How I Feel About The PoE 2 Early Access So Far & A Quick Recent Patch Note Summary

[@WinterOnsen]

I enjoy the wording of "got less shitty" over "got better" in regards to trial of chaos

[@alexandersilva9503]

still shit, it'd be more fun if we find something like a Hidden Izaro's test labyrinth that works as ascendancy, anything but sanctum and ultimatum those are crap, those fell re-used and out of place

[@jgmweston]

Sekhemas is starting to get really fun (for me), but Chaos is just pain.

[@Matok1]

Main problem with the trial of chaos is every room things just get worse, there's no up side. Sanctum at least offers some buffs as you go through (maybe, depending on your path). It's a rogue-like mode that does things in the opposite way that most rouge-likes do things. Usually in a rouge-like, you gain character power to overcome the challenges the further you get. In trial of chaos, things just get worse as you progress and your only choices are what BS you want to deal with.

[@TriconPOE]

@@Matok1it’s supposed to be a trial, he’s not called the carnival gamemaster

[@ferologics]

i think the trials could be fun if they were done like Hades game, you are constantly dying, but you pick boons that make things fun and awesome, not „less shit”

[@KhaldunRS]

I personally prefer the idea of making maps smaller rather than increasing the speed of our characters. If characters were made faster, kiting mobs would become significantly easier, prompting GGG to counterbalance by increasing mob movement speed (or adding a mini haste effect). This adjustment could make the game more stressful, since our reaction time IRL is capped anyway. Combine that with some crazy damage mods, and it just becomes PoE1 where u get one shot and don't even have enough time to react.

[@arakasi1033]

PoE 2 campaign: Take it slow, methodical, choose your fights so you are not overwhelmed by mobs because you have no movement skills. PoE 2 maps: Here is Breach and Ritual that will demolish you with swarms of mobs you have to fight in a circle and Delirium which was designed with PoE 1 movement skills in mind. Also 1 death = GG. So, I skip all mechanics, clear the map to "complete it", then backtrack to start breach/ritual so I at least have the map complete if I die in the mechanic. Not great experience.

[@LokirofRoriksted]

same thing lol 2/4 rituals and i'm already buying stuff, because it's always a gamble if i'm gonna survive or not. Today I got 2 rares on my map, one with invulnerability aura and other with giga shield in a terrible layout where I couldnt move freely

[@knaz7468]

Ditto. Not a fan. The back tracking is anti GGGs goals. The bad feeling of losing a map to a rippy breach makes me log off sooner.

[@arakasi1033]

@@LokirofRoriksted I must say, that having to think about buying stuff from ritual before you finish all waves with the "I can die and lose everything" in mind is kinda funny, but not really :D

[@Huckle777]

Im genuinely surprised they copy and pasted almost every league mechanic from poe 1 into 2. This was there chance to start fresh but they instead copied so much from poe 1 while trying to enforce their illogical vision of poe 2.

[@arakasi1033]

@@Huckle777 I view it as a work in progress with "we need to have something in it before we make league content for PoE2" so of course they use PoE1 mechanics. They just don't pace well with the PoE2 speed.

[@JT.526]

I just want to know what genius came up with the idea to make charm slots a mod on rare belts. So every single unique belt only has 1 slot?? Seems like an ignorant choice to not have them become active as you level up or based on ilvl/requirements of belt.

[@MrBuns-yi2hk]

I find it so weird that belts don't have charm slots as an implicit. Especially with how rare the mod was before.

[@WilderQ]

Having charms slots increase with ilvl of items seems to be such a no brainer for me. I thought that was how it worked from watching the interviews. With the current system you barely ever interact with charms and its sad.

[@cowprophet]

A lot of things like that are obviously knee-jerk reactions and have not been thought out. Even entire skills (hello, slams). We are doomed to go through POE 2013 beta again.

[@trijondee]

An explanation could be, that the removal of 3 flask was such a recent addition ( streamers played a version less than a month before EA with 5 flask) . So they basically just jammed this change in more or less untested. The general design approach seems to be that GGG rather add power later than take power away when they introduce untested stuff. I doubt the designers themself is happy about the current state of charms.

[@thebobgoblin]

One issue I see with "enjoying the process of starting" is actually nothing to do with the campaign at all, but with the skill system. Specifically the level requirements for some skills. If I start a new character and want to build around a skill that isn't available until 52, that feels really bad compared to POE1 where most skill gems are available by level 28. I am a constant reroller in POE1 and I actually love seeing my character progress through the campaign with the chosen skill or skills. But I really feel like 52 is way too late to gain access to all your skills.

[@Lootaful]

Maybe it's just cause its new or I'm bad, but I agree. Getting to level 50 is a big task in this game and I almost lose interest before even getting my skill. I did hate in PoE1 having to respec into crit for my CoC characters, I'm just a bit impatient

[@BIGPILGRIM420]

i'm okay with this if it means you can design stronger stuff for later skills. i get that stuff like spark being available from min 1 deep into the endgame is cool, but i'd like more advanced and punchy skills to be available to us and it seems like they're going for that, at least with some of the merc crossbow stuff.

[@mcgruber]

Most skills in Poe 1 are 36 and a few a little higher but the cool ones are towards the end of act 3. About the same as here to be fair. There is just less of them in Poe 2 currently

[@opplerdop]

I think it's cool that you keep getting new toys to play with up through level 52. The problem right now is just the low number of skills and supports, which really stifles variety. You run out of stuff to experiment with with too early after each level breakpoint. IMO as the game progresses and they fill out all the gems and supports this will end up being a good choice. The campaign would be a lot more boring if you got halfway through and realized you had every skill available already, you lose that carrot on the stick.

