to the point at which the gear of the players is not the core challenge to overcome; it is group coordination instead.

But one can see how all theses things also boil down to being layers of player segmentation and developer time is limited.

They've shown us a bag of goodies to entice us but not the actual patch notes.

Cant really complain about player power when we dont know the biggest variables like how skills/item mods are getting balanced.

Top of patch notes could be like "Energy shield remove, +skills gone, flasks kill you, all damage is always reflected..."

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4thVariety#6623 wrote:

If you are not a person sinking 100h or more into a season, then are you really going to reach that point? Sure, an expert player given 100h will explode the screen by that time, but the more casual audience is not likely to reach that point, if you ask me.

But all builds, in one way or another, detonate masses. Developer featured builds in the very introduction of new mechanics, also feature 1 skill that deletes the screen, like, their action panel is empty which is just comical. Issue being brought up in all posts like this is, instead of being absolutely forced to have a buhurt fight, we're inevitably executing mass destruction upon millions with repeatedly dropping a barrage of nukes. Even with most lame of builds, I know because I always have one. You get there within 30h max.

Also, 100h per season is not a large amount of time. It's on the lower end according to design.

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Direfell#7544 wrote:

They've shown us a bag of goodies to entice us but not the actual patch notes.

Cant really complain about player power when we dont know the biggest variables like how skills/item mods are getting balanced.

Top of patch notes could be like "Energy shield remove, +skills gone, flasks kill you, all damage is always reflected..."

Yes, but they showed us their own builds and gameplay and it's telling everything about the changes.


With all that said, I don't think anything can be any other way in this game. It can only be the way it is and too many things have been already built on top of it, so fundamental change of course is not an option either. At this point you take it or you leave it.

I agree.
The issue with trivialized combat is that it makes adding more content quite meaningless: it will just be another mob or even boss dying against the same generic skill spam.
There were always elements of subtlety in poe 2's combat, but nowdays they disappear quickly when the character becomes strong.

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FishHeads#6747 wrote:

My only hope remaining for this game is when GGG said the main focus was balancing the game before release they actually meant it.

Player power needs to be nerfed drastically to add any semblance of actual combat back to the game.

As much as I want to believe that, and a very very tiny portion of me still hopes like the biggest moron... they've said they did balance before in one of the previous patches and look where we are lol.

Aside from that, the more they add to the game without regard to any balance or combat like they do, the harder it gets to change anything meaningfully.

Talking of, have you all noticed how every new skill they've shown and added it's literally just the result of a thought process like "it looks cool and/or it clears the screen" kind of deal and nothing else beyond that? It's kind of a bit like the western version of gacha games combat where they try their hardest to make the flashiest shit ever, and it looks cool... but ultimately it's a boring experience after a few minutes. The exact same result here. No actual thought about what it means longer down the line.

And just a short mention - I hope everyone remembers that they had like a team of 2 people or something like that on balance. Let that sink in.

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FishHeads#6747 wrote:

When POE 2 originally released the combat was deliberate and you didn't just roll your face on the keyboard like in POE 1.

objectively incorrect.
had you played the game past campaign when it originally launched you would know better.
you can still go watch what people were doing in 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4.

POE2 is different but its still POE.
its not elden ring.
its not grim dawn.
you are in a ferrari dealership getting mad because they wont sell you a bus pass.

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4thVariety#6623 wrote:

If you are not a person sinking 100h or more into a season, then are you really going to reach that point? Sure, an expert player given 100h will explode the screen by that time, but the more casual audience is not likely to reach that point, if you ask me.

They are literally adding build guides into the game itself. There's going to be very little distinction between expert and casual players since the casual players will just be doing what the experts tell them. It's also closer to 20-30 hours (mostly campaign) before you're screen clearing T15's from my experience and I'm hardly an expert.

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FishHeads#6747 wrote:

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4thVariety#6623 wrote:

If you are not a person sinking 100h or more into a season, then are you really going to reach that point? Sure, an expert player given 100h will explode the screen by that time, but the more casual audience is not likely to reach that point, if you ask me.

They are literally adding build guides into the game itself. There's going to be very little distinction between expert and casual players since the casual players will just be doing what the experts tell them. It's also closer to 20-30 hours (mostly campaign) before you're screen clearing T15's from my experience and I'm hardly an expert.

Build guides already exist. Second monitors already exist.
Someone no longer needing to look one foot to their left has absolutely nothing to do with the distinction between expert and casual.
They are also optional and often require loads of time/currency investment to REALLY get going.

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JODYHiGHR0LLER#6171 wrote:

Build guides already exist. Second monitors already exist.
Someone no longer needing to look one foot to their left has absolutely nothing to do with the distinction between expert and casual.
They are also optional and often require loads of time/currency investment to REALLY get going.

Oh, you have no clue how big of a difference this will make. Clearly you don't know the power QOL has. Both in a good sense and a bad sense.