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”

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@HeAgBlass]

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

[@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.

[@ٴٴٴ-ظ4ذ]

ED/Contagion player here, in Poe1 that stuff is Amazing, as for Poe 2 i'd rather shit glass then play that cluncky mess again, they took something already refined and bastardised it, i just don't get what they were thinking, changing something for the Sake of change

[@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.

[@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.

[@ogkdr]

Thanks for labeling the various time stamps with "EA". Lots of people forget that we're less than two weeks into a six months+ long early access period. Given GGG's track record, I'm fully confident that PoE2 will turn out really good (I already love the foundation, except for the one-portal boss mechanic).

[@marshmellu9464]

What makes you say "Given GGG's track record"? It's taken them years to get PoE1 into a state where it's fun to play instead of insanely frustrating. Desync took ages to get to a point of where it's barely noticeable. Don't get me started on insta-reflect packs. They had years to work on this game and still implemented absolutely crazy flaws that you should catch quite early on if you did any organic internal playtesting. Swapping to focus on Endgame instead of the campaign 6 months before releasing into Early Access shows that their development process is insanely messy and something doesn't seem to be going quite right.

[@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

[@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.

[@lucagenovese7207]

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

[@JimothyJangus]

I love it because they changed all the shit I hated about POE 1.

[@mutantemolina3708]

I agree, specially flasks.

[@jesse2535]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@antonego9581]

really loving the game and i think the foundation is amazing. But I absolutely despise the one portal mechanic. It feels like a hardcore mechanic in the softcore experience. The combination of losing the waystone, the map mechanics, and XP loss... and then having to re clear the entire map to progress atlas just feels terrible. big part of the fun in POE is pushing the limit of what your character can handle, but with one portal the deaths are so punishing that it incentivizes you to play extremely cautiously and never really push into content that might at the edge of what you can deal with. Its just not a fun way to play POE IMO. its going to drive players away from the game. i get they want death to be meaningful but I think they need to find another way to accomplish that. maybe increasing gold costs for additional portals or something maps are just too deadly for one portal. you die so easily in this game, and frequently can't even see what killed you due to screen clutter and mob density. it just feels terrible to have this constant low level anxiety while mapping. I love how theyve made the gameplay more engaging but I don't want to be stressed constantly while killing mobs.

[@MrShagification]

It really is just the combination of losses that is painful. I don't see any reason to lose XP in this game. The reason you lose XP in PoE1 is because you have 6 portals and there wouldn't be any other real cost to dying (unless you die 6 times), but that is not the case in PoE2. But they will probably just go back on the single portal thing though, even if it isn't what they want, enough people dislike it, so they will change it in some way. Yeah, there just needs to be the ability to reenter at some cost.

[@antonego9581]

@@MrShagification Exactly. I would prefer keep XP loss and give us at least one more portal. but if we must have 1 portal, the XP loss has gotta go.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@TrivialTax]

Agree ! Specaily on cnb torture.

[@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.

[@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

[@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?

[@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.

[@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

[@OravuArm]

Change 1 portal to 3 portals for single players. 1 portal for party makes more sense as you can revive your team mates

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@noizy514]

POE2 feels a bit tedious. i like the idea of more engaging game play, but i am afraid of white mobs right now going through maps not wanting to die, and it feels like a slow slog. the pendulum swung a bit too far the other way.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@Digi4DD]

1 portal if you die to trash (because get good), consumes portal and resurrects on checkpoint when you die on the boss, when portals end you get kicked out of the map. First thing that came to mind

[@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 😂

[@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

[@SortoftheThings]

Imho, GGG should remove all _on-death-effects_ on mobs. You are already creating so many effects with your skills it's almost impossible to tell what's going on.

[@Quokkadile]

Best rundown of the state of the game that I’ve seen.

[@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.

[@frsm_]

mathil content is always good!

[@linkmasterof1]

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

[@collapsiblechair9112]

Bring back the Lab! (I never thought I'd say that, ever) Great points made over all Mathil

[@cwill1337]

Minions are TRAAASH. They get one shot by every boss.

[@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.

[@morphis4047]

I kinda like how breach is at the moment. Its a tad out of place, but my god is it terrifying, feels great to get through one alive.

[@mcgruber]

Yeah I agree. Definitely out of place but it's cool as hell.