[@thebobgoblin]

@@mcgruber You get access to most skills in poe1 by level 30 in the library, which is very early into the game compared to 52 in poe2. And even if most skills are available in A3 poe2, that is way different than A3 poe1. It really isn't about the amount of gems, I think it just feels bad that it takes to level 52 to get something like hammer of the gods. It's subjective for sure, but I think it really is a slog getting to some skills if I want to base my build around it.

[@ggzii]

When Mathil Agrees One portal is bad, nobody will call him out and say "Oh bad player, d4 player, games journalist" but if an average player calls it out or someone without a name they are slaughtered by elitist streamers. I'm glad Mathil is raising this point. Full time streamers don't understand how annoying it is to lose SO much time. Frankly if Mathil a fulltime rich PoE streamer feels a little salty at it, imagine a regular joe. This is a really good video. ARPG's are NOT mechanical sweaty Mobas or Starcraft I want to unwind and blast. Elden ring is FUN one time over a year... not resetting every 3 months.

[@GTRaijin]

Yep, I am a casual and currently at maps but I can't do shit there because performance tanks like hell whenever I shatter frozen mobs and then I just constantly die, losing the map and exp. I run out of maps and have to do lowest tier ones again and the cycle continues.

[@joehardwaree]

one death per waystone is fine when the enemy mobs are balanced. i have not died since the patch and im in tier 10 maps with mid gear. if you are dying it’s just indicative that you need to check your build and solve the issue. the one area i agree with having more attempts is when there’s a map boss, cause pretty much every new boss i’ve run into results in one death while learning the mechanics. a good solution would be to add a checkpoint right before the boss fight & allow multiple attempts on the boss, but leave normal maps as is.

[@MrShagification]

Almost everyone I've heard from or talked to, at best says that they are indifferent about one portal, and most would prefer not. I don't mind one portal for normal maps under the assumption that the balance will be refined such that it won't feel like you were cheated if you die (ex: on death explosions). Of course, it makes no sense to have one portal for boss encounters. Literally going by the intention of the game devs, it makes no sense. They want to have bosses that you need to learn the mechanics of to beat and you're supposed to die at least once or twice. I don't see a world where they don't at least give you more attempts for bosses. That said, I disagree that this game should be a brain dead zoom zoom game like PoE1, and I hope they never give you what you want in that regard. PoE1 exists; play that game.

[@eccentricflam6191]

This is a weird take, since I've seen everyone call this out as bad and not really anyone push back on it. There are for sure elitists shutting people down on difficulty discussions but this isn't one of them lol.

[@jontancool9181]

@@joehardwaree I feel the opposite. A map boss is usually more well balanced and structured than random thrash mobs. If you die to a map boss you misplayed. Random thrash mobs have unfair ondeath effect spam, random offscreen and clearly imbalance for even white packs, getting oneshot to some unlucky overlap of this shit shouldnt void the entire map.

[@ElkiLG]

The difficulty of bosses during the campaign felt really good because I could immediately have another go at it until I got it right. I barely started mapping and losing bossing maps feels bad but I'm mostly scared to do any pinacle boss now. :(

[@MrShagification]

Yeah, that's the reason I don't see them keeping 1 portal for bosses; it goes against their stated direction. They said they want you to die on bosses, retry, learn the mechanics, and be rewarded by figuring it out. One chance to fight end game bosses goes against that design philosophy. They will almost certainly go back on single portal bosses at least and maybe even in standard maps too.

[@YuYuYuna_]

@@MrShagification yeah 1 portal for bosses needs to go, really you shouldn't be limited to 1 portal period. I like this new atlas system but I don't like being limited on map portals. It's not fun being punished that hard. Maybe for bosses they could limit it to 3 portals instead of 6 if they want to keep it having a higher stake for bosses than for maps? Just an idea. I feel like they really wanted to throw a spin on the end game with the 1 portal shtick but it doesn't actually change the gameplay or feel of the end game, it just makes it more annoying. If I wanted to have high stakes I would play Hardcore. I play Softcore because I don't mind dying and trying again... but I can't.

[@dddaaa6965]

I was playing SSF to see how far I could go so I grinded all the pieces of ultimatum ON MY OWN to get 4th ascendency and died my first time, that was so terrible, so I grinded them AGAIN and the game crashed as soon as I reached the top of his tower, when the game loaded back in the door was just shut and I couldn't go back in...decided to try the sanctum because I had a level 80 one drop, I hate sanctum but I made it even though I had traps are 2x speed, which makes some of them UNDODGEABLE LOL what an awful design, but whatever, I got to the last boss to my surprise, even tho the 4th floor is filled with mobs that do 300 honour damage and shoot stupid AOE DOT CLOUDS that track you, once I reached the final boss, he was ridiculously easy...but he hit me with a few moves I hadn't seen, so I got to 2500 honor but he was about 30% hp left so I felt like I could do it, THEN THE GAME CRASHED!!!!!!!! I loaded back into the game annnnnnnnd...THE PORTAL WASNT GONE? Hoolllyyyy finally I got a break, I load back into the map... WAIT MY HONOUR IS STILL GONE? AND THE BOSS IS AT 100% HP LOL! I FAILED when he had about 20% hp left and starts spamming his unavoidable sticks, at least for melee, there are so many of them, it's litearlly impossible to not get hit, by the way, why are they so strong??? I am litearlly DELETING the bosses leading up to them in about 20-30 seconds, meanwhile these bosses take probably over 10 minutes for me to kill...so they balance the game so that you need to breeze through the previous bosses to MAYBE stand a chance at bosses that one shot with many moves??? It literally makes no sense

[@weirdo911aw]

awww baby booboo feels bad when he loses awwww :((((

[@391C]

@@MrShagification i bet the 1 portal is EA decision so that people wont finish all content too fast or something

[@SupaFly-gx1zo]

To elaborate on the "When you make your own item it's an 'oh shit' moment", for me it's been 99% a "thank fucking God, finally" moment. It is not an enjoyable experience to use the same crossbow from the start of Act 2 all the way to T3 maps because nothing else dropped with better stats. Could I have just bought a new one? Sure, but I could have also played another game instead, there's no reason for it to be so frustrating.

