Path of Exile 2 has only ONE major worry...

[@dmdiablo4]

Do you have any concerns for poe2? Video links below. Mrllama: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZq6f5VvmM6Fmrssi=EWJARz5QZDi9O9ZF Jungroan: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4LPkICGfLaaqtksi=3MGnTC-av6Y0RKrc IGN: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6vZoKJroqt8jKMsi=T_Tg8kTIAChpPedc Talkative: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5WtiKWZqMZkrJYsi=pktXwf458Jrsq2z5 Open world games: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6eVhqR9gtKfmsUsi=jr3OwQLfUvO0Zxdw Poe2 daily update and news on Twitter: x.com/DarthMicroT Daily livestreams 12pm pst for poe2: www.twitch.tv/darthmicrotransaction Join discord community: discord.gg/mk2afkU5

[@Kitsune-WanjaX]

im worried that my pc cant handel it :/ wish me luck

[@LiLBitsDK]

going with 3 acts is PERFECT for the EA... having 3 acts coming later will be an "amazing free DLC" if it makes sense... 25 hours to get through the first 3 acts + X hours to do them on a harder level again + 100's of hours for the "end game" is massive for an early access game...

[@matheusgoes3568]

I hope there is enough broken builds to sustain variety of play styles. I hate when there are 2 builds that destroy the meta and everybody is playing it. It gives me FOMO and it is extremely boring watch every liver play the same thing. (crucible was absolutely boring with the totem build)

[@jra6023]

D4 bad! :D

[@chronosschiron]

no offense but i never got into this much due to the pay for inventory space bullshit

[@CastToFall]

To comment in the 'dumbing down' concern someone voiced: they didn't dumb the game down, they detangled interwoven systems so those systems are easier to access. The systems all still have their complexity, but are easier to engage with as a newer player. This also promotes doing the exact content you want. Yku can still engage layers and layers of endgame content to extra juice your maps. POE2 is GGG replatforming their game after the years and years of lessons learned so they can keep pushing the envelope again, without older design decisions holding then back

[@NousagiBrat]

Its dumbing it down lmao. stop sugarcoating it.

[@gowanlock]

Why do you want games hard to understand. ​@@NousagiBrat

[@LoRNMonsterHunter]

@@NousagiBratMy question is why is that bad? You’d rather gate keep the game from people than give up a little complexity? The game is still far and above complex.

[@kbutta01]

@@gowanlockPoe 1’s system is convoluted. There is zero reason to keep things that way if they can simplify and add even more content.

[@gozutheDJ]

@@NousagiBrat to not sugarcoat it, you’re delusional and need help

[@abelgonzalez158]

The fact they removed health from the passive tree sounds better and that you can switch attributes if needed sounds amazing

[@Devon-hw6ih]

Huge qol choosing any attribute

[@cyanogen7582]

Yeah, the passive tree seems a lot more streamlined now without life nodes and specific attributes. It’s going to be a lot easier to just search for the archetype you want to build and start pathing around.

[@LiLBitsDK]

oh didn't notice they removed health... but that they made it so we can switch attributes is MASSIVE

[@ZwrP]

str still gives flat health, might become the defacto secondary stat for any build thats not stacking attributes or going for ES or MoM

[@Joormode]

FYI - the new breach rings can have like 200 health

[@hieroprotoganist3440]

Its reducing needless tedium. Not dumbing down.

[@VollKaracho209]

💯

[@kurogane2x]

seriously. the complexity made the game stupidly hard to get into. I had like 100hrs and I barely knew what I was doing beside following a guide. I want the game to be easy to understand but still allows me to do what I WANT TO DO(Even if its stupid) not just be a sheep that only follows builds.

[@phatymcdaddy]

Right? Poe Andy's conflate unintuitive, restrictive and convoluted with "skill"

[@spencers1485]

For sure. Even just removing gems from gear is a huge upgrade for new players. I wonder how many people quit because their single skill falls off in act 1 without links.

[@catanaoni]

​@@kurogane2x The complexity is still there, if not with even more potential due to the new axis for customisation, namely tree/weapon swaps and skill combos. In POE1 some systems are just too complicated for newbies. Having to pick life on the tree is a good example of that, nothing in the game really tells you that you need it, so I can see a newbie going "hmm, i don't wanna be a tank, im going for more damage!" and getting mega blasted. Same for gem sockets and links, I like them myself, but they're not really necessary for the skill customisation system to function, and can be unintuitive for newbies.

[@Orniflyer]

Making a game approachable and fun for casuals is not incompatible with making the game fun and engaging for "pro" gamers, that want a lot of depth and complexity. A game can be both.

[@leoleo1035]

Yup! Adding the different weapon specializations will definitely scratch the itch for those who want more complexity and it even helps people who want to make more fun and thematic builds. Removing health nodes from the tree does not make the game simpler, but less annoying. We all had to put "just the right" amount of health nodes and it would cuck the shit out of some fun builds for no reason.

[@ninetailedfox579121]

​@@leoleo1035If anything removing life nodes from the passive tree makes the game more complex, as there are less "100% always take" nodes.

[@ausoleil8269]

It can. It also can crumble while trying to achieve that.

[@deadcaptainjames6045]

I don't really think.they made it more approachable. I was excited for POE2 because they promised it would be more approachable. But after watching that reveal it looks like just as much work and complexity as POE1. I wanna game not play a full time job

[@doombybbr]

The new gem system is an example of something EXTREMELY easy for new players to understand. While also being insanely high skill ceiling for the min-maxers.

[@maximusowo]

to clarify, you dont manually swap weapons, you press a skill that is tied to another weapon, it change weapon and the skill uses the "weapon swap" passive tree.

[@koko2274]

Really? You just press the skill button and it's automatic swap and not pressing weapon swap then skill button?

[@KamahL_TV]

@@koko2274 Yep

[@Sorain1]

@@koko2274 Yup. It's a brilliant improvement in gameplay flow, removing who knows how many button presses. UI/UX design improvement at it's finest.

[@sujimayne]

Yes. When your skill is set to another weapon and that weapon has a different skill tree branch, it will automatically switch AND use that skill tree branch. Meaning that, in combat, you can just focus on killing monsters without needless piano, while fine-tuning everything to your liking outside of combat.

[@orbbb24]

@@Sorain1 Credit where credit is due, that's what D4 does. Obviously, it doesn't do anything with a passive tree as it doesn't have one, but it still swaps to the correct weapon for the skill used.

[@casediedwell5094]

To me, the singular 'problem' with PoE1 wasn't the passive tree; it was how punishing/unforgiving mistakes could be in the tree. We can respec with gold, whenever we want/need to in PoE2. And that is a HUGE W.

[@MiniDallas000]

For me it's separating Gem slots away from items and letting us place them on our characters, it will make the early game so much more open to me now in addition to respec with gold as you said and we can socket 5 support gems for every skill, I can't WAIT to experiment on the 6th

[@ZeroTTTempest]

gold respec was added in the most recent league on poe1

[@Eleriol84]

@@MiniDallas000 Its always anoying when you cant get the right colours on your first 3 links during league start. Everything ive seen from PoE 2 has been good to amazing so far

[@thereaversden6847]

​@@ZeroTTTempestOnly took how long? This is why many bailed on it years ago. It's long overdue, but those with salt left in their mouth from their first experience years ago likely won't be willing to give it another attempt. POE2 is a fresh start.

[@vampirekid14]

Free/cheap respecs are what destroyed do and half the reason D3 and D4 are bad. I don't see how they could make this into a positive.

[@davidj9977]

Agree 100% that the problem with POE1 isn't the complexity. It's that a player has to learn everything up front because expensive respecs and equipment skill sockets discourage personal experimentation. By the time one does learn the game, the combat gameplay becomes a boring no-skill one dimensional grind of pushing 0-2 buttons and watching colored lights kill things. POE2 is fixing all these things, so i expect it to draw more mainstream players. Their optional skill reccomendation system should be good for new players. Perhaps something similar for the skill tree could make it more tractable.

[@Jchueire]

Passive respec should be free or almost free. People complained a lot about D4 respec price and here is the same.

[@giltdavig2589]

I think another large problem is optimization. My comp isn't brandnew but its not ancient eitther and i'd need to get a ssd in order to play endgame which will hurt casuals a lot

[@ferinzz]

​@@Jchueirefor early on the respec is going to be pretty cheap. Completely shifting a character that has been maxed out to end game should have a cost. As far a i understood the issue with d4 was the tedium respeccing.

[@ferinzz]

Skill tree will tell you the effect a node has on your skills. Meaning you can see if travelling 5 nodes for a30% node is actually worthwhile at lvl 50. Also solved the minions aren't spells issue that new players encounter.

[@zodwraith5745]

@@ferinzz Yeah, when even casuals have a hundred million gold you don't exactly stress over a couple million to respec. As long as PoE2 keeps costs reasonable for not just correcting mistakes, but actually allow some _experimentation_ that will go a long way to making the game more palatable for more players.

