We welcome First Impression posts! Please be nice to those posts.

all the content we had in POE1 is way worse now. literally every single "league" mechanic is so unfun and nobody is talking about!?!?!?

breach: way to aggressive and fast

ritual: they spawn on corners you have almost 0 space. try to dodge roll (that itself is a joke)

delirium: monsters spawn on your face and push you around like a ball :D its so messy und terrible to look at.but its easier then in POE1.

expedition: almost same as in POE1. vendor items are incredible overpowered. i bought items there... INSANE! but still boring content.

sanctum: no words. who ever made it that way, should never again work in the gaming industry... this is the worst content i have ever played in ANY ARPG.

Ultimatum: no wait is ultimatum the worst content ever or sanctum... aaah its so close to each other. terrible room layouts. terrible bosses. terrible "quests": bring cores to the table or the worst of all is that pillar you have to escort.
a few words to the escort quest: underwater levels are always terrible and escort quests are always terrible no matter what game you play. but GGG does it anyways and in such a terrible way. but hey atleast we dont have underwater levels... yet...

they should remove sanctum and ultimatum. bring back the old labs. what is worse then the old labs... POE2 trials...

the game over all feels so blend and boring. no identity. its so souless. nothing tells me that its POE.
the dodge roll god its a mess. i fell like a gummyball :D .

I have made several posts in the heading for Accessibility changes, like adding a story or easy mode for we elderly disabled. I'd like to add this comment as of the patch f on today.

It finally feels like a game I can play. My Necromancer is wading through mobs and , while still dying once or twice to a boss, that's expected.But I also went back to my level 3 Sorcerer and, after picking up some better gear, she's blasting through all the area mobs and can take on bosses with only an occasional death.

Whew! Thanks for listening and helping us who struggle with really hard games have a better time in PoE2.

I'm going to list a few points of feedback, it is meant as feedback, not criticism. My viewpoints and experiences might not be shared by all, and that's ok.
I'm a veteran PoE1 player with 3.5k hours played, and as such my opinions might be biased, even though I try my best not to be biased. I can say though, that I invited some friends onto the PoE2 journey, who had no experience with PoE, and they shared some of the same experiences. I find a lot of things positive about PoE2 and I won't be addressing those. If I don't mention something, its one of three things: I don't find issues with it at all, its of minor importance (to me), I haven't experienced it or thought of it.
This is an early access (read beta) and as such there will be bugs, crashes etc. that's to be expected, and therefore I will for the most part not be addressing these kinds of issues.


When starting the game it is very easy to get in to and understand the how the mechanics work, the content in act 1 is challenging and some encounters maybe a little over-tuned, but nothing major. When you get into the zones with aggressive mobs however, things change. There are not many gear drops, and no movement skills, which means having boots with movement speed is not likely. Being swarmed by monsters you cannot outrun, and who will kill you in 2-3 hits if you don't dodge, you very fast find yourself either backtracking through the whole zone looking for opportunities to attack OR getting surrounded and die on the spot unable to get away. My suggestion here for the early-game when gear is sparse and skills and talents the same, a way to address this could be to reduce pack-sizes of highly aggressive monsters.
Ranged monsters also does a lot of damage, and if coupled with aggressive melee monsters, you are in for a bad time. I'm going to categorize the ranged monsters after 3 types:
Snipers
Casters
Machine gunners
The snipers (mercenaries or the centaurs) has a visual wind up on their throw/shot, but 1 of them can singlehandedly kill you in 1 or 2 hits, which is ok if you don't have to play a minigame with the melee units at the same time and if there were not 2-5 snipers.
The casters has telegraphed attacks as well, but some of them create a tiny visual on the ground (meteor for example) which is very hard to see if there are corpses on the ground. Another feature of these is that they can start casting their spells even before you can see them on the screen, and suddenly you wonder what exactly killed you.
The machine gunners are for example the small easy to kill "quill rats". These can be compared to PoE1's ranged monster from the beach starting zone. The difference however is that the ones from PoE1 shoot a semi-slow moving projectile, then walk around for a sec before shooting again. The ones in PoE2 fires a stream of very fast moving projectiles, seemingly without an internal cooldown, leaving you with very little room to counterattack if there are more than just 1 or 2, which is again made worse if you at the same time have aggressive melee monsters in your face.
There are also some modifiers which feels way too brutal in PoE2 compared to PoE1. An example of this is the mana-siphoning aura some rares can have. If you are playing a mind over matter build, and this mob happens to be hyper-aggressive melee, you are almost sure to die. You cannot outrun it, and if you go in melee it slaps you. As soon the aura touches you, all your mana (and therefore hp) is gone.

