The good and The Terrible - Why I'm quitting PoE2 as a PoE1 Old Player

Well this 9 days playing 3 characters, 2 totally nerfed, and now living the good life of non nerfed Monk I realize that, even with good DPS and doing everything smoothly without dying, I wasn't really having fun, it was more like a job or chore. This ruthless game tilted me more than any game in my whole life (maybe ego issues as PoE1 Player with mirror items and 9.556h played), Don't get me wrong this is next generation of ARPG's, without doubt this game is astonishing, a piece of art.



General good Points of the game

Story telling: is outstanding, I really like each new boss introduction and their backstory too, and I think bosses is what makes me play this game, the moment you reach maps, that thing goes with the wind.

Boss mechanics: They are really interesting in a good way, some overtuned but in general have no problem with them.

World design: Just beautiful piece of art in general, every place is so good to see in detail.

Monsters design: they are great and as always GGG knows how to hit that horror/terror spot of being corrupted in the worst shape possible.

WASD movement: Really impressive to be honest, take a bit of time to get used to, but its good enough to think that without WASD, many builds where just pure nightmare. Range classes and skills are the one that gets most of benefits around this movement choice.

Rune system: Makes gearing more flexible at some point, its one of the best part of gearing in PoE2 and it's what makes the game not feel like a complete nightmare.

Spirit System: Quite nice at some points if you are melee/range, in others is not fair like playing with minions (the balance around them felt bad in early and middle game).

Item Corruption: bring a meaningful reason to corrupt them more often in midgame than doing it in PoE1.




The Middle (Good and Bad at some point)

Gem Sockets: In some builds and skills, you don't really need more than 3 sockets to play it with good DPS, making the system progression easier. BUT, I prefer socketing my gear and linking it, its more exciting to be honest.

Gem Levels: Boy, oh boy, a really bad mix of feeling around this topic, Imagine that you are stuck in the same area, because you can't progress because of how hard is the boss, or no enough DPS, well restrict gem drop by zone level is just a complete nightmare. I like the system but the balance around is not in the best place, at least rare monsters could have a 2 to 5% chance to drop a uncut gem 1 level more than the normal uncut gem drop of the area.

Charms: Good concept, but they are just that, having almost not good/interesting prefixes, they are just there to be use but nothing more, I'm not excited when I got another new charm, they are just boring, we need it but boring.

Unique Items: I really love PoE1 Unique items, but here they may help your build, but at what cost?, to me, they are just boring, not game changer or items that could define your build and work around them, I can see the endgame like, yes you have them as support of one of your ailments but nothing than that, the lack of identity in Unique Items make the idea of making a build around them empty and in the long run, there is a bunch of good crafted items that could give more benefits than just main idea behind the build (the unique item).

Dodge Roll: Good concept, not well balanced for Online Games, having bad internet or just even a server problem could make the whole Dodge Rolling a concept of how to tilt people, the Iframe system behind is just pure evil machinations, I think that we are not Tekken 7-8 Pro Players at all, the frame economy is something new for many people and when you need to think that you have a very little frame space for dodging the damage and there is a Keystone in the Warrior/Mercenary area that grants you 30% less damage taken while rolling, is just feel like, you are betrayed at some point, to take the advantage of avoid damage you must be a Master reflex player like Mathil level.




The Terrible (Good and Bad at some point)

When I try something knew the "comparison is the thief of joy" phrase comes to my mind every time, BUT! This is Path of Exile 2, the name is there so is hard to not compare things, I'll try my best.

Currency/Crafting System: This topic is complex and long but the TLDR is that is not good based on drop balance, not having a way to reroll magic items with something like Alteration orbs makes early SSF game an horror movie, Chaos orb nullify annulment orbs (just because Omens change the interaction of the currency doesn't mean that is a good concept, Omens just try to fix the own problem that you create).

The Whole crafting system around currency becomes more a market thing than a SSF experience, is just an eternal gambling till people hit day 2 or 3, market becomes alive and you start crafting because YOLO or you are bored, maybe you find a already good piece and try to slam a bit, but nothing more. And this is a really big problem for everyone used to plan their own complex build, now they rely almost 90% on trade or farm 10 times more to hit something close of what they really need, focus on some attributes and resist is at least 6 times harder than PoE1 for the sake of creating a build and that's why you hear people saying, not this is not a good build because its around 2 mirrors worth or so like Jungroan or many others trying minmax an idea.