[@AnaICarnaval]

We need chase mods on items like thorns or light radius

[@javierv6791]

Ive been changing my gear all the time. I sell everything but yellows, i buy and pick every good base i see (maxroll gear planner can tell you Witch It is gor u) and then using all the coins we have feels ez. Also checking vendors.

[@HeAgBlass]

GGG please, for the love of god add out-of combat sprint if you are going to keep maps big

[@NineSeptims]

This is the vision brudda!

[@391C]

warrior?

[@snaker9er]

How would you suggest they implement that

[@Eepistoo]

PoE2 problem for me is mapping, burn out happens way too fast and chaining maps is exhausting. Multiple factors why, but main reasons i guess is "full clear/backtrack" & "always on edge/constant focus whole duration".

[@ShadyHarbinger666]

Backtrack killed the game for me aside from BS ascendancy trials.

[@ThaGamingMisfit]

If they don't address these issues, they are going to run into serious player retention issues.

[@THETunaCasserole]

Campaign overall is fine but gem acquisition / breaking into tier 2 support gems was really painfully, brutally slow. I would have had a lot more fun playing through the campaign if I didn't have to wait 15 hours before being able to play with another set of support gems / getting my actual build going. Poe 1, by comparison, has a worse overall campaign but players get access to all gems like 2-3 hours in, which makes playing through it more fun imo

[@Creamouz]

I was kinda drowning in support gems, did you skip everything optional or what's going on here? I didn't do all the optional bosses that dont give permanent buffs but I did a decent amont and my stash was overflowing with uncut supports before I even hit maps

[@ogkdr]

You don't get access to all gems in 2-3 hours. There are lots of higher level gems. Unless you absolutely blast through the campaign, but the same can then be said about PoE2. With trading, it's even easier to get support gems in PoE2 compared to PoE1 (cause support gems aren't level-gated like in PoE1, you can just by lvl 3 support gems and have access to everything right from the start - or use lvl 3 support gems from your first character, if you start a second one).

[@THETunaCasserole]

@@Creamouz I did basically every single boss / optional thing available, but with this complaint I am referring specifically to the first 3 acts and how long it takes to break into tier 2 support gems. Pretty sure I got my first Uncut II support in late Act 3 when I was like Lv40 maybe? Could have just been really unlucky but idk...eventually, yes, you get drowned in uncut gems, but at the beginning I found it to be pretty brutal and it took waaaaaay too long for Uncut IIs to be available

[@Creamouz]

@@THETunaCasserole I mean uncut tier 2 just takes a while;; on a 2h slammer I didnt really feel that it was that much of a problem though, maybe its specific to what you were playing idk

[@THETunaCasserole]

@@ogkdr Yeah I mean, ok, not every single gem, but nearly all of them are available to purchase and play with in A6. I guess it depends how long it takes for a player to get to A6, but I'd say that experienced players will get there in 3ish hours and, even if it takes newer players double or triple that, it's still way shorter than in poe2, and in poe2 you're still getting access to way fewer options comparatively for that amount of time. Fuck it, even if we say it takes 10 hours to get to A6 in PoE 1, which would be really, REALLY slow, you're still getting access way faster. Folks who league started an archmage build, for example, will have had to wait till the very end of the campaign to even begin playing with it which was probably something like 25 hours? That's way too long imo. Trade, of course, is a different story...but you should never have to rely on trade for good general pacing, and for non-support skills, it doesn't really alleviate the issue

[@Reliquarium]

Having high density mechanics like Breach, Ritual, and Expedition feels so insanely out of place in a game where positioning and tactical play is supposed to be important. How am I supposed to use tactical positioning when I'm immediately surrounded by mobs that are twice my speed and I have no movement skills? It seems like there's very little attention being paid to how the core idea of dodge rolling style difficulty is absolutely destroyed by using mechanics from PoE1 that rely on high mobility and huge clear. If they want to push this type of dufficulty, they need to scrap every single league mechanic in the game right now and make bespoke mechanics that actually respect that core design choice. Right now the endgame just feels like a backpedal simulator with constant gotcha deaths. 😬

[@ThePearlJam]

One of my biggest gripes - they don't know what they want. You can either have souls-like mechanics (slow, methodical, etc) or more typical arpg mechanics (fast, big badaboom). Pick one, you can't have both.

[@AnaICarnaval]

Totally agree, breach is not enjoyable if you don't play some OP screen cleaning build. This is POE 1's design all over again. I guess old dog can't learn new tricks.

[@Barsikr]

I think with the huge sizes of maps and places to traverse they were built with mounts in mind, which we kinda all forgot about. You get reminded about it in act 2. And you can see how act 1 is a lot friendlier to being slower, where act 3 already has tons of corridors that are planned for you to move faster on a mount. Hope they bring them soon.

[@trijondee]

What makes you think they will add mounts to move faster? Hasn't Jonathan in great details explained why only the rhoa mount make sense, because bow users have a move penalty while shooting wich the mount the can remove without making mounts a mandatory thing, and this comes with another downside.

