PoE 2: I hate it.....almost everything about it

It's such a shame. I know it'll get better, but I really was hoping for more at this release. Sadly, I'll be putting this on the back-burner for a while.

A few things:

1) Skills, damage, etc.: It really isn't that they are weak per se (although they are...), but that they don't scale enough to make noticeable differences in gameplay progression. A skill, no matter what the skill, should feel good to use and yet nearly everything just feels like I'm using a basic attack. This is true no matter what level the skill is, what the tree looks like, and what the supports are. And its true for a REALLY long time. My suggestion: every skill should have a noticeable change at EVERY level up. Not just damage, but actual specific unique aspects of the skill should (rather drastically) increase. If this means skills have a smaller cap level, then so be it.

2) Area design: every worst possible aspect of PoE 1 areas and map designs have been capitalized and doubled down on. Dead ends, no paths, obstructed views, etc. Clutter does not equal immersion. Often, less is more. And hardly anyone likes maze-based design in these types of games. My suggestion: Make the areas much larger if you have to, but make them far more open.

3) Drops: I knew it was going to be bad. I was ready for it. Or at least I thought I was ready for it. White items don't even drop lol, let alone anything remotely usable. Gold is a joke, even if it were increased 10x it still wouldn't be enough. I almost feel like we need a new rarity between magic and "current" rare: 2-mod magic, 4-mode new rare (that's less rare of a drop), 5/6-mod rare (that remains at the current rare drop rate).

4) Performance: seriously bad, at least on my device. The things I see in streams is nothing like what I seem to get on my device. All lowest possible settings, RTX 2070 super, fantastic and stable internet, and I can hardly run the game even at sub-1080p. Meanwhile nearly every other game runs perfectly smooth at 4k and the highest settings. This one has me totally stumped. I'm getting spikes of framedrops to near-zero, every time a new monster enters my screen the game slows to a crawl and tears, god help me if a crowd of monsters surrounds me. It will work normally a few seconds later, but that initial down-spike is insane.

5) Small things: flask charges are abysmal, bossing taking forever (bosses always get a crapton of balance passes so not too concerned), cast interruptions, no auto default attack on mana depletion, etc. My suggestion: at the very least, get rid of the absolutely unnecessary punishments on players. No auto default attack when out of mana? Come on, that one is truly ridiculous.


I'm sure I'll get plenty of posts saying all of this is my fault and I can always play PoE 1. That's fine, lay them on me. But those comments don't really change my feedback. And I would remind that crowd that PoE 1 started very much like this and changed quickly for a reason...it over-corrected way too far in the other direction, but the changes made to the gameplay in the first year or even few years of the game (1.0 through maybe the elder release) were GOOD and necessary changes that seem to have been completely abandoned.

For a dramatic statement like “I hate almost everything about it”, you actually pick out very few things lol. You’re a drama queen and you might not be the target audience for this game. And that’s fine.

1. That’s what support gems are for. So your comment about skills needing to change drastically to become more unique per level means you’re asking for the game to play itself.

2. Area design for the most part is open. I don’t know what you’re smoking.

3. Drops are meh but balance changes will come, but even then I’m like, are we just fucking spoiled and expect too much? It should be a challenge to upgrade your gear and tbh, if you just play the game and clear areas, those upgrades will come. It is a matter of time.

4. RTX 2070 yeah… playing everything max graphics at 4K? Stop blowing smoke up our asses.

5. You just lumped a bunch of different shit together here… Flasks: you’re just gonna say they’re abysmal and walk off into the distance? What kind of feedback is that?
Boss fights taking forever is a non-issue, bosses should have more health, be more punishing, etc. shouldn’t be easy or be quick. Just solidifies my belief about you being a bit helpless.
Cast interruptions? Huh? You mean when you cast something and self-inflict an interruption by dodge rolling? Yeah man… cast interruptions are so fucking important and that’s all I will say, I will let you figure out why.
You have a default attack now, it’s called punch… and you can add support gems to beef it up. ON TOP OF THAT if you are a sorceress you get staves with skills on them that don’t cost any mana serving as a default attack IIRC. I might be wrong about this one because I last played around 4am with very little sleep but I’m sure I tested that on a number of staves and didn’t see my mana go down once.

PoE2 is a completely new game, if you look at it like that then you shouldn't be disappointed.

I agree with everything you said tho, from watching streams the game feels slow, looks slow boring

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cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

1) Skills, damage, etc.:

That's where builds come in, that's where you farm and try different things, level up. I'm pretty sure this game can be done with low level weapons easily if one has the player skill. There's no gear check here, just ease. No one wants D4 back where all Damage, no matter the build or class, depends 100% on the weapon you wield. That was an insanely stupid design decision and it was already the case in Diablo 3. They refuse to learn. But catering to the masses is what these companies prefer, those that don't play their own game. This game right here challenges you. "Git gud" (and I'm no fan of Souls-like games, but here it applies as well).