Every single currency seems to give you only 1 mod per use, making the crafting two times worst compared with PoE1, this feels really really bad.

So to craft 1 item you need 1 currency each mod, 1 transmutation, 1 augmentation, 1 regal, then 3 exalt slams if the rest of mods are worthy.

The better the Item base the more worthy you find crafting, but in early game, is just a pure gamble of mixed bad rolls.

Attributes requirements: Remember that you reduce 2 or 3 times the average attributes from PoE1 tree, and gear have almost 40% less maximum attributes, but gear requirements are around the same as the PoE1 requirements, is crazy to think that PoE2 have gear with base requirements of 212 Dex like in PoE1.

Passive Skill Tree: To me, this is home in PoE1, this is my holy place, where I spend my time having fun with Path of Building.

Well... PoE2 have some good points but to be honest its boring and counterproductive at the same time, Increase Crit chance while reduced Crit damage, increased Damage but reduced Attack/Cast Speed and so on, TLDR, in general is just boring, I've zero desire to do a build currently.

The design space and the characteristics of the proposed nodes create this perspective that no matter how large the passive tree is, it loses meaning or motivation due to how it gives benefits and penalties.

Points such as notable nodes that are directly related to the same tag of its damage (critical chance vs critical damage / Attack Damage vs Attack Speed), makes it lose value and is not exciting to acquire, it is like lying conditionally.

A famous example is the critical area and the Unique Item "Maligaro's Virtuosity" that replaces all your critical damage % with a fixed percent (300% critical damage bonus), obtaining only advantages by using it, but creating a permanent need to use it only because there is a downside that can be blocked, unlike PoE1, the Unique Item is usually the downside when it comes to something that is planned in the passive tree (and when they interact with each other, they create a new mechanic or way of playing), but in this case, it is the entire passive tree that determines that in order to take advantage of something, you need to use a certain unique item, so it only leaves us with receiving the downside yes or yes, leaving the node completely out of our interest.

Certain builds it could be something good but it's not a game changer either, it's just something else, a minor plus that MAYBE is useful depending on how many points you need to spend.

Chaos Inoculation Keystone is too powerful, due to almost non existing life nodes, building around Energy Shield is something that changes the whole game, being immune to chaos damage is a hyper plus for endgame, and more when average endgame players have 2 to 3,5k life. The big difference is the large amount of normal/notable nodes that brings the following total in the passive tree:


• +55 to maximum Energy Shield
• 440% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge
• 1000% increased maximum Energy Shield
• 415% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate
• 70% increased Energy Shield from Equipped Helmet
• 295% increased Energy Shield from Equipped Focus
• 20% increased Energy Shield Recovery Rate if you haven't been Hit Recently
• 60% increased Energy Shield if you've consumed a Power Charge Recently
• 60% increased Energy Shield from Equipped Body Armour
• +1 to Maximum Energy Shield per 12 Evasion Rating on Equipped Body Armour
• Increases and Reductions to Armour also apply to Energy Shield
Recharge Rate at 40% of their value
• 193% increased Armour

VS

• 3% increased maximum Life
• 3% increased maximum Life, Mana and Energy Shield

Just, WHY?...

Ascendancies Trials: The first two trials are easy (Just when you go 5-10 levels over or good gear) and Even that, they are long.

It's just weird that GGG picked the worst two league mechanics to do the most important part of every build as funnel that everyone needs to pass, I hate sanctum, I don't like Ultimatum, and If I hate them in PoE1, you can't imagine how hard now I hate those league mechanics in PoE2, they are overtuned and people rely on RNG to pass Ultimatum with good mods, or you better have a good connection for sanctum because you lose honor without notice anything, too over tune damage in traps and almost anything.

Sanctum: Is long as hell, lets just think of this, you can spend like 30 min doing it, and before reaching the last boss you can die or disconnect, NO THANK YOU.

Ultimatum: Mods in general is just a mess, Phys and Chaos damage is overtuned, area of some mods are crazy big, some of them are bigger than one screen. One of the Two bosses is overtuned in how fast it goes with skills, mobility its almost not present in PoE2, but that bird, moves like you have wardloop or so to counter damage you or so, is too much happening at the same time, mods + boss skills. The Chimera is quite OK'ish.

