Path of Exile 2 - My Full Brutally Honest Review

[@via_negativa6183]

Definately should be able to over write rune sockets but ultimately this is the most fun arpg I've ever played and I've played them all. Will be very interesting to see how the fame evolves in the coming months

[@adamchowdhury8416]

@@via_negativa6183 have you gotten to endgame yet?

[@stringer2295]

Yeah, that was a huge problem for me awesome, but like you said overall, a great game

[@chillybunz]

The game is just at odds with itself. It wants to be this slower, more combo focused version of POE where you don't just blast enemies off screen, yet that's all there literally is at the later parts. No one has time for setups when you get rushed in 1 seconds and there's a million projectiles and lava puddles everywhere

[@DarkPassenger]

The maps are too big IMO. I really enjoy the game, but it becomes tedious after a while clearing the maps in the campaign. I haven't even made it to the endgame yet. I'm in Utzal now and it is just a massive tedious slog. The same cheap composition of enemies where you've got a bunch of them rushing you, and then the OP range guys spamming so many spells you barely have to time to do anything. Constantly rolling out of attacks because there's 7 projectiles coming at me.

[@kingsanom1]

Yep, end game is just reskinned POE 1 with giving us less tools to deal with the problems.

[@MrLlamaSC]

I agree it is some figuring out to do there. They are really wanting to slow it down and when they do it feels nice but then they bring in all the puddles and one shots and it feels like you need to be poe1 speed to handle it

[@th3orist]

i agree, they did a good job taking out the speed of the player character, but apparently they forgot to slow down the monsters as well. stuff spawning behind you as a ranged class and swarm you instantly is really bad and not fun. Its fun when it happens in Dark Souls that there is one monster coming out of some hole after you passed said hole, but thats just that one monster and not 4.

[@setcamper]

Yep, totally agree. PoE has always been at odds with itself, catering to the strongest power ARPG gamers and assuming its players will rise to the challenge. PoE2 wants to be more accessible, while also gatekeeping the most "fun" power-fantasy to the most try-hard players- which puts the most pressure/difficulty on the people they're trying to court. Diablo 2 doesn't get enough credit for being both accessible and grindable for every level of player and I'd argue GGG, despite all it's success hasn't captured that magic.

[@setcamper]

Honestly, I find the "Pack of Mobs have 300% move speed + travel skills, swarm you, and kill you before you can react" more annoying than the dead effects. Dreadnaught is a perfect example but it happens all over the game. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say I like death effects, but PoE1 has trained me. Getting ganked by 20 mobs off-screen before I can see they exist is so much more frustrating.

[@guilhermesteffenbertimatea6791]

THIS. Reducing mob speed (a lot btw) and those jumping pricks would improve the experience a lot. The most annoying thing for sure. What's the point of implementing combos if you just don't have enough time to cast or attack?

[@adhabens]

Dreadnought is the area I really hate the most, as warrior I would not care to die a lot in another place but in that moving circus everything is so annoying music included.

[@vadstart]

​@@adhabenslol, my exact experience - mobs surround you before you even finish using a single skill (forget about the combos), instadeath by pack of javeliners, shield mobs taking ages to take down. It would be fine on an occasional Hasted Rare pack, but not on an every group in the level. And I can still hear that damn music in my head. Aztec city in the past is a close contender, at least there's more space to maneuver.

[@bigdubyuh7901]

Dreadnaught is the worst part of the game especially when you get 2 champion mobs and 1 elite that all jump to you from off screen. They really need to work on that area, put more checkpoints, put in the code that only X amount of Y mobs can spawn within Z meters, or anything for quality of life improvements. Dreadnaught is really annoying and the worst part of the game.

[@wurzelbert84wucher5]

In my opinion GGG has two options now: Either they go all in with their vision, that means slowing down the endgame as well and don't swarm us like they do right now or they simply create another PoE1 and give us the tools to handle stuff quick and efficient. Right now this game is neither fish nor fowl.

[@iainperkins2085]

i think if we had a fly on the wall at GGG we would learn they basically didn't test Ascendancies or the Endgame. Combine that with a deeply Ruthless/ hardcore experience and Endgame makes a kind of sense. It essentially has the assets, map generation and functionality but no, even negative frankly, quality of life. I Wish they'd delayed the game and solved the obvious flaws.

[@HuskerDerp]

That's what happens when you listen to the moronic gaming community for how to mold your game.

[@khrishp]

I don't get y'all's obsession with the fact that it has to be one or the other. They literally talked in all of their interviews that they want you to feel super powerful in the endgame. I don't know why y'all think otherwise.

[@ArticulateArena]

ggg has no options. theyh've lost their touch and even poe 1 is bad now. can't spend more than a day playign that game

[@dontworryaboutit5490]

@@ArticulateArenahow long do you spend crying about them?

[@diegost2112]

About the tank stuff, i'll repeat, the problem is that the game is balanced around the dodge roll mechanic. Because you are suposed to dodge one shot mechanics they don't let you make tanky characters and trivialize it, which is sad, because one of the most fun things about ARPGs is to progress your character from zero to immortal God of Destruction, not master dodge roll.

[@Inquisite1031]

the funny thing is people keep using the "git gud" argument when people say they wan to build characters than can tank everything, but then u have games like elden ring the game franchise that invented the git gud meme and u can create completely unkillable builds in that game and in the other souls games.

[@vadstart]

Well in Dark Souls and especially Elden Ring you absolutely can build and optimize a tank character - there are a lot of "All Hit" boss runs on KZbin.

[@robe4314]

This 100%

[@SvanMagic]

This game looked great until I realize it was a dodge sim and that's not what I want to play in an aRPG.

[@ShadingNight]

Imo, crafting isn't crafting right now. These kinds if games need a small amount of deterministic elements. It really is a horrible feeling that you transmute + aug some good affixes, but then get horrendous exalted affixes, completely ruining the item. It would be okay if finding a decent item wasn't like pulling teeth.

[@newvocabulary]

A lot of the new PoE2 tourists don't know what a good crafting system actually is. It's like seeing a person happily eating gruel because they don't understand that there are other, better foods out there.

[@JanPapiezGaming]

It's already in the game but not in the gameplay, there is plenty of materials data mined for crafting but not in EA yet - what we have in EA is just the first step to the crafting system

[@ThangNguyen-cx1jr]

Omens are the only way that offer some kind of deterministic element crafting atm. You can use them to target exalt/annul prefixes or suffixes

[@robe4314]

I think Last Epoch nails this. POE 2 crafting is just gambling by a different method.

[@krinniv7898]

You can buy a level 20 skill gem for cheap sure, but you need to be level 87 to use it, so that isn't going to skip any content.

[@Shipdacheese]

I also thought you can use a level 20 skill gem very early but it's not the case

[@reganCZ]

Yea, this review is full of errors

[@erikhendrickson59]

I just wish ARPGs would get over the obsession with one-shot deaths. Literally NOBODY enjoys being one-shot by level-appropriate content. This isnt 1999 anymore - can we be a bit more creative about difficulty please!?

[@MrBuns-yi2hk]

They took a lot of inspiration from the souls franchise, but even in that game most enemies don't 1-shot you, unless you put nothing into health.

[@DarkPassenger]

You don't like the packs of fast monsters with the pack of OP projectile monsters behind them spamming? Oh, and they aggro from a mile away...

