[PoE2] My Thoughts on Path of Exile 2 After 350 Hours

[@DonTheCrown]

Yes, I am aware that it is early access. I want the game to be great and I think that there are a lot of pain points right now that I would like to see GGG address before we get to 'full release'.

[@jordi6153]

The part that most confuses me about POE2 is the stubbornness to repeat past design mistakes that were lessons learned in theory in POE1.

[@DonTheCrown]

@@jordi6153 yup this is a major pain point for me, a lot of the stuff that was supposed to be 'fixed' is even worse in poe2.

[@Qyr3]

As you pointed out, it is payed for early access, so people should have a base for complaining. And thats exactly what early access is for, to identify issues and fix them. Without feedback, its hard to identify all issues

[@anthonyhall1033]

Who knows act 4 -6 might be super short so it might reduce the time by like 8 or more hours to get the endgame. As in act 1-3 might be the long acts.

[@afternoondelight6322]

We also need some insight i to why so many people are dealing with massive stuttering to the point its mostly unplayable.

[@garver5833]

Devs want criticism. If you don't criticize, you don't want improvement. Never be a yes man.

[@Loyalitaeterr]

Exactly, critics are the best support

[@LlenadeMalo]

They are asking for feedback. They need feedback. That’s how it will improve.

[@TheMiojox]

Yes.

[@phillipkoch5751]

Yeeeeeeeees

[@ramschasar7654]

​@johnWayne-df6rm Its exactly the same for me and friends. Also the endgame is somewhat fun and i see it more like a foundation and that foundation is fine. Balancing tweaks were expected, just dial down the competetive thought on the early access and explore non meta (non archmage) builds. I have a blast and cant wait to see templar druid and shadow 😊😊

[@jeremyhouse129]

Lets be frank, the crafting is absolute shit. 😂

[@acetune0080]

personally as it stands rn i enjoyed the campaign way more than endgame. the biggest reasons for that are that i have found only a single citadel in around 180 hours of mapping and that towers just feel like a chore. Mapping, unless its got a breach, just feels insanely unrewarding to me (and no i don't want to get showered in loot, it's more that the maps are just so huge for little to no mobs even with juiced maps sometimes). The backtracking in the endgame mapping also feels so bad if you missed a single rare mob. The open market with the current prices is just very frustrating (don't know what they can do about that but that's just what it is). Bosses are another point i dislike. Bosses do have good mechanics that can be improved even further but how it stands rn, the goal is just to have as much dmg as possible so you just 1 shot the boss anyway and don't even get to experience the mechanics. What I'd like to see is that the damage from the bosses gets nerfed but they get way tankier so you actually have to engage with the mechanics but don't have to spam dodge so you don't get 1 shot yourself. And crafting is just absolutely horrible unless you do nothing but that and have a shit ton of currency to even afford crafting in the first place. I generally enjoy the game and I'm sure they will address most of the things that a lot of people dislike.

[@TweakerBob]

I was having the exact same thought process about bosses I hate the insta deleting meta but whenever I intentionally don’t do that and try to engage with the mechanics the boss just one shots me with an attack I haven’t seen before. The breach boss is the perfect fight imo I hope they keep going that route

[@MarkusGehlhaar]

I play towers with T1 waystones

[@raptorak1]

Did a juiced chaos trial yesterday, killed the boss while running and he died offscreen so I stopped. Then about 8 lightning strikes hit me and I died. Congratulated me at the same time as saying I had died and failed lol. Bad feels.

[@jacekwaasiewicz716]

never did boxing ? keep your guard up at all times xd

[@Uphold-your-Rights]

Yes. I run around the screen after every kill for about 5 seconds waiting on a death mechanic. So damn annoying.

[@nikolaytonchev6508]

Man i hate this so much, DELAYED CASTING and stuff come on. I kill a pack of mobs > they die > i start picking loot > and 4 seconds later iam dead with nothing on the screen cause some shit casting continue even if the mob is dead. Great design

[@adiddevil]

GET GUD

[@stephenmclemore7614]

I saw a screen shot of the death screen while a mirror lays on the ground

[@florianchoquet8679]

Too much friction and frustration, not enough rewards for the time invested.

[@ArticulateArena]

Plus the gameplay is awful. Id rather watch d4 .

[@florianchoquet8679]

@ no the gameplay is amazing and is a huge step up for the genre. The combat gameplay is miles above any other ARPG.

[@apollodivine]

I love the game, currently at 230 hours. However, my problems with the game are these : - UI sucks - Items in inventory are too big - Constant freezing and crashing - End game is a slog solely dependent on RNG in order to progress - Dying from enemies without ever seeing what’s killing you - Not being able to revive teammates in Chaos Trials or Maps - Ascendancy points being locked behind overtuned game mechanics (Chaos/Sekemas) - Stat menu not showing all your actual stats Edit : I had to add one more - CRASHING DURING CHAOS TRIALS AFTER COMPLETING IT WHEN CHOOSING ASCENDANCY POINTS AND THE GAME PUTS YOU BACK AT THE BEGINNING. Such BS.

[@kostisxristoforidis7196]

What about you need 10 minutes to loot a breach map?thats more time than clearing a whole map 😂

[@rainair402]

"Dying from enemies without ever seeing what’s killing you" - that's a thing which annoyed me from beginning. Walking through all enemies without any issues. And then BAM! Dead. What happened?? No one knows. Other games have at least a log in case you wonder why.

[@rainair402]

"Ascendancy points being locked behind overturned game mechanics (Chaos/Sekemas)" - I did my 3rd Asc as Monk with level 75 with 55% honor res. It's really annoying everything else is quiet easy, except Asc. Why??