Resetting:
In PoE1 if you die during the campaign, you at most have to use the waypoint and run back to where you were, which is fine. In PoE 2 however though you respawn at nearest checkpoint, the map resets and you have to clear the way back to where you were. If you were fighting a, lets say, essence monster, now that monster is gone. If you were fighting a boss or rare monster, managed to kill it, then died immediately afterwards, now the boss/rare is gone together with all the loot that dropped. I'm not sure why this is a thing, it is definitely not to make a fun experience, in my opinion. I don't enjoy spending my time doing something, making 1 mistake or getting dunked by the game, and then having to repeat the whole process again, it just feels like a waste of my time (almost like pressing undo on the last 10 minutes of my life). This is even more of a problem when mapping. Spending 10-15 minutes clearing a whole map for then to die 1 time and forego all rewards associated with the map you were running, together with the waystone. Here you truly feel like you are wasting your time if you die a single time.
As it is right now, there is very low build diversity in PoE2 compared to PoE1 both due to lack of gems and support gems, and lack of mechanics. This is to be expected, the game is not finished and doesn't have many years of content backing it. However, making deaths as punishing as they are, most people will in my experience do 1 of two things, 1 quit the game, 2 use build guides for optimized meta-builds to avoid deaths and time waste, which furters lessens fun and build diversity.
I have personally on more than one occasion died in a map and shut down the game, needing a period of time to build up the drive to play again. (I can count the times this has happened in PoE1 over 3500hrs on 2 hands)

Map design:
The maps/zones are beautifully designed from a pure visual perspective. From a functional perspective hovever it's a bit different. I have on multiple occasions been unable to walk through a small bush with almost exact same texture as another one close to it which I could walk through, this has led to situations being surrounded and dying, not because the mobs were too swarming, but because it was impossible to determine where it would be possible to traverse the terrain and where it wouldn't be.
The zones are also extremely large, and without movement skills it takes a long time to clear a zone/map, which makes it even more punishing if you die, when the time you lose increases. Time is a very valuable resource in almost every persons life, therefor valuing the time people spend in a game and respecting it, is one of the key essentials to a successful game. From my perspective, the time I invest in PoE1 directly correlates to the fun and enjoyment I get back from the game (I know many may disagree, that's ok). The state PoE2 is in right now, doesn't make me feel like the time I invest into the game is equally returned in fun/enjoyment, I feel as it is right now that it's a net negative, and the game doesn't respect my time. I've known GGG for some years now, and I'm almost certain, that this is not what they aim for, and I have faith that this will not be the case when the game is launched in a complete state in the future.
In PoE1 doing rituals, you might encounter ritual circles which are smaller than usual due to the terrain, same goes for PoE2. The difference is, that in PoE1 you can use dash, flame dash, shield charge, leap slam etc. etc. to go back and forth over/through the mobs and keep kiting and killing. In PoE2 there's no such thing, and if you don't have a build that instantly deletes everything, these smaller ritual circles will most likely be a certain death. I've found myself running past all rituals to complete the map before engaging in these, and rightfully so as most of the time I DO in fact die to this. This adds yet another time sink, since now I have to backtrack and try to remember where all the rituals were.

Crafting:
There's a lot that can be said and has already been said about the current state of crafting in PoE2. I will not be addressing the gambling part of this, or missing high-end deterministic crafting (which in my opinion is still gambling). I however really miss the ability to patch up the holes in your gear with small specific (less powerful versions) stats. If I'm missing some resistance it would be nice to craft a lesser mod of resistance on a piece of gear, same goes for movement speed, stats and all the other stuff. I'm in maps, have on my way been picking up ALL blue and rare gear I have found and crafting bases as well trying my luck to upgrade them. I have only found a single pair of boots with movement speed, which was a dexterity base I couldn't use. Some would say "then just buy a pair on trade", and while this is a solution, this should in my opinion not be the only viable solution. A simple craft with +15% movement speed would make the experience so much better.
you often have the ability to handle small swarms of normal and magic enemies, though sometimes kiting can be needed for short periods of time since there are huge differences in the monster dmg output between different monstertypes (also between the hyper aggressive ones).

Trials:
These ar just too unforgiving as it is right now. In the Djinn Barya (sanctum) trial, the negative modifiers feel way too impactful compared to the positive modifiers, and it feels like there are simply too many of them. In the Djinn Barya trials I have done, its more likely that at the end of the floor have 8+ negative modifiers than less than 8 negative modifiers.
In the Trials of Chaos (ultimatum) there are some modifiers that has almost no impact, and other modifiers that simply ruin the whole run by itself. The modifier that monsters release volatile orbs on death is brutal. Now if you kill a bunch of small enemies at a time, you have set yourself up for a likely instant death the moment you get caught in a single spot. Why not make it that the monster has a (example) 25% chance to release a volatile orb? You will still need to take care, but you most likely won't be chased by 20 orbs at a time. Another one is the growing area that explodes for physical damage at max growth. Not only is the damage very high, the area is so large that when it spawns when fighting a boss, the whole boss room is filled, and it is essentially unavoidable.

