“The meta” in Poe2 and the problem it creates

To be blunt, If there’s a meta the developers have crucially and completely failed at game balance as there exists a defining way to beat the game which is so much stronger than the alternatives that it is deemed “The Meta”.

I understand balancing is hard for some people, Like a piano it takes some people years to become great while others become phenomenal in a few months. However the issues that pertain to the meta will destroy path of exile as it has already showcased.

Players want power, To feel stronger, to be faster. The issue is they are short sighted and completely oblivious to how you go about balancing something like that.

With Poe1 someone “tweaked” the values of the game resulting in the “zoom zoom” playstyle for free dopamine which ruined poe1 as everything had to be balanced around zoom zoom. Because of this the game could never slow down and how exactly would devs kill these “zoom zoom” players? They move at 45% ms, Have various forms of enhanced movement including teleportation, they are insanely durable and most have infinite sustain. So how exactly do you kill these players? You have to 1 shot them or kill them with death effects because the mobs are not alive long enough to attack. This is why spell suppress was brought in to slow down the power creep as you invest your power more into def but it didn’t stop the damage. The end result is literally giving the bosses 75% Damage resistance and 1 shot abilities. A broken endgame for broken characters.

poe2 has been officially broken, a term I like to use is “OSTD’d” meaning “Out Scaled The devs”.
The devs gave players sticks and stones and they made Crossbows and spears. The Uber boss is being killed in 4 minutes or less and that cannot have been intentional. Map bosses and the end act bosses are being completely nuked and all of that power has to be either culled (meaning Poe2 is its own game) or balanced around (meaning we got a poe1 expansion)

If the devs intend to cull the meta they would have to wait until launch or lose a good portion of their momentum because while streamers spam “Play this meta build” more and more players become accustomed to that level of power without being invested in poe. Because of this they steam roll the game, the content and leave. I’ve had dozens of people do this in poe1. They jump in and look up a build immediately and clear all of Poe’s endgame in less than a month and leave. The players that stay are usually those who don’t follow builds as they fall in love with the game itself instead of the power trip the meta provides.

If you don’t want the meta to be nerfed/removed you have to accept being 1 shot as a means to balance the broken build you love. Personally I hate the meta as it ruins the experience of everyone who follows it completely. Due to the nature of the power creep meta provides they literally steam roll the game and it saps the fun from it and any non meta player they happen to completely embarrass. I say this because I’ve been in such a situation plenty of times and in Poe2 already. I’m using the mercs armor piercing combo to the best of my ability with a group, then one guy 1 level below me fires a series of grenades that 1 shots the packs before I can even break their armor. I’m not saying things don’t need buffs, but I’m definitely saying Poe shouldn’t have defining metas.

And if your Uber bosses are dying in less than 3 minutes someone needs to flip their calculator right side up.