[@apollodivine]

@@rainair402 I’m a level 88 Archmage Sorc running spark that does 50k damage and I get obliterated by the most random game mechanics on both trials - it’s absurd. It’s not even skill or playing good, it’s just getting good RNG

[@pepsik2700]

For the crashing issues try switching to vulkan, it's more stable. Also if you can run dlss or fsr it really limits the gfx from overworking your rig

[@GnostlyHero]

It feels like they put all the unfun stuff from poe1 into poe2 and took out all the stuff I enjoyed with poe1.

[@mcarr416ix]

Someone else commented on this, a bunch of people i think scanning the comments, but the end game straight up sucks. Its not fun. Its boring. The campaign I think showcases the intention of the devs with the deliberately more slow pace for combat, then endgame just changes into a different game. I find it very offputting.

[@Monkeypuzzle]

I generally enjoy campaigns way more than end game. Being in the context of the story gives a reason to be playing and leveling. So the more campaign the better for me. Once I hit end game I tend to lose interest because it's just leveling and gearing for the sake of leveling and gearing.

[@down-the-rabbit-hole]

But that's the same with any RPG really. End game is for taking your build as far as you can. That's a dopamine rush. Also, I like making tons of currency which I'm doing in endgame right now and that's enjoyable for me. Also, all of my great drops have come in endgame. I had none in the campaign.

[@Monkeypuzzle]

@@down-the-rabbit-hole Yeah, I'm not against any of all that. I'm just providing counterpoint to the campaign being a "chore". I'm 119 hours into the game and just got one of my three characters to cruel, and I still wouldn't want the campaign to be any shorter or the maps to be any smaller. I'm absolutely loving the campaign and hope to enjoy the end game too! But I'm more of a joy in the journey as well as the destination kind of guy.

[@gutbomb9072]

@@Monkeypuzzle You and I are the exact same in this regard. I am on my 5th character leveling in the campaign. I have been playing POE since '18 and I always get bored around mid late yellow maps and reroll. I like leveling and theory crafting builds more than "blasting" T-whatever maps. So people like us do exist.

[@elderwiz3165]

Same here. The campaign is awesome. Can't wait for the other 3 acts to come out so we can get one epic story to play through.

[@Nick-tl7ts]

Except this game endgame is a joke​@@down-the-rabbit-hole

[@Xenamos]

Cruel was considerably easier than normal for me, just get a decent wep by then and its a breeze

[@stephenmclemore7614]

Yeah. Act 1 was by far the hardest. By act 3 your abilities and gear are starting to help a ton then you can fly through cruel.

[@deadeyedun]

Agreed, I bought a quarterstaff for 1 exalt that doubled my DPS and easily carried me thru cruel

[@michaelparfitt3436]

Yea I don't understand how he took longer in Cruel it was way faster for me and my build was trash tier.

[@Retoralic]

They definitely should remove that a mob explodes when being killed.

[@Jubumby]

For me its not the exploding, its the puddle of death sitting there for 10 seconds after, so irritating.

[@jugaming3808]

These mechanics are in the game to stop people from building zhp. It's the same reason bosses have oneshot mechanics. Makes you kinda need some defense.

[@Retoralic]

​@jugaming3808 no, make the mob harder but after it's being killed it should not explode after 5 seconds and 1 shot me. This combined with a 1 chance at everything is just bs.

[@Jubumby]

@@jugaming3808 its one thing to resist damage, its another to sit and stare at the puddle regardless how much its going to hurt or not. Stalling to force resistance is a waste, let the bosses just dump on people if need be. Its just reallllly drawn out imo. I definitely could just sprint through it i guess if i want to go fast. Also when its layered under all of chaos on the screen thats another thing.

[@itznoiz3402]

Death effects is one of the worst things that ever has been implemented in an Arpg, its so F** stupid how a mob can be more dangerous dead than alive, its really a arcaic decision on 1990 to create a non-organic dificulty. Make the mobs harder, not let them one shot us dead, even with a full endgame build. a t16-18 map with a lot of juice u CANT see everything when u are at a full breach map with 200 skill effects on screen.

[@sol5916]

For me, the issue is performance. The frames keep dipping from 120 to 40 constantly in maps. As for other arpg’s, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to ones without WASD movement anymore

[@modelistas1]

endgame becomes boring pretty quick, doing map with multiple breaches u spend more time picking up loot than killing monsters, and doing that multiple times it gets abit frustrating, other endgame mechanics just suck in general

[@kostisxristoforidis7196]

Even d4 is at end game at this point which makes me laugh,at least you kill monsters in d4 and not busy trying read all the chaos loot in poe click each time for loot

[@modelistas1]

@kostisxristoforidis7196 delirium is good for that, just drops everything 4u, but breach is fkin horrible, they should do the same, once u finish breach all splinters and catalyst should drop in one place

[@kostisxristoforidis7196]

@@modelistas1 good idea

[@psosilo]

I think it is important to give feedback and even add people's individual opinions for GGG to think about before the release. My hope is people keep coming back and looking at the changes and make sure the launch is as good as it can be.