Extra content in maps:
Earlier I addressed the 1 death system resetting zones and maps. In maps resetting the zone however also means that the extra content that was connected to that map location is gone. In terms of bosses, it has been described as the boss flees. This to me makes no sense. If you die in a map, you clearly wasn't powerful enough to threaten the boss, so why would it flee?
On a more serious note, I dislike this mechanic since part of creating a sense of achievement is to experience, fail and overcome. This is one of the reasons the souls games are as popular as they are, you engage a boss, you get smacked, you try again, learn mechanics, get better and prevail in the end making you feel you really have become better at the game. Learning is a process of repetition whether we are talking in a game, walking, running, working out, playing music, playing chess. One thing that all these have in common, is that you need the repetition often if you want to improve. When the boss disappears after a single try, you get no repetition, you don't get better and you will probably fail again next time you encounter same boss. This is one of the reasons I personally feel like you have 6 portals, and should therefor have 6 tries to actually have a chance to learn "What killed me? What can I do different? how can I overcome this?"
(and then there's the naga boss that spams soul orbs that explode, interrupting every single action you try to take that has an animation time longer that 0.9 seconds)

In the end, I feel like the core of the game is great, and if above issues are addressed I'm not sure if I will go back to PoE1. This has the potential to be at the top of the top, and I can't wait to see the finished product in the future.

"

Qarl#1370 wrote:

Hi,

We have a lot of first impression posts at the moment, and I can't individually address them, but thanks! How people interact and experience the game the first time is important to us. If the feedback is negative, special thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts! We much prefer getting feedback than not.

Existing players: we appreciate your thoughts too, but please don't flame the people providing negative opinions about their first impressions. It may well be because they don't understand something you do, but we need to know what those things are.

+1

THIS!

I even made a post on this issue (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3639061) because I was losing control of my character (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3627967).

In short, you DO lose control of the mercenary class because it's hard coded that he cannot have the optino "Always attack without moving" enabled. It doesn't happen with the other characters I tested. Not sure if it's a bug or what.

I'm also getting constants "ErrorDeviceLost" that crash my game client. Like, AT ALL TIMES, every 5-30min or so. Not sure what that's all about.

Short summary

Campaign:
graphically interesting
exciting areas
interesting story and characters so far

great variety of enemies and areas
most boss fights with motivating mechanics (except act 2 final boss is a challenge for lightning builds, respec was necessary)

Endgame:
I dislike the decision to have only one life per map.

this prevents me from being motivated when I die on the map to be able to try again 2 or 3 times and do better...

it leads to more grind ...

it makes lags, distractions and even new mechanics, enemies or bosses seem unpleasant and thus prevents me from playing joyfully...

this is a game-changing decision for me... if this is to remain as the map mechanic, i will turn away from POE 2 as a game with a heavy heart.

I am loving the changes and the reading that's being done here.. however

please fix minion collision/make it so they can't collide into each other

that is all. <3

After so much waiting, disappointment.

One of the worst things about POE 1 has come to 2: dying and losing XP. That's unacceptable. They justify it by saying that it's to make the player invest in the build and not throw themselves into the mobs, but for me, who is 39, a father and a worker and doesn't have the time of a young person to play, it's terrible. It goes against the evolution of the character, devalues the player's time and is extremely discouraging. The ascension challenges are horrible, take too long and are boring. I always loved all the mechanics in 1, the only two I didn't do came as mandatory in 2. I've waited so long for the game and now I'm feeling bitter, sad and about to quit. I can't bring myself to invite a friend to play or to praise and love the game. The game is too punishing at every point. They said it wouldn't be as complex as POE 1, but it's worse. GGG needs to understand that PUNITIVE does not equal FUN.

Well, i posted here a few days ago and was pretty happy with the game. I kept pushing and now im really anoyed by a lot of things, so, i will list some so you can check if more people in the community is on the same page:

-Augury, or whatever that map is called, should be removed. That. Is an awful layout, i hate it, a lot. And then you get ritual on there, or breach, or any mechanic, and you cannot move.

-Leveling your skills should not be gated behind doing almost the hardest content. In PoE1 you could be doing bad but you would unlock some power by leveling your gems. Now you have to farm a week to buy the gem from someone else cause you need to do a very rippy tier 16 map, wich by itself would requiere you to drop a bunch of tier 15 and corrupt them all so MAYBE you can try, then put it on a +1 corrupted map to have a CHANCE to get a gem. And probably, if you are not playing one of the two or three builds that are playing PoE2 like this is PoE1 and flying trough the map, you will die and lose the map before getting anything.

