Don't adjust difficulty.

+1 to what the OP said. First time PoE player here and I'm really enjoying the difficulty compared to the other ARPGs (been playing all seasons of those games since their respective launches).

Just my perspective here, but having to think about playing vs. button mashing to clear the entire screen is nice. For instance when I ran into a wall trying to ascend and failing a few times, I stopped to get a few extra levels and focus on improving gear, and then was able to successfully ascend.

I mean if you want the game to die sure. Soul-Like games retain their audiences for like 3 months max. Elden Ring Peak 920k. 3 Months later 20k. Elden Ring Xpac Peak 750k. 3 Months later 15k. This is not a sustainable model.

2 Months before the Sequel PoE 1, a game that is 12 years old and had a peak of only 280k... had 60k active players. PoE 2 has 500k players now. In 3 months I will be surprised if there are still more than PoE 1 has. We shall see as people quit and go back to PoE 1.

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Powderoff#1246 wrote:

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Karma#5423 wrote:

I love the difficulty but I don't see why players who want a more casual experience should be denied the option.

They aren't, there are at least two casual ARPGs out there called Diablo3 and Diablo4 for that.

Here's the problem though, d3 is shit because A) it doesn't feel like a diablo game and B) the world doesn't scale with your power so you reach a point where the only thing to do is run rifts over and over. And running along a dungeon path the size of a sidewalk over and over gets boring after awhile

D4 has a lot of the same problems as d3. There's a little more endgame content, but most of it gets easy/boring three days into a new season and you usually have to do shit you don't enjoy to farm materials for the parts you do enjoy, and because there's no slider to turn off smart loot, you're locked into finding the same items over and over again. D4 is alright from around level 30 to paragon 150-200 but then the fun just drops off a cliff

What most players actually want is a proper sequel to d2 that we never got from blizzard. Poe1 got close, at least with the way the endgame feels in terms of finding gear that isn't good for your build but makes you go "ooh, I wanna build a character around that now". But because of the time poe1 came out it visually has the d3 "ick" and doesn't 100% scratch that d2 itch. Poe2 is the closest anyone's got at least on a surface level, but enjoying that experience is prevented by a difficulty wall that isn't fun for everyone. Dying to a boss 2-3 times would be fine. Dying for an hour and still not being able to get past it is miserable. This game so far is challenging in frustrating ways rather than fun ways