[@DalkielDamion]

Well thanks for sharing. I am not a long time POE veteran; I am actually new to the POE franchise with the launch of POE2. I came from the Fallout and Diablo universe going all the way back to D1 along with Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior and so many other RPG games from back in the day. I have been having a blast in POE2 and have been playing since launch day. I have made a few characters with the Witch being my first long term play so far. I would love to play and blast more but work overtakes my fun time. I don't have an issue with the length of the campaign. I actually really enjoyed it. But like you said, to hunt down and do the hooded one's quest every time I make a new character and other stuff is, well, so so. Some of the maps feel way, way too big and I am the kind of guy who loves exploring maps. (examples: Skyrim, Fallout, etc.) So, this subject might be an iffy one and has probably already been discussed but, in D3 I really enjoyed having my pets. I mean at first it was picking up gold and that was fine. Then when season 28: The Alter of Rites came out they introduced a pet mechanic that allowed the option to pick up and scrap specific gear. Pets picked up and salvaged common, magic, and rare items but I think you could turn it off and filter it. But it's been a while since I have played. But to have something like that and then allow us to filter what it would pick up would help. I know, it's not Diablo and I do not know what POE 1 had to offer in the loot pick up aspect. But just think of how much end game time it would save everyone. But I also have learned that regular white items can be very valuable when using the so, so crafting option. I say that because the currency drop for me is horrible for me to experiment with crafting gear. So, I don't because I don't have the proper items to do so. But yeah, to run back after clearing the map to pick up loot is tedious to say the least even with the loot filters active. But I noticed that just like in D3 a lot of players just leave the loot on the ground and completely ignore it. Sometimes I feel it is too much but then other times I feel it's not. The other thing is that I myself, don't like the fact that the loot that drops while playing my witch is not for the witch. It's loot for all the characters. I know that has always been a thing for all games, but it would be nice if it was scaled more for the current character you are playing. Also, for me, I have noticed going from Act 1, 2, 3 to Cruel that the loot did not or has not been scaling in level for me. Now this is just my experience and may not be someone else's. But the level drops didn't add up. Plus, my first playthrough so far, I never got a Level 2 Support Gem until I was at the end of Act 3, and I rarely got any uncut skill gems. My drop rate experience was extremely low and awful for me. One last quick thing, the Revive a player animation is way too long, and it takes way too long to revive a party member. The animation is pretty cool, but it's way to long for me. Again, it could just be my game play, but man does it take what seems like forever to revive your buddy. I'd like to see it cut in half. But I don't know how long the revive timer was for POE1 and I also know it various from game to game. In Once Human it's a few seconds but not as long as POE2. That's just an example. But yeah. Please reduce the revive time. :) Well, anyway Don thanks for sharing and I do hope GGG goes in and fine tunes some things and hopefully after we all get done testing the Early Access it will be a Game of the Decade win. Be well.

[@ExcessumGaming]

Im nearly 96 with 16d played and i never saw a boss key for Ritual ever and i did at least 200-400 rituals and always rerolled. This is borderline bugged.

[@DonTheCrown]

yeah I found one and bricked it, then checked price and fell off chair

[@mlgOMNIPOTENTGOD]

I’ve had opposite problems, I got the boss key but have only seen one divine and one greater jewel at level 90

[@Eskoxo]

for some reason i tought you were 96 years old had to reread lol

[@TheMiojox]

Welcome to POE 1 Ritual

[@brianmiller8097]

Might be a little thing BUT I would love to have a better STATS sheet...I hv no idea how much crit chance I have or crit damage or poision magnatitude

[@DonTheCrown]

you can see crit chance on each skill, click the little arrow next to the dps

[@brianmiller8097]

@DonTheCrown can you see the poison magnatitude too? I run poision ranger

[@Zmeyuk]

Im new to poe. Ive just got 3 keys for the Arbiter fight. And i died to aoe (yes, i messed up to dodge, coz im a bit colorblind). Now i need to grind again to get one more try. What the hell of fun is this? I dont want to play now, its opposite an of fun.

[@DonTheCrown]

yeah endgame needs... a lot of work right now

[@jonsnowight9510]

​@DonTheCrown I would say the whole thing needs a lot of work right now. Player characters move so incredibly slowly, even in relation to enemies, that doing anything takes forever, not being able to remove or replace runes is just stupid and effectively bricks gear or makes you stuck with it for 30 levels, lingering ground effects like poison and chaos slow progression through areas even more *while* killing you without you even noticing, trading is a complete failure, but is also effectively mandatory if you don't want trash gear because the loot drops are such garbage, the honor system should be completely removed, etc, etc. If the devs want a dedicated player base of a few thousand no-lifers, they're right on track. If they want to maintain or grow their player count after the novelty and that, "new game smell" wears off, they need to make some significant changes.

[@ananasekpl23]

Yeah arbiter is one of the worst designs I've seen when it comes to pinnacle bosses (fight + grind to even be able to attempt that fight). They should at least give us free attempts without any reward to practice the mechanics...

[@Syaniiti]

@@ananasekpl23 I've been saying that about basically every boss. But the game isn't apparently designed to be played, it's designed for you to watch the 0.1% play and kill a boss in 1second.

[@Babunen]

First time trying SSF today with merc. I'm at act2 and have not found a single crossbow in like 15 levels. Vendors sell trash. No base item to craft better one... no orbs to craft a better one. Really frustrating to spend so much time killing a white monster pack.

[@N3crom]

I hope the incoming patchnotes will be targeting QoL, improving crafting and mapping system and fixing bugs instead of nerf build fiesta. Honestly class balance should be the last priority at this point, just make underpowered builds playable and do nerfs later..

[@tra88er]

Hi DONTheCrown! Thank you for the great videos!. You opened my Eyes for this game, im IVI78 monk early endgame and you provided me with lots of info to progress. Have a great week!