[@felixford899]

ARPGs should make you feel like you have made the progress and now you can feel bit overpowered and have fun.. I have over 100 hours in POE2 so far and Im still looking for builds that can make me feel OP. Difficulty of POE aint the problem with me. But build ability is.

[@dagan5698]

Depends on what you mean. If you're talking about random packs that one shot you out of nowhere. Yeah that needs to go away but I have not experienced that in this game. If you're talking about bosses using big slow shots to one hit you. I love those. Those are necessary.

[@DanielgunKim]

What I thought was worse is that you can get one shot OFF SCREEN.

[@HisHoleyness]

09:30 This is even worse in multiplayer. I almost exklusively play with my brother, and when we reached maps, we had to find out that not only can you not re-enter a map you died in, even though someone is still there, the revival system doesn't work in the map, either. For people who want to play in a group, that means that as soon as someone dies (which is easy in POE), the fun is over for everyone. This killed the game for us and we will not return unless it changes. Even just being able to revive fallen teammates would be a huge help.

[@mikeb1596]

Well its early access so I'm sure they will change it if they get enough feedback

[@pj2600]

Good bye

[@abelgonzalez158]

​@pj2600 you 1d10ts can go away. These are legitimate grievances and you obviously have no ideas in your head

[@sydual5887]

Allowing teammate revives wouldn't make sense given in solo if you die you can't reenter the map. If you allow revives people just get around that whole mechanic by playing as a group. The whole point is that you're supposed to be penalized for dying so people are incentivized to actually avoid dying. The better solution imo is to provide players solutions so they can actually get tanky enough to not die

[@Exozik]

I think xp lost is enough of a punishment for players that die. There is no need to complicate things with making players not able to retry the content.

[@diacor4life489]

Early access would benefit alot if people could experiment with stuff and find all kinds of fixable problems and balance issues. They should remove respec cost entirely during EA so they'd have more play testing done.

[@Deminese2]

disagree it will put a lot of expectations of no costs for a bunch of new players and will make gold inflated. reduce it sure, free no.

[@ConlanMayer]

Gold can’t be traded. Who cares if it’s inflated.

[@khrishp]

​@@ConlanMayerBecause it can be used in other ways to gain power and money. Anything that can be converted into something that can be traded has to be carefully considered.

[@ChrisKeysYouTube]

they should just do free respecs the way d2 handles it. i mean they look up to it so much why dont they let us respec like d2 - you get one from a quest each playthru, thats totally reasonable.

[@bofygaming9672]

Each point should always cost 100 gold or something like that easy for us to calculate

[@1123walkman]

Anyone else feel like the uniques in poe 2 are pretty useless aside from like 2 or 3

[@vadstart]

Yeah, I was really excited to get my first ones, but they just look like stat sticks, often worse than the Rares you already have. I was expecting actually unique, maybe even build defining traits.

[@NavneetInfy]

It is always this case for all ARPGS. Most uniques/legendaries are useless.

[@1123walkman]

@NavneetInfy yeah I guess it just feels like all of them just suck inpoe2 though. Don't get me wrong some can be useful but none of them are rly amazing. I kindof feel like getting a unique item should be more impactful for your character.

[@NavneetInfy]

@@1123walkman Well they have been focusing on using multiple skills as combo, so maybe there is some good uniques with good synergies. In PoE 1, I saw builds which had uniques I didn't even know after multiple seasons. I'm just hoping it would be possible to cross class a lot, they only showed 2 instances in trailers so far.

[@1123walkman]

@@NavneetInfy yeah I have high hopes for it also :)

[@dmagick914]

I love that support gems don’t have huge attribute costs anymore. There is some cost, but it’s much much easier to use support gems of different colors now

[@The_Forseti]

1. Rushed by giant packs of mobs that insta kill you, and lots of one shot mechanics in bosses for tons of easy deaths. 2. Not a lot of good options for building extra tanky to play around #1. 3. Deaths are extremely punishing in end game. The combination of all three of these is a huge feels bad for me. I really need at least one of these to change for me to have an enjoyable end game experience. I also like the feeling of power fantasy, where I am struggling a lot early game, and I am super powerful at end game, but I am not getting enough power increase to scratch that itch currently.

[@24News-t5i]

your final point about being powerful in the endgame is so right! it feels like we're getting even weaker in the endgame since difficulty ramps up in maps.

[@offroadturkey]

There are so many systems in these new games. That’s what I love about d2, the cube and your build can create so many different play styles that you don’t need a million new currencies to force play diversity. People are going to min max, especially in games that one shot you, so of course your options get limited real fast and the systems then become just a chore to achieve the same build as the guide

[@TheRedsMan11]

I think skill gems should be able to be ground into dust that can be used to level existing gems

[@doggyblues]

That is a very interesting solution. Good idea.

[@khrishp]

Use three gems at the reforging station to get the level above them.

[@AWeakPrinny]

Resident LA Ranger here - when you're talking around the 2:50 mark with regards to not utilizing any of the other skills at your disposal, is that because you don't *like* doing it unless you see a large amount of damage from each skill cast? Because getting electrocute and lightning exposure consistently onto rares and bosses is *ridiculously* strong. Those skills themselves aren't meant to deal damage, they're meant to help you stay safe and deal more damage with your other skills. Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod are your main dps skills, but practically all of your other skills are useful, and your dps will definitely go up if you use them. Again, especially vs bosses and/or rares, inflicting lightning exposure and electrocute is HUGE.

[@mr420quickscops2]

It takes precious seconds to cast those other abilities, and in those seconds EVERY enemy has either sprinted 100m to slam you with massive aoe and cc. OR, they've fired literal thousands of projectiles at you. That you can't dodge, because you're locked into a cast animation. The amount of times I've been 1 tapped mid air because the literal split second I cast a jumping shot ability, every enemy spins to me and sends their highest damage attack, I can't cancel my jump mid air, instant death. It's infinitely safer, smarter, and more enjoyable to just hold LMB and spam only 1 attack with high attack speed so you have the 0.2 seconds to dodge

[@nguyentri3608]

​@@mr420quickscops2 except if you are able to put down a bell as a monk, you'll be killing the boss in 2 seconds compared to 15+, making it extremely worth it to set up your combo. Similarly with electrocute

[@sagi3933]

Agree with a lot, here some suggestions that may help alleviate problems (will try to be very concise): - SKILL GEM LVLING: Skills being able to naturally level up feels better than being forced to use your precious uncut skill gem during the campaign (that otherwise could be a cool new skill for that level). I still want uncut skill gems to stay in the game, but would have GGG make them much more rare as RNG drops to compensate (keeping them as quest rewards etc. the same). - SUPPORT GEMS: I like that Support gems are no longer leveling at all or affected by quality, but then there is no reason to keep uncut support gems in the game as they are now (you can just get 1 copy of each and swap them between characters). GGG may as well make support gems unlockable based on character or skill gem level, allowing to avoid RNG for uncut gems completely, but still limiting choices early on to not make the game too easy with access to too many supports. - DROPS: I wish we got a little more rare gear in general in the early game (starting in act 2-3), as I feel act 1 can be dealt with on magic gear reasonably well, but during act 2 the difficulty ramps up quite a lot. I feel having more rare gear to sell for regals or getting lucky could be incredibly helpful in the campaign, where these items don't necessarily would trivialize the game, as the game is quite hard as is! It would make players hitting a roadblock having a higher chance of farming for upgrades that help them aside from lvling, and having more regal orbs means having more opportunities at decent self-crafted items early. - SOCKETS: Unlike PoE 1's Crafting Bench, we CANNOT remove or delete a rune once socketed. Being able to remove a rune by deleting it would be awesome for sure, agree 100% with MrLlama - TRIALS OF SEKHEMA AND CHAOS: I actually like them, but I think honour-loss should be lessened throughout the trial because the real challenge is beating the boss of a floor without losing all your honour as it currently stands. That, or make bossrooms in Trial of Sekhema not affect your honour at all, just a plain boss fight that is hard, but rewarding to win. It's rough enough that Afflictions can make a boss fight harder as well as the way to it. - TRIAL OF CHAOS: In the same vein as Sekhmea, Trial of Chaos is overtuned in terms of modifiers to choose. If you get very lucky, it is easy enough provided you know the bossfights reasonably well. If you get normal or bad RNG, the mod choices can make it impossible or incredibly hard to succeed. I think the mods just need more balancing, tuning them down by like 33% less impact compared to them now (depending on the mod, some are balanced, some just aren't). It is better to have the quest Trials to be too easy rather than too hard, as they lock you out of impactful ascendancy points otherwise!

