Absolutely disapointed -- This game is hard, and not in a fun way.

also use stun, freeze, anything you can to weaken and slow down. it is not braindead gameplay like poe1

It is not fun for you, but it is for me, so ?
I just hope they make a : my lil poney difficulty mode and let those who enjoy playing the game as they made it.
Nowadays ppl want to be able to steamroll games while watching twitch.
I don’t.
I wanna learn and get better at the game. Look at what poe1 became, planning simulator with two buttons, one to move , one to delete the entire screen.
Don’t destroy his game please
My lil poney difficulty mode with a rainbow and a the serious mode you wanted to make before the crybabies come.
Game is out till few hours, most of ppl have no clue how to play and build correctly still they cry, what the actual ***k.

Souls veteran here. So played for about 2-3h today (East Asia here and servers were down during most of the day and down again now). Chose Ranger, WASD. Spent a lot of time researching the skill tree so only got to level 7, didn't die once, and other than the 1st boss, barely had to heal. From the Witch boss and the Devourer to the last one I just fought (forgot the name), got hit maybe 1-2 times per boss fight, and never came close to dying clearing the maps. Loot drops been mediocre, still using the starter weapon. All skill points into damage.

Found WASD better for me since movement and dodging is entirely controlled by my left hand on the keyboard, and dodging is second nature since most of my gaming time the last 3-4 months were Elden Ring and Wukong. Can't speak for melee, but if you're ranged and dying all the time to bosses, then maybe you're not paying enough attention to boss attacks. I suspect some players are experiencing the isometric ARPG equivalent of the Grafted Scion/Tree Sentinel/Wandering Wight, as a player you're not in control of the fight here, you can't just stand still most of the time and when you attack you shouldn't just spam your attacks without paying attention to boss movements.

Unlike the actual Souls games, you can't stagger or poise break the bosses to give yourself a guaranteed attack/critical hit window, the bosses don't give a sxxt about what you're doing, they just do their own thing. So you need to stay on the move and react to bosses. To compensate, you have all the stun/freeze CC skills, learn to use them properly. I'll see how hard the Act 1 end boss is when I get there, but so far there has been nothing special.

i'm pretty disappointed.

I'm basically rolling rolling rolling rolling.

That way I can stay alive.

But is it really, really, REALLY fun to roll every 2 seconds, and only have 0.1 seconds to cast one spell or drop a totem? I dont even wanna know how melee plays POE2, it seems impossible.

To me, rolling rolling rolling was fun in Conan Exiles and Dark Souls... because inbetween you would get an opening and do a huge chunk of damage to a boss.

But in POE2 I am plinking away, taking 0.1% of the enemy health away every hit,, my minions die before getting to the boss.

Not to mention the dodge that isnt enough, you sometimes need to doge 3x in a row to get far enough away.

I am not even saying the game is bad, it's badly balanced.

The people who dont agree have absolutely no clue.

I can agree that someone dying 39 times is doing something wrong, but this feels like the worst POE 1 league mechanics, like early Brutus balancing when the game still had 3 difficulties, or like ACT5 Kaoms Stronghold on the highest difficulty;

People ripped like crazy in Act 5 Kaom on release day in POE 1 when it first came out since the Totems did the same damage as a tactical nuclear weapon.

This is what ALL of POE2 feels like. There's nothing cool or glorious about constantly dying, since, surprise: there is a hardcore mode.

How would you even play hardcore with this level of imbalance? You cant leave a boss area to flee, as the portal and exit are blocked. Your flask charges dont refill nearly as fast, it feels like only every 50 enemies you get 1 flask charge, so .... what do you do with 2 flask slots, and no way to even flee from combat?

Are we back to using Alt+F4?

Nah man, this cant be the sense of the game. GGG had enough time to learn how to make a proper POE, aint no way. Their apprentices or an AI must have written the game to be this stupidly hard.

Don't really mind the difficulty, but the pace is AWFUL. That inertia thing when you are walking and stop to cast a spell, while sorta sliding to a stop (yes, I have set "attack without moving") is the worst. The entire game feels like I am moving through sand or water.

Hope it gets better in Act 2 and later. May be 20% movement boots would help. Alas.

You all think this is hard, you should trying playing on cat difficultly level, where your cat chases your mouse around the screen, while you are trying to beat bosses.

"

Manfred_Sideous#1275 wrote:

I played POE2 today and the whole time I was wishing it was POE1. I like that the game is bigger (endgame). I do not like dodge roll. I hate that mobs just ignore my minions and just come to target me. I hate that the skill casting feels like a slightly tuned up version of Diablo4. Where you feel like you are waiting to cast.

I don't play dark souls. I don't play Diablo4. I do play POE1. I am leaning towards not playing POE2.

PS. I could get into EA 2 times based on my spending with GGG. For feedback I wouldn't feel inclined to spend my money on this game. I am sad. Mostly sad that POE 1 development and leagues suffered for THIS.

Edit* POE2 does not feel like a successor to POE1. It feels like a demented love child of Dark Souls and Diablo4 that takes decorating tips from POE1.

Couldn't have said it better. "Takes decorating tips from POE1". Yup, that's the only connection. 1 was fun and had spirit/soul. This is tedious. First-world problem but, yeah, sad.

Is it possible that ppl are bitchin' about a game being a bit harder than casual shit we all got used to this last decade,cmon,just enjoy the game yeah you have to focus and avoid dmg and do yours in pockets that appear,that's called a good game....btw i'm a casual player,43y old,job,family all the jazz,this game is a love letter to ARPG's....please stfu.

+1 to the op.

Kudos to anyone that enjoys the difficulty. I'll guarantee it isn't the majority.
I understand it's suppose to be more difficult however it's on a level of being ridiculous.