[@Wolfy11188]

I made a mercenary first, made it to act 2 after struggling like mad and I gave up with it because it felt awful. Made a monk, absolutely steamrolled through act 1, zero deaths, act 2 zero deaths, act 3 like 50 deaths and suddenly everything 1 shot me. Once I got to cruel difficulty I blasted through it all in like 3 hours and died like twice. The balance feels really messed up. They certainly have LOTS of work to do with balancing. Just got to endgame and I thought my map bugged with only 1 portal, after a few more maps I died again and only 1 portal again. It seemed extremely punishing to the point where I was positive it must have been a bug 😂 In a game where there are a TON of one shot mechanics, on death mechanics, invisible "bombs" on the floor that you can't see and the inability to protect yourself from stuns and freezes (just 1 charm for now?), it is devastatingly harsh. Oh and I've already died multiple times to the environment blocking the view of my character. To sum it up my issues... 3-6 portals for maps, Less on death mechanics and make the ones they do choose to use be much more visible and obvious, better balancing between different acts, I shouldn't go from steamrolling to constantly being 1 shot by all trash and then back to steamrolling, make the environment fade out a lot sooner when your character is near it. Oh and the roll seems to be something that I try to ignore as much as possible, it feels awful in my opinion. I'm not looking forward to doing my 3rd ascendancy given how many people I've seen complaining about it in global chat either.

[@joltinh0]

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

[@supremespanker]

I think it is still top tier.

[@juts89]

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

[@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.

[@96Tobs]

I agree with Mathil.

[@lamasuvictor]

correct me if i wrong but Mathil and Kripp are the only big creators aknowledging game is difficult in a bad way and not afraid to call it while others are like GIVE RESPEC REST IS FINE.

[@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.

[@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

[@Dezzled777]

Okay haven't seen Mathil in a bit and he's got Jessie from Breaking Bad vibes now and I think I'm here for it 😅

[@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.

[@angrypakos]

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

[@Delicja469]

I feel like the lab was so good of a design that its impossible to beat that. I 100% agree that both sanctum and ultimatum as ascendancy mechanic is pain in the ass. Sanctum feels like a complete downgrade.

[@ChoseSimba]

I like the one portal. It adds meaningfulness. But we need speed, and we need to have defenses built more easily. Getting one shot by white mobs feels terrible

[@andrewmccune2895]

Perfect blueprint with coffee spilled all over it, just need to clean it up

[@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.

[@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....

[@CatalysedCat]

yeah same, looking forward to all the new stuff (:

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@ThatBoyPatty]

I wish it had been clear that I can only attempt untainted paradise one time. I would've had a friend join and help

[@nyxuim1782]

very well said and articulated sir

[@Schmidteren]

We also need checkpoints in maps. Og last taste is all the way in the beginning....

[@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.

[@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.

[@subparpt]

Goat as always, glad to see you giving some criticism since normal people aren't allowed to without getting crucified. Very optimistic for the game but it absolutely has its flaws.

[@Tiajuan]

One portal should exist in a hardcore or harder core?

[@chewey]

The problem right now with maps is that once your res is capped and your damage and CC is good enough that you never get swarmed, they start to feel too easy. There aren't enough ways we can juice maps right now, so endgame gets boring pretty quickly.

[@MrGruxLike]

Okay big dog.

[@chewey]

@MrGruxLike I mean even quin is doing tier 13s and 14s or something and he's not really coming close to dying. He would not be doing T16s after being in maps for a few days in PoE1. Despite what Redditors are saying, maps in PoE2 are not really hard once you fix your defences. I'm doing breach and running +2 mod rares in tier 15s and I haven't died in days.

[@MrGruxLike]

@@chewey he just died to a minion mob lule

[@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.

[@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.

[@unknownsoldier7164]

the god himself has spoken.

[@Dewwiii]

The worst thing in POE2 is the 3rd ascendancy, being 100% hp and 100% shields and failing the trial is absolute bullshit. Oh I got micro damage or hit by 1 mechanic means I wasted 45mins is no bueno.

[@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....

[@uhskippy23]

I really like the campaign especially the first time through.

[@getcake8680]

As a hardcore player on poe1 I'm sad to say I'm not skilled enough to play hard-core on poe2. But I do like soft core is more punishing than on poe1. But I'd like more variety in builds to be viable.