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cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

2) Area design:

So far I haven't had a single complain about map design. It is in so many cases superior to what Diablo 4 did, I don't recall what PoE1 did. Dead ends where scarce and if I came across one, it was either very quick to get to the end, or it was tied to an event.
Back tracking at an absolute minimum. But for people like you, because I knew there'd be complaints, I've posted a suggestion in the forums. Increase movement speed by ~30% when out of combat (with more depth than just a flat bonus after 3 seconds of course).
This one isn't meant to be condescending, it's obvious there'd be people that would criticize this aspect of the game, and a simple solution would be a speed buff.

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cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

3) Drops:

People should really stop comparing everything to ARPGs of the past, especially D4, when it comes to drop rates.
Diablo 4 was inflationary, dropping a pretty item (unique or legendary) was like dropping blue items in this game right here.

No thank you.

To me it is very obvious that the devs went a step back and actually applied what was right in Diablo 2. Slow pace, tough enemies, scarce items and especially uniques.

I'm loving it. That is how it should be. The player should be rewarded for patience and persistence. Rather than being rewarded for killing a boss, dropping 5 light beams at level 20.

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cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

4) Performance:

I'm having a mid-range system for the resolution that I have. 32GB (which doesn't matter here), Ryzen 5 3600, RX 6800. It's a 900€ system. I'm playing on ultrawide, everything maxed. I have not an inkling of a clue what you are talking about here. For what the games looks, performance is flawless. Lower is always better, but there are limits. And playing maxed on 6800, a 350€ GPU, on Ultrawide? I couldn't ask for more.

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cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

5) Small things:

Skill issue. Flasks are abysmal? Mine are constantly up, and in boss fights they should be rare. It's not a "tank yourself through it".
Interrupt? It's called mechanics. There's ways to prevent that. Apply tactics and strategy.
No auto-attack on low mana? Now you are joking, right? How difficult is it for you to left-click instead of right-click when mana is low. It tells you.

Seriously.
How much hand-holding do you want?
Play the game, use your brain. It's supposed to be a challenge. If you want the campaign to be a cake, go play Diablo 4. You can even put a blindfold on for that.

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HowToGusta#6151 wrote:

1. That’s what support gems are for. So your comment about skills needing to change drastically to become more unique per level means you’re asking for the game to play itself.

Man i wish support gems dropped... or gear. Or fucking anything really. Thats what i hate the most about this game.

"Just go farm and come back later"

Cool I did that for 2 hours and literally nothing dropped.

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masskillers#5403 wrote:

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HowToGusta#6151 wrote:

1. That’s what support gems are for. So your comment about skills needing to change drastically to become more unique per level means you’re asking for the game to play itself.

Man i wish support gems dropped... or gear. Or fucking anything really. Thats what i hate the most about this game.

"Just go farm and come back later"

Cool I did that for 2 hours and literally nothing dropped.

2 hours. lol.... Come, let me hold your hand and drop you an item so you can pretend to play the game.

Farming is part of the game!

ARPGs are not your genre.

Maybe you should play Fortnite?

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Rebexus#0298 wrote:

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masskillers#5403 wrote:

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HowToGusta#6151 wrote:

1. That’s what support gems are for. So your comment about skills needing to change drastically to become more unique per level means you’re asking for the game to play itself.

Man i wish support gems dropped... or gear. Or fucking anything really. Thats what i hate the most about this game.

"Just go farm and come back later"

Cool I did that for 2 hours and literally nothing dropped.

2 hours. lol.... Come, let me hold your hand and drop you an item so you can pretend to play the game.

Farming is part of the game!

ARPGs are not your genre.

Maybe you should play Fortnite?

If thats ur defintion of an ARPG, heck a good one, I sincerely hope you don't work in game design.

I'll be honest. If you think flask charges are abysmal it just means you aren't getting the mechanics of the fights.

You cannot face tank these enemies and bosses. I love that. Rise up to the challenge.

I'm sensing a clear pattern with the feedback on the forum. It can be narrowed down to: Area design feels empty. Everything about skill gems feel wrong right now. Too few flask charges. Bad drops in proportion to difficulty. Some of my personal favorite that is the bosses take too long to fight, I hate endurance fights.

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VoidExilePoE#0366 wrote:

I'm sensing a clear pattern with the feedback on the forum. It can be narrowed down to: Area design feels empty. Everything about skill gems feel wrong right now. Too few flask charges. Bad drops in proportion to difficulty. Some of my personal favorite that is the bosses take too long to fight, I hate endurance fights.

Bosses are largely fine for me except for act 3.

One boss is literally dps gated so if u dodge everything but cant kill in time u just fail.

Some bosses have reach instant kill status (not they hit u for 60% then kill with a follow up, they straight up just one shot you) and dps falls off a cliff.