[@JimmyJames-om2uw]

The biggest miss in the game is crafting items to use. I've never once crafted a rattling scepter, or piece of gear that was better than a 1ex piece of gear on trade. Just so rare to hit the things you want. Movement speed, +2 minion skills etc. so rare

[@glokayakudra362]

This is probably the first good review among all content creators in the last 5 weeks

[@MiZ02020]

I just wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank you for your amazing guides! Your content has been a game-changer during my Path of Exile 2 journey. Your explanations and tips made everything so much clearer and enjoyable.

[@Sable9712]

Agreed on all points. The biggest pain point for me currently is that the map layouts are awful. There are too many cramped maps with corners, doorways and narrow choke points that make clearing the map and dodging monster abilities really difficult. The same layouts also work really poorly with breach and ritual. Then you add on top of that the fact that we don't have phasing, monsters being able to push your character, and the game generally being very rubberbandy when trying to move around monsters or other players, and those things combine to make these tight maps an absolute chore. The 2nd major issue for me is life being so difficult to scale. I probably have an *average* of 120-130 health on each of my gear pieces, and my Mercenary is sitting at a measly 2,6k life with about 70% armor and 70% evasion, 80% max res on all elements and capped chaos res. Yet, blue, even some white, monsters regularly crit me for 60-80% of my life. In PoE 1 having 4k life at end game was considered extremely squishy. Why is scaling life so impossible in this game? I feel like with my gear I should be sitting around 4k life. Then lastly I wanna mention that scouring orbs are desperately needed or the inventory needs to be massively bigger. Picking up white items feels necessary but awful.

[@Buhry]

Most of the maps really Suck, too mazy with dead ends and clutter to get stuck on. So agree

[@Monkeypuzzle]

My witch uses the choke points to her advantage. I drop a bone cage in them, clog them with my minions, and then stand back in my area of denial and kill everything without them being able to touch me.

[@Stephencurran_7]

Changes i would like to see: -Armour be an exact reduction to damage taken to HP (Example 60% armour would mean you take 60% less damage specifically to your HP no effect on shield. -Armour cap at 75% like elemental resistances. -Waystone Tab. -Melee buff for honour trial. -Less on death effects. -Crafting system. -Tower Bosses. -Runes re-slotting. -Damage numbers option. -Auction house. -Hard waystones up to T20. -No Exp loss on death. Hopefully they can add even some of these.

[@DonTheCrown]

training dummy as well would be nice to see info instead of NEEDING PoB to know how youre doing in combat

[@budcheeks9853]

If anyone don't know there is only 3 acts and when you beat them it sends you back to do it all again so to get a few charters to end game you will have to do the campaign 4 to 6 times

[@Picachad]

Excellent feedback - I agree with almost all the points here. Constructive criticism will help GGG improve the game!

[@sebotuna6230]

why you have dagger stab???

[@ScuffedMcjagger2025]

Im not a diablo fan boy or anything but i think they also solved this re-leveling problem in a reasonable, rewarding, and fairly "fair" way by using paragon points. Maybe GGG comes up with their own version or system of those and it rewards leveling up high, and makes you gain quicker points to make your next play through easier.

[@ramschasar7654]

They will more likely do it like in poe1. They alter the experience by filling every map of the campaign with the new league mechanic. I like this approach more. Skipping the entire campaign is a waste of ressources in my opinion.

[@SservisGaming]

Partial solution for pickup: Stackables for which you have some autopickup. Addiitonal tweak: If it's loot filtered, it still picks it up, but it doesn't roll over into a new stack. However, if it's visible pickup will create a new stack. ie hide scrolls of wisdom, it will refill to 40 and stop. It picks up the hidden scrolls. However, show divines and it won't stop autopickup just because you reached 40, it will create a new stack if you have room. edit: the requirement to already have some works as a decent gauge if you want more of them or not. It's also not harmful to pickup more if you've already picked up one since it's a stackable and won't consume inventory space.

[@RobertoCorsini]

They already said there won't be autopickups.. but of course they could change their minds, but its highly unlikely.

[@Syaniiti]

@@RobertoCorsini They also said there's crafting in the game but there's not, just gambling (or identification with extra steps) as someone put it.

[@RobertoCorsini]

@@Syaniiti They said a lot of things that would be in full release or eventually in EA. Like all the classes and ascendancies... but they specifically said no autopickups. I think if memory serves it was in the Ziz interview he did with Jonathan.

[@SservisGaming]

@@RobertoCorsini I agree autopickup for items would be bad/annoying due to limited inventory (even with a tight loot filter it'd be a nightmare) Auto pickup for stackables where you already have a partial stack? Major quality of life.

[@jbaris]

Imagine doing such a long campaign every league , lol, they really need to speed it up

[@Zhan0921]

I think the campaign is good, as you progress through the acts, maps get bigger is understandable, with a good story line. The problems right now is obviously the end game, extremely punishing mechanics after a failure, lose exp, time, currency and loots. Some mechanics like strongboxes (too slow), ritual (have to buy OWTK or get extremely lucky to have an attempt at the boss), other mechanics didn't communicate well with players, maybe a storyline for each end game boss and NPCs to guide us, it just feels empty to farm and beat the boss and what？Yes, we definitely need auto currency pickup, buff armor, nerf a bit on ES and certain builds. Magic find is a reasonable mechanic as long as its been well communicate with the players, like resistance, have maximum resistance, maybe set a maximum rarity line or tell the players how the diminishing return curve works on magic find.