[@AbsentCrysisX]

I am actually happy I bought D4 and its recent expansion..Game drained all hope and energy from me how bad it is. That I am desperate for good ARPG and I am 200% willing to sit and learn POE2 if needed... thank you Blizzard

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

If you are willing to learn PoE 2, the game will pay itself back in spades... Unparalleled power that you can access that the average or lower tier skilled player can only dream of.

[@Shwexx]

Learn PoE you wont regret it. Its one of the only games I find myself doing endless research on just to get even more excited to play when I understand a new massive game mechanic. The only other being Escape from Tarkov

[@chriswellz]

🤣I’m sick how much I relate to this. I found my tribe😭

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

@Shwexx ye the thirst for learning gets endless and just grows

[@deceiver444]

D4 was the reason I tried PoE, got overwhelmed as hell and eventually had the most fun I ever had with any arpgs so far. The game's complexity and long learning curve is a big part of its very long lasting appeal. You just need to persevere enough in the beginning to realize it later. It pays off in spades.

[@MsGhoulz]

Fusings and chromatic orbs was one of the most cancer things to deal with in PoE1. Glad they got rid of that.

[@siipis7766]

Yeah, but I did love the one fuse one six link moments :D although very rare..

[@KingDoesRage]

​@@siipis7766Time to gamble on vaals adding a socket

[@edwardbanana2963]

When I saw the reveal video and saw that they took skills gems out of gear I was very happy, what an enormously freeing change. Skills in gear makes it feel so clunky when you are leveling with a new character, and you find a pair of boots for example that you like because you have to go through this tedious process to socket it, link it, color it, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Did you find a pair of armour boots but you need 3 blue sockets? Good luck! Etc etc. Don't get me wrong I love sockets (which we will still have in another form) and whatnot but it just killed the flow of the early game to have to deal with this. In an aRPG you should just be able to throw on a piece of gear if its better and move on without having to halt and do this process. This is also just something you do quite often in the early game (when its also hardest to do because of limited mats) so this should help a lot with approachability.

[@MoistYoghurt]

​@@siipis7766it was cancer because once youd end up with 5 links but the 6th one wasnt linked so youd spend like 50 just to get 1 6 link

[@pickproofdaffy103]

@@MoistYoghurt Only 50? and the another 1000 to six fuse it.

[@MrAnony07]

The whole being able to respect the tree with just gold is amazing my biggest gripe with the game was how hard it was to respect and experiment yourself with how POE1 is built it's incredibly hard to learn the game yourself and you could actually just waist 20hrs+ trying to build yourself to just hit a dang wall because you didn't make a good enough build and it's expensive to respect yourself as a new player so new people feel forced to not really learn the game and forced to go the follow a guide step by step instead of experiment themselves this is one of the biggest reason why new people jump ship so early.

[@JamesFuston]

I can help walk a new friend through a big passive tree. Doing that WITH also explaining 7 different ways of crafting, the current league, and the previous leagues they stumble upon is a lot steeper ask. HOWEVER, if I have to explain timeless jewels, we’re cooked either way.

[@davidskidmore3442]

I forget which streamer it was, but might have been Raxx's newbie guide to PoE, said to just straight up skip on the league stuff that shows up during the campaign. Wait to mess with any of that until you get to maps. This mindset let me actually get through to maps for the first time ever in PoE1, despite having played it off and on for years.

[@bertgarcia8199]

hi, when you say "league" what does it mean? i havent played poe1 but will play poe2 so im kinda exploring or trying to learn more

[@christerjakobsen8107]

@@bertgarcia8199 Leagues in PoE terms means a season, usually lasting between 3 and 4 months, with some exceptions. A league is a economy reset that also includes new mechanics and many times some new skills and items.

[@bertgarcia8199]

@@christerjakobsen8107 thank you i get it now. how about the couch coop? will be able to play the game with my friend on any instances? like example mapping? bossing? can we always duo?

[@christerjakobsen8107]

@@bertgarcia8199 Yes, you can always duo as far as I know.

[@bigimportantman1544]

POE 1 was like trying to write code in a niche language most people don’t know. Changing the code to a language that most people understand doesn’t reduce the complexity of code you can write… it just makes it less frustrating to use for most people.

[@Habib_Osman]

Ok.. that's a little much. If you're of average intelligence, watching a 1 hour dedicated newbie video will get you far. You'll have to pay a lot of attention though.. so POE is definitely a "brain-on" game to use Darth's words.

[@sujimayne]

​@@Habib_Osman How about this: not needing to watch community-made 1+ hours long tutorials AND not needing third party tools just to play the game? You clearly haven't tried to get anyone into PoE, but I have. A lot of us have. It's the same big roadblock of a lot of poorly explained mechanics, features and limitations jumping out at once. There are more good games to play now than ever before and it's, realistically, hard to sell anyone on "you have to watch a 1-hour tutorial first" or "you can go in blind, but you might have to completely reset 20+ hours of progress".

[@resudeew2636]

In the day of instant gratification I could see why you think that. But in reality PoE isn't nearly as complicated as people (who don't play it) say it is. If you truly believe what you just said...just play D4.

[@BiggyZable]

@@resudeew2636 And elitists like this make it even harder for people to get into it. You claiming its nearly not as complicated basically invalidates any challenge one might have with a game that is objectively complex and can be really confusing at times. I got into poe I did all the research I read and watched countless of hours of information because I enjoyed it and also, because I played other games where you can't rely on in-game information and need to research stuff like WoW so I knew what I was signing up for. Now let me tell you that not everybody has this mindset and "bookworm" approach and they might feel like they are blocked from just going in and blasting the game. I've had friends who really enjoyed the gameplay (including the complexity eg.: the skill tree) and would definitely sink in hours to understand the game, BY PLAYING it, but they just got turned off by the long wiki streaks.

[@boriquataino6983]

​@@resudeew2636sir I have several level 80+ characters and thousands of hours played. Yes. PoE is just as complex as people make it out to be. Tedium doesn't even begin to cover half of the content in PoE1

[@jaysoniorg2950]

Rod's tweet is actually accurate, since Diablo 1 was the first ARPG. However, that means he needs to apply that same logic to their games, which makes both D3 and D4 "diablo-likes" rather than true Diablo games. The original team left before D2LoD released, and none of the games in the franchise have really been able to compare.

[@Oathiel]

The thing is... I don't thing they would even qualify for the term Diablo-like. For games to be (by example) accepted as souls-likes they usually need certain mechanical depth, difficulty and compliance with Souls games' formula. All of which, D3 and D4 lack comparing to D2 :/

[@lazerrhino]

No its not accurate. Dragon slayer released in 1984 was the first ARPG and there were a few before that could argue they started it. Diablo just brought the genre to the forefront and defined the genre. Although he is right about the label fitting many different things. Torchlight 1 & 2 and Fate are more diablo-like than D3 and D4 ever were. So diablo itself doesnt even know what its supposed to be lol

[@madhatten5123]

Not sure D1 was technically the first it was the first mainstream for sure, but Rod had exactly 0 to do with D1 or D2 no one left in that shit company had anything to do with those games…. which is why their current games are dog shit.

[@dangerdowell9925]

Diablo 1 and 2 are the only Diablo like games ever made. The others just steal their themes and bosses.

[@tarael86]

Technically Diablo 1 was a turn-based, grid-based RPG where each turn passed automatically every second or so and where the grid was invisible. Not an ARPG, but it set the foundations for it. I watched a David Brevik interview where he explained it.

[@nephram1702]

Rod Ferguson tossing and turning at night because of poe 2

[@InfoRanker]

I am too, cause I can't wait to play it

[@TobShowHost]

it is not that the game is too complicated, it is the complexity that happens all at once. if you get fed new stuff step by step, so you can learn them and then get to the next, would be more approachable

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

Every League we ALWAYS tell new players to learn things one at a time if you cannot handle multitasking. Eventually you'll be able to learn everything. They always say I have to engage with all these endgame mechanics, and we say no you don't... You can pick and choose what you want to engage in. Alot of this is new players not listening to the advice and biting off more than they can chew

[@thecasualfly]

​@@IXxhpnotiqxXII compare it to music production...first time you open up ableton or fruutyloops you get overwhelmed.. but if you take it slow and learn how to make a channel and add a piano instrument and place notes.. next you start learning how to add compression and other eq.. then you start learning how to do more complex things.. actually you have a grasp of a very complex application

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

@@TobShowHost also it doesn't feel that way if you were here from the beginning. The problem is the people coming in later to the game haven't got all of these things fed to them one at a time like us, which is why we tell people to do it one at a time

[@madhatten5123]

@@IXxhpnotiqxXIexactly. This is always my advice to new players. 1. Find a build guide(learn the game before you dive into build creation) 2. Pick 2 mechanics you think you will like and take an entire league focusing on those two mechanics 3. Next league pick 2 more until you have learned the mechanics you like. My first league was 3.13 I realized fast harvest was the strongest thing in the game I focused on harvest and learned it inside out.