Level 1 experience: gives you a really bad impression the first boss you fight, if you try melee and its your first time playing the game, good luck if your new player don't ragequit and uninstall the game. Basic attacks are better than level 1 chest gem skill. But once again after this, the whole melee experience can be bypassed by buying good gear.


Campaign in General: After played 3 times the campaign, I like the story and everything involved in the game, I always said to PoE1 players that campaign is a pillar of the game, and I love the PoE1 campaign, but PoE2 campaign is a bit too large for the movement speed we have.

The general feeling is that you have to explore almost everything in the map just because you get lost one or a couple of times, or you don't find the item/boss for the quest.

They can stay the same big, but not triple or quadruple corridors, hints about where you need to go are not obvious too. So my only strategy is remember is you need to hug the right/left wall.

Act 1 to 3 can be 5 to 15% less HP in general this could reduce the first day friction a lot, just make bosses more resistant to Freeze and Stun. I say this because the low currency drop at the beginning, so gearing something OP in many classes is harder than just picking a high quarterstaff and blast.

Quests needs better a description, they are too broad, and people waste too much time trying to complete a quest that is already done because it doesn't update the state of the quest. While in the other side, sometimes you need to check others web to find what you need to do with some quest items.

As a Blight enjoyer, I've zero problems with going slow, but always if almost zero friction, the moment players start to buildup friction because of how big the map is, how broad is the quest, how many loading screens needs, how slow is the character, the player will notice that the game is not what really wants.

UI Boss in Map needs a better work on them, maybe color or so, but I try to kill them all many times and is just such waste of time, not rewarding enough to be showed in map as quest or something to do.

Skills: Some skills looks amazing, some others are just not appealing or just boring, to me, what skills make appealing in PoE1 is the unique way to create this magic fantasy like to express the thaumaturgy power, some skills lack in this "Magic/fantasy power" display.

Minions: Right now, they are the worst choice if you want an easy game, no stable DPS, unstable target behavior of the boss, minions die like no tomorrow, they are barely alive most of the time, and there is no room for improve that unless you over gear your character, but here is the trick, you do the same with almost any other character and you are like 3 to 5 times better and faster so you can blast the campaign with zero problems.

Overlap Skills: GGG said too many times that PoE2 is a more slowed take on of PoE1 and people notice this, having a multi layers of DPS that can oneshot a boss is not acceptable. Lightning Rod and Vine Arrow can be an good example.

Stun, Electrocute and Freeze: You can Buildup each one of those hard CC and the duration of each one is absurd, obliterating all the hard work that Mr.Roberts have done for the game, again, bosses are amazing people need to learn their mechanics, but the Stun + Freeze is pretty easy to reach, if you add electrocute just trivialize everything.

Heralds: they are quite strong, almost too powerful to be real, you can buildup everything around them and make one tap any pack of monsters.

Mana cost: The balance around mana cost per level, regen, leech and so on is not good for almost any build, you rely on your flask 200% or the time, maybe more, at that point that you run out of mana flask before you kill the boss with some builds, I played Monk with Chayula Flames and felt amazing, at the beginning I was think that Acolyte of Chayula wasn't that good, but later I get used that Chayula flame is quite good for the actual balance of the game, you just need to walk more around the boss or areas, they can buff a big the flames production or the proximity to grab them.

Leech: the tag Physical is just a troll component of the game, almost 70% of the skills have elemental conversion making the physical damage that you do barely noticeable in early game, even with 10%, for skills with over 70% of elemental conversion feels horrible, more like a joke, but in the other hand, a melee skill with 3 gems having 93 mana cost is not good and we are not talking about Earthquake or Hammer of the god (I think that skill is too much, 2654% really?).

Support Gems: many of them are just boring or just funnels for build making at the point that you need to use 6 skills to buildup a mediocre added damage.

Flask: the max generation from Suffix is "Gains 0.25 Charges per Second", to charge 1 flask use takes 40 seconds, for just 310 of mana with the Ultimate Mana Flask that is the top Tier base. Many bosses die before 40 seconds, and many other Suffix generation of flask gain are related on kill, not other conditions, making the flask recharge a nightmare, so many bosses are alone without adds making this even harder, without taking in consideration Life flasks.

Energy Shield: I don't know why you can reach absurd amounts of ES(easy 8k or even 8 times more ES than life if you stack it) but not Life, where is the punchline? Chaos Inoculation is too overpower compared with life knowing that Chaos Resist is hard to cap.