[@Zarosu123]

I made the mistake of making witch bloodmage using chaos damage. I can't even complete the campaign on cruel because both survivability and damage sucks. Literally any other class just outperforms chaos witch, especially bloodmage one and ascendency literally does not work and is not getting addressed one bit. Nodes simply don't work at all.

[@MrScorpio1234]

I started chaos witch and I breezed through the campaign

[@yuvalyeru]

I switched to SRS Infernalist at the last moment because I saw nothing in the witch ascendency trees supporting spell-based chaos DoT. The closest ascendency that brings "some" value to ED/C is the stormweaver with the arcane surge nodes, but unfortunately, ED/C is pretty much an orphan skill until they add more ascendancies...

[@Zarosu123]

@@78i78i ye it's still not doing anything considering it does not work for dots.

[@KubbieSads]

yeah it is so bad I rerolled to another character (merc)

[@vadstart]

Hey, at least you are not melee like some of us masochists.

[@hsdExorcist]

I absolutely agree rune sockets should not be permanent. I am stuck with fire resist runes in armor and now I've got some rings with res and amulet, but they have fire resist also, so now I have 100 fire res and still not max cold and light cause I can't change runes and it's gonna get worse when you get like really good items that you can't replace anymore easily

[@MrBuns-yi2hk]

I think it would be nice if they let you unlocked runes at the cost of either the rune or the gear piece.

[@WhiteAntelope7]

Runes supposed to be a campaign thing and in campaign you don't need much resists anyway

[@hsdExorcist]

@@WhiteAntelope7 Runes supposed help fix resistances in replacement for crafting bench from poe1. But they are late game choices too, because why then we have soul cores, that are very rare runes with good stats? You can't get them in campaign almost at all.

[@Dommomos]

I don't agree they should be resocketable and quite frankly it's strange that Llama and a channel of D2 enjoyers want this. Go get another item if you made the wrong choice. That's part of the fun of the game having some choices with gear be final. And the resists for a boss/fix resists during levelling point is completely moot because what else are charms for!

[@Amocoru]

I had so much fun with the campaign. It was incredible. The second I hit maps it just felt like a worse version of PoE. It basically instantly killed my fun and I just went back to leveling other classes and trying them out. Almost every single time I die in maps I have no idea what happened because I'm a cold Monk and every time I kill something it puts the ice on the ground and then I can't see death explosions or purple stuff on the ground and just instantly die after taking 0 damage for the entire run basically. My biggest complaint is the "end game" is all recycled content from PoE and nothing original. Huge let down. The passive tree does NOT need to get more complicated. It's finally in a good spot.

[@MichaelPohoreski]

GGG has a LONG habit of *visual vomit* -- they never got the memo from FFXIV that it IS possible to *cleanly telegraph* what is going on.

[@dddaaa6965]

Had the exact same experience campaign feeling like a GOTY winner, but as soon as you hit maps, there isn't even a slow descent or gradual power creep, it INSTANTLY. TURNS INTO POE1., my build was useless getting one shot and doing no damage, I had to farm the campaign for a full day to afford a weapon and git ti t3 maps, where AGAIN I felt useless and too slow, had to respec my whole tree to just pure damage so I could one shot the mobs before they one shot me, now im in tier 10, but it's nowhere near as fun as the campaign was, I am just flying all over the screen one shotting huge packs before they can react and im perma-freezing and perma-stunning bosses to death. I also disagree with you on the skill tree, it feels SO boring because since there aren't many nodes of 1 type of thing, you NEED to take certain clusters, for example, I dare you to find a dex build that does not use falcon technique, you won't find it because it's the only way to get more than around 20% attack speed on the tree, or every monk WILL need to take subertuge mask or spectral ward because those are like 300 times more value than any other "life" node on his side of the tree.

[@ahmenforfandenda]

Don’t know if they should double the amount of support gems, just make some more impactful and more fun to use gems. They seam a bit bland..?

[@michaljozwiak-ml7xe]

Most of them is just usless. The system definitely needs massive improvement.

[@voyager137]

Speaking about sockets and runes, I would do that you either destroy gear and keep the runes or vice versa.

[@TheKeegsters]

Sooo grim dawn

[@waltlock8805]

@@TheKeegsters Or Torchlight.

[@phant0mdummy]

If it works it works

[@TheKeegsters]

@@phant0mdummy agreed

[@germalganis]

@@voyager137 just add one more hammers to the salvage bench: “salvage runes” “Salvage item” You keep the runes or you keep the item.

[@DannyOE4]

Someone made a really good point for the Sanctum Trials. Make it so honour allows you to convert it into keys at the end depending on how much you have, but NOT kill you if it goes to 0. Seems like a lot of people were really interested in that change happening. Getting your ascendancies shouldn't be this hard.

[@fikol1989]

Why not ?its best Mode sanctum and ultimatum wher you nęed be focus

[@steven11101010]

It's still dumb. You should be rewarded for creative builds. And that should include builds that can soak up damage. The honor system, no matter how you tweak it, is all about avoiding damage which forces a particular build and playstyle.

[@DannyOE4]

@@steven11101010 And I mean... you're not forced to do sanctum to ascend, which is cool, but if your build can't handle it, you are forced to wait until the next act to ascend. And I assume the 3rd option that'll come out eventually will be even later in the campaign. So if you also hate ultimatum (wouldn't blame you) you're just underpowered for a long time before you can catch up with others.

[@Varadex1]

Has a single one of these reviewers even looked at buying a high level gem in PoE2? It seems the all have a strong opinion, but none of them even realize they are insanely rare. They are currently going for 80-100 exalts each, after 1 full week of EA. Plus the fact they have much higher level requirements to even equip.

[@ryanwidmer5311]

The game is going to be a monster when it comes out in 1.0, but they have work to do for sure. Imagine just a month or two ago, they still had flask piano. Good criticisms but the core of the game (gameplay, graphics, loot) is so solid I have a lot of faith they'll get there.

[@Stocklaw]

Yeah well right now the game isn’t fun, but for sure it will be one day because that’s what everyone says. 🙄

[@karlnord1429]

dude like 2% of the player base has a second charm. They just delete flasks. "Yay"

[@johnbennett1729]

@@Stocklawit’s early access for a reason dipshit. It’s still better than d4

[@ryanwidmer5311]

I'm level 80 on my crit DD blood mage and having a blast. All the points Llama raises I agree with but it's still very fun to play and has more content than anything not PoE 1.

