My thoughts on PoE 2

Just wanted to give some feedback for PoE2 and why I think the current popularity wont translate into a sustainable game with seasons with the current direction.

I first played PoE fairly early on when soft core and hardcore still had different leagues which was far closer to PoE2 today than PoE today, and my enjoyment of PoE has increased the closer it got to todays PoE.

The recent trend of borrowed power is a great mechanic for a game like this. While in WoW it got old fast due to your amazing character turning into mush every few years, in an ARPG with seasons borrowed power both works for the leagues to make it interesting and allow new builds while preventing power creep long term so it works great.

Playing PoE2 has reminded me why I didn’t love PoE during the talisman days but went hard during leagues like Synthesis, Delirium and Affliction.

I pushed through the campaign to see if maps got better, and I started to have some hope when the loot felt much better in cruel. After getting into maps, seeing the same campaign slog of walking through maps I see a philosophy that feels very far from PoE, which is why they split the games.

We see two very different groups giving feedback, one group is the PoE reoccurring players, and another seems to be a new group of players that don’t play PoE regularly. I say this due to the reoccurring players checking out of leagues like Kalandra.

For me PoE2 is like Grim Dawn. I played it once, and I have no desire to revisit it. It was fun, I enjoyed it, but I see no reason to go back and try it again, as it’s not a dopamine machine to keep slotting my time into. I’m worried that GGG will see this massive launch as proof their philosophy works, but I believe the majority of players trying this now may play again later on full release, but are unlikely to come back for seasons.

Don’t forget GGG, your growth has coincided with making PoE faster with more power creep. While you try to expand your player base with a second game like PoE you also run the risk of losing players to the slower content cycle for PoE 1.

PoE2 has some amazing things that I hope make it into PoE1. The polish of 2 with the borrowed power and speed of PoE1 would be awesome

TLDR; Ruthless isn’t for me. I think the current higher player count is a whole different group of gamers than what GGG has had for years who won’t be coming back for numerous seasons for years down the line.

Good luck GGG. Hopefully the next PoE league is a banger.