[@TobShowHost]

@@IXxhpnotiqxXI the game is not even full released bro. this will happen in late 2025. so this should be the start for everyone :D sorry your argument is invalid

[@infereon]

am very happy that they`re removed those fuse linking and chromo colouring... that sht was rly annoying

[@tripleraze321]

Fussing links were the part of poe I hated passionately. Literally more hate than any other aspect of the game.

[@trythis2006]

they made it more approachable in poe1 now but its still infuriating and im glad it got changed

[@1s.e.c.racing304]

As someone who has never played an RPG. This is the first game that looks complex enough to be fun. POE2 will be the first time I play a game like this and I am excited for it.

[@boriquataino6983]

😂you poor fool i wish you the best of luck

[@allenryan6071]

Aw man, complex enough to play? So what else are you playing lol? This is about as complex as it gets… Best of luck 😅😂

[@AbsoluteKidder]

I love the fact they made it easier to understand for new players or casual gamers. My wife loved POE, but she just never could grasp the complexity behind it.

[@rogerelzenga4465]

the fun part, she doesnt have to.... its still playable, but dumbing down the experience for her sake is not the way to go.....

[@sunidaze]

​@rogerelzenga4465 usually when people say this, it means following someone else's build guide. I learned by following and branching out from other guides. But I would have liked to have learned from trail and error from building my own character from scratch. I hope this makes sense.

[@VintageVoltage]

@@sunidaze This is also my gaming perspective. I like the trial and error way. I would not like to use guides to finish a campaign of the game, which I struggled with PoE, because I built my character "wrong" and simply got stuck at Act 9. Did not have the will to completely start again or pivot my build with a premade character aka guide. I'm pretty sure there are many like me and I do hope they are improving this aspect ESPECIALLY in the normal act parts. By all means, make the end game and rest of it as challenging and complex as you want :)

[@ExcessumGaming]

100% Making it more approachable and structured while not dumbing it down is the right way to go. Largest flaw of PoE 1 was that everything was all over the place and often did not make sense as a lot of stuff over the years was stitched. There was not a lot of consistency. And lets not start about the crafting system. If you skipped 1 season you could as well relearn the whole game when it came to crafting.

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

PoE crafting can barely even be called crafting tbh. Its more like directed gambling. You usher the dice the best way you can in the direction you want/need. But at the end of the day it's RNG. Its a disgrace.

[@sNNNNNable]

As someone with like 7k hours in POE. . I could care less most of my concerns were addressed in the big reveal. Even if something doesn't feel great, it's EA and I trust GGG to make this game great

[@Takaoshi]

I think many new players will be fine with the passive tree in poe 2. You can hold shift when hovering over a node and it will open a tooltip that shows you what changes on your character and skills. I think GGG has done a lot to help onboard new players to get them through the game. So much info in the game itself now so you don't have to go to a wiki to check what a stat does etc. Also GGG making the normal currency drop a lot more is something they should have done a long time ago. Another issue that poe 1 has for new players is also that the most obvious, intuitive thing often isn't that good. I can't wait to play the game on the beta launch and listen to every single dialogue option i can find. (Sanctum mechanic in poe 2 looks a lot better than poe 1, since honor scales based on your life and and it takes into account your characters defences so a lot can be fully mitigated)

[@Sorain1]

Honestly, the whole 'lets put the wiki info in the game' is the wisest decision they could possibly make. Anyone unwilling to learn is always going to bounce off of PoE in general, but as long as the info is there in the game, most folks (their target audience of 'willing to learn and looking for depth') will sink their teeth in and enjoy the feast.

[@DCFHazardRebornChannel]

I think that some mechanics have not been improved in PoE1 on purpose, to further drive a difference between the two, and they might make those changes later. Like the currency example you gave. Its a no brainer and they should of done it years ago. Simple things like that which feel like they kinda didn't put too much effort into PoE1 the last years so they could focus on PoE2 and just added content and tried mechanics we might find in PoE2 now (like the gold addition this season of PoE1, a clear indicator of testing the waters for PoE2 on a larger scale). I mean, they "fixed" mellee after all these years, and their solution was just "lets add more damage"??? Seriously? They could of done that in a week 3 years ago. But I am ok with this, because it seems like they really did focus on fixing a lot of things and making mechanics for PoE2. No need in many cases to transfer ideas over to PoE1 yet until tested. And if people play the game and give feedback that a certain mechanic would work great in PoE1, then it should be easier to do having tested it and seeing that it does in fact work. Like the whole more currency. I agree with this choice and I am 100% agreeing with you. But lets see how it plays out, others might start whining that "the game is handing things out" too easily and that the economy is ruined. At which point they might dial it back. Then they can apply to PoE1 as well. But yeah, aside from some strange whiners, I don't find anything wrong with more currency. This might make it ACTUALLY be used as crafting materials. They said this as well in the ZiggyD interview. Whereas now, I get me an exalt before maps I am not touching that thing and keeping it to buy something. Kida makes its actual use pointless. And even worse so for solo self found players. I enjoy some ssf as well sometimes. Yeah, currency drops there are dgsht. No idea why some changes are not already tested on PoE1, like I said at the beginning, but it feels like they want to deviate between the two more, and if in the future more mechanics cross over, all is well too.

[@Dukefist]

I left Diablo 3 (and WoW) back in 2018 for Path of Exile (Delve league) and I am still learning new stuff about the game. Take your time with Path of Exíle it's worth the journey.

[@Arcticun]

As someone with nearly 4k hours, I am STILL learning new stuff about PoE. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

[@luminaxar]

Has Rod ever worked on a Diablo game that actually was Diablo-like?

[@FBGDemannu]

Exactly, D4 is nothing like D2 or D1

[@MultiJibbi]

I feel like the game is more like arcade combat games, easy to play, (very) hard to master, as poe 1 is less approachable but as hard to master

[@MultiJibbi]

and now i see the video, i hear that's what you're saying

[@phantompower]

Having enough servers/server performance on launch is the one major worry.

[@tripleraze321]

There will be a metric fu$& ton of people playing this game even on the early access.

[@Habib_Osman]

Nah, people won't permanently quit the game because the launch is a little messy

[@patricksheehan43]

The skill tree problem was never a skill tree problem. It’s always been a shift in mentality. People see a big tree and immediately want to freak out. This skill tree is bigger, but once you shift your mentality to being more willing to learn you’ll quickly figure it out. There’s no life nodes and skill points are 2 lines of text at most, so it’s way simpler now. As long as you literally don’t forget to put your skill points in you almost can’t mess up. If anything, people should actually be concerned that bosses will be filtering out new players. We are probably about to have an Elden ring or armored core 6 issue where the very first boss you see is absolutely impossible for brand new players.

[@Vlyn]

This was never about the size of the tree or "being willing to learn", but about punishing new players. When you start off you have no clue about the game. What skill gems will you find? What mechanics are there later on? But in the first ten minutes onwards the game expects you to put points into the tree. Points you can't easily remove! In other games, be it Last Epoch, Diablo 3/4, Grim Dawn, .. I can quickly change my passives around and try out something different. If it sucks? I can go back to my original build and farm instead. In PoE you brick your character and you won't have dozens of orbs of regret to repair it. Complexity is fine, it's awesome even! But only if experimenting doesn't cost you hundreds of hours. That's why everyone is following some stupid build guide.

[@Katastra_]

The biggest thing is we can refund with gold now, so if you make a choice and then regret it and want to go down a different path of nodes a handful of levels later, you can

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

Yeah after watching the act 1 boss in full, as a PoE1 veteran I don't expect to struggle too too much but I can 100% see new players being gatekept by it. Especially with the fact that you have to kill every boss in the game from 100 to 0 in one go. As opposed to poe1 where you didn't have to. Hoping they keep the tone down with the early act bosses as to not immediately turn away new players.

[@davidj9977]

@@TheCosmicAstro- Jonathan explained that the map is setup more like Elden Ring now, where if you die to a boss, one look at the map shows you all these bonuses you can get by exploring elsewhere and coming back more powerful. It worked for at least one streamer in the recent playtest. Crossing fingers.

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

@@davidj9977 we'll see

[@nickjman1987]

I love the game being more approachable. The tree stat changes and requirements for support gems are awesome. Ditto for gold respecs. Sucks to get the new skill/gear and realize you're 10 levels away from using it. The campaign/tutorial shouldn't take days of research to be able to get through for a new player. Days of gameplay, sure.

[@EkkiEkkiEkkiEkkiPtang]

The way I explained the changes to my brother was that they've streamlined the game and the mechanics without simplifying them, which is an incredibly difficult line to walk but it looks like they've managed it really well

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

Removed unecessary bloat like fusings and chromatics 🤌 Hoping they do that even more for crafting. Need crafting to be crafting! Not gambling simulator.