[@Gamevideoswatching-bn4rx]

Best ever campaign as well

[@ProbablyJacob]

biggest 2 issues is that the game is two completely different games depending on if youre clearing or fighting a boss, and GGG is doing the thing they always do which is MASSIVELY over tuning EVERYTHING which is something they walked back in PoE1 over the years. Think about how hard maps used to be in PoE1 before life buffs, crafting changes, ect

[@Badlof2k]

that's fair , when it 2011-12 when they started with Poe 1 , but its 12 years later , and the same thing again? like , they had a lot of time to see whats work and not , and I can't wrap around my had why they're doing this approach again , and with the Honor system for ascend your class is straight up bad design..

[@kickit246]

The Rangers skills early on freaking suck. Its either lightning or poison only for so long. I didnt want to do either of those, was going to switch to phys with barrage but they changed barrage, so I went all in on the first cold skill and it is not a skill that can carry through content. Literally stuck with either lightning or poison for like 30 hours, so dumb.

[@djbcubed]

also poison is very underwhelming, had a much better time once I respecced my ranger from poison to lightening arrow/lightening rod

[@FierroSev]

Ice arrow feels like a joke, it does no damage, doesn't build any ailment, and no synergy with anything. I was hoping it would do something with freezing salvo. I wish Chris wilson was the lead designer.

[@MrBuns-yi2hk]

That is subject to change, especially when they add in more skills.

[@DanielgunKim]

I stopped playing rangers because of this. It’s really boring, although they are strong. Had so much more fun with an infernalist witch 🧙

[@wurzelbert84wucher5]

@@MrBuns-yi2hk There is no sign or announcement for new bow skills right now.

[@kevinmann2154]

When I upgrade skill gems , it feels like its just a higher cost to use them and not enough buffs or changing the the way they feel.

[@The_Apothecary]

They set the bar so high with PoE 1, so our expectations are so high, I think they’ve achieved something great with PoE2, I’m neither blown away or disappointed, I’m only lvl 20 Act 2 tho, the game has the DNA to be incredible tho.

[@Zetherin]

Yes, that's the best way to describe it: It has incredible DNA. There are definitely things that need tweaking, but I think many of us can see the core of the game is incredible. It's something intangible, but there's a very high quality feel to it all and I'm excited to watch how the game progresses.

[@kasskennedy5843]

Invalid. Play the dam game for more than 2 hours then come back.

[@NavneetInfy]

@@kasskennedy5843 Level 20 is 5-6 hours right?

[@olderbadboy]

Have you played poe 1 ? The visual clutter , the pace and overall the gameplay is way better in poe 2 .

[@trikztar]

Maybe it's just me but I don't really understand why respeccing should cost anything. What's the upside?

[@MiloLexau]

I get why allotting certain functionalities for different characters makes sense, especially considering lore reasons, but there has to be a compromise between unnecessary tediousness and useless gameplay systems. Seeing as how the game is supposed to be slower, why not innovate a little bit and allow for our hideout NPC's to actually do something passively?, albeit at a slower pace than what you would achieve by manually doing each task. We have the tech ready in PoE1 in Kingsmarch. Give us a chests we can assign to certain tasks so that, once items are dumped into them, NPC's with appropiate traits then passively Disenchant or Salvage for us whilst we map, then we come back from mapping, collect loot. We still have to execute different actions to deposit into the different systems but atleast a lot of the repeated tediousness would be alleviated? Literally, just look at Kingsmarch in the latest PoE league. Bake it into PoE2, ffs Kingsmarch is even setup in poe1 to introduce PoE2 lore.

[@robe4314]

Glad some people are honest about the game and not looking through rose colored glasses. The game needs a lot of work and guess what it’s EA and that’s the point. I hope they make it more accessible for more users. I don’t enjoy the dodge roll and one shot kills. But it may not be for me in the end.

[@notdeadyet717]

the game is definitely not for you bro.

[@Slitheringpeanut]

On the topic of 'Tank' which is what I'd liked to have the Warrior be, you need Armour and +Life and Regen. Taking hits is fine, but you need a secondary recovery system to make sure you can stay up taking shots. Alpha Strikes should still cost you Healing Pots, but you should be able to 'face roll' White Minions by the truckload. On the topic of loot, where are these 'loot explosions'? I'm playing a Warrior and I got little. Is Solo Self-Found supposed to be that hard?

[@leandervr]

I think that this level of hype for an early access version might be a massive headache for ggg. This is essentially an early beta build, but people aren't treating it that way... And that's fair, because when you pay to play a game you can expect something reasonably polished even if it warns you that it is unfinished when yiu buy it. Personally this is why I've held off on playing it for now. I'm following it closely and I'm very curious what it'll turn into with some more polish, but for now I don't feel like playing a beta version of a game, my steam library is full of games I still need to play anyway.

[@ihatesigningupforsht]

100%. Its if nobody has learned anything from games like Palworld.

[@goldentoad2747]

As usual, the loud minority wants the difficulty to stay the same but like Kripp, Llama and others said, dodge or die is NOT a fun mechanic. Not all of us have "A-Train" reflexes and "git gud" is not a valid response. The game is still in EA so they have quite some time to think of a solution to satisfy those who want a more "hardcore" experience and those who want a "hard" but fair exp.

[@ProbablyJacob]

its not just a loud minority, GGG themselves have a history of overtuning everything to caiter to the hardcore audience and then walking it back, early PoE1 was unplayable for a casual gamer once you hit maps

[@goldentoad2747]

@@ProbablyJacob You are right. And their hardcore audience is the "whales". But GGG should make PoE2 an "affordable" (meaning hard but fair) end game experience for all not just the whales.

[@AllEy3s0nMe]

PoE 2, much like PoE1, is a game designed not for the masses. If you are not enjoying it, then there are other games on the market avaliable.

[@barsham7881]

@@goldentoad2747 PoE was never intended for everyone

[@goldentoad2747]

@@barsham7881 I meant those who are interested in this genre of course. Because at the end of the day, more people having fun with this game means more money to GGG. The thing is not all the PoE1 players enjoy this new dark souls PoE2 experience and in general not many like hard and unfair endgame gameplay.

[@adamchowdhury8416]

The problem is, is that they are trying to be hardcore and not hardcore at the same time. They don’t respect people’s time with the hardcore decisions like once you die you can’t go back into a map / all enemy’s reset in campaign. Like I get one shot by stuff on the ground I can’t even see and I can’t even go back and get all the loot I couldn’t pick up because I’m trying not to get hit by a million different invisible things. Endgame is bad, it’s just sit there trade til you get enough gear then they nerf your build so rinse and repeat. The campaign was cool, but that was about it. It’s got some really ugly problems underneath that good looking hood.

[@gozutheDJ]

the endgame is obviously the most untested part. its hilarious people think this is 100% the vision

[@adamchowdhury8416]

@ well, defend it all you want - I don’t really care, it’s driven a lot of people away!

