Feedback as a new player to ARPG and POE

TLDR:

Great game, has its kinks but is still absolutely amazing despite being in early access. Can't wait for 1.0 launch. Will definitely be playing right up until then.


The Rest:

Not sure if anyone else relates or cares but here are my thoughts as a new player to POE2 and never playing other ARPG's like this before.

I avoided the genre since I wasn't a fan of the click to move and aim mechanic (even after trying multiple times). The WASD movement alone made me feel like I finally had access to this genre and the fact it's optional still is amazing for those who would prefer without it.

Here's my feedback coming from a perspective of a Witch player going with a minion focused build (because I love necromancers):

- Currency needs to drop a bit more frequently (not too much of course, as the feeling of finding good gear is also great). I'm hesitant to try and use them as they seldom drop. Wish I could experiment with more builds and make my own gear but I can't.

- As a ranged player, I wish you could zoom out more, like roughly 20%? Often times a boss can still hit you off screen and you don't really have any sound or visual indicators that allow you to react. It's worse when it can kill you instantly as well.

- Body blocking. This has happened randomly out of nowhere in split second moments and there's nothing you can do about it. For example, Rare monsters that are stealth and appear and surround you or ones that leap and block your path unless you're sniping from the other side of the screen. I understand this is a way of scaling difficulty, but I can't call this "fun".

- Respec skill points: Right now, I wish I could experiment more and try other play styles. But I can't. not unless I want to spend thousands of gold or just make a new character with a different build, only to conclude after 30 hours, I don't like the build. Why would I consider wasting that much time, resources and a character slot space? Only to not like it in the end? It doesn't encourage me to try other things at all.

I understand this may be a way to prevent doing meta builds. But arguably, I'm more inclined to go "meta" because I don't have room to experiment anyway. As it's so costly to even think of experimenting and trying other things.

- Map navigation: The map design is fine (in terms of layout and scale). With the consequence of death, you respawn at the most recent checkpoint and monster respawning is fair. However, the maps are large in scale and I really wish you could teleport or navigate between checkpoints if you're looking for something or want to explore more. This quality of life feature is really needed.

As a final request, please don't go down the path Diablo and POE1 has taken where everything is chaos and you can't even see what's going on in the screen. Likewise, I want to be deterred away from such builds if they exist, if doing it the harder way and slower way (non-meta & experimentation builds) could feel more rewarding.


Those are my suggestions.



What I love:

Graphics:
Absolutely amazing. I love the dark tone of the game and how it stays true to it. Playing on an Nvidia 4080 super with an AMD 7800x3D on 1440p with max settings, getting over 120fps is great.

Gameplay:
As mentioned earlier, I would of never touched this game if it did not have the WASD option. I've avoided this genre entirely because they don't usually have it, which I never blamed the developers for, as it was just a preference thing. So I was so glad for this to happen.

The skills are absolutely awesome, and I love the way you can experiment so much with gems. Even having the abiltiy to take skills from other classes (so long as you have the stats) is so unique and awesome. I'm looking forward to trying more as I progress and think of more ideas.

Bossing feels amazing. I love how there's been so much variety and so far nothing has made me feel "oh this is just a reskin". With th sheer amount of bosses too? It's been an absolute treat.

Even without the bosses, the attention is in the details. Just one example of the many, is that I love the fallen explorers in Act 3. Although it's the same mob, they have different variations on how they look and dress. Details like that really make the game shine and feel more "alive" to me.


Overall, I love the game so much already, I've already purchased up to the 3rd tier in the supporter back as my way of supporting the game. I'm currently 40 hours into the game and almost finished with Act 3.


Let me know if there's anything you're curious about, as I'm coming from a perspective of not touching games like Diablo or POE1 due to the playstyle. So this really is my first encounter/impression to it. Didn't want to make this too long, but I obviously have a lot of thoughts that I've not shared. Would love to give more feedback. Again, amazing game!