[@FS-ky5hk]

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

[@LucaLight]

Stampede on warrior is fun. They really need to work on realizing the unstoppable freight train fantasy that I can see they are going for but, a lot of the skills are just so lackluster. Like why can I get pushed by a small white mob running at me while I am using rolling slam, like I should be an immovable juggernaut man.

[@JasielMartini]

Yeah warrior now feels awful apart from using stampede. Molten Strike is terrible, because attack speed is super slow and you can easily feel overwhelmed. Movement speed is slow and you need to rely on armor to mitigate damage. Other than stampede, most big damage skills require a set up and decent weapons just to take out enemies. Also, one handed weapons feel SUPER weak and going Giant's blood feels kind of mandatory. Ascending for a Warrior basically means you'll have to overlevel by 10-15 levels and outgear the content so you can one shot things before you can take damage. And almost everything for warrior has a downside. It doesn't feel horrible.... blood mage feels horrible... but it feels dull and slow, and just purposefully antagonistic. Early game warrior feels great. But once the enemies really start to pile on it hurts a bit. Mostly because mana leech does almost nothing and I feel like I have to rely on mace strike, and the HoA explosions don't do much for clear.

[@esaesaeesaesa]

I like the mediumcore aspect 1 portal brings, but right now it's a bit too punishing especially when it comes to pinnacle bosses and how gruesome the grind to access them is. I don't think access to them should be designed around trade. Either way it's an EA and I'm sure things will change as the game gets more content. If I had to choose my biggest annoyance in the game right now, that would be the boring rare hunting in large maps and the lame, VERY repetitive precursor tower maps.

[@lendial]

if they gave us a token to instantly get our fourth ascendancy it would be worth 1000 exalt

[@panda93247]

I thought the way the bosses were going to work was the health was going to reset and you could use the portals. I would be okay with that system. The current system seems very unfair, especially to newer players.

[@jmbs9833]

I feel like the Bosses can be hard, it was really fun to learn the mechanics and tweek here and there. Sadly GG's endgame is totally different. Even in POE 1 i always hated it, that i have to farm endlessly to do a boss again. And that 1 Portal is just another way to say FU...

[@Bluefooted23]

I implore you to try Blood Mage next, just so you can see how awful it is and help get the devs to improve it.

[@Chronologix]

Where can I get that T-shirt

[@sNNNNNable]

I've had a lot of fun but man do I want my six portals back

[@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

[@thomashourdeaux3908]

For real they should look more into Last Epoch. The end game is a bit lacking but the campaign is really good, short but with nice bossing/map. In build auction house (for item) (or you can boost the SSF), no need to sustain map. It's very rare to get one shot from something you didn't see because every monster who can one shot you have very visual skill (and you have recap death). The" map" of the atlas is far easier to read. The special system are not under some kind of trial who last for like one hour. For real stop making PoE such a drag to play

[@uhmmmFU]

Bro they have already taken way too much from last epoch. That game is dog water.

[@ticien1]

Ppl complaining about length of campaign and not being able to breeze thru ascendency because they treat Arpgs as a speed run to end game and don’t take time to enjoy the process

[@RustyPro676]

mathil, my base for based opinions

[@markototev]

The campaign was supposed to be different, much better as people "with degrees" were making it up. I don't hate it, it's long and exhausting, but it is basically the same structure as the PoE1 one. I don't see it being any more fun to replay every time than the old one. From all their talk abuout the changes to the campaign and how they are designing it to be fun multiple times, etc. I don't see any of that at least in the first 3 acts.

[@Meh_zzz]

The campaign seems very much inspired by D2. You're chasing something (beast / wanderer) through forest/graveyard in act 1, desert in act 2 and jungle/temples in act 3

[@markototev]

@@Meh_zzz yeah exactly, it's pretty much a copy of the template even more so than the first one. but fundamentally, it's not something different. maybe I am misremembering what they said in the past, but I expected some innovation.

[@randomfeg4141]

yeah agreed maps being 1 try is fine and I feel like its good since you shouldn't expect to just ram you head against the wall and win without changing up your approach or trying to fix your build. But yeah bosses being one try is jut overly punishing farming up for hours for 1 try at a boss you haven't seen before just for it to kill you with a gimmick in a few seconds deleting your progress doesn't feel good.

[@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