[@gharbadtheweak3878]

Its too damn hard. If you're coming in as a new player, you have to know exactly what build to play, how 100-different boss mechanics works to avoid death. And if you want a minute to buy/sell or craft items in town or some breathing time since you have kids and a life outside playtime, beware of that maps resets after 8 mins. Which means you have all trashmobs and HUGE maps to walk through again, (in slow pace..) Game needs a lot of tweaking and some heavy decision-making rework, or it wont survive for the long haul. I want this game to be a total success for Everyone. Not just 1% of the playerbase. Lucky for us, there's no official release date jet :D

[@adamchowdhury8416]

@ agree completely mate

[@iamsmartmethinks]

Can't zoom in on console and when I try to look at tooltips I get chat box. Super annoying

[@tyhjyys]

no zoom in is a pretty weird oversight but console in general is pretty annoying. like, every game and their mother has a thumbstick cursor now and i don't see why this game can't do that for menus. would make navigating so much less frustrating.

[@Gamevideoswatching-bn4rx]

You can't use search in shops on console either which sux too

[@timeisbutawindow]

I think they should make it so that you can combine 3 skill gems into the next tier up.

[@MrLlamaSC]

That could be an interesting way to help as well though it doesn't solve the end game trade issue

[@setcamper]

Kripp's point about gem levels was eye opening. I'm a slow PoE1 campaigner, 10+ hours typically, but always solo self found. My campaign speed largely felt determined by how long it took my build to come online- but was never gear dependent. I'm on my 4th class in PoE2 through Act2 and every character has felt 100% reliant on how lucky I've been with my weapon drops. That sucks. I found an amazing staff for my monk in Act2 and it feels amazing not to have to kite every pack, but I that's completely the exception compared to every other class I've tried. Every class grinds to a slog in late Act 2 or early act 3, even with great weapon upgrades. PoE1 always felt like I was getting stronger through the campaign, but here I peak pre-dreadnaught and it's almost painfully boring to go on. I've always felt that trade is fun, but shouldn't feel mandatory. PoE1 felt quite mandatory and I'd hate for that to bleed into the campaign in PoE2. PoE is almost balanced around someone like Zizzaran- an expert and someone who plays the game for a living.

[@Gamevideoswatching-bn4rx]

Buy gear from the merchant. Don't have to wait for drops.

[@SciPhi161]

I don’t understand really because the skills do level up with a gemstone. Also there is a level req on lvl20 gems so you can’t just buy them and roll the game

[@setcamper]

@@SciPhi161 Well, pretend trade doesn't exist/league start scenario (you can't go buy a higher level gem)- your gem level is gated by your act. If you're struggling in act 1 you can't grind for a couple hours and push your gem-level hiring to give you an advantage. A higher-level gem won't drop in Act 1 and there's no experience to grind. You're not going to improve your gem/abilities. This didn't happen in PoE1.

[@eightninety.]

performance issues not being brought up enough... but still in ea so i understand

[@Deceit-hx7ey]

i reckon because most of these content creators have good enough hardware to bruteforce the performance.

[@wheatman2170]

My ps5 has run poe2 for over 100 hours flawlessly.

[@Deceit-hx7ey]

@@wheatman2170 well they only have to optimise few sets of hardware in console case. not so much in pc space.

[@dmitrijsmironovs7513]

@@wheatman2170 asked noone, your pshite is locked 60fps

[@wethenorth3695]

Mine is flawless on ps5 too 125hrs

[@thebooherstory9241]

The only wall in PoE 1 that had me quit and come back months later (once I had forgotten how much I hated the wall) was crafting or finding currency to buy the right gear for a build to get to the very end game and high maps. POE2 has many walls that have knocked me out of the game repeatedly. Sanctum as ascendency trial - logout. One-shot death by trash mobs - nope. Suuuuper slow and sluggish gameplay - nope, I have about 100 other games that do that. I want something else from PoE. And one of the biggest for me - no growing power fantasy as I level up. PoE 1 made every single level up (both player and gems, etc) feel meaningful and awesome. I got a warrior to mid Act 2 without having a single awesome moment based off the power / animations / etc..... as someone else posted here already - this game just makes me want to play PoE1 more.

[@demonbird166]

The fact that this is early access and its in such a good state, I have total confidence that this will be cemented as one of the greatest ARPGs. I just hope they don't give in to the D4/POE1 crowd and turn the game into a AOE spam and loot fest.

[@realjosephanthony]

Why is this a "good state" to you? It's the most imbalanced and soulless game I think I've ever played. And for $29.99

[@demonbird166]

@realjosephanthony I'm gonna assume this is a troll post. Have you played diablo 4?

[@realjosephanthony]

@@demonbird166 I despise it.

[@Sbubbymac]

This is a great example of what good feedback is supposed to look and feel like. You made it very clear you are coming from a helpful and constructive place with mindful suggestions and though most of your discussion topics were areas that could be improved, it always felt focused and valuable and not inflammatory. Well done! I hope GGG are able to digest the topics here and bring them into the war room to talk about them in depth.

[@itsKyyyle]

I don’t see how players would be skipping content to get a level 20 skill gem. You still need to meet the stat check, not to mention mana pool for those that have a resource cost, and requires level 87 soooooooo…..I don’t see anyone bypassing anything to get to 87 to buy a skill gem off trade when they will also just drop them. That being said the gem system is kinda boring compared to poe 1

[@realdac7899]

Just an observation but the first 3 acts of poe2 mirror d2 acts. Which is why I laughed when llama said he liked them. Act 1 a townish setting with a count/countess. Act 2 desert. Act 3 jungle.

[@MichaelPohoreski]

*Good:* Ruthless Souls Lite. *Bad:* Ruthless Souls Lite. *Ugly:* Passive Skill tree is STINGY with 1%, 2%, 3% nodes, XP loss on death is an archaic hill to die on. Respec should be free until maps so people can EXPERIMENT while in EARLY ACCESS. Campaign is TEDIOUS.

[@Durion7]

Diablo 2 still the best arpg, even after never getting any New content for more than 2 decades expect for a few New rune words and Charms. Imagine Diablo 2 would have been supported like poe was. Nobody would have ever had a need to make and play another arpg

[@RsrBxr]

Project Diablo II is what Diablo II would have been if still supported by its devs, for sure.

[@SvanMagic]

@@RsrBxr A lot of people don't know much about PD2, but it has been amazing.

[@RA1KU]

I feel like the gem system needs some changes, and I also feel like the amount of support gems you can have should have some synergy with your items. I think a balance could be found between PoE1 and this current PoE2. Now, I don't think the items should have sockets that you fuse or chroma but maybe depending on the item level, it should have something similar on the item like the belts do currently with charms. For example. Body Armour, level 70 - "Up to 5 support gem slots" + the prefixes and suffixes that you then craft(This should scale with item level, not like the charms on the belts that just seem to always be +1 charm slots). Something about just opening the skill window just seems way too blank for me. Maybe section off the window with having 2x 6 link skills(Body Armour and Main Hand Weapon) and 4 links for the remaining items. Also, just put the gems back onto an NPC to buy them, these uncut gems just bloat the stash. On another note, dumpster this narrow bridge/tunnels idea and these maze like maps. Before the dodge roll change, this entire narrow path gameplay was just horrendous, not sure how this passed play tests.

[@_B_B_B]

It is necessary to make a limited free respec. For example, the player spends time in the game, the number of points accumulates, which the player can use for free reroll. The number of points has a cap. Let's say the cap is equal to the level. Points accumulate slowly during the game. 5-10 minutes for one. When you release a patch, you completely fill this scale for all players. Such a practice will allow players to be bolder in experimenting with builds. It will also fix problems after patches.