[@maverick5474]

Your thoughts on End Game and League Mechanics is spot on. I pray that the developers watch this or other videos like yours it needs some big changes for end game and portals

[@Sidnv]

Love your feedback and echo a lot of sentiments. My biggest concern is with progression systems, they are just super backloaded atm where you can't interact with most of them till t14+ maps. Progression is fun, I think they need to put some of it earlier on for each mechanic. Still have some points gated behind the cool bosses, but also give some points for completing mechanics in white and yellow maps. The tree could just be rebalanced for 14-16 points to be equivalent power. Really a lot of the end game systems feel super rushed, not just the monster balance, so I'm confident they will tweak this to be much better in Jan.

[@SausageTooth]

Good foundations is definitely the correct word. So many people forget this is version 0.1. It's gonna transform massively over time until it's as different as PoE 1 is today compared to its old af first versions. The future is gonna be insane.

[@MrKlarthums]

GGG is really good at creating new, complementary systems that fix gaps. However, what they aren't good at is reversing fundamental design decisions that are only interesting to the designers and unpopular to most players. Then they release a double-down manifesto to try to shift player opinion.

[@MrShagification]

Jonathan even said in the reveal I believe, they've only been working on end game for 7 months around the time of EA release out of a ~5 year dev cycle. People can voice opinions on what is there, but they should do that with the understanding that they opted into playing an unfinished game.

[@deicide7216]

The thing that many find baffling is they had 10 years of experience with PoE1, and they released PoE2 in the way it is.

[@ogkdr]

Future is gonna be incredible, yea. The foundation is amazing, and people are constantly finding out new stuff making their characters more powerful even now.

[@fancydeeldo]

@@deicide7216 yeah, everything in the game feels absurdly limiting. skill gems being tied to comboing isn't unheard of, but when there are clearly zero unique avenues to go down right now, it spoils the pot a bit. day 3 or 4 everything was already figured out, and it feels quite bad.

[@JayM928]

10:31 This is what I always wished I could do in POE, and I STILL wish I could do it in POE2. I don't get more powerful in POE2. I am playing the same skills I did in the beginning. Monsters get more powerful, then I get better gear. The monsters get harder, and I upgrade and level. In the end, my gameplay feels roughly the same the entire time I'm playing. I don't feel a gameplay curve of my character getting more powerful. POE was one extreme where, for many builds, they didn't start to take shape until level 70+. You muddled your way through with some "leveling skill." POE2 is another extreme where it feels about the same to me the whole time. It feels like a perpetual mud flats (with changing scenery) to me. Contrast this with a game like D2 where maybe at L18, L24, or L30 you get that new definitive ability that really changes the game for you. I'm sure each class is different, and I've only ascended a few, but I haven't encountered any skill or node that, when acquired, has that game changing feeling. This feeling is completely missing from POE2 for me.

[@chaindler9]

I am surprised nobody is talking about caster skills. There are 12 weapon/skill groups planned, and 10 - TEN - are purely attack skills groups. So there is, and will be - ONE elemental skill group, in which the only viable build is EB-MOM-AM-Spark. I am really looking forward how they plan to fix.

[@trijondee]

What is really the problem here? Why should people talk about that? The elemental skill group also has 3 different clusters on the passive tree for weapon setup to spec into, really easy to make a weapon shift there btw. Every other weapon only has their own one cluster. All weapon skill attack groups have skills limited to the weapon of choice. Why should Caster skills be better here ? They already look like they have more choices than a specific weapon gives you. Also casting has more synergy with trigger spells for damage as triggers are also spells. So why should caster skills be in a bad state ? Btw If there really is only one viable build their solution is most likely to nerf that.

[@lucagenovese7207]

10000% agree with you on every single detail. I m loving the game so far anyway, have fun exiles!

[@wowitsfrostygames155]

For an end game that was developed last minute, I think the concepts are all there. I think it’s biggest issue is we need like twice the mechanics

[@ammenz]

Took me 21 hours to reach Act 3 normal, as a PoE 1 veteran ssf casual slower gamer. It's a great game but I don't see myself playing a new character more than once every 6-12 months. If they implement the same league release system as PoE 1 they really need to tweak the pacing of the campaign or no casual gamer is going to stick around.

[@TheFoxStalksHisPrey]

its crazy how much of the difficulty of this game comes down to learning. My 2nd playthrough took less than a third the time my first did and combat in maps became a lot easier to manage by the time I got there with my 2nd character simply due to understanding how to move and what mobs do what attacks.

[@9944908]

Another big issue with the Trial of Sekhemas is that it creates a perverse incentive to farm the *lowest* level barya possible to make the trial easier, instead of encouraging people to engage with content that's actually at their char level

[@ShortySeconds2Mars]

Ultimatum was the very 1st thing i ban out of my maps in poe1... never thought i will hate it even more. As a warrior (with quarter staff), i have to say that rhe passive tree -attack speed is not really noticeable, however 2h hammer is just too slow by default and it doesnt feel like enough damage to compensate.

[@SiriusPP]

Add checkpoints to maps: helps with mobility, replenish flasks, and give it the function of "1-ups"

[@BinfordOver9000]

Respec should be free or dirt cheap. We’re Beta testing the game… Also, hard to miss the micro transaction hotkey, but no bug report hotkey in the beta? 😂

[@OpeKoney]

In addition to reduced attack speed, increased skill duration also makes hammer and earthquake suck, but are paired with area damage and area size throughout the bottom left.

[@Zell017]

For me, the campaign exhaust is primarily because we have to do it twice in a row right now, so I'm also excited to get a proper 4/5/6.