[@FreakinFlameGaming]

The ritual zone placements can be bad at times. Especially when don't have much room to move around bc of environmental assets blocking the center of the ritual. Also placement of the explosives in expeditions can be iffy

[@indigo4438]

Not even sure which strongboxes i hate the most: poe1 one shot ice nova, or turtle speed poe 2 strongboxes

[@down-the-rabbit-hole]

can't you just portal out of the map and take your currency and loot back to your stash tab before you think you have a chance of getting one shot in a fight?

[@dudeinskibro1]

I agree with all this IF gameplay is to stay slow, shrink the maps. Otherwise, increased movement speed should happen. Last Epoch hit the sweet spot with crafting and loot filters.

[@Invicta707]

Wow someone who waited multiple weeks to give his opinion and didn’t put BRUTALLY HONEST REVIEW. Haha nice to see man

[@Axterix13]

The loot clutter situation should definitely improve when/if they fix breaches. And they do need fixing, as they warp the entire build design space currently, as do the "trap you in a small area with a ton of mob" mechanics of rituals and the like.

[@DonTheCrown]

Eh I'm getting lots of high tier advanced gear off bosses, that should not be a thing. A high tier boss shouldn't be dropping pre map level bases.

[@AdamJohnson-lj3iz]

The problem right now is there is a tonne of toxic positivity around the game that is drowning out the feedback. Game is good, I would even go so far as to say that Act1 is fantastic, but end game has been phoned in and it really shows, it is so bare bones boring at its core and for most people just a brutal shit show designed to be not fun at almost every turn. However give it a year and it could be something special.

[@bobinasack]

I've seen far, far more negative feedback than positive from pretty much all the big content creators. Which I think is how it should be, given the issues with the game.

[@FreakinFlameGaming]

Agreed. It will def improve over this year. The story and bosses were amazing. I'm in tier 14 maps and still having a blast but more activities will make it even better

[@uhskippy23]

Best arpg imo. D2 gets it's respect still, but this is really fun

[@olegstarik8387]

Year?:) 5 at least

[@andoryus]

Yeah my end game is just making new characters.

[@wheeze9378]

I like the campaign, but I think there could be some skips for alts maybe.

[@rankyb8088]

Breach clearly broken and far more potent than any mechanic in the game. I litteraly filled the screen with loot words on console and it blew my mind

[@danielnery4054]

I don't understand why they don't make breach loot drop all on the same spot near you after it closes, similar to delirium after it's finished, or even the twisted domain/breachstone. I literally take more time backtracking and collecting a bunch of scattered loot after the breach than doing the breach itself.

[@DonTheCrown]

yeah Id love that

[@DrCloudIsIn]

How can I find a better crescent staff cuz gah damn they are high asf that’s the only thing I’m missing is the weapon

[@Aka_daka]

As a completely new player to Path of Exile, some days I think it's the best modern ARPG i have played the next day I hate the game... lol

[@BobMotster]

I don't event want to level up from scratch each season at all. One too many players are brainwashed by Blizzard's propaganda which states that leveling up is part of the "fun". The reality is they're using it to cover up for the lack of content. When you level up each of your seasonal characters for a couple of hours it seems like the season is beefier. But remove the leveling process from the equation and all of a sudden it becomes apparent how modest the amount of new content is. Nowadays I'm not playing seasons anymore in any ARPG. Screw the sesonal cosmetics and limited-time FOMO irritants. I just want to play the characters I've invested thousands of hours into and enjoy the fruits of my labour albeit digital.

[@Eametsa]

You have not played poe i assume.

[@bobinasack]

I enjoy leveling a new character through the campaign and seeing what pieces of content my new character handles well or struggles on

[@jonsnowight9510]

Thousands? If you've put thousands of hours into video games your opinion is so skewed that it doesn't even really matter. It's the same issue as someone who has never played any video game, ever, but in the opposite direction. You've made yourself such an outlier that your feedback effectively doesn't exist. It would be like asking a billionaire and some dirt poor man in Sudan what they think about the price of eggs in Kansas. Edit: typo

[@BarsimonR]

Totally flawed logic lol​@@jonsnowight9510

[@jonsnowight9510]

@@BarsimonR Well, that's certainly a well put, compelling argument. I'm convinced.

[@Pastrahmy]

How on earth would cruel take longer? Personally, it was 21 hrs normal and 6 hours cruel on my play through. I don't play much and only have one character so I enjoyed the meatier campaign.

[@occy127]

To do that campaign over and over, and the other three acts no one knows shit about, is a potential game killer. D4 has it and EVERYONE skips it. A good book you read once, you 'might' read again after a year or two, every three months? er, no.

[@Lorentz21]

24/7 live service just cannot not have 24/7 support, imagine AWS pushing an update to their infrastructure 2 weeks before xmas and then vanishing for 2 weeks on holidays and do no work on fixes.

[@DonTheCrown]

yeah... it was a strange choice to not have some ppl still fixing stuff

[@Mdcamg]

They vanished for a month.

[@LiamX.Gaming]

Awesome video! What loot filter are you using in PoE2? It doesn’t look like the one I’m using (NeverSink). Looks great

[@DonTheCrown]

For the loot filter -> Discord -> Path of Exile section -> POE2 Filter

[@ronaldslocmelis1553]

Any chance you could share your loot filter??? Also - disc inv link isnt working :(

[@DonTheCrown]

its on the discord =/ idk why my discord link is been having issues

[@---do2qd]

So whens the ultimatum video you talked about?

[@DonTheCrown]

ugh went to go farm it and remembered why I dont like it xD

[@xzeusiee]

do you think you'd go back to making poe1 videos in the next season?