[@cimerea]

From what I see, they made early game building easier by removing sockets/links, making sure early passives are hard to mess up, making stat game easier by selective stat nodes, adding recommended passives to skill menu and making crafting easier by increasing basic crafting currency drop rates. All of this will make new players more likely to stay. If one does leave after just seeing the passive tree? Well you can't help everyone I guess and it's not like it didn't happen in PoE 1. On the other hand - weapon spec points for weapon sets, the fact you can only have 1 of each support gem per character, stats affecting the number of associated gems you can use (if you int is abysmal you will only be able to use 1 blue gem f.i.), bigger passive tree and more classes (and more total active skills I believe) will make min-maxing end game builds even more complicated than PoE 1. And lets be honest, things they simplified weren't much of a concern for a veteran anyways. So somehow they managed to satisfy both ends of the player spectrum. Props.

[@KazaiTV]

They also added clickable Keywords with ____ under it. When you click them a small window pops up and explains it to you. For example "i͟g͟n͟i͟t͟e͟" - you click on it and it will explain to you what ignite is and does. Almost anything has this now. You can drag these windows around your screen and open as many as you want. Another amazing thing is popup windows for Skill Gems that preview the Skill in action. You can also drag those around.

[@Habib_Osman]

Do you actually believe the "passives are hard to mess up" part? I think all expert players will have a passive skillstree that is just as optimised as they were in POE1. I sure as hell will min-max the hell out of it.

[@cimerea]

@@Habib_Osman Yeah they will, but hard to mess up doesn't mean min-maxed to oblivion - it means even if you dont know what you're doing, you will end up with a servicable tree. And refunds will help tweak it up if you decide to look for a guide.

[@phatymcdaddy]

​​​@@Habib_OsmanBy hard to mess up I thinks he means playing what you are liking, but then you hit act 6 or 7 in your 60-70s and suddenly you're getting demolished. Then you find out you actually screwed your whole build back at lvl 17 and you only have 23 orbs of regret. Now you have to chose either grinding orbs to reset and see if you screw up again, or you can just make a new character. The Poe 2 system seems like it's designed for that scenario to not really happen.

[@Habib_Osman]

@@phatymcdaddy True lol and after using all the regret orbs, you no longer have the attributes and can't use your gear anymore. I do believe in POE 2 this will be a lot less of an issue for new players and that's a big plus.

[@12SickOne34]

An incredibly important and all too often overlooked point: There is an important difference between complex and complicated. And it seems to me that people were very aware of this with poE2. Shit is excessive (complex) but easy to understand (not complicated) from the first look of it.

[@Shaijn815]

Poe mostly just needs better guidance and tutorialization to help people uncover the iceberg the game offers inside the game as some people get overwhelmed trying it out rather than looking for guide content online unfortunately.

[@LiLBitsDK]

the video they made really did explain a LOT... then trial and error in those areas will reveal more "secrets" we don't want everything explained but that they are there and how they work is important

[@LordOmnichrome]

POE 2 is going to have a in game keyword tutorial similar to baldurs gate, where you can click on a mechanic word in game and it will explain it.

[@KazaiTV]

They did exactly that with the classes. Every class has recommended skills and skills have recommended support gems. Another amazing new thing is the new ingame popups. Many words now have __ under them. You can click all of them and when you do a small window pops up on the screen, which explains to you what it is and does. For example "i͟g͟n͟i͟t͟e͟" - you click on it and it will explain to you what ignite is and does. This can be done with basicly anything. Same with Items or Acendancies that give you weird abilities. You can freely drag these small windows around your screen and cover your entire screen in dozens of them if you want. This will be amazing not only for new players but for anyone. They also have popup windows for Skill-Gems, where a small video will play previewing you the skill in action. EmpyrianGaming had a video on that but he removed it because it had some older information in it.

[@ImxxFuZe]

My only worry is the crafting system, I hope it's not as convoluted as PoE1. I don't want pdf files please =(

[@dakai4992]

I hope so, too. And I hope it doesn't become complicated in the long run. Like PoE1 early crafting was simple, but when they added competing crafting methods shit hit the fan, because if you didn't have a niche use the old ones became dogshit.

[@ImxxFuZe]

@@dakai4992 It's definitely something that people need to start addressing and asking the devs now early on. I'm obviously riding the hype, but seeing as they've made other systems easier to comprehend. I'm sure they could do the same long term and I think also making an in-game terminal system sort of like Deadlocks item loadout/buy system, would be extremely amazing as it could give the veteran players easier access to other vets builds (maybe even with notes) and it gives newer players the pathing to vet builds!

[@rednab2001]

For me, the heart and soul of an ARPG is loot. Unfortunately, loot in POE1 almost never mattered. You play through the campaign with whatever dog poop gear you can find, you finish Act 10 and immediately go buy every piece of gear you will ever have for the rest of that character's life. What dropped on the ground was of no consequence. It always felt like playing Path of Currency. IF you ever got a good drop, 99% of the time, it was not for your build, so you sell it. I want an ARPG that drops loot that I can use on my own build. I want what drops on the ground from mob kills and boss kills to matter. I don't want it to always be currency of something you vendor. Last Epoch did this right and I enjoy playing LE. I want to find and build my gear, not buy my gear. My hope for POE2 is that I can make good end game gear from what drops on the ground. Trading in POE1 sucks badly and I would rather not be forced to do that for every piece of gear I put on a character.

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

Yeah poe1 crafting is atrocious. Its an insult to even call it crafting tbh. Its just gambling. PoE2 crafting looks a bit better(but also worse) but we still need to see more to really know for sure. Hoping it's actually crafting this time around.

[@Zumone1one]

The things i left poe 1 is the crafting and gems in gear... mostly the crafting was impossible to learn unless you are willing to put months of research into it

[@NousagiBrat]

Im the opposite. The fact that there are still lots of stuff to learn about crafting makes me want to play more.

[@dshearwf]

ye skill issue tbh. the massive complexity kept the game alive for the core players.

[@PitchBlackRoses]

I almost fully disagree. A: the crafting having more to learn was always fun. The only and only thing i agree with. Is using cheap currencies for basic crafts should be way more common so you can craft in campaign and learn basics. And then slowly expand with harder stuff.

[@captaingrizzly9511]

dumbing down poe will kill it. complexity is good. complexity equals longevity. could crafting be a little more approachable? yes

[@celuiquipeut6527]

@@dshearwf Its not a skill issue, its the fact i dont wanna spend that many hours learning a useless skill. the ROI is almost nul. Its unecessary.

[@ProbablyJacob]

The changes made o PoE2 aren't just making build variety larger, it seems like it will be larger by orders of magnitude

[@davidskidmore3442]

A lot depends on balance. There's 7 classes in PoE, and yet the number of high rated builds on build sites is rather low; and the distance between high-performing and low-performing builds in PoE1 is HUGE. The difference between mid-rated build site builds and 'I picked nodes and skills that looked neat' is equally huge.

[@ProbablyJacob]

@@davidskidmore3442 This is true, but removing life almost entirely from the tree and changes to travel nodes is huge for making builds that in PoE 1 would be mid or low tier SIGNIFIGANTLY better in theory, with the environment PoE2 is setting up, a higher number of builds should be end game viable not to mention that now that bosses and combat has much more skill involved, better skilled players will probably be able to outplay bosses and mobs on a build with lower than optimal damage output

[@TheChad435]

I'm just a bit worried about the WASD movement and skill rotations. As a quadriplegic, I use pencil in a hand brace on my right for mouse movement and a pencil in my left brace to "hunt and peck" skills on the keyboard. I'm just hoping there are ample key bind, remapping or accessibility options. If not, well, game over for me in the first 5 minutes of play 😄.

[@Rimmpula]

WASD is just an option, the normal mouse movement is still ingame!

[@Somerled_Pox]

I'm gonna guess there'll also be quite a bit of automation options even if they will be difficult to set up at the beginning. And accessibility for them is an ongoing topic, I remember last playtest where they flew people over, people suggested them to allow controller and keyboards at the same time for easier inventory management, and they didn't think of it until the suggestion was brought to them High recommend to voice some of your concerns wherever suggestions will end up being during early access

[@celuiquipeut6527]

you can WASD but you can still use the mouse.

[@Reezico]

gotta pay attention more, if you can play poe1, you can play poe2.

[@TheChad435]

@@Rimmpula phew ok cool. I enjoyed POE 1. I couldn't find info where you could still use a mouse. TY!

[@velocity960]

Yea the skill tree is big, but what I always tell friends trying to get into the game is that you only have 1 passive tree in the whole game (besides atlas). No separated trees, so while it is still bigger than most games, if you take into account the fact that each class shares the same tree it's really not that bad.

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

At the time I didn't know that all classes shared the tree during my first run but I was excited to see a massive skill tree like this with nodes everywhere

[@tumbleweed0u812]

If they simplified it some from POE1, I think the casual player will be okay. POE1 was pretty complicated.