[@MichaelSmith-bh6xd]

Untill 3.0 we had to do the campaign 3 times same as D2 I'm not playing ea but I'd still much rather do it twice rather than 3 haha

[@paimog9233]

Dude its EA. You will only do each act once primarily this is just an EA thing as 4-6 act isnt ready yet

[@Zell017]

@@paimog9233 I'm aware. Just saying I'm looking forward to the release of the other acts, not disparaging the current state of the game because it's understandable and fine.

[@Zell017]

@@MichaelSmith-bh6xd True, I remember that and to this day I feel a bit of relief making it to act 4 lol

[@powrsh119]

Just gonna paste in what I've been writing down over a few days, do note I am not the brightest individual and as usual this is MY personal opinion, preference and enjoyment; Idk what my goal in poe2 is, crafting is just gambling, nothing deterministic, no scours, no alts, you brick the entire base if you don't rng exalt slam the mods you need, every single thing on the market is inflated through the roof since you can't target-craft anything. I can't craft things myself, and I am not gonna grind so much money for a massively price-gouged 40div dogshit crossbow with 4 life gained on kill and 5% light radius. I'd love to craft with the new mod system I really do, but oh my lord does it suck, despite them encouraging crafting early on and everything. Idk if I want to continue playing poe2 or at least not nearly as much, its tiring, personally there is nothing for me to do and the gameplay is boring and agitating. No I don't hate the game, rather I love how different poe2 is, it is EA so it's obviously extremely "undercooked", which is why I don't just shit on the game, but there are just no basics, I don't need beastcrafts, veiled orbs, synthesis mods, just give me alts and scours and I'm happy forever and then the market would become more reasonable. Sure I'll also add some actual PERSONAL critique and what I prefer, most maps have horrendous layouts, you can't run the same map again, tablets pick random maps within area, often areas that you can't possibly reach, its just miserable, I really don't like it. Again, I'm obviously not gonna give up on the game, its just EA, but on the other hand, poe1 got completely butchered, which is still my by-far favorite game, much more than poe2 EA, they decided to push poe1 league to late january... then late february... now late march, so its not like I can play poe1 while waiting for poe2 to become an actual game. It's very very very upsetting

[@fasdr]

About the boss/maps portals, I think it would be fun to start with 6 or heck even 8, but everything after 4 drops the reward and everything above gives you more reward.

[@nyghtfal]

The roguelite aspect of the ascendency needs to feel fun to do. Like jeezus theres hard roguelites that are fun. As an evasion build when i was doing trial of sekema i was forced to either choose no evasion or -40% dmg, basically run over. Like wtf Edit: itd be nice for a way we can just put in all our maps at one time to reforge to highest tier because doing 3 at a time and not being able to ctrl click them is total aids. Would love QOL for that Need a search function on the world map too. Having to mouseover or look for bosses slowly is no bueno

[@TheAluvisify]

Affliction rooms are just dumb. Like we have the pledges anyways. If we want to scale difficulty up for more risk/reward, then that should be our choice. Giving us like 3 affliction rooms and making us choose which one will be the least shitty experience is just bad design imo. I hate it in Sanctum and I hate it here. It's even worse considering that this mechanic gives ascendency points. I think a "vanilla" run (i.e. no afflictions, no relics, etc.) should be pretty damn easy, but also not very rewarding. If you want to farm the trial for keys and rewards, then that should be when the difficulty and afflictions come into play.

[@soulstealer5625]

As annoying as afflictions are, they can be doable. My run for my 3rd ascendancy had 3 afflictions after the very first room and i had to pick one of them: Deceptive mirror, Monster speed or gain extra affliction on getting afflicted. Those are 3 run ending afflictions i would always avoid. Still successful.

[@jesse2535]

Bald mustached Mathilda is not real, she cannot hurt you.

[@tuliomesquita1294]

Amazing summary, you da best Mathil

[@ravp123]

Yooo thx for this video. I implemented it into my xbow gemling howa and it's doing wonders! Chur bro

[@wolskuhuhu]

Currently the citadel system is terrible, there is no indication or hints as to where they could be on your map and you could be 10s or so screen away from the starting location without any idea as to where to look, sure you can clear towers and map as fast as you can but with no direction as to where to go, it gets boring quite fast, been mapping for a few days and found a single citadel, I died before making it to the boss and now the only citadel I found is closed and can't progress the story further, it feels very unrewarding

[@lewtx2283]

Would be cool if we get to have a sprint action to use only during out of combat. instead of horde of mobs in majority of league mechanic, can we get more tougher mobs that are boss-like to fight against which is what makes poe2 very engaging and thrilling. Your summary pretty much sums up everything as well, nice vid.

[@spaceghost8891]

Ascendancy systems are reeeeally the worst part of this game. If you think about the Bloodmage for example, the class NEEDS at least the 3rd run to start working somewhat. So you must run all those things with a really bad character. Not worth it at all.

[@toukoenriaze9870]

it doesnt need to be completely around ssf but we do need more target farming and maybe pushing the essence system down a bit and making the regal essence more common specifically

[@juts89]

The portal system makes learning any fight super crap. It feels so bad to waste these things.

[@styled322]

for my character personally, i have enjoyed breach and delirium the most by far tbh. it is an explosion build though so i guess thats why

[@Adam-2112]

Mire is judt broken for minions. They get stuck at the entrance of the narrow pathways, and won't move or attack. Makes the whole map a huge chore to complete.