[@DonTheCrown]

I did make a few last season

[@quincestopher8892]

If they take all the skills away that we can use to clear breach though then what is the point of breach? They clearly implemented it then already nerfed it once to be like it is now. I feel like breach its core cant be in a slow game

[@cameron15911]

I can clear t15's with my infernlist witch but I'm having problems doing breach on that tier

[@Steph1]

I love the long campaign BUT I think they need to make many more places optional. Eg the eternal cemetery in A1: just let us walk to the Hunting grounds if we want to be fast but underleveled

[@rickfowler273]

I don’t see myself coming back for Leagues or “Seasons” like I’ve done with D4. I don’t want to have to go through all the Campaign every single time. I’d want something short to get a few Lefels and go right into End Game to blast. Like D4. I know what the Seasonal mechanic/theme is and I’m right into blasting.

[@TerribleEddie]

My biggest gripes are the on death effects and body blocking. Its not fun to group with more than 3 people. Everyone just gets stuck on each other and constantly dodge rolling through. Completely ruins the fun of grouping.

[@DonTheCrown]

check my simulacrum video for the ultimate body blocking experience

[@phildg4266]

@donthecrown So for the first third of the video... Have you tried playing the campaign again since the patches? VERY VERY different now yes?

[@DonTheCrown]

Not really, you can back track easier and that's about it. Still took me several hours for just the normal part of the campaign

[@More_Dread]

yes i agree with pretty much everything you said here. i like poe2, i really do, but i can't say it doesn't feel a little bit disappointing that most of what GGG was selling as fixes to issues was just moving the issue around a bit and putting a slightly different coat of paint on it. i dont wanna be too hyperbolic, there alot of genuinely great improvements but having half of the game covered in big colored text making it hard to see whats even going on, random one shots, thousands of clicks to pick up tiny fractions of value slowly ruining my wrists... and people have been complaining about all of these for so long and nothing really changes... well you get the idea. and then to reintroduce old issues that had already been solved in poe1, it just all adds up to a little bit too much frustration. i love challenging games and i want the game to be difficult, but quality of life is also important and shouldn't be the venue for difficulty. i wanna die to a mob because i messed up my timing and i wanna understand what i need to do better, not because the loot or a wall was making it impossible to see whats going on. twice now i walked into a new map and with no enemy visible on the screen i got one shot by a giant meteor dropping from the sky super fast. i still have a hard time reading the ground effects because theres often multiple going at the same time, with different timings but also overlapping, different colors... i'm fighting geometric shapes, homing orbs and monster/map mods and not interacting intuitively with the animations of the monsters. players can get way too much damage and trivialize everything but its really hard to get fast enough to have an enjoyable experience because speed is not ethical now :D yet i still go out of my way to pick up 2% move speed here and there, sacrificing alot of power because it just feels better to play that way. then you find out about temporalis and blink and wonder why thats even in the game when speed is supposedly so unethical. i could go on for a good hour but i will stop myself here.

[@Gorlami90]

At lvl 88, I couldn’t imagine going back to like act 1 monk clearing speed. Though I can see them making the heralds not do different ailments without a unique. So the polc ring would be necessary for herald of ice to explode like it does

[@ArticulateArena]

Poe 2 bad. Waste of money. They literally ruined poe iver the last 4 years for this trash. And idc about ea. Its bases off 15 yo game and had 10 years development. Years of betas and strea er feedback already

[@samuelhipperson8503]

great summary of the current state of poe 2 - subbed.

[@DonTheCrown]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@young_herc]

I actually tune in to these critiques and breakdowns a lot more than people gushing and praising the game. We all know PoE is awesome, thats why we're here! What we need is a very invested community willing to communicate, in real time, with GGG throughout this EA process. Keep up the good work!

[@imperialsect4257]

The crafting in POE2 is somehow worse than the crafting in POE1's closed beta, and that was horrendous

[@Xrosss]

I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way. As a brand new POE player I wasn't sure how valid my feelings about endgame was. Aside from breaches nothing really feels rewarding and mapping is becoming frustratingly stale. Heavy punishment followed by mundane activities is not the way to go. I still very much enjoy the game but I do hope they address these issues. If things go as they do I don't see myself investing into this for more than 6 months.

[@thenephz6781]

Great video with fair criticism, though I do disagree with the campaign point, especially after leveling 3 characters through it and having had the exact opposite experience where on my end cruel was always easier and the second and third characters the campaign went by faster the more I got to know it, like it is in poe1, through all 10 acts.

[@64Runal]

I've watched a lot of content creators thoughts and criticisms of game mechanics. You nailed most of my concerns the most of anyone. Especially talking about how we are slow and monsters are fast. The gameplay feel of that along with constant large maps feels terrible to play. I see potential for an amazing game but I'm scared by the decisions so far and show me that GGG has a different idea for the game than many people I know had hoped for

[@arizothwow1]

Some of the things that are not working right are built into the foundation of the game that in order to fix they literally would have to remake the game again. PoE2 is basically in the same state D4 was at launch but with different problems.

[@DonTheCrown]

Yeah I wish they have left it in the oven for another 6 months tbh

[@LlenadeMalo]

@@DonTheCrownI don’t know if you remember, POE 1 had a closed beta and then an open beta. This lasted for a long, long time. They are doing a bit of the same here. They are seeing what is good, what needs work.

[@mashinev3902]

xD

[@DonTheCrown]

@@LlenadeMalo then why'd they beta test stuff like Sanctum, have to patch it, and then launch Trails of the Sekhema and have to patch the exact same stuff?