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

PoE isn't complicated if you were there from the beginning. PoE 1 is a culmination of 10 years of expansions and content that was added to the game. Now imagine being a new player having to absorb 10 years of content and league mechanics and multiple expansions at once.

[@deceiver444]

​@@IXxhpnotiqxXIthat's what I went through last year. The most overwhelming gaming experience ever. But also the most rewarding. PoE1 is one of a kind. Can't wait to play the new one.

[@Vatayah]

Speaking as someone who tried so hard to get into PoE, i find so many systems in PoE 2 much more easier to understand, from skills, to gems, charms, equipment, atlas and so on. Also i don't think some ppl realize how big ability to respec passive tree is - that was literally my biggest worry in PoE, that made me just follow a build guide instead of playing around passives

[@sir_quirkus7206]

very ironic to me people complaining it might be "dumbed down" when to understand the game they have to watch a youtube video anyways

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

What are you smoking? Most people don't need a KZbin to understand the game... Path of Building exists what are you on mate? It literally crunches all the data for you that you input about your character or how someone else's character is functioning

[@Habib_Osman]

@@IXxhpnotiqxXI To get Path of Building in the first place you've most likely have played 100+ hours And watched many YT videos + some streams. People don't install a brand new game and go.. "hm.. what type of programs could I use to minmax my entire character build perfectly?" instead, you could look at Path of Building as everything that's wrong with the game. If your best players use programs other than the game itself to calculate their build.. maybe the game isn't approachable enough

[@Habib_Osman]

And I agree with this: I think POE2 will share a huge % of their playerbase with POE 1. I kinda really doubt many totally new non-arpg players will pick it up.

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

@@Habib_Osman any video that's Worth it's salt in a guide will tell you that's the FIRST thing you should download alongside the game itself. Even Connor Converse video for new players also tells them this. Connor Converse= Onemanaleft

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

@@Habib_Osman when I started path of exile, I had a full understanding of how path of building worked as it was easy and simple to understand. Unfortunately some people may not have been as lucky as me to get the good guides recommending it, but that should be automatic in every guide for new players, as PoB is extremely accurate, and the tool tip in PoE 1 outside of resistances isn't accurate, as it's not accounting for all buffs and things that's not currently active at the time and even then it can't calculate like PoB can.

[@slimbonepickins7167]

I feel like this whole poe2 reveal is a massive W. They didn't "dumb it down", they just made it more approachable for somebody who is just wanting to try out a new game. Besides, as a 10 year veteran of the first poe, I feel like it doesn't need to be impossible to learn without looking up guides on google and youtube and downloading external apps to be good. The fact that it just throws you to the wolves and says "here you go, figure it out" isn't what makes poe a great game, it's the transparency of the devs and the sheer amount of stuff there is to do in the endgame, and the diversity of builds thanks to not having skills locked to classes. Making it a little easier to pick up and start playing for the first time will never hurt the game.

[@lexsilencer9365]

Tell that to those snowflakes that complain and always have a "I worry" attitude. F*****

[@hanarielgodlike9283]

I have one major worry, is that PoE 2 fails to capture enough people outside of POE1. if that happens, all that GGG did was divide their playerbase into two groups: "Those who like Zoom-zoom builds" and "those who were loved by their parents" If "Those who like Zoom-zoom builds" aren't willing to give PoE2 a chance, and "those who were loved by their parents" don't go back to POE1. They might have to deal with the same number of players, but in different games. It might go well, since now they can cather for the wants of each group of players, without much conflict. but also might end up bad.

[@Habib_Osman]

Same. Really really curious to what degree POE 2 will capture totally new players. My experience with getting non-arpg fans into the game isn't very good lol. of the 5 I tried, 1 stayed but he's a uber nerd programmer with a fascination for difficult games that are also isometric.. so, I introduced him, but if I didn't he wouldve found it himself

[@SilkCrown]

You're completely right. I think that's why they changed course from having POE2 be targeted at new players and being beginner friendly to POE2 being a true successor to POE1 by vastly increasing complexity and difficulty especially in the end game and straight up copying a bunch of POE1's most favorite seasonal mechanics.

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

​@SilkCrown they still very obviously intend to make PoE2 new player friendly and more appealing to a broader more casual audience. There is no point in trying to sell it to PoE1 players because they already have PoE1 which will continue being developed. If they don't like PoE2, they just go back to PoE1. Makes no sense to make the same game twice. While updating both.

[@carnhaynes2393]

When bro said I don't care when talking about the skill tree being too big for new players, I subscribed lol.

[@WhatIfTheories]

Love ARPGs hardcore gamer but tried PoE about 5 years ago and didn't like it. First hated the Flask system and how it's tied to player power. I don't want to use flask in my build. In fact I feel like flask aka health pots is something you use while leveling then you don't have to use anymore when you get your build off the ground. Hated the skill gem system, lets be honest it wasn't good and over complicated. PoE 2 fixes many of the issues with PoE which gets PoE players riled up I know. It's just lets face it, PoE had convoluted sytems ontop of convoluted systems and needless mechanics "in the way" of a good game. Players like myself been waiting for GGG to fix this and just present us with a great game to play. I'm incredibly excited about PoE 2. I can't wait to play and theorycraft builds now they also fixed the passive tree and you can respec easily. I could list more things PoE 2 is fixing but you get it.

[@Habib_Osman]

What didn't you like about the gem system? Because its a huge part of the depth of the game. its a source of experimentation to the best players of the game and allows for near endless tinkering and min-maxing while remaining approachable. Want more projectiles? Here have 3 extra. Want to do more burning damage? Here have some extra burning damage.

[@WhatIfTheories]

@@Habib_Osman The gem system in PoE has depth but it's a convoluted poorly designed mess. PoE is very restrictive in most of it's systems and doesn't allow for tinkering or exploration. Again these systesm are "In the way" of a good game. PoE 2 is fixing a lot of the problems PoE has by presenting the systems and mechanics with far better design that allows for players to actually play the game. As someone who has a good 50k+ hours in games over the last couple decades I'm excited for the next gen of ARPGs with PoE 2 and again very happy they fixed so many issues with PoE. GGG has come a long way.

[@shiraisan3779]

@@WhatIfTheories PoE being "very restrictive" is just copium. The game has more options the any other game. You do sound like someone that likes a press 1 key to win.

[@WhatIfTheories]

@@shiraisan3779 PoE being restrictive is objectively true. PoE can have the most options and be very restrictive. More options don't make it less restrictive. Again it's great PoE 2 is fixing many of these issue. I love games that offer depth and lots of options I just don't want tons of restrictions as well. It's been a great year for gaming.

[@matejbosela9093]

18:37 Sir, that would be Sinvicta's Mettle (edit here, messed up the name) Another example of the weapon swaps I did personally - wardloop starter (swap to essence crafted wands for 2 SRS looking skulls, swap back, and bam - loop started) and another one was pre patch 1.3 snapshotting (worked on other gear as well - mostly used by RF characters).

[@yessougkouyoumjian2944]

you are right but still not as significant as it will be in poe2 the swaping

[@matejbosela9093]

@yessougkouyoumjian2944 i mean, that was not entirely the question made by DM ("how many times did You use weapon swapping?"). there were also builds that required fast weapon swapping for the cwdt loop (the whole build was literally based on wep swap as iirc poison and/or vortex spam jugg). Those builds existed purely because of the wep swap (and unlocked mouse wheel). One of those builds was also featured on The Build of the Week, by Bex (the legend wont be forgotten). I am not sure which season of the BotW it was, but it should be pretty old now (between patches 2.6-3.5, if Im not mistaken).

[@EboyEpicGamer]

GGG just removed regional pricing and gave my country a 100% increase in price.... I know the game is polished, but holy cow. The price here in ZA is insane.

[@Covertghost]

you can still do with steam or epic store, right? probably disabled on main site cuz abusers

[@EboyEpicGamer]

@Covertghost this is on the steam store... It's crazy.

[@XxmochaxX100]

Just wait until full release and pay nothing

[@EboyEpicGamer]

@@XxmochaxX100 "2 years later" Finally!!!

[@Thunderstyle7]

In this case it's understandable.

[@Smorccc]

The weapon specs are a huge boon to builds, I can imagine a world where I use a staff to make fire walls and other combo spells and swap to a bow to imbue the skills with elemental dps. Depending on how many combo skills exist across class it will be so cool to see what people can come up with.

[@yessougkouyoumjian2944]

Mr. lama will probalby play d2 for another decade at least no offence

[@Wrex90]

I'm aware he knows he stuff in D2, but when it comes to any other ARPGs I think noone should take anything he says serious. Just watch any other ARPG content creator for that and you are far better off with people who actually know what they are talking about.