[@RevXSavage]

Well stated Mathil! My frustrations of mapping is just the lack of uniqueness from each tileset with really no randomness of events. Towers I felt like should have been an open map leading to a tower, not just, tower to tower to tower in these tiny chokes with just blandness and maybe a tower guardian blocking your way before you can light it up to reveal the surrounding area. Could even be a "build your own guardian" type thing to fight to get certain bonus's to surrounding maps to add some target farming to the atlas. Also the map objective thing running killing the rares then to have them revealed and find out you missed one on the other side of the map tucked into a corner. All of that was just draining. I phased out of wanting to map pretty quickly because it was just drawn out way too much and even the map bonus's of delirium, ritual, etc did not interest me. Only "Boss" maps did for the drops, then slogging through another 4-5 maps to get to another batch of boss maps was just draining. And they didn't add check points because of 1 life, but to have them in to just bounce between on a large map would have been helpful. Campaign was a great experience...the first time, it will turn into a zerg fest down the road. I do feel A1 and 2 need to be dialed back abit, which means theyll buff the others XD. Class Design, cool in theory and some are really well done, while others like this combo thing with warrior, not so much, yet (just refinement needed). Also the not wanting to have specific ascendancies classes vs more broad choices to have more flexibility...I'm not sure if I'm fully convinced but I see the potential. Currency, feels like something is missing and no I'm not asking to Alteration slam 6000 times. Skills, good start, want the rest to really feel out the game, feels like some Skills can't be done because not enough support and I'm not sure how I feel about the 1 support gem of each type thing. However with that restriction, does force use of other gems rather then, Martial Prowess in every skill gem that scales off of attack speed. Also feels like earlier gems are more flushed out then later skill gems not being as useful/cool/unique. Trials, rehashed mechanics from PoE1 and not unique to this experience which did feel rushed to their endgame plan. Endgame mapping needs some love, less chokes and tiny doorways, more randomness with more engaging events that dont take minutes to do (strong box's...) Overall, really beautiful game, awesome visuals and effects, fun bosses (atleast to me). Just need some work in other areas and I dont see this being ready for full release by fall of next year, realistically speaking unless they just rework what they have now and revisit it with seasonal patches, which may work...just depends what is done. Overall, I think the foundation is here and I know this will help GGG with their direction of how to adjust things. So I'm proud to be here and will continue to help anyway I can.

[@kylundil]

Trial of the Sekhemas is such a dogshit way to get ascendancies as a warrior felt like torture even after the nerfs. When I finally finished the third floor it didn't feel like I had overcome some challenge on merit of skill, but instead I rolled 7s on my layout and was invincible.

[@MeantForNothing]

I like the idea of boots getting increasing implicit movement speed for higher levels

[@olasarcasm]

I'm blown away at the quality of the game. I also think I lucked out by going big bonk resolute technique stun build up armor break etc.

[@quincestopher8892]

I think they should out a node on the atlas tree like 5 nothing nodes and then a big node "you gain 2 extra portals on maps and pinnecale bosses. Your atlas trees dont effect pinnecale bosses" that way people can learn the fights but then farmers who want the danger and one portal can farm the fights and maps investing more points into rewards

[@danielnator123456]

I'd be interested to know how long it took you all to complete the campaign, just to see how different the playtimes are.

[@alastairvanmaren5243]

About 20 hours for the first three acts because I was really taking my time and soaking it in and enjoying myself. I expect Cruel to take about half that time.

[@danielnator123456]

@alastairvanmaren5243 y, Same for me.

[@Asin24]

Travel skills are great, just have them being on a decent length CD so they aren't spamable. I do feel more replacements for dodge is good as well link with Blink, granted ideally without having a steep spirit cost attached.

[@emanate0]

i think it might work if you could re use support gems but only for different element/ skill types. so you could have the 40% more area on a physical and fire skill, but not 2 physical skills. maybe it could work for 2 physical skills if they are a melee and spell but maybe not depending on how much they want you to diversify

[@linkmasterof1]

Another thorough and levelheaded analysis. Well said, sir. Cheers

[@frsm_]

mathil content is always good!

[@lSlicerl]

Thank you for the video Mathil

[@ggzii]

An incredible comment I read from my guild "also all these streamers saying get good and all this shit. every single one of there clickbait bullshit video titles are there to cater to that guy she was chatting shit on. top ten ways to do this, top ten fucking builds to one shot shit, insane dps, full clear maps, this boss made easy.. Fuck off... but the second someone comes in and says i want my character to feel good and kill bosses without years of grind, they should just get good. other than quinn and mathil maybe when was the last time you saw a streamer not playing the meta and fucking smashing shit. like i said i while ago, if this game wasnt called POE 2, they wouldnt be playing or sucking it off so much, they are protective over it because it their main income stream and need it to be good, bias opinions if every ive seen one. every single person that plays a ARPG wants the character to feel strong eventually thats the point, it shouldnt be a shit experience getting there becuase when you are there you have nothing to do. no need to play. full on essay btw sorry ahahah"

[@JayM928]

Agree. Most of the comments on the videos are the same. Glad to see I'm not the only one. The game isn't worth hype or hate. It's just kind of mediocre and needs work, but for some reason no one wants to say it.

[@munsulight721]

My biggest downside is litterally the one portal mechanic for Bosses. It is so shitty when the bosses are pretty new. it is even worse I guess for HC players. After that, it is probably just maps being too large or too scarce. I also dislike rare backtracking. Just pinpoint them at the start of the map Ascending .. Dont start me on that. 2 bad options like you said. Also, having fragments for the final boss of one of the trial feels bad. Melee is just bad at honour still. Outside of that I really enjoyed everything else. Loved your EA explanation

[@kieranclarke4373]

Warrior's Molten Blast mechanic needs to be adjusted. One ranged attack it has and has to move forward toward the enemy as it discharges it, ignoring the Shift key entirely. I can't stress how much that annoys me. Rolling Slam movement was adjusted. Hopefully, Molten Blast will too.