[@alexmcd378]

So far 2 has just gotten me back into poe 1. But I'm pretty confident it will be a better game at the end of early access.

[@kmo9790]

I was excited about the game until I learned about the dodge rolls. I hate this tacked on gameplay element, maybe even more than tacked on open world. I really don't understand why dodge rolls can't be 'dodge rolls', as in character appropriate animations for the dodge. Why can't the Sorceress do some sort of slow animation blink or phase? Make it look like something a sorceress would actually do. It is aesthetically boring and, for me, immersion breaking. How heavy is a muddy soaking wet robe exactly? Aside from that is seems like a big old uncreative blob of sameness slapped right into the middle of a game. Each class has all these unique skills, visuals, backgrounds, and skill trees. Then bam, dodge roll, dodge roll, dodge roll for each class looking like they all watched the same anime as kids and no one told them to knock that crap off. And like what even is the cliche fantasy story of each of the these classes? Do they all have to go down to the local town guard and learn dodge rolls from the old tough as nails drill sergeant? Like you're about to graduate from Arcane Academy and there is an unaccounted for credit hour in your schedule last semester. You show up and old Lems is all, "Hit me with your fancy magic, if you can!" Then he just dodge rolls your devastating spells and somehow you're flat on your back looking up at the sky. Gap tooth Lems looming over you is all, "You thought all you needed was yer fancy spells!" It just hurts my spirit.

[@vadstart]

There is a "Blink" buff skill in the game that turns your roll into a short range instant teleport. Looks like exactly what you are looking for.

[@kmo9790]

@@vadstart Thanks, I will keep that in mind while I decide if I want to play the game when it launches. Having to play through the game until your roll stops looking dumb isn't great, but it is better than not having an option. I appreciate the info, it was hard to find video on rolls for each class for me to even find out that they all looked pretty much the same.

[@vadstart]

@kmo9790 yup, I actually want to make a Monk specifically for that skill now (hopefully they'll also add another replacement, something like Stealth for the upcoming rogue class in 1.0). You can socket it with additional charges/cooldown reduction Support Gems to Blink mutiple times. The only downside is that it requires 60 spirit, so you can only get it in Act 3 earliest, or with lucky +Spirit gear drops.

[@ChrisKeysYouTube]

It makes absolutely no sense that we get skill gems as drops just…randomly. I don’t know how they landed on that system - it doesn’t even feel like farming, it just feels like arbitrary waiting. And sometimes it’s a WHILE before a skill gem drops. It’s just so random, I wish it made more sense diagetically also.

[@FuLou1988]

3:08 Chaos Dot witch actually needs a lot of skills to do the dmg. Which is kind of fun. But therefor it will be more difficult looking in only the movement required to survive. So 1 Button min maxing builds seem a lot easier to play.

[@victorc1462]

Very good points. Visual clarity neeeds improvements. I'm not even talking about group play, its just impossible. And I also love the game. The campagin was fantastic!

[@ryanhernandez8883]

I love that GGG wants to create a difficult and punishing game. But I think they also oversimplified a lot of things that were so good from PoE1 such as crafting and the gem system. I’m hoping we get some simple crafting bench options (it only got complicated when they started adding fractured items and other wild currencies), and a return to leveling gems and more support gems. I’m guessing they wanted to start with things really difficult and then dial them back. I’m sure we’ll also see lots of changes to these issues mentioned in the video.

[@crimsonram6106]

18:13 that for sure, they shall give a usable respec item afer every patch, even with only a limited 1 week availability then it can expire/removed from stash/inventory whatever.

[@zeebpc]

sanctum as melee made me quit the game im not coming back until its changed

[@Kuzka_]

Something that they did in poe1, which I assume is in poe2 as well, you get less honour deducted if you were closer to the enemy.

[@andrenc3681]

You don't have to do it at all though, don't let it spoil your fun

[@Kuzka_]

@@andrenc3681 In my opinion sanctum is better in poe2, at least on a ranged character. It just shouldn't be as a first ascendancy option. And afflictions should be made weaker, as they're waaaaay too punishing

[@rabbyd542]

I beat it on my second try with Witch. Then I spent over two hours trying to help my brother ascend his Monk. Another weird thing is sometimes when he got an honor fountain, we just both died instantly with no explanation as to why. And then I instantly died twice when the boss was at 5% HP.

[@juggernaut316]

what were they thinking? seriously? I hope this was just a placeholder.

[@sheepwshotguns42]

what if we had a choice to put a small boost into either armor, energy shield, evasion, or a resistance type with every passive skill point?

[@punchieau7409]

Visual clarity is my biggest issue. I can barely see mobs half the time, the map is so big that it covers my entire screen as I'm a big map user, and worst of all... Theres no option to turn off the god damn rain or weather. It's so ugly it's like playing with sun glare or something that you just can't get rid of. That, on top of the very minimal viable builds. Best skill in the game is the one you get at level 1.

[@UndeadFleshgod]

I've watched your 4 years old video about Diablo 2 v1.0. PoE2 has a lot of similarities to it. And like D2, I have no doubt it'll evolve to be better, I just hope it doesn't lose too much of that essence in the process.

[@jamesSmith-fl5wv]

The skills suck for most classes to the point the default attack is stronger for most of act 1

[@chriso6042]

Honestly I found restarting terrible, had no interest in doing it again. Also I was building my char and about 90% done.. then bricked with very little gold. Feel weak as hell now and not really any interest in grinding out of the hole and working on a new build that may or may not be nerfed.

[@vanquest5341]

Early access can be rough, but I do agree that the nerf was rather extreme

[@addand2665]

Nobody needed you to be the 7 millionth person "testing" your favorite streamer's build. It was irresponsible of them to be doing a build guide during a playtest to begin with, but if following one completely bricked your character, your playtesting feedback is devoid of value anyways. Wait for full release when you can follow a guide word for word. Nothing necessarily wrong with doing that, but complaining that you can't do that in a playtest is absolutely wild.

[@djbcubed]

@addand2665 you're brain dead, each class only has like 2-3 options for builds in early access. It's not like this was some niche, giga brain streamer build that had a weird interaction. The most obvious way to play ice spells/freeze got obliterated and tons of people caught strays that weren't even copying any build.

[@24News-t5i]

@@addand2665 I also had to respec, farmed act 1 for literally 1 hour and I was fine.

[@TheAleksander22]

@@addand2665 Except they didn't market this as a "play test". If it's being called early access (and they are charging for it) I don't think it's wild or unreasonable to expect a fun and rewarding experience. I love to follow build guides because I don't particularly enjoy the theory crafting parts of these types of games.

[@SuperArc13]

If they dont make major changes, this game will be a ghost town a few months into full release. Casuals will move on to other games, and POE lovers will go back to POE1.

[@Jbswe]

How is Casuals moving onto other games after putting like 70 hours into the campaign when it comes out a bad thing? I already got multiple friends who never played these types of games to play and they really like it

[@newvocabulary]

@@Jbswe because PoE1 is a seasonal game that people put 10,000 hours into. For a lot of us, it was our primary hobby and brought us tons of fun over the years. Because of PoE2 we're now into a SEVEN MONTH league... and it sucks.

