My Journey in the Game: What Worked and What Could Be Improved in Acts 1 to 3

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I have 1542 hours in POE 1 and still consider myself a newbie, but I wanted to give my sincere feedback on Acts 1, 2, and 3 in POE 2.

First, I played as a Mercenary (WitchHunter) using a build focused on lightning and physical damage.

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Act 1
I really enjoyed Act 1. The progression is great in all aspects (bosses, items, skills, quests, etc.). What I liked the most was that, if you get stuck on a boss, you can look for activities on the map and mini-bosses that offer items and permanent buffs, which help a lot with progression. I don’t have much more to add; it was a very good and fun experience, and in my opinion, it was the best boss fight in the game so far.

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Act 2
Act 2 discouraged me a bit for three main reasons:

1. Lack of the Third Support Slot and Tier 2 Support: The absence of the third skill slot, combined with the lack of tier 2 support gems, creates a feeling of stagnation and lack of progression in the skills you’ve already chosen to use, forcing you to pick other skills solely based on their efficiency.

2. The Trial in "Sanctum": I don’t like Sanctum, mainly because of the honor system. The boss has a skill that spams volcanoes without damage, which take a long time to disappear. This is quite annoying since the skill doesn’t deal damage, only reduces your honor.

3. Difficulty in Finding Upgrades from the Start to Mid-Act 2: From the start to the middle of Act 2, there aren’t many quests with interesting rewards, and there are also fewer activities compared to Act 1. There’s a sequence of 3 quests that literally give 3 tier 1 support gems in a row. The quests are "A Theft of Ivory", "The City of Seven Waters", and "A Crown of Stone". By this point in the game, my stash already had at least 4 support gems stored, so adding 3 more had no impact.

These factors made me feel like I wasn’t progressing, and the game became a bit monotonous. However, instead of just complaining, I went after solutions that helped with my progression, which I’ll list below. Still, I’d like to suggest some improvements for Act 2.

How I solved these problems:

- Upgrades, Support Gems, and the Third Support Slot: I found a comfortable route for farming, where I could always find at least 1 yellow mob. This route was in "Halani Gates", where I cleared the first section before the second bridge and reset. The best part about this route is that it guaranteed a yellow mob at the end, and the time per run varied between 8 to 12 minutes. This allowed me to level up, farm gear and currency to improve my equipment, and test new skills. During the farming, I also picked up a few tips by watching streams, which helped me improve my build.

- Later, my friend joined and we played together in Act 2. This made things much easier since our builds had good synergy. Only near the end of Act 2 did more significant rewards and more activities start to appear.

- Trial in Sanctum: After farming and playing with my friend, I went to Sanctum, and the experience was smooth. With more damage and being overleveled (I was level 30 in a level 22 map), I had no trouble completing it. It’s worth mentioning that my friend was able to complete Sanctum as soon as it became available because his build was already dealing enough damage to defeat the boss. He was playing as an archer.

Suggestions for Improvement:

- Support Gems and Skill Slot: I’d be satisfied with either of these solutions:
- Unlock the drop of tier 2 support gems earlier in Act 2.
- Unlock the drop of "Lesser Jeweller's Orb" earlier in Act 2 (perhaps as a quest reward).

- Sanctum Trial: There are two ways to fix this:
- Simple solution: Nerf the boss’s volcano ability by reducing the number of volcanoes or making them disappear faster. Tankier classes don’t have enough damage to quickly kill the boss, which causes the arena to fill with volcanoes, creating a bullet hell situation that only affects honor and not health.
- Extreme solution: Completely remove the honor system during the boss fight. I know this is a drastic solution, but I wouldn’t mind if it was implemented.
Any one of these solutions would be enough.

- Upgrades in Act 2: Adding more activities early in Act 2 that reward upgrades or buffs would make the experience more interesting. It would also be nice to change the rewards from the quests I mentioned, because receiving 3 tier 1 support gems in a row is demotivating. How about a tier 2 support gem or even a "Lesser Jeweller's Orb" as a reward?

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Act 3
Although Act 3 was better, I still encountered some problems:

- Armor Drops and Crafting: Despite Act 3 offering quests, bosses, and mini-activities with good rewards, I didn’t receive any significant upgrades to my armor with elemental resistances since the end of Act 2. That said, I managed to complete all of Act 3 without changing a single piece of armor. All the armor drops and crafts I did didn’t have a good combination of elemental resistances. Also, I’m full of runes, but I can’t use them because I don’t have enough Artificer's Orbs to add runes.

- There are two maps in this act where I had problems: "The Matlan Waterways" and "The Drowned City":
- "The Matlan Waterways": While the concept is interesting, I found the sections quite dull, and I feel the "complexity" was a bit wasted. It was just boring because of the maze full of normal enemies. The most disappointing part is that I expected a boss fight at the end of the maze, but there wasn’t one.
- "The Drowned City": This map suffers from a similar issue. The map is too large for the little activity it contains, with most of it being just normal mobs.

- Boss Was Too Easy: As I mentioned since Act 2, I didn’t change my armor, yet I found the Act 3 boss to be very easy. I didn’t even have time to hear the music or understand the fight mechanics. Here were my resistances:
- Fire: -18%, Cold: 5%, Lightning: 5%, Chaos: 0%.
- Armor: 1125, Evasion: 305.

How I solved these problems:

- Armor Drops and Crafting: Although I couldn’t find or craft decent armor with resistances, I managed to craft an excellent weapon for my build, which made things much easier in Act 3 and with the bosses. I became a "glass cannon", and my strategy was to avoid taking damage.

- "The Matlan Waterways" and "The Drowned City": During the more boring parts of these maps, I simply started watching videos or live streams on my second monitor, as it was becoming tiresome to explore these areas.

- Boss Was Too Easy: I was a bit disappointed by how easy the boss was, but I’m hoping that in the Cruel difficulty, I’ll face more challenges and have the opportunity to appreciate the music and fight mechanics.

Suggestions for Solutions:

- Armor Drops and Crafting: At this point in the game, I think it would be interesting to introduce the "action house", as it would make trading currencies between players easier. It would also make sense within the lore, since it’s a place full of treasures, and an active market would make sense near the expedition.

- "The Matlan Waterways" and "The Drowned City": There’s no need to simplify them, but it would be interesting to add some rare activities or mobs to make the experience more engaging. The main problem with these areas is that one map is "too complex" for little reward, and the other is "too big" for little reward. In the more complex map, there could be more rare mobs, making each section more interesting, and at the end of the "maze", a boss would be a nice addition. In the large map, it would be good to have more activities to do, rather than just walking through a huge space full of regular mobs.

- Boss Was Too Easy: Simply put, the boss could be a bit harder. Honestly, I’m not sure how exactly, because as I mentioned, I didn’t get to see the mechanics properly due to how easily I defeated it.

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Summary:

- Act 1: 10/10 – Perfect, no changes needed.
- Act 2: 7/10 – Needs more early activities, adjustments to quest rewards, and balancing of the Sanctum boss.
- Act 3: 8/10 – Introducing the "action house" would be very useful, adjust 2 maps, and balance the boss.
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The development team, have done an amazing job in all aspects, and what needs to be done now are just some adjustments. I’m sure that with these improvements, the game in Early Access can reach a 10/10!!