There is a bunch of support gems that works around Energy Shield recover with % and recharge, that breaks the balance between life and ES more than before.

Ascendancies: Some of them need a better wording or they need to be explained better, Blood Mage is one of the worst in general for the early game, the all skills have huge amount of mana cost, equals to Life cost and orbs generation are not that enough to play with and you can't only generate them if you kill or crit, Critical chance in this game is not very high, so 1/3 or 2/3 max of the times you will not generate any Life Remnants destroying your build and game experience, have to address that Max % regen on tree is around 8 to 10% and if you have 2k HP, some skills may cost 10% of your life making this ascendancy a meme, 10% of Spell Leech is not enough for the downsides.

Chronomancer: My Experience with chronomancer as Freeze Chill Stacker + Apex of the Moment + Temporal Chains was just a joke, monster where moving like nothing happen (Maybe some mobs are just immune to slow though the campaign, just when I freeze them I notice that they were "slowed", no matter if you have 50% of chill or temporal chains with Heightened Curse, they still move freely, so maybe there is a cap for slow.

You will notice better ES recoup than HP recoup just because of the large pool so Stormweaver is stronger.

Legionnaire is too strong based on Quality gems and how it works Gem level for some skills, breaks the game having the second best layer of the game that is maximum elemental resistances.

Deadeye is too strong in the actual game for many reasons, 1 more projectile + 20% more damage at close/mid range, overlapping damage with lightning rod for example + Tailwind (30% attack speed, 10% movement speed and 150% increased evasion), if you are using the Bestial Skin Notable Node is double Evasion from Body Armour, reaching 4k in some items.

Chaos Damage in early game: the chance to get chaos resistance in early campaign act 1 to 3 is hard, considering that is close to zero chance. Many mobs have poison attacks but they have at least low damage, but the Ritual Chaos Flying bubbles have a crazy amount of damage, many other mobs that have chaos skills are one shotting characters with just 1 skill, there are other minions that have overlap damage with chaos damage, you die very often by just chaos damage, not even physical damage.

Maps and Meaning of Endgame: Reaching maps I lose almost all purpose of playing, complete a map by just killing rares feels pretty awkward, not killing bosses remove a ton of the exciting part of the game.

I literally liked much more just doing the campaign mode than making maps, and the first time I level up my first character (Minions) I said to myself, No God please NO, if they tell me to do this nightmare again every league, I'll quit right there, not even think about it. But when I got to maps it didn't take me long to get completely bored of making a map in the purest PoE1 style 2 min max, and then looking for bosses whether with T1 or any other tier I had (obviously the highest Tier map for the bosses will always give the best loot).

At the end, the so hated Campaign became more and more my preferred choice in terms of entertainment, my recommendation, adjust the damage of all classes in the early game, so for the slow skills have enough damage to make sense in the risk/reward part and the faster/distance skills, because its agile, need just enough damage to make sense of all that mobility and speed but not something overpower, rangers builds at least need 1 or 2 minutes killing the bosses, I would advise giving more resistance to Freeze and Stun, if only if they are main story bosses and the task is really significant.

Camera inclination and structures: The camera have too much low inclination and many structures in maps and trials block your vision, while there is a bunch of small monster that make me consider remove my pets due the confusion that may cause all the time, more in SANCTUM that becomes more a hitless run than a rouge-like game.



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Hope something of this can benefit GGG to improve something of the game, but I realize that this is not a game for me after +108 hours, the game looks amazing, skills sound really good, bosses are great in many levels, and I'm not taking in consideration the experience about of EA that may cause friction like disconnect, crashes or similar things.

80% of my decision is based on how the Passive Skill Tree is built and gem system and Uniques, the rest 20% is the general friction and miscellanies like nerfing till destroy builds without free skill tree refund/token or similar for EA or Overtuned monster and Ascendancies experience.

I wish GGG that everything goes great with this new project and they must already know all the potential that this game has with more than "578,569 all-time peak 7 days ago" in just steam at the moment I post this, there is no other game that can beat this new project and hope many more people enjoy this, but my heart will be always in Path of Exile 1, Hail to any new league and the complex beauty which mesmerize me and I love.

Maybe in the Future if GGG do a big change in those 3 things that I mentioned before (Tree, Skills, Uniques), I'll be testing and playing again for more feedback and I hope that will be the case.

Thank you for reading, waiting for the next league.