[@quincestopher8892]

Can you elaborate in which you think. I'm genuinely curious, most the stuff I find wrong with it are more like just dial adjustments so I'm wondering if I havnt thought about things more critical

[@aaronmccarty1390]

You may like/love something and still have criticisms for it. “I love it so much that I’ve taken the time to intricately think about what would make it even better to me and maybe to you, too.”

[@d2junkieef807]

Do you have your loot filter available?

[@therealGenki67]

Dude, as a long time poe1 vet, 100% of what you said is accurate.

[@cotrutaalexandru3172]

Regarding the example you mentioned about entry costs, I do see this as a potential issue. Currently, more experienced players or those who started playing from day one have the advantage of being able to purchase multiple entry keys for the boss. In contrast, newer players may find it harder to afford these keys. That said, the system isn’t designed for players to immediately challenge bosses upon reaching maps; after progressing a few days through maps, even new players should be able to afford some keys. However, this is where the problem arises: if the entry cost scales to require 2, 3, or even 4 keys, day-one players will still be able to purchase the same number of keys as before, but they’ll need more for each attempt. This would drive up the price of keys, making it significantly harder for newer players to obtain even one. As for loot scaling, there is already a system in place: higher-tier versions of a boss offer a better chance at dropping items. Additionally, certain items only become available at specific tiers. For example, the King of the Mist at Tier 2 may drop Pragmatism, while From Nothing is only obtainable at Tier 4. On another note, I completely agree that the initial Atlas points should come from map mechanics rather than bosses.

[@DonTheCrown]

I mean this would be fixed just by making keys x4 as frequent. like breachstones from 75 splinters instead

[@iGotMySniperSticky]

300 hours in. Endgame has a lot of problems. I feel like endgame is the point at which you feel a ton of progress momentum is lost. It feels like hitting a wall. A wall that is incredibly frustrating with minimal reward. Hopeful they fix it soon.

[@NoblesseOblige-17]

We need way more bossing content in the endgame. Not everyone wants to be blasting hordes, I for example sure find Breaches and those other map mechanics boring - there should be an alternative endgame for people who just want to fight bosses most of the time.

[@MrArchy1986]

Unique boss at every map is a must. And some control over maps we choose to run. Im fkn dying walking these huge mazes again and again.

[@Zemlja_je_ravna]

Boss fighting should feel like boss fighting in campaign on your first playthrough.

[@weqesaewqe1552]

buy fragments, fight bosses, sell loot from bosses to buy more fragments. what's the issue?

[@Syaniiti]

@@weqesaewqe1552 The words "buy" and "sell" imply trade. Go do that on SSF

[@stez.9198]

Same issues on ps5?

[@johncrabtree9279]

I made 100+ divines doing ritual selling invitations/ omens. The returns on ritual only started to be better was when i had least 2 atlas points. It was dreadful before that. The first invitation i found.. i sold to get 6 divs which i then went on TFT on discord... to buy a carry for 3 div from a guy farming the king of the mist for the belt. I had to pay for a carry in case i failed and wasted 6 divs rather than run it myself. Due to the 1 portal. I Made 3 characters.. (Comet sorc nerf - didnt have the gold to respec at the time, Infernalist arsonist spirit cost increase, bad AI and how slow it is compared to monk and ranger made me make a pathfinder which is lvl 93 right now). I play mostly the trash maps to get to towers to get ritual mechanics in the first place. If I have little time, the prep takes majority of the time lol. At least in POE1 I could buy hundreds of toxic sewer maps for blight or something and spend my time doing the stuff I enjoy. I also dont like the major nerfs which makes one have to make new characters as i can't change ascendancy... iv already made 3 characters as mentioned. The thought of making a fourth if pathfinder PCONC gets nerfed would honestly make me quit the game having to do that campaign again.

[@Legionere]

I can’t believe it took you longer to get through cruel on frost monk. That was my first play through too. Maybe it just felt longer because you wanted to get to end game so much. I played poe 1 but only to like level 50 on one character. I barely remember playing it. So I had no knowledge of end game material.

[@DonTheCrown]

nah I was tracking the time. my normal weapon was INSANE like alt level good but I didnt find a replacement til end of cruel i think

[@_egghead]

that’s true, I miss the feeling of running corrupted beach maps over and over for 1 strategy in poe1. In poe2 if you want to run a mechanics over and over in same map, the setup you have to do is very very long and boring

[@Angstadillio]

The most fun had for me in POE was invasion league when everything was hard and sucked. I wish they would have scrapped all old POE league mechanics with POE2 and stuck with the slower more deliberate approach but more reward like they promised. It seems they're trying to appeal to both crowds though and it's not really working.

[@DonTheCrown]

Yeah poe2 is in a weird spot, both slow and fast. Either long drawn out boss fight OR freeze/stun lock them to death.

[@BobdarGaming]

I agree I prefer mapping in poe1 better. We just have such a lack of agency right now for endgame in poe2.

[@IrfandraFitra]

can you share link the filter u use with us sir??

[@DonTheCrown]

For the loot filter -> Discord -> Path of Exile section -> POE2 Filter

[@darthasavage7213]

100% agree crafting a really good weapon is like playing the actual lottery. I've picked up every white Expert Gothic/Crescent/Long/Barrier/Slicing trying to craft up an upgrade and I've dropped 12 divines worth of exalts/chaos/ess still not gotten an upgrade to a staff that dropped and I hit on chaos while watching neversink play on like the 3rd day of the game

[@erth8096]

The key mechanic to access the final boss doesn't make sense because we're killing first 3 act bosses to get the key but when game fully released are we going to have 6 different citadels and 6 different keys or what?