[@JPKSM]

I think more portals should be allowed for lower tier bosses and as you put points in (by defeating the boss) they lower the number of portals. By the time you get to the top tier it's 1 shot but by then you should be strong enough to get it done. Therefore the gear can be just as strong/chase at the highest tiers.

[@joltinh0]

Any updates on the lightsabre build? more links to the gems?

[@supremespanker]

I think it is still top tier.

[@toukoenriaze9870]

use the zone checkpoint teleporting system in maps too ... they can call them something else since you dont respawn at them and would just be unlocking them to tp back

[@MikeyJ28]

⁠Sanctum was designed for PoE 1 builds, speed and movement skills. It was an amazing league that promoted fast, zHP builds with a billion dps. A mechanic designed for PoE 1 does not translate well to PoE 2. They should have just remastered Lab.

[@optics4062]

So glad you brought up the one portal, its so annoying. All it does is waste peoples time. I expect them to change it too because if they dont tons of players will not play.

[@gohmmy]

Warrior and merc feel like an afterthought compared to the other classes. Everything merc can do ranger can do better, besides attribute stacking. Warrior having their best skills being a hammer falling from the sky or screaming doesnt feel right.

[@VerbotenGeist]

silly billy mindset ^

[@gohmmy]

@@VerbotenGeist what part was silly?

[@paimog9233]

Warrior i can manage but the merc is just so bad specially on act 1 hunting grounds, you juts get surrounded and ur skills takes time and you have to reload

[@mcgruber]

Merc is significantly more fleshed out than ranger in terms of skills and combos currently available and it's not even close.

[@11Yaten]

​@@mcgruber the point is that all the crossbow skills are way way better on deadeye and there is no reason to ever play merc

[@evotech]

I just don''t understand why warriors HAVE to be slow?

[@Jaguar-s7f]

I think we will see some speed with the marauder ascendancy.

[@cykablyat6348]

just play warstaff skills or bows on warrior for speed, or wait for axe skills

[@bmnbl]

I decided do skip the end game entirely, just trying out different classes and builds until i stop having fun. It needs some help all around but at least we have it right now and we can help the devs get it done faster with good feedback.

[@TrivialTax]

Agree ! Specaily on cnb torture.

[@Ashtarte3D]

Definitely agree that the Warrior/Marauder area was definitely designed by a sadist because why in the fucking hell are there so many downsides? Why is there next to no regen in the str/life stacker area? There is a shitload of regen over in Merc/Duelist area, why is it not in pure str territory?

[@SLVYER1]

The only positive change was the gem system, because everyone has a relative balance as far as gem slots goes, that's completely thrown out the window because you can still slot armor. Idk.

[@Xeratas]

God damn that video was good. I disagress with so many reddit threads, but pretty much agreeded with every single word in this video.

[@BinfordOver9000]

Moving citadels could be cool. Like the hammer bros from mario 3. They might get close to something you already cleared, and you could jump right to it.

[@HuhHasy]

The most egregious thing about the endgame mechanics is how long it takes to actually get to the final encounters. Delirium splinters may as well not exist at the rate you get them. I also completely disagree on crafting, it is in a horrible spot. I'm still using gear from early cruel at level 80+ because the loot that drops either isnt' useful or I just haven't won the slot machine lottery. The game will always be worse when based around trade instead of SSF IMO.

[@felixlarsson4205]

are checkpoints really immersion breaking tho? its like a waypoint, just without a loading screen

[@kamex4k]

is there a way to stop while attacking with the lightning strike monk skill? It feels like is out of my control and I don't like that

[@angrypakos]

Love your take, so far! Finally someone who has based opinion on both pros and cons

[@TheOctaviusLee]

I'm enjoying the game and I know future updates/leagues will just make it better but man, I'm already missing PoE1. I miss crafting, I miss all the little shit you could do on the side, I miss the complexity of character creation. Right now a lot of people are being pigeon holed into certain builds to do endgame and I feel like new players aren't really seeing the scope of what PoE2 is going to be in just a couple years, not to mention how huge it's going to be a few years after that.

[@Squallcloud95]

I must admit. I found myself thinking i can't wait for the next POE1 league to relax a bit. Po2 has potential but after each session i feel some weird exhaustion or maybe stress?

[@OtterSeaborne8901]

There's definitely niches out there if you want to explore. Just pivoted my ranger from bows to a minion-based autobomber and while it's clunky (I can already tell it'll be much better on a witch once the third ascendancy class exists if there's literally any support for chaos damage or corpse skills), it works - and works better the denser the content gets, which is a huge help with how the endgame is right now. We just don't have the knowledge to figure out how to throw a build together out of disparate elements the way we do in PoE1, but we'll learn.

[@Buhnkiller]

How do you get your totems to attack that fast? my totems are super slow

[@caseybrown6813]

I truly believe that the 1 portal mechanic is holding the whole endgame back and will continue to do so until they change it.

[@nickmertesdorf]

Increase the number of portals for maps but tie rewards to number of deaths

[@sparx2565]

For towers I would love to see one big elevator elden ring style with like multiple floors and the more you go up the rippier it is but the tower range is then expanded further

[@quaketheduck1247]

The 1 life a map thing is frustrating because 1/5th of my maps crash upon entering, and I lose the map location bonus and the waystone..

[@luhcsgrimm8857]

im hoping and Praying third ascendency Type is... normal Labrynth. in the preview for act 4 we DID see us traveling to an island with Old lab Asthetic.