[@arschmitohren90]

Boomers gonna boom

[@DrMouette]

37 years old guy with a pretty common story that started playing ARPG with old stuff even before D1, but D1 and D2 were mindblowing. What a the piece of Art in sound, ambiance, effect and story. Damn 90s what a golden age in video games (like now). Played D3 alot but wasnt too happy backthen still I played many hours on it. D4 I was so hyped and like a bad cake the taste felt mid tier with the lost of consistancy, pacing and depth. I saw the shift in the target audience already for D3 but with the online aspect it was tremendous. Poe 1 like many people became a thing many years after, like an relationship you keep on growing with, you come and go back and forth. With great times and great souvenirs but still Diablo was the master of stories ambiance and that part in any game is so important to me I felt no competition was able to live up to the feeling of once D2 was (like Dungeon Keeper or Baldur's Gate in their own genre). But men, this PoE 2 sequal as something that reminds me so much of D2 vibes. Dark, cold blood violence, this color palet, the animation that looks like fast like exactly D2 was and still with a slower pace with heavyness that look and feels just so much enjoyable. D4 was something they'v marketed as a return of the old days, but it was kind of a gimmick. Even tho this D4 still has this technical and graphical touch that shows up its AAA game, after more than a year now, I wasnt expecting PoE2 to be able to not only live up to blizzard quality standards but also to overcome and even surpasse it. I truly hope GGG has the budget to market the game way more and make that PoE 2 more than successfull in the minds of the developpers. I cant wait to play that game and go back to this feeling of playing in the couch with friends that in this modern age I feel we lost. I will play on PC mainly but damn ARPG is so fucking back !!!

[@bigchungus7050]

1:30 naw stalker and poe2 saved 2024

[@mint5438]

Stalker 2 is good but it has by no means saved 2024. It's got a long way to go, but the foundation is great.

[@TheBubbet]

Chroma orb example is spot on for a piece of the game that was more of an annoyance than fun or build serving. I think one of the biggest accessibility improvements they could make is to have some pre-defined builds and path suggestions for the skill tree that new players can use so it is less daunting. This could also help players learn the skill tree by providing information on how things interact in a tutorial like way.

[@fredfuchs5600]

I hope they dumb down A LITTLE BIT, because i want a bit slower game than POE 1. I couldnt get into it because how overwhelming it was and still is with each "updates". I want a nice chill experience with optional challenges without BS.

[@leoleo1035]

I think you're confusing yourself. All challenges are optional, unless you enter a league. The game is as overwhelming as you make it to be, with the exception of the skill tree and lack of viable respec. Removing health nodes and adding a nice respec system will already make it simpler without losing any of the complexity ceilling.

[@LiLBitsDK]

you just focus on some areas... you don't have to master everything... what I disliked most was the need to farm delve parts so I could do more... I wanted to do the delves because it was fun... it was boring farming those items... but the new way they do stuff seems VERY interesting to be honest

[@fredfuchs5600]

@@LiLBitsDK This

[@cybergun01]

You're absolutely correct. I was one of those players who tried POE1 and just felt completely overwhelmed in the beginning having to learn too much at once. It's not that i'm a dumb player, but just preferred to be eased in to it a bit.. I'm actually excited to hear about the improvements they've made, but also with having deeper content late game once i learn the ropes a bit. The best of both worlds so to speak. So.. i'm definitely looking forward to playing POE2. Plus, D4 just wasn't it for me.

[@edgetransit3320]

A game made for everyone is a game for no one. I watched the livestream and they did the right things. They simplified and made systems easier to understand so new players will be more likely to approach it. They also kept the complexity and the game for the core fans. The game is still for path of exile players. They didn't make it super casual. I'm going to be new to the POE universe and I'm excited. Whenever I see ppl complaining it's gonna be too hard, it upsets me. Ppl nowadays are so soft and want everything easy. D4 is right there if you don't want to use any braincells.

[@sqoualalaobikord9690]

There are so many people in the comments who confuse making the start of the systems easier to understand as "dumbing it down". They think because it's more approachable that you automatically lose depth, and that's just stupid.

[@nobody199-x4i]

this. i was skeptical before the presentation but they really seem to have nailed itr down,

[@edgetransit3320]

@@sqoualalaobikord9690 Exactly! POE1 never had the time to really trim the fat and excess that doesn't need to be there. In POE2, they get to do that.

[@edgetransit3320]

@@nobody199-x4i Ya man! This game looks epic.

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

Welcome to Wraeclast exile, and enjoy your stay

[@TheDedloc]

They are changing a lot of good stuff. No sockets, being able to pick up and equip upgrades and craft on them immediately and know what ur doing basically. You can more easily do your own builds now with no life nodes on tree, and hybrid points. You pick up skills and change some hybrid points around until you can use said skill... and this is how you can do basically whatever you want. That alone is gonna get people through the game... and I think they will be happy when they discover more complexity. You will already be into and enjoying the game and your build and what have been doing. I'll be real, I think Llama is probably gonna play for and hour and then go do another Diablo 2 speed run. Which is fine. But I've never taken his takes very seriously lol the problem with PoE1 is that they need to make it more like PoE2 when it comes to accessibility. Like the glossary/ interactive tooltips. I think you gotta keep sockets and all that but just to preserve that. But they can do a much better job at explaining stuff lol

[@jra6023]

D4 bad.

[@IXxhpnotiqxXI]

D4 Dog shit

[@deceiver444]

D4 aggressively mid

[@z1mt0n1x2]

4:50 The way I learned it was I just put a jewel in and forgot all about it. Few days later when the majority of my build was done I started looking at improving the things I already had, like skill level/quality, finetuning the path in the skilltree, improving the stats on the gear, and ofc eventually switching out the redundant jewels.

[@peanut5357]

It is not complicated enough for the blasters Not simple enough for the casuals A game made for everyone is a game made for no one

[@Hecarim420]

Context matters ? Being LESS punishing while in BETA tests people died a lot is the best "PoE2" indicator they made GREAT decisionツ ==> It's not that hard to understand, but maybe I wrong... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@NousagiBrat]

Yeah games like that usually quickly drops in active player counts.

[@peanut5357]

@@NousagiBrat Just look at Last Epoch

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

Good thing they're not making the game for everyone.

[@peanut5357]

@ agreed

[@Zeta1127]

My concerns are three-fold, time commitment, Leagues, and Paladin/Crusader class. I am concerned about the time commitment and therefore the complexity. I played a lot of D2 with every class, but currently I only have a Paladin about to finish Act II on D2R, because I don't have the time to play with so many other games. Which leads into my next concern, Leagues. I simply don't have time to run a new character for a new season/League, which is why I never touched seasons in D2/D3 and would have be really hesitant to do so in D4. Warrior looks to be the closest Paladin/Crusader, but with only 6 of 12 classes revealed it isn't the end of the world and there is bound to be a class that interests me.

[@SocialStigma]

One of those unrevealed classes will be like that. They haven't shown the Int/Str class yet. That'll be your boy

[@nostrings1269]

That just means you'll have more time to build your eternal character. That's how I started in D2. I couldn't play all day every day but I loved D2 and came back to play any chance & bc of that I never played PoE but now that I've pretty much lost interest in D4, I have time for PoE2

[@mNag]

The funny thing with Diablo, is even people who play it will rip on it for being dogshit. Like you can try to be realist about it, but at the end of the day, they really are just milking the brand loyalty. If D4 came out, but wasn't made by blizzard, and was instead called "Magic and Monsters", and had 1/10th advertising budget, people would be ripping on it, the sales would be in the toilet and every ARPG fan would be telling you to play POE instead. But that's not the world we live in. The name "Diablo" has a lot of clout attached to it, there are blizzard die-hards. And they advertise the shit out of their games. So it sold some copies - whoop-de-do... still doesn't make it a good game. Just means a bunch of blizzard fanboys got scammed for AAA game money. Any other company makes that game, and they have to market it Free2Play if they want any kind of player base.

[@GaeBoIg]

idk about you but I have been playing poe for more than 10k hours, and yet while crafting I still use crafting calcs, look up exclusives, theorycraft the approach with the best averages to sell until I hit my high roll. That out of game planning sometimes takes hours for bigger ambitious projects. Yes PoE2 is dumbing it down - and that is a good thing. Imagine someone picking the game up trying to understand the current crafting system in PoE. While it is complex it is also overcomplicated for players which didn't live in poe for the better of 1k hours. Also I really like the gem restriction per character. As you cannot mindlessly just pick the highest dps gem anymore, you have to craft your build around using an optimal singleton setup, which makes the puzzle way more interesting and also leads to less "bad" gems. Same goes for auras, before Auras were pretty much free stats for no cost unless you were blood magic, which was pretty bad since it couldn't just reserve mana for free stats. So far I think PoE2 has really good approaches on design choices which turned out "unhealthy" or leading to basically no choice scenarios when there should have been a choice.