[@SuperArc13]

@Jbswe because, as I've stated, POE is a live service game that relies on it's player base coming back league after league to support the game. That's what made POE1 not just survive, but thrive for 13+ years. when the casuals move on, which they will, and your dedicated player base aren't having long-term fun and go back to POE1, POE2 dies. I have somewhere near 10k hours into POE 1, and I can tell you with 100% certainly that in its current state, that will not be the case with POE 2.

[@Jbswe]

@@SuperArc13 bro has 10k hours in one game please tell me you play other game genres lmaoo

[@DimaPlaysHF]

This game will create its own new community same what poe 1 did. I think in the end people will enjoy both games and they will co-exist.

[@alexlloyd9201]

Also i think if they added a way to upgrade the level of unique items to current character level would be a much needed crafting option. I currently have a unique crossbow that i have built my entire build around, but i found it at level 4, so it's very under powdered and i don't want to use another xbow because the unique effects is crucial for my build

[@XeptorKingGG]

Reducing the loot drops in lategame is the worst take i've ever heard, as well as currencies..The reason the more loot is really good is because you'll not always be getting the item for your class with the actual good modifiers.

[@christopherstoner2059]

Why not allow the node highways to not just include int, dex, and str but also include a flat life or mana to choose those.

[@josephhurt7060]

I am heading into Act 3 and I have yet to be one shot. Maybe this happens later?

[@Lancer78x]

Have you seen the Titan build that was full AFK in t16 maps with screen full of mobs beating on him? And of course their are plenty of glass cannon builds one shotting all bosses. And I never felt the problem with support gems or skill gems during leveling to end game. Maybe I was lucky, but I don't think I would care if they made these level by experience or by just finding more gems like it is now. Both seem okay to me.

[@nonameform]

Speaking of one-hit mechanics, Blackhawk took me an hour to beat. I wasn’t frustrated, but it seemed to me that there is way too much RNG involved in the order of the attacks. Just when I went from location to location he would cast a series of slams with the third killing me even at full health and shield. By the end of my final attempt I hand no life flask and was at 15-20 % myself. I felt a relief that this time it was the boss who died and not me.

[@alexlloyd9201]

On salvaging items - i think having a "horadric cube" esque item in poe2 to salvage in the field would be great

[@1relaxedpanda]

I agree with a lot of this and feel the game devs have the ability to make some of these changes. The game itself, environment, movement etc. feels great. Just some mechanics need tweaking. I know they based a lot of their strategies on D2, but they are missing a few things to get it close to that. For support gems if they don't add more make the ability gem slots able to take runes or jewels instead. At least you can add something to them. Also where are the proc on hit mechanics? Like Amp damg for an Amazon in D2 for example. The very early game they should make it about 80% easier. I enjoy the challenge of the game overall but should be a slower ramp up for new players. I'm sure there's a lot to come which I'm super excited for.

[@Ryken_1]

Great honest, helpful Early Access review & feedback! Hopefully GGG is listening!

[@andrewkerr5296]

If GGG actually listened, they would have used POE 1 mechanics in POE 2 with little changes other than improving on POE 1

[@Mysteryp7]

So looks like their massive skill tree, it seems like universe but actually it does nothing much xD

[@Deceit-hx7ey]

i read a comment somewhere, the gear is 70-80% of your chars power, rest being tree. looks to be about right...

[@Mysteryp7]

@ whaat with all that universe tree xD and it only worth around 20% lol crazy

[@dragon_dyce]

For visual clarity i think they should do what d4 does, dim the other players visuals so u can see them but just barely and they're minions

[@kzpm9796]

Why go slow? There is no interesting mechanics that benefit player to go slow. Do I get more drops with overkill system?

[@solomani-42]

Can we make clear these are early access 0.1b patch reviews for future Googlers. Thanks. Good suggestions btw. Especially the gem changes.

[@analogGigabyte]

As a D2 enjoyer I love their vision and I hope they keep the slow and skill-based tactical play instead of the (as well) heavily knowledge-based but less skill-based poe1 play

[@hmp01]

the game needs to be relaxing or me and many others will not play it.

[@gongal]

@@hmp01 you are a cockroach

[@yokitosama]

​@@hmp01 who's care ? we are hardcore players and we will play. If there are no enemies that make me tired of life, why should I play? this is not sims 4.

[@hmp01]

@@yokitosama because the game needs to not drain your energy like its doing now. We are not playing cs or dota here,i dont need stress.

[@andrewkerr5296]

@@yokitosama ok then, have fun playing a game where no one is playing in a months time LOL

[@The6host086]

Playing a ranger, and I'm happy to hear the skill progression is better on other classes. I feel the same about ranger progression in the current state of the game.

[@MrLlamaSC]

Yeah really feels like Ranger has some of the worst progression for skills from what I've heard and seen

[@user-yo6xb6ud6d]

So glad to hear others feel this way. I rolled ranger after playing a sorc (where I felt spoiled for choice on skills) and I thought maybe I just wasn't being create enough with lightning ranger. Nope, there's just not much to do other than the obvious it seems.

[@Marcintehace]

please remember that you still have poe1 for when you want to build tank or you just want to chill out while playing. I feel like trying to 'fix' those 2 aspects of the poe2 will hurt the overall experience, which in my opinion in phenomenal. I really enjoy the fact that its different in this regard.

[@yournamethere123]

I wish an ARPG would do resists like Last Epoch, no resistance nerf over time, just fill it up as you go and even without it being capped it isn’t something that will noticeably affect you unless you have literally zero of one res.

[@josquinlanglois2554]

About loot, uniques are pretty bad and boring, like why are they limited to 4 modifiers? give em' some sauce

[@bobby45825]

You'd think they'd be game changing...

[@mr420quickscops2]

I've found 4 uniques so far at level 43 for Ranger, one was a level 19 Hammer. 2 of them were the SAME level 8 fire quiver (found at level 33 and again at 39), another was a level 22 belt that I am still using. The uniques are bloody terrible.

[@josquinlanglois2554]

@@mr420quickscops2 the levels are fine if they can still serve a purpose for a specific build, they just lack anything interesting.

[@nerdhunt]

On your note of D2 vs PoE and how in D2 you could make the character feel more your own, I think it's a lot to do a lot with the fact in D2 we had 5 attributes and a level to spend each level, in poe and poe2, they give you this illusion that hey you can do anything here, but as you go and get your nodes of choice your character is forced into those stats, where before getting stats was something that always happened and you always had a choice to get health or mana, or dex for block or strength for heavier armor, on-top of the skill choice which you also received, which passively buffed other things on your skill tree. In D2 leveling up felt amazing, even the sound effect was to a T, I can hear it ring right now and it sounds good, in poe it's always been just meh. They totally missed the mark on something there in that aspect. I love that they separated gems from items too, and I hope we get runewords; a lot of people say runewords suck in D2 but runewords made the game awesome (maybe besides spirit,) look at peoples clips of D2, most of them are people giddy with finding high level runes. Also to touch on something not mentioned a lot, in D2 sorceress could teleport, and it was amazing; other classes could too with enigma at a certain point; everyone could teleport... and it wasn't bad, it was good. Why on earth remove the point of progression at which your character can absolutely zoom through a place, what's wrong with that? I mean your idea of fixing the fact that sorceress could do something other characters couldn't - just made all of them suck. I honestly believed PoE and get your character to do anything was cool, until I realized the talent tree sucks, is boring, and feels it has absolutely no synergy with itself, and it's so for all the characters because they all share the same tree, come to think of it, how is that cool anyway? In D2 we have separate classes with different block rate, cast point, hit rate break points, each one was unique; now that was cool, I just didn't realize it till now. Also finding base items for rune words was cool, orb to add sockets is lame now, was needed for poe1 but is out of place as it is.