- Playing Slams or Minions you feel really dumb for not be playing Monk or Deadeye. Slam build get stuck in every doorway having to slam again to get you trough cause an skeleton is blocking the way. If you are a minion user is even worst cause you will lose them all in every other door. Meanwhile, 90%evasion monks are playing spamming 1 skill and killing every monster on screen whole moving automatically just by spamming more of the same skill. Deadeyes are doing the same but having to click to move, but is not issue cause they get free movement speed (funny enough, you nerfed both minions and slams when they both probably have the worst clear on a clearing fast based game)

- You get to a point when tier15 maps get relatibly easy but tier16maps oneshoot you. Then you have to rely on farming the random layout maps till you get a drop so expensive you can afford to upgrade 1 item... why? Cause is a really big jump between casual builds and the builds that are farming breaches on tier16 maps, so your drops are worth almost nothing, they have so much currency that you have to sell your soul to justify them leaving a map and buy something from you.

- After years of saying that you guys wanted a game were you had to watch a rare and think what you would do, you made (again) Breach one of the mechanics from launch, so people's builds lean more into spamming one skill to clear 100mobs without knowing where they are aiming than thinking, moving and rolling. Yeah, you put some bosses to do, but people with builds that have to watch how to fight them are not doing them cause cannot reach that point without crafting nor having a competitive way of farming resources.

So, i was having fun, but getting close to the endgame anoyed me a lot. Maybe i will keep login from time to time, or maybe will wait till you balance this a little cause i dont want to reroll into a ranger or a monk right now, the campaign is too long to do it all again just to reroll a character.

Campaign is fun, complexity of the boss fights makes for a nice change of pace in between slaughtering the chaff. Love the Doryani fight.

Late game ruined for me because the crafting has essentially been bricked. Removing player agency as a means to try and add value to white bases reducing the whole system to RNG slams makes it incredible tedious and boring. No impetus to play late game (and buy cosmetics) because it essential feels like a fandangled gatcha game.

I was a bit afraid when purchased the game because i tought it will be a diablo clone (personally im a fond of the diablo games) with a different story content. However it is NOT! You were brave enough to try something new and i guess you succeeded. So i try to describe the positive (mainly) and negative (i dont know i could find some) aspects of the game from my point of view.

Positives and negatives:
- It is a combination of an ARPG and rouge-like games i think. And i f...in love it. I like both genre but mix it? Yeah! The game could be very challenging but it is very positive for me. Not just pushing one button with a channeling skill and kill everything. An average ARPG dont offer enough challenge after you reach a certain character level, and just grinding and grinding could be boring. Okay from lvl 50 in POE 2 if you made a good build the challenge factor decrease however i haven't reach the end game contents yet, so maybe im wrong.
- Slow progression: i dont mind. You have to learn to play with your build and it takes time. If you level up in every 5 minutes and find a rare stuff in every 10 minutes it lost its magic. In D4 after a certain lvl legendary items fall from the sky and i dont feel the dopamine rush in my mind. In POE2 after 34h gameplay with one character i've found my third legendary item. I was very happy :D .
- Combat system: what can i say, you bought me. Some people complaining the difficulties - i understand - however this is the magic part for me in the game. From my point of view the boss fights are awesome and could be more challenging at higher lvl. I play with a melee monk so i must to get close to my enemy and yeah if i just want to hit the enemy constantly i can die in an easy way. You have to have a tactic. You can't spend all of your points to damage buffs. You need to build a complex character with skills, items, passives if you want to survive and win. You need to focus defensive and support skills/passives too. And this is my favourite part of the game. Yeah sometime i wanted to smash something when i made a mistake and die but when i defeat a challenging enemy it is worth it. So please do not NERF it.
- Item system: so... you can't find usable items too easily. It is ok. But the upgrade system contain too much random factors. However farming is the part of an ARPG game so okay. But a bit too much randomness in the item upgrading system. And the skill gems... if i use a lvl X skill gem i want to choose the lvl of the skill beacuse now i have to go to lower lvl act to farm a lvl V gem.
- Im a bit afraid of the late plan that game will be free. Microtransactions ... okay i understand you worked a lot and want profits. If just cosmetics to buy it is okay if not it can kill the game for me. I rather pay for a game and buy the expansion in every year than buy something you need in every week in the game for the progression or for enjoyability. But we will see.

So thanks for this game i enjoy it very much. Im waiting for actIV-VI. Im curious about the end game contents (5 more lvl). Please stay on the path and do not NERF too much or just offer a good difficulty system where everybody can make his/her own choice.