[@adventurethis]

The only thing they need to do, which i think D4 does well - is have quests that link you to the specific content as it opens up - and guides you through how its used. If you have that an introduce these quests over time you will end up in endgame with all the knowledge you need to proceed with each content.

[@InvaderShane]

There are so many QOL improvements in POE2 that dont make the game easier or dumbed down but just more approachable and less complicated. POE in a lot of ways is complicated for complicated sake, POE2 seems like theres more intention behind mechanics.

[@planetdustbowl4825]

I really doubt they are going to change their winning formula in endgame. Most of us like it complicated.

[@irishijo1]

I think the big thing with PoE2's passive tree is that you dont need to know exactly where every stat is to make your build, it makes the gsme more approchable for new players who want to go into a tree(like projectile bounce), but not feel like they need to use dex weapons because thats all the nodes on the way over. It keeps the complexity, while adding flexibility. That and more convenient respecs. That further incentivises players to just... you know... try shit out. You dont feel locked into a build, it makes you feel like if you dont like Bone Spears, you didnt just brick your character and have to start over. You can respec into Hexes or something.

[@drgitgud]

they didnt dumb it down, they made more convenient best example is using skills and supportgems in a seperate menu, you have them you can switch gear without recrafting links and colors and you can just toss supportgems around to quickly test things out, its just way more userfriendly and fun as a whole while keeping everything as complex as possible

[@PiousSlayer]

1:03 - I think another big detractor from Path of Exile 1 is the friction for respeccing characters, especially early on when you actually want to or need to experiment to make your build work. In Path of Exile 2, you can respec with gold so that friction is dramatically lessened and will enable more players to enjoy the game. Edit: By "your build" it could be just exploring options and trying to figure out what you want to do, not necessarily following a build guide. This change alone will enable more people to explore buildcrafting more for themselves. You could do this to a much lesser extent in Path of Exile 1, but you had to get a hold of Orbs of Regret somehow (rare drops, trading, or any other methods I don't know about) and newer players may be averse to trading for currencies (especially before the in-game currency exchange.)

[@kenarc2544]

To me, I'm a fun both game Diablo and POE, for some reason I like POE due to how free you can alocate your skill tree and how free you can craft your equipments base on your build thats make it more fun to play. Well Diablo 2 is good too, but POE 2 now maybe I will focus to this one now. I'm your average player.

[@_MikeJon_]

I think the skill tree looks exciting. I can't wait to explore and experiment with it.

[@farharbor3178]

I might be an idiot… a big Diablo 2 player… I wanted to get into PoE (I still respect it; would still like to play). I found it WAY too complicated for me. Not necessarily the builds or gear or game play …. But I was swamped by all the different currencies and what I think were seasonal mechanics? It just felt like there were a million little layered systems and I had a hard time delineating them.

[@tvlyt456]

It is not so much dumb down, but more like slower ramp up. Seems like mid to endgame is gonna be as complex or even more complex because there are more skills and links + combo synergies now. Previously builds were capped by aura setup, defense/utility setup, curse/movement setup, one or 2 six links. Specifically minion build struggled a bit with limit to amount of links and what setup to run.

[@sp6rda]

PoE appears to be trying to remove opportunity costs. Like in the Atlas tree, you have to decide what endgame mechanics you want to boost because you have a limited amount of atlas points. If you spec some mechanics, you wont have enough points to spec certain others. This was mitigated later by allowing you to have 3 different atlas trees you can swap. So you can essentially spec many combinations of atlas trees. The final glorious evolution of this is each mechanic has its own tree with its own level up system so now you can level up all trees independently and have no limitation of what endgame you want to do. They are not dumbing it down, they are just making it less tedious. same thing with passive skill points bound to weapon slots. lets you respec mid fight for wider flexibility of playstyles.

[@Robot-Overlord]

Problem with the "hardcore" playerbase is they have Christopher Nolan syndrome, they think a bunch of random outdated nonsense is deep complexity. I for one am cool with them "dumbing it down" if it means the game isnt throwing slow down mechanics at us for no reason. Like Last Epochs weird barrier on bosses to keep your build from working well.

[@willrevillame3288]

I feel like the skill tree is more streamlined compared to POE1, and boy the attribute highways being easily interchangeable with different attributes is sooooo good, like it almost feels there's no more wrong choices anymore unless you're pathing towards a specific keystone.

[@TL-fe9si]

The separate atlas trees have one issue, you can't fully spec into one mechanic even if you want to, given that you are only allowed to spec 8 points per separated atlas tree

[@Evro_X]

My biggest concern is the optimization. Like they are giving us almost no limit in what we build, but most of the time, end game versions of the builds are just breaking the game. Max juice + lots of projectiles and stuff = low fps, shutters, graphical artifacts. I really hope they worked on that. Group play is almost impossible in PoE1 due to this on if you don't want to be stuck in 15-20 fps gameplay, no matter how great your NASA PC is, game engine just breaks. Also the loot. Less loot but better loot. I have around 20k hours in PoE and for like 99% of that time I was playing with filters removing like 70% of the loot, because it is junk. They have to change it. Make uniques actually good and nerf crafting, so end game builds does not rely mostly on mirror level crafted items to the point where 90% of the uniques are just a junk... I really hate that in PoE, for example weapons - best crafted weapon is like 10000% better than the closest unique version of this weapon, why would you put hours into making so many uniques if they are so easily replaced by extremely overpowered crafted items. It's either crafting needs a huge nerf or uniques needs a huge buff so they are no longer being worthless.

[@nostrings1269]

I think with the influx of new players they're going to get, they'll have the resources to be able to iron those things out pretty quickly if they become an issue.

[@dekdenfor9770]

Using gold to respec makes the massive skill tree infinitely more aproachable than before. Literally the ability to do what I want until i hit a wall in the endgame and be able to shift to an endgame build is amazing

[@ajthedemon40]

As someone who plays PoE on console my biggest worry is that I hope the game doesn't constantly crash when doing end game maps. Literally quit settlers league because if I tried to do a ritual on a t17 map it would just crash my game six times over removing all my portals even though I didn't die. Then I finally obtained a headhunter (my first ever) and it only exacerbated the crashing.

[@nocturnalverse5739]

Should I play one of the game of the year quality games that I haven't yet installed from my library, or buy a new game? I think the answer is obvious.

[@MrFabiogarcia]

I'm one of those players who gave up after opening the skill tree in PoE 1, not because of the complexity, but because of the amount of time I would waste learning it. I have a job, a mortgage, and bills to pay. I recently installed the game and followed a guide to start PoE 2 with some knowledge, but it wasn't fun. It felt more like a chore that I had to follow. However, I don't think the game should be reduced in complexity or size, but showing everything right away is unnecessary. I think it would be more interesting to have optionals basic and advanced modes that can be enable at any time and letting the player choose, starting with the basic and encouraging the advanced in the endgame.

[@Habib_Osman]

Yes. Maybe the skilltree could be covered in "fog" and only open up when you make a path. Slowly discovering complexity sounds organic and beneficial in almost all cases.

[@MrFabiogarcia]

@@Habib_Osman It's an idea. But I was thinking of something more focused. A standard Diablo/aRPG player usually chooses a class based on style, so if they choose an archer, there's a high chance they won't be very interested in skills with two-handed melee weapons or magic playstyle, for example, so in basic mode these options wouldn't be shown, but they would still be there in advanced mode.

[@Habib_Osman]

@@MrFabiogarcia Yep. A simple button making things outside the chosen archetype invisible would help clutter too. All in all, "drip feeding" complexity is the solution most likely.

[@Habib_Osman]

@@MrFabiogarcia It shouldn't be based on class though, because most classes are super diverse. There are only a few classes that shoehorn you into a specific style. I'm thinking: a simple preferred style option. Click archer, all the melee stuff disappears.

[@planetdustbowl4825]

It is possible that the game isn't for you. There is tons of simple games that don't need effort to learn. For some of us it is this constant learning experience that is what we crave when other RPGs feel shallow.

[@leventhumps3861]

Bro! This looks so good! I’m seriously looking into buying a PC this year. Just so I can play POE2! Got any budget recommendations, bois?

[@_Diktator]

Even though I've spent close to 100h playing PoE, I've never really got into it. I've tried it several times, and decided it's just not for me whenever I finish the campaign and start the endgame. I don't want to follow a build guide before I even start playing. I don't want to HAVE to pre-plan a build, which requires so much game knowledge, BEFORE I START PLAYING THE GAME. Expecting a brand new player who hasn't played the game, to know so many thing about the game before they even start playing is just insane. Yeah sure, hardcore players don't have an issue with that, but all it means is that it's incredibly hard for anyone new to get into the game. I want to fail, and learn, so I can make better choices progressively, and adjust as I go. PoE just gives me the option to fail, maybe learn something, but I have to start over again because my character is bricked - I don't want to have to replay the same boring campaign over and over again. 1:00 - is exactly my point, it's too much, right out the gate. It's not like you progressively learn more and more (well, you do), but you have to learn a huge chunk of the game right away. Whether it's skill gems, support gems, skill tree, stats, attributes, etc. etc. - it's just too much. The fact you can easily now reset skills is a huge deal. On top of that, other changes to skills, etc. are just great. I haven't been this hyped up for a game in a while.