[@joelhodoborgas]

Good review, i also appreciate the work put in the campaign.

[@braintrust02]

As someone who is new to POE2 but played the diablos I am still enjoying this way more. Maybe it is my soulsborne background though. I don't have any expectations of being invincible. I am just ready for the next amazing boss or challenge.

[@jamesrochester2459]

"Not enough reward for farming experience" is a problem with a lot of potential solutions. Is skill gem leveling really the best one? It brings back the old PoE 1 issue of quickly feeling fixed in your skill choices, making it difficult to see whether skills you haven't been using are even worthwhile since they're under-leveled. In the current system getting a second Level X gem doesn't raise your main skill but it can raise up a new skill that previously you didn't think you needed to be using, but suddenly seems useful. This has happened to me many times in PoE 2. I think there are much better solutions for giving players more ability to over-farm content they're struggling with.

[@Pandemonium088]

What I hate the most is the down time when you need to sort, sell or disenchant after your quad tab is full. There is no reason why we cannot salvage, sell and disenchant while the premium tab is open, I suspect this is done to artificially pad the game time No AH in 2024 is wild, not a fan of accessing websites to "trade" with non responding b.s. Repsec cost needs to go or cut down by 95%, GGG be gatekeeping and padding for playtime yet again.

[@BinfordOver9000]

One problem with gem exp is how many open slots you get for free to level skills you’re not using. If you see that as a problem

[@MrLlamaSC]

Eh i don't see it as that big of an issue. Poe1 had it and i thought it was fine there

[@BinfordOver9000]

@ but you had to have the sockets and colors in your gear to equip them and get exp is what I’m saying

[@Daniel-xv3nw]

you cant really sell high level skill gems to low lvls because the gems have level requirements

[@WhiteAntelope7]

Just sell uncut/buy gems?

[@Katze822228]

I agree that the current respec system is a bit weird because it encourages you to respec a lot early on when it's still cheap so you don't have to respec later. But making each subsequent respec cost less is not the solution. It would discourage people from doing small changes to their build and encourage entire respecs which is exactly the opposite of what GGG wants and I agree, if it is too easy to do a big or even full respec it takes away from the feel that you're playing a specific build/character. Honestly the poe 1 respec system with a couple free respec points from campaign quests plus regret orbs was better, it didn't have any of these problems.

[@SanityUnknown]

My opinion on the game; from someone who's played PoE1 from the very beginning, placing first in some of the races back when they did them early on in PoE1. Most of this, I hope will be fixed by the actual release but here we go. The game itself has big potential but is just way to time consuming. I unfortunately choose to play a monk. The worst mistake I could've made. Took me 2 days, 12 hours of play time to reach endgame. Granted some of that was from being afk/shopping but majority was game play, sure I had to clear a few maps completely thinking I was somehow missing a side quest because the icon was glitching. But I had died over 430 times before endgame. Some boss mechanics was unavoidable, not enough time to react without any verbal or visual ques or simply being swarmed by too many mobs without an ability to handle the situation quick enough early on. Alot of BS deaths from bosses that got a random lucky one shot hit, mobs that caught me before I got to them and couldn't dodge. I had decent gear throughout the acts but Monks had it the toughest of any class. The game simply takes way to long, at a moderate place. Second HUGE complaint, the ascendency is the worst I've ever encountered in any games, the honor system is extremely foolish, especially on a class that doesn't rely on blocking, and has very little mobility to dodge several incoming attacks from range, while being melee. The game is easy af for some classes while nearly impossible for others. Of course, you'll get the fools that say you're just playing the class wrong, etc. And sure maybe I made a mistake or two, but to struggle as deeply as I had, as someone whose aced many AARPGs before including PoE1 when it was at its toughest, would cause many people to avoid ever playing this game. I don't have enough space to write my hundreds of complaints, but the game simply isn't enjoyable in its current state as a monk at the very least. And I can't justify putting several days into leveling up another character to possibly encounter similar issues, I simply do not enjoy the game enough to want to play another character. I wanted to like this game so much, but its truly been a huge letdown. It's not even that its too ''difficult'' it's that some of the concepts are beyond pointless and truly ruins the enjoyment of the game. Maps are also way to large. The well system is dumb. We should be able to have at least two healing potions, etc. Game simply isn't worth playing right now and may never be. PoE1 hands down is the better game. Best way to put PoE2; it's a fun console game that you pick up, play intensely for a week or few and never touch it again... but I play it on a PC. If I had to give a realistic advice to someone thinking of playing this game on EA, I would say don't, absolutely don't, as it may in fact ruin your desire to ever play it again, even if you know things got nerfed or fixed. Oh ALMOST forgot, you clear a map 90% of the way, die and the map resets! oh... and an exalt dropped on this body, or from a chest and you get blown up or killed because your life flasks are empty 3 mobs back and the map resets and you just lost all of your loot. Imagine if it was a mirror, headhunter, etc.

[@arturvegis2571]

Sanctum scales with your resistances, so just like, get fire res to not lose all of your honor to one trap?

[@Axetwin]

I've been playing a Ranger too, and I have noticed that I'm being shoehorned into a specific build. Poison early on isn't worth investing in and you don't get any reliable non-poison non-lightning skills for 30+ levels. So I do agree with you about that, and the lack of meaningful support gems since we're not allowed to use the same one across multiple skills. I agree, we need a way to either destroy the item to get the rune back or destroy the rune so we can put a new one in. I don't mind the large maps. What I DO mind is that there's nothing to find. It doesn't feel good to go so far out of your way only to find a yellow chest that only drops 10 gold. I've had blue and yellow chests give nothing at all. They need to add more things to find and do in the large maps because right now they feel large simply for the sake of being large.

[@Mduffy-yo6rb]

Tbh my only actually complaint is that I wish there were more items with move speed. Like an amulet. I’d sacrifice some stats to move 10% faster

[@Eskoxo]

Think it’s very iffy what will actually happen as we are missing half the skills etc

[@rofltrance]

Damn, you weren’t kidding: this review was extremely honest, not a single lie. Thanks!

[@dsxz]

im lvl 37 and still using 3 linked skills and tier 1 supports...its boring af

[@mr420quickscops2]

I think the best mechanic is having Level 8 Unique items dropping for level 40+ characters, when they are already stupidly rare. I love having a unique quiver that does +5 damage and +1-5 fire damage. So much better than my level 19 quiver that gives +35% to ALL bow skills. I'm yet to find an item that's even 10 levels below me. I have +58% to item rarity. Why are the rarest items I find socketed level 13 greys?

[@MrDraehl]

Having a great time with the game overall. That said, many skills and (melee in particular) felt lacking compared to range. Started off as a s&b Witch with the intent to be a tanky bloodmage but the synergy between the non-summon Witch & Mace skills just weren't there. Rerolled to a Ranger and it feels so much stronger and just works. Some combination of melee feeling punishing + witch skill synergy + having a non-mace melee weapon (looking forward to axe and flail to give the build another shot)

[@orestisp]

I think if the game doubles the resistances from runes, it will be in a better place. Right now you are RNG-ing every ounce of resistance if you don’t want to get epilepsy by micromanaging dodge rolls in high level maps. Or change the -90 to -30 or something.