[@Syaniiti]

Could be a random boss, could be they'll make new bosses for the keys. Not that I ever found a citadel so I hope they remake the entire system but considering the endgame is barely seen an oven and they've said they want to design cool bosses, them having different unique bosses (with their different unique loots optimally) would be the best solution.

[@elderwiz3165]

They need to fix Armour ASAP, people are playing warrior with Energy shield, wearing a night dress because armour is essentially completely useless now.

I feel same about campaign too. I started PoE1 again last week and campaign maps were much better than PoE2. I don't think we need maze like campaign maps.

[@purdo84]

love your point about staying in melee range on bosses... its by far the safest spot on 90% of the bosses in this game and i see so many people rip because they're at range. i disagree with your take on mapping though. the atlas is infinitely better in PoE2. sure some nodes and layouts could use some work but i think once acts 4-6 are in the game, we will have more variety. in any case it sure beats being trapped in Crimson Temple/jungle valley/dunes for entire leagues

[@AlexanderVoroncov]

Campaign can be played fast with some gear and knowledge (minions) only question if we has start from scratch... then loot is very bad for this...

[@Syaniiti]

The fact that essentially all the character power comes from gear and basically none of it from passives (a lucky player with 0 passives spent is more powerful than an unlucky one with optimized passive tree) means leagues might suck, or they need to up the gold gains in early game immensely for people to actually be able to buy gear on their first character.

[@FedDonovan]

we should be able to also change acendency without creating a new one...to be honest i just cant wait for chrono...they also do a lot of nerf here ..so ..im kind of over ...just playing this cause wating on the first decendant update next week

[@patrik1424]

As a noob who always was bad in POE2, i wish they guide us, like some addon that is like: hey if you want to improve( craft this/grind here until it drops this-that/ etc.) Would be good help and way for noobs to improve. I spent 20h on act one boss then i started another class and actualy beat it. What i want to say i dont want to study hours of yt videos to have fun and progress in normal pace. I mean it dont know what is good for my class, how to craft better wepons, since some of stuff i got at lvl 5 is better then lvl 30.

[@ItsNaberius]

Honestly, 100% spot on with all your thoughts and comments. And this is an alpha, it is the best time to talk about what is wrong with the game. As someone who has never really played PoE1 (150 hours 6 years ago), I didn't realize that so many of the mechanics from then had been addressed and fixed in PoE1. I saw a comment a while back that theorized that the PoE2 dev team split off from the PoE1 team like 5-6 years ago, and kinda took a freeze grab of the game in that state. The PoE1 team then made balance changes and innovated, but the PoE2 team never added those into the process. I have no idea if that is true, but it is an interesting theory that would explain a lot of the growing pains that game seems to have one month post launch. That being said, I am 250 hours deep into PoE2 and loving it, having way more fun then I have in any AARPG. I have beat the final boss (ty for the ice strike build) and at this point I am probably just going to level some other characters or play SSF, to keep the game from getting too stale. Still having fun though, GGG has a made a great game

[@theguyinurbed]

This video feels almost exactly how I'm feeling. Feels a bit lame waiting so long for this game and it feels like so many of the problems are just relearning things from PoE 1

[@jeffreyowen7696]

I’m worried for the game. The bones and structure is there, but some of the systems and performance are worrying. Endgame needs serious refining as well as loot progression. For those of us that are more casual, it’s just not satisfying to 100 percent rely on trade to progress your character and 99 percent of loot all be worthless.

[@Beardybaby865]

Great take on potential changes that could benefit the game. I am a diablo 4 player so i dont really hold my breath. What I do know is that this game is much better than diablo 4 in its early state so we will see if GGG listens to their player base. Hopefully they will

[@El_Cattivo1988]

I finished Cruel much quicker with each of my characters, but I can't understand why. I also think the length of the campaign is OK, now I need about 14 hours for all 6 acts.

[@mikegideon5919]

1st play through was ruff but now with twink gear iv done two more builds with average time to get to maps about 11hrs but i havnt done a warrior yet lol

[@Syaniiti]

Aaahhh, warrior (mace). The only time I actually engaged with boss mechanics (and thus the best time).

[@Sombrero_707]

3:30 exactly.. you walk 5 feet and get jumped by 20 mobs, like coooonstantly, it sucked the fun outta the game for me..

[@XBurRoseX]

Thank you for mentioning the console loot filter situation. We get very little representation.

[@MrHeyhomes]

orb of experiance (levels up alt by 1 level) 1 orb = 2 divines

[@ashleysaunders9838]

This is a great summary that pretty much covers all the main issues with the game at the moment. My biggest hate is the non-existent crafting and what little crafting there is is completely inaccessible (omens and greater essences). You have no control over what items you can make in the game currently. I also cannot stand the one portal maps/bosses stuff. Just reset boss health on death and give 6 portals. The invitations are so rare and ridiculously priced I won't ever be able to get my ritual atlas points and even if I did somehow find an invitation why would I risk running it with one portal over just selling it. As you say a lot of lessons just completely forgotten from PoE 1 which I am a little surprised by. For now PoE 2 is OK but just a less fun version of PoE 1 for me. It is early access so they are looking for feedback so I hope they pay attention to videos like this.

energy shield in the absence of evasion / armour is not head and shoulders above everything else. ES without grim feast would be the worst defensive layer in the game.

[@JamesFuston]

trying to avoid augury on a cold herald monk playing breach is wild to me lol. you couldn't ask for a better cascading map with monster density imo