[@ThaGamingMisfit]

There was a league in PoE1 called 'Trial of the ancestors'. There is no way they didn't make that league with ascending in PoE2 in mind.

[@MrMenou007]

I fucking lost it at 33:45,left side of the tree does seems wierd, with bits and piece seamingly missing from the "templar" side.

[@FilipVucurovic-s2l]

The first time i played Poe1 i quit after Inocence killed me and i went back into the boss room and saw that he did not reset. I understand people want 6 portals, if GGG makes the change I hope they keep one portal as a game mode, like SSF or HC

[@jmbs9833]

I think the second and third playthru is not that hard anymore, first you got gear you farmed with your main and you get better with the mechanics....

[@cowprophet]

12:30 How much work has been put into it? Not a lot, let's be real. Story half-baked, and is only a few well-telegraphed threads (Sin, Vaal involvement, what's next, the Karui showing up to pummel us? oh my). The campaign map has the same problems as PoE 1 beta, including the loading time. The art is clearly done by people who don't communicate, or their work never went through any type of QA (visually impaired people are not quite having a blast yet). I'd say this is an ideal moment to focus on player feedback regarding the campaign (not that I expect them to produce a better story, that's over with).

[@DeadSlugg]

My big problem with the way the bosses feel in PoE 2 is failing a mechanic one shots you. If we are getting one shot by making a mistake, then it is going to go the same way that PoE 1 went where you can't afford to make a mistake so you crank so much damage that you one shot the boss instead. Doing that will slowly end up just becoming the same way as 1. Remember PoE 1 never actually was super fast and one shot the entire screen gameplay when it was first announced, it became that way after they buffed the enemy damage in an attempt to challenge players and it slowly devolved into what it is now (for better or for worse). If they are going down that path again, then at least give us movement skills, and more varied skill combinations like in PoE 1

[@soulstealer5625]

You have a doge roll, use it.

[@brandondyzel130]

The delirium is broken, if you complete the map first and then try and do the delirium it doesn't work at all.

[@Terwano]

9:45 Yea, campaign (1-3) definitely was the highlight. I got 1 character to maps, did 1 map and stopped. Ran a couple other classes through campaigns. You can definitely tell Acts 1-3 are refined and well designed. Pacing, boss battles and stuff all feel really cool. There's lots of complaints I have about things but acts 1-3 are definitely refined. Rest of the game just felt meh. Doing 1-3 cruel was boring and it was a real slog to get my char to maps. I had to constantly take a break by act 3 cruel because i felt like I was just repeating what I just did for an extremely long act. My in-game played time to acts was apparently 22hrs, but it felt way, way longer. And even that was longer than it should be since I needed to respec my tree due to nerfs.

[@ferinzz]

Movement speed as implicit on boots PLEASE! Same with charm slots. We need more gem options to actually work with armour break early on. Maybe will be less of an issue with more weapon types. Hard to tell. I like the trials of Sekhama. But I also really like roguelikes. But I also use a shield. My biggest criticism is the afflictions that they put on you in the act 2 one. 50% monster health, -40% damage??? And as you said, we are slow. Making the gauntlet rooms just tedious because there's nothing to gain from those. I can't really combo much and defend with the shield because of how slow the attacks are. Just needs a bit more speed. But on top of that like a lot of people criticize, a lot of mace skills don't really have the damage to compensate for the speed hit? Except for a select few which don't come out until act 2-3. Thorns is also in a weird spot. You can specc into it, but it won't matter for a lot of attacks unless you get crown of thorns. Why? Who knows.

[@GG-kc1lr]

So uhhh, can someone explain how his storm wave is 50k dps. I am following the POB but mine sits at like 10k at lvl 73 right now with I'd say like a mid tier weapon. Most I'm missing from the tree is the quarterstaff nodes and some other small things but how does it increase by 40k....

[@nyxuim1782]

very well said and articulated sir

[@Tiajuan]

One portal should exist in a hardcore or harder core?

[@ChimpoTalksGaming]

Pepe images and Dragonball in the background - Righteous.

[@Aeqstaw]

I'm just sad the campaign is so much better than the endgame atm tbh. Can see what they are going for, but it's a really hard miss for most of my group. I slogged it out to 91, but still a bit tedious.

[@tzimiable]

Tedious. Thats the word for me too. There is so much high quality work in Poe2, but it just feels like GGG insists on making the game painful to play. Thats two words that really shouldnt be together. Its about PLAY. Tedium has no part in that.

[@stonefolk2778]

They could add a 15% movement boost to the boss at the end of act 3 and act 6…

[@96Tobs]

I agree with Mathil.

[@LieutenantVague]

How is checkpoint teleporting immersion breaking but waypoint teleporting isn't?

[@iiDeMeNToR]

Huge maps and poor layouts and empty large spaces and simply wandering from end to end honestly makes maps unfun especially with the one life state persuades u to play more safely and delay doing mechanics fearing to lose the map and then u kinda miss where they are and just walking the entire map! Maps really needs some love from ggg.

[@SchattenRunner]

to me it feels like we got ruthless poe2 instead of normal poe 2 tbf

[@FS-ky5hk]

TBH I haven't even touched endgame. Having fun trying different builds.

[@justlikeyourfathersaid]

Its kinda funny that with all the chaos magic spells what breaks your immersion is a teleport between two magics rocks that RESURRECTS you 😂

[@TheArnoldification]

my impressions are that game has great foundations with a lot of minuta that brings the overall experience down. Given GGG's track record I'm hopeful the game will be really good with more time in the oven. Just gotta keep playing and giving them useful feedback.