Party play scaling is really harsh for duos.

My husband introduced me to PoE after helping alpha test the original game, and we love it to death except for one thing. We have to "play together alone" in PoE. The scaling of a 2 person group feels like it's scaled up to a full party. While solo, either of us can complete the areas and bosses without issue. Go in as a duo, though, and it's a different game. We tested some of this already.

It's taking us approximately 5x-10x as long to kill a Unique Boss while partied as two players. If we go back and solo it, it's easy as pie. Yeah, you have to kite and use some strategy and this is welcome to both of us. What stinks is that just like the original, we feel forced to "play together alone". I don't want to sit next to my husband and play the exact online game together but in separate instances/solo because the difficulty is ramped up so intensely for two players.

I am seriously wondering if there is an issue in the code that is making the game consider any party to be a "full party" and scaling the mobs and bosses in that manner. It's even worse than PoE (1). In the original, we only had to separate and play solo for Pinnacle bosses and such. We are still in the Acts and already do not feel like the game is playable as a party, at least, as a duo.

I know a ton of gamers out there who just want to play with their best friend, their sibling, or their partner. A lot of us who play in a group are *not* playing in a full group!! I feel like the scaling for everything from normal (white) mobs to Unique Bosses is just incredibly punishing for 2 person parties. This is what led us to quit the original title a couple years ago. Battling into the endgame together, crafting together, making amazing characters - and then having to say "bye I guess...." and go do certain encounters alone or face them scaled up to a level where you just automatically perish.

I was truly hoping PoE 2 would address this issue and that it would be enjoyable to play with the husband, not just enjoyable - but *Possible*.

I don't mind the difficulty level on solo at all (I've heard a lot of "it's too hard", this is not me). I just feel the scaling when adding 1 more person to the party is not correct mathematically. Something feels very off, and even worse than it did in the original PoE.

It really feels like the numbers are off in the coding. Solo is a breeze. Duo is devastating. I'd really like to play this game together, not as two people sitting next to each other forced to play solo. I can only imagine this problem will worsen as we progress into the endgame and it is a bit disappointing. I am still leaning towards thinking there is an issue with the code that is equating *any size* party to a *full party*. We will test more but it would be nice of someone on the team to look into this as its a big factor for a lot of players.

Not to negate your experience I've had the opposite experience, probably my crappy build though. I struggle in single, in duo we breeze through and boss fights have been easier than for my duo partner when he plays solo due to the split attention of the boss and debuffs I can leverage.

I assume you must be both dps and not counterbalanced/synergistic?

Agreed. We are Caster Witch + Warrior.
We are fairly experienced, but most bosses we wipe multiple times. The Count for example like 8x, others at least 2-3 times with some rare exceptions that were first try.
Currently we try to beat the A2 boss and are also ~8 tries in. Biggest problem there is getting flasks.

Yes, playing with a friend - coop in a multiplayer game - feels extremely punishing. I don't want to be punished to play with a friend. The alternative is simply not playing at all because I don't care about playing alone.

We're playing with synergies, always want to compliment each other's builds.

Can agree, the party scaling in this game is pathetic, just like their decision to change the entire fundamentals of movement/casting to placate wasd/console users (2% of the playerbase) and for what ever reason make a game that doesn't even drop loot.

Lmao what?

Party play in this game is amazing, I've done most of the campaign bosses with 2+ people and it's ALWAYS easier to add someone unless there's some kind of counter-synergy at play (or if the person you're adding is dead weight, but that's clearly not the case for you if you can both clear the bosses solo).

Are you guys roughly the same level? Because if your levels are significantly different you might be running into a Downscaling issue, just uncheck that box in the party options and work on evening your characters out.

If you are struggling to kill a unique boss as a DUO it really means one persons DPS Is really lacking.

Probably the husband - you know guys they hate changing their stuff they keep the same pair of shoes for 10 years even falling apart and say it's fine. Bro probably still has gear from level 1 and refuses to part with it for sentimental reasons.

While the wife is the opposite has one new gear item to match for each background art style.

So only option unfortunately is to really throw away your husbands gear when he isn't looking and replace it with current level stuff.


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On a more serious note

I had this issue yesterday, I was helping kill a boss and noticed the boss dying so slowly. Later on I found out the reason is because they kept using the same dang staff I gave them at level 4 at level 16, because it was "yellow"

After they begrudgingly changed their gear the boss died in 60s.

I agree with the others that it sounds like a build issue.

I played 2s with a friend when we started, and we usually did not struggle. Game was not very tough. So long as both players have decent dps on their own, it should be playable.

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xxswatelitexx#4306 wrote:

you know guys they hate changing their stuff they keep the same pair of shoes for 10 years even falling apart and say it's fine

I am in this thread and I don't like it XD

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ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate#2605 wrote:

"

xxswatelitexx#4306 wrote:

you know guys they hate changing their stuff they keep the same pair of shoes for 10 years even falling apart and say it's fine

I am in this thread and I don't like it XD

You got nothing to worry about, you got 2 peg legs.
You don't use shoes.