0.4 Player Feedback — From a Korean Exile Who Joined to Talk Directly with the Global Community

PoE2 Early Access · 0.4 Feedback · Posted April 2026
0.4 Player Feedback — From a Korean Exile Who Joined to Talk Directly with the Global Community
~300 hours, Mercenary main, Level 97. Here's everything I noticed.

Preface
I'm a Korean player. I created this account specifically to communicate directly with GGG and the global community, rather than staying within Daum/Kakao's domestic channels. On April 18, 2026 (KST), I purchased an Early Access code and entered the game — the conclusion of a long search to find one game between Diablo 4 and the Soulslike genre that I could sink deeply into with a controller.

First Impressions
I started by browsing every skill available. The crossbow mechanic gave me a strong Helldivers 1 feel, and the early Mercenary experience was genuinely impressive. The "graze = death" tension actually heightened immersion rather than frustrating me, and the need to study and explore multiple avenues to strengthen your character made each session feel rich.

Reaching Endgame for the First Time
I got lucky with some Omens and Breach-type drops early, then used the trade market aggressively to convert them into currency. The immediate power jump was satisfying, and the iterative process of resetting passive skill points multiple times to converge on a single build was genuinely engaging.

Class Experiments
I tried several other classes, but most either didn't suit my taste or were weaker than expected — though I'll admit that may partly be on my own building ability. Here's what I found:

Witch — Minions felt far too weak. Running the Temple took around 30 minutes, which was exhausting.
Warrior — Lack of variety. Melee builds seemed to collapse into mace + shield almost inevitably. Kitava's "weapon companion" felt like a complete trap — underwhelming to the point of being genuinely puzzling. lol
Ranger, Druid, Huntress — Felt unfinished overall. The absence of a third Ascendancy and the resulting gap in build optimization satisfaction was noticeable. (Very excited for the 0.5 Spirit Walker!)
Gimmick combinations like Titan with crossbow or Abyssal Witch with mace were simply unplayable rather than flavourful, which drained any motivation to explore further.

On the other hand, Sorceress and Mercenary (despite limited crossbow variety) were both enjoyable and well-suited to my taste. That said, I think the inevitable convergence toward one efficient playstyle remains a paradoxical bottleneck that ARPGs in general still need to solve.

I also attempted some unique item-based rebuilds, but they ended up being entertaining detours that undermined gameplay efficiency rather than genuine build alternatives. Excessive freedom can lead to what I'd call "permissiveness without direction" — a quiet waste of time. One concrete example: support gems that display as "applicable" to a skill but don't actually function — you only discover this by testing every mechanic yourself. I appreciate that this game has no single "correct" answer for what you should do. (Side note: fishing or farming minigames would be a fun addition, lol.)

Atlas & Trials of Sekhema
From here I started using external resources more actively to work toward a final endgame setup. With help from Woolie's guides and some fortunate trades, I managed to push through T16 maps and 3-Abyss full clears on Mercenary. (I also got very lucky picking up a near-endgame weapon for just 4 Exalted Orbs from what seemed like an end-of-league player dumping their gear. Genuinely grateful.)

That said, I didn't know maps could be permanently failed. Seeing red dots on my atlas was not a pleasant experience — had I known in advance, I would have approached things far more carefully.

I also didn't realize atlas progress is shared across characters until I'd already leveled a second character to endgame. That was a disappointing surprise — I had expected to run a clean atlas again from scratch.

A few bugs worth noting, likely a mix of my hardware specs and network latency: Temple bugs (chamber doors not opening; all ground items disappearing on death near the Builder or Atziri); boss waypoint bugs (not registering correctly); and an instant death from the post-kill effect on the Trials of Sekhema second boss. If that one-shot effect after killing the boss is intentional, I can accept it — but it did break the flow, and cost me several campaign runs including the Act 4 final boss on multiple occasions.

The Final Push
Reaching Level 100 felt more like labor than play. That may partly come down to my gear, RNG, and build ceiling — but even setting those aside, it felt like an ordeal with no meaningful milestone to look forward to, no light at the end of the tunnel. I stopped at Level 97.

Stash Feedback
My biggest frustration was that Ammunition Shards and Mirrored Territory Shards don't sort into the Ritual or Delirium stash tabs — they go to the separately designated "Fragments" tab. I also found it odd that Omen items, which function almost identically to Ritual mechanics, land in the Abyss tab instead.

A few specific wishlist items: a "compare/swap stored item" option in the Unique tab; removal of the Pathway Stone storage from the Delirium tab (seems unnecessary); and a one-click "fill gaps" button for reorganizing empty stash slots, since manually shuffling items around to tidy up is tedious.

On the positive side — the gamepad implementation for stash management, the trade market, and currency exchange is genuinely excellent. That's not a small thing.

Looking Ahead — 0.5 League
I'm very excited for the next league and planning to play SSF. The trade system is undeniably effective at accelerating the "this is fun" moment — but it also masks the dopamine of finding things yourself. Since EA league progress ultimately becomes Legacy anyway, the archival value was hard to feel. So for 0.5, I'm planning to play SSF and split it into my own personal seasons: working through the 6 classes with a complete third Ascendancy (skipping Ranger and Druid until theirs are revealed), exploring the Atlas fresh with each one.

In every way that matters, PoE2 has the potential to become my long-term game. Thank you for building this, and for caring about it as much as you clearly do. I respect the enormous number of decisions, trade-offs, and hours of work behind what I've been playing.

GGG's GG. Keep going. Thank you.
— A Korean Exile, Level 97 Mercenary