PoE2 demo may have looked slow but here’s how it could scale

The PoE2 we saw is a game where there’s tough bosses, dangerous packs of regular mobs, multi skill gameplay, a dedicated dodge roll, and fairly low attack speeds. It was also a demo where it’s literally just the campaign being played in bad gear when we all know that the full speed of PoE has never been felt without twink gear, overpowered skill gems, or late game builds.

So what might it look like in end game? Probably a lot more like PoE1 than a lot of the skeptics on this forum think.

If you think about what happens in PoE1 - it is this: you take your main clearing skill and you scale up the damage so that it one shots as much content as possible. You pretty much always outscale T14-T16 but if you can’t get there then you’ll still have no problem outscaling lower tier maps and you can them farm more to get to the upper tiers.

The way this outscaling works is a levels and gear. It’s a game by grinding gear games so gear is the important part. Gear can have up to six mods on each piece(I expect this is unchanged in poe2) and there is a world of difference between gear that’s merely good enough to do a T16 map and gear that’s good enough to trivialize the game(all these comparisons to dark souls are silly because DS has far fewer axes of player scaling). Unless GGG takes the approach of high tier maps requiring mirror tier gear to even think about entering, you are going to have some level of reasonably available gear that trivializes the content you’re targeting.

Once you’ve outscaled the content for damage, you care about two things, skill mechanics(how many mobs in a pack can I kill in one blast? How fast can I get that blast off?) and movement speed (how fast can I get between packs?). We have every reason to believe that skills with high AoE mechanics and low base damage will exist. They were already in the demo and they’re an important niche in skill design. We have every reason to believe skill use can speed up dramatically (that built the animation system to accommodate it). We have every reason to believe you can speed up your movement (core aspect of feeling stronger and the dodge roll scales with it).

So what might end game poe2 look like? Assuming you aren’t in over your head, expect it to be blasting packs and dodging tough rares and bosses. Once you’re truly scaled up, you’ll probably just be blasting everything. Sure sounds a lot like poe1 to me.

Meanwhile PoE2 is fixing a some very big flaws in PoE1 :
* Making combat fun and engaging before you get powerful
* Melee
* Socket and linking system interfering with gear upgrades
* Higher variety of viable skill designs
* Fluid multi-skill gameplay for tougher enemies

It is a different game and they will probably use that to rein things in a little - but this is made by the same people who gave us PoE1. They are not blizzard where a corporate giant drove out all the talent and passion. They cannot afford to and are not going to spend so much time and effort on a game that isn’t fun and compelling to both their established fan base and new players.

I expect great things from PoE2. I could be wrong of course, but I don’t think I will be.

yeah, but no one asked for those. it's just a polished d4 with permanent ruthless, and we all know that d4 is literal dogshit. so poe 2 looks like gold plated turd to me. it'll never be as good as poe 1 unless the endgame looks nothing like the footage they've shown