[@Habib_Osman]

Yep. This is true. The less you know about the game, the more planning for a character beforehand will benefit you. This is an inverse relation. The only player I know that can go into POE with no idea at all and still create a cool character is Mathilfication. And he has like.. maybe 30K hours into the game and is one of the biggest streamers.

[@kurogane2x]

bricked my first character lol, I can't kill the boss on act 6 i think. Made a new character and followed a build and since I don't know much about the game, I stopped around T10 maps since I'm getting killed in just a few hits. At that time I had no idea how to upgrade the gear of my character. I had no idea what would make me stronger or harder to kill.

[@_Diktator]

@@kurogane2x Yeah, that's the issue. Whenever I start, I have a rough idea of what I want to go for, I do research, but ultimately I will hit a road-block, that I will not be able to overcome. The only option is to re-roll, and plan better, or follow a guide, but at that point I've literally spent so many hours with this character, doing that content, that I have 0 wish or motivation to do all over again.

[@whipdan674]

Once you learn the game you will know that the massive skilltree is an illusion of choice, you will look at it and know where you could go and where you wanna go, you have a limit to your skill levels. For example there's nodes that improve shield users, or staff users. If you don't use a shield or a staff then it is as if those nodes didn't exist and you will see the tree for what it is. There's much more build identity in the ascension and in the gear you wear.

[@Habib_Osman]

Nah, expert players can tinker with the passive skilltree for weeks. I don't believe the: "you can't mess up the early game tree because all the nodes are ok" idea at all. Minmaxing a build will be just as complicated.

[@whipdan674]

@@Habib_Osman Yes you tinker with it, but there's very few points to tinker with once u get pass the illusion of choice and understand that for each possible build 80%, or a number around that, of the tree is irrelevant.

[@whipdan674]

@@Habib_Osman That is a very different state of mind then someone who looks at it and thinks he can choose any one node in the tree when the truth is most nodes offer no benefit and others actually make your character worse.

[@Habib_Osman]

@@whipdan674 The thing is.. sure, on a phys-poison aoe trap build, all the fire, cold and lightining nodes are irrelevant, sure. That's true, however.. my experience is that when minmaxing, tiny pathing differences make massive differences. 1 point difference for example for most 20 million builds means 4 extra million damage. And that's 1 point on a say 118 point build.. so, because of how sharp things scale in most cases.. I think minmaxing will be just as important in POE 2 and the whole "every node at the start is ok" idea is BS.

[@whipdan674]

​@@Habib_Osman I agree, but what I'm saying is that from 1600 nodes in the tree if you could somehow filter the ones that benefit a certain build you would end up with some 200 or so. There's very little variance for any given build, sure there is minmaxing and some 0.01% of weird ass shit ppl do. But the scale of the tree that puts off some players is an illusion of choice. There is choice to be made just nowhere near as much as it shows at first glance.

[@nenadarkpaw]

I feel like players are just gonna take the most tanky ascendency and then pair with with the most OP ranged/totem/DOT skills and then just go ham. And that's easier than ever now when you can just swap the attribute nodes

[@deetsitmeisterjd]

They should have an option when you make a character that says "are you a new player?" If you tick that option when you open the skill tree for the first time, its covered in a fog of war besides an area around your starting nodes and as you increase in level that slowly disappears up to say level 30. That way, new players have options to look at but don't get overwhelmed looking at nodes they can't even reach for another 40 hours.

[@planetdustbowl4825]

The problem with that, is that you need to stretch for the important nodes, you have to be able to see them to know that they exist.

[@yournamethere123]

As a massive dark souls and Elden Ring fan, I can’t wait to build the mercenary into a boss destroyer. I love bosses and can’t wait to lean heavily into it

[@terrodar19]

I have never played PoE…. And llama is right, to me at least, seems a little too complicated already, but not too much to stop me from fully giving it a try

[@PrivacyStan]

Passive Skill Tree fix: Add suggested paths. Near character start, have a drop-down where you can select pre-loaded builds. They will highlight what to select if you are lost. They could be based around Ascensions, Skill foci, etc

[@Sorain1]

That and the basic 'show me X stat/buffs to X thing' is pretty much all the info you might need. But you'd also need to keep those example builds up to date, which might be a problem if you can't automate it somehow.

[@Habib_Osman]

it would have to be based on gem tags. And it should explain that not every skills is ideally suited for going crit.

[@PrivacyStan]

Even if it just mapped out the first 25 levels of a build, it would get new users over the hump.

[@Nimbus2k23]

So what class did you decide on for poe2

[@krytion3762]

I just wanna mention, that the Titan Ascendancy node says 20% "more" Life not 20% increased Life, like we have now in POE on the skill tree. This should be a lot of life gained their.

[@eeFiroK]

8:42 dumming the Dame Gown xD that happens to me also too often

[@Wolfyowns]

As someone new to PoE (played D2, D3 and D4) I'm excited for PoE2 as it does seem to be more new player friendly. The massive talent tree is of course scary but something I'm willing to deal with and learn as long as everything else isn't very crazy too. A lot of it seems easier to swap or change things so testing builds and not feeling screwed over for the rest of the game as I've heard if you did something wrong. I'm more willing to try PoE2 than PoE with how friendly it sounds to newer players, something I'm more excited to check out

[@Quij666777]

On the graphics notes around min 27, the graphics also has to scale with and not lag with the amount of things on screen and that's kinda a big deal for arpgs. I belive d4 had some issues with unable to put more mobs on a screen at one point. Graphics can have a huge effect on how it feels to play and the potential for crazy cool stuff.

[@ImBeeatsOfficial]

Anyone that’s complaining that’s it’s going to be to much, are the same people who were complaining about 30$ for early access, while the true poe players already have multiple 480$ packs lmao like me.

[@TheTripleJski]

playing sanctum for a run or two, dying, getting frustrating and quitting is basically like playing Hades for 2 runs, thinking you know what the game is like and quitting. Roguelites (and yes I said roughLITES) allow for permanant progression to make future runs easier and more enjoyable. If I hadn't experienced so many great roguelikes and roguelites like FTL, Binding of Isaac, Hades, Don't Starve, Slay the Spire...then I MAY have also given up on Sanctum after a few runs...in fact, I was burnt out on POE during it's launch league and did kinda bounce off it at first try. The first league it went core was the most fun I had playing POE. It was like experiencing two new leagues in one (I want to say it was TOTA league) and the reliability and predictability of Divines was great, even BEFORE I got the Original Scripture...or w/e the relic is called that lets you try a 1 hit run for Original Sin (half a mageblood's worth of currency in a single drop at the time). All that said, I know it's not for everyone, but if you've given up on it before ever clearing it, and experiencing the power growth you get from collecting a few good relics, you're REALLY missing out on what to me is one of if not THE best modes in POE, and it's to no surprise it's back for POE2 and I can't wait to run a Sanctum type mode instead of Labyrinth, and the fact they allow you to skip it if it's not your thing, UNIVERSAL W for GGG, truly great design.

[@Shadow_MosesTTV]

I like the fact that they are saving the last three acts for the final release, gives them time to refine and make them epic! It gives us more to look forward to upon final release with the addition of the other classes and so on.

[@SenpaiSytama]

The fact that we have diablo 4 players saying poe 2 is still too complex for their taste and at the same time poe players saying it‘s dumbed down, tells me that GGG is spot on and hit the nail right on the head.

[@planetdustbowl4825]

That nobody is happy :D

[@SenpaiSytama]

@ doesn’t look like that to me lol.

[@planetdustbowl4825]

@@SenpaiSytama I am just being pedantic :)

[@Diopside.]

the changes they made, I like it, it is really easier to approach and understand, even that passive tree doesn't look scary anymore when u can undo the mistake with ease.

[@Davichiz]

Man I remember watching you for Awaken chaos era guides etc and now I'm here watching you to hype me up for PoE2.

[@Electrichead64]

Everything is about mitigation. Damage out vs Damage in. Mana in vs Mana out. DPS is time. Life tap, mana tap, life regen, mana regen are all generally very powerful in RPGs like this.

[@daemoroth_m]

I think a big issue with PoE 1 was that it forced you to make extremely important/punishing/difficult to undo decisions immediately while you had no idea what the choices were or what you were doing. PoE 2 seems to either delay those choices, moved them out to a separate system or removed the punishing nature of getting it wrong. Not dumbing it down but lowering the punishing nature to something you can fix. So far, I always follow a build guide in PoE 1, but I'm going to try as much as I can to avoid guides and just try to create my own characters in PoE 2, because it looks like I'd be able to experiment a bit, take chances on something I don't quite understand and undo them if it does go sideways.