My feedback as new POE and Monk player.

Hi,

I'm playing as a Monk and just finished the campaign yesterday, including Cruel. This is my first time playing POE, and I'm fairly new to the game. Overall, I enjoy a good challenge, and POE certainly delivered in that aspect. However, as a Monk/Melee player, I've found several elements of the game quite frustrating. I'm hoping GGG might consider making some adjustments to smooth out the melee experience. I haven't played other classes, so my feedback is based solely on my personal experience.


ANIMATION CANCEL :

Firstly, I haven't seen much discussion about this, but the constant animation cancelling when engaging a mob pack is particularly aggravating. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but as a melee player, it feels horrible to have my attacks interrupted so frequently. Sometimes, I'm cancelled two or three times before I can even land my first attack. I use Tempest Flurry as my main attack and often getting interrupted by a random mob can delay my first hit by 2-3 seconds.

I understand that mechanics like body blocking could be a design choice to encourage strategic positioning, but animation cancelling seems to have no viable counterplay as a melee. Please reduce or delete the animation cancel and allow me to only take damage instead which would be a sufficient penalty, especially considering how squishy the monk characters can be.
Throughout the campaign, this issue, along with body blocking, has been extremely problematic.


BODY BLOCKING / AGGRO RANGE :

Speaking of body blocking, it was a significant issue, though recent patches have improved it somewhat. However, I believe it's still a design flaw that can be adjusted. GGG has stated that this mechanic is intentional to emphasize positioning, which I understand. However, currently, two factors hinder strategic positioning.
First, the aggro range is too large. Enemies swarm in from off-screen before I even realize it, leaving no time to prepare strategically. Reducing the aggro range could significantly enhance the campaign experience, allowing players to clear the map step by step and plan their positioning better.
The way enemies rush and jump at you from all directions, like in the Dreadnought mission, is overwhelming. Just a few steps in, and suddenly the entire map descends on me from every direction.

Reducing aggro range would allow me to better control the density of mobs, could also help alleviate body blocking and give the players the option to traverse the map without being forced to fight every single enemy from point A to B.

Secondly, mobs move too fast. A solution to improve body blocking could be to either reduce enemy movement speed early on or provide players with more opportunities to increase their movement speed early in the game. I've had no luck with movement speed stats on my boots, and the few options available on the skill tree are worthless.


ATTACK WITHOUT MOVING :

As a Monk, another major frustration is using Tempest Flurry and the Bell. Despite trying every possible settings to stop my character from moving while attacking, nothing works. My character continues to move with Tempest Flurry, which is especially problematic when I need to remain stationary to attack the Bell or an enemy directly in front of me. The only workaround is to position myself so that collisions prevent forward movement. Is this bugged ?


AIM ASSIST :

Moreover, the game's lock-on/aim assist feature sometimes forces my character to attack an enemy even when my cursor isn't directed at them (I play WASD). This makes it nearly impossible to hit the Bell consistently. My character also randomly places attacks in the opposite direction of my cursor. An option to disable aim assist would be greatly appreciated, as it seems more suited for controller users and doesn't translate well to PC/Monk Bell gameplay, where precision is crucial.


Thanks for taking the time to read and consider this feedback :) and if I have missed a way to actually solve any of the above issues, feel free to let me know in the comments.

"

FatPoney#4282 wrote:

ANIMATION CANCEL :

Firstly, I haven't seen much discussion about this, but the constant animation cancelling when engaging a mob pack is particularly aggravating. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but as a melee player, it feels horrible to have my attacks interrupted so frequently. Sometimes, I'm cancelled two or three times before I can even land my first attack. I use Tempest Flurry as my main attack and often getting interrupted by a random mob can delay my first hit by 2-3 seconds.

I understand that mechanics like body blocking could be a design choice to encourage strategic positioning, but animation cancelling seems to have no viable counterplay as a melee. Please reduce or delete the animation cancel and allow me to only take damage instead which would be a sufficient penalty, especially considering how squishy the monk characters can be.
Throughout the campaign, this issue, along with body blocking, has been extremely problematic.

Question -- do you mean getting stunned? Because there are definitely some things you can do about that. Raising your stun threshold with gear, using a charm to remove and prevent, dropping some skill points on stun prevention/threshold, etc.

Also, what's your Evasion at? I'm sitting at 83% (about 10k) and my engagement of enemies is very rarely interrupted by damage.

playing a monk and trying to do the same things with the same problems, I feel this deeply.

It feels terrible. yes I know stun can be dealt with. but bell deciding to be placed opposite direction of cursor and character facing because it can sucks a lot.
It also sucks finally placing bell correctly to just get auto aim stop me from hitting it and hitting the boss next to it. SUPER annoying.

"

Skandell#0059 wrote:

playing a monk and trying to do the same things with the same problems, I feel this deeply.

It feels terrible. yes I know stun can be dealt with. but bell deciding to be placed opposite direction of cursor and character facing because it can sucks a lot.
It also sucks finally placing bell correctly to just get auto aim stop me from hitting it and hitting the boss next to it. SUPER annoying.

Yes, bell placement is.. not good. Particularly on narrow paths or on specific bosses where the boss's hitbox is questionable at best (looking at you, stone giant with broken sword).

IMO, it needs a bigger hit registration box (maybe 30 to 50 percent) but not a larger collision box.

"

ReggShanks#0071 wrote:

"

FatPoney#4282 wrote:

ANIMATION CANCEL :

Firstly, I haven't seen much discussion about this, but the constant animation cancelling when engaging a mob pack is particularly aggravating. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but as a melee player, it feels horrible to have my attacks interrupted so frequently. Sometimes, I'm cancelled two or three times before I can even land my first attack. I use Tempest Flurry as my main attack and often getting interrupted by a random mob can delay my first hit by 2-3 seconds.

I understand that mechanics like body blocking could be a design choice to encourage strategic positioning, but animation cancelling seems to have no viable counterplay as a melee. Please reduce or delete the animation cancel and allow me to only take damage instead which would be a sufficient penalty, especially considering how squishy the monk characters can be.
Throughout the campaign, this issue, along with body blocking, has been extremely problematic.

Question -- do you mean getting stunned? Because there are definitely some things you can do about that. Raising your stun threshold with gear, using a charm to remove and prevent, dropping some skill points on stun prevention/threshold, etc.

Also, what's your Evasion at? I'm sitting at 83% (about 10k) and my engagement of enemies is very rarely interrupted by damage.

Not sure if this is a stun mechanic or not but maybe it should build up to a larger stun instead of micro stuns ?
I'm currently using a charm that prevents slowing effects. As you've seen, movement speed is a significant issue for me, so I have to make a trade-off. If I use a charm to counteract stuns, it exacerbates my movement speed problem but thanks for the advice I will look into stun threshold.

A 83% evasion rate sounds like a number you'd typically see in end-game scenarios. Is it realistically possible to achieve that much evasion early or mid-game during the campaign?

Keep in mind that this feedback was based on the early game only and I'm sure that many of these issues can be addressed or mitigated as you progress into the late game.

The Bell seems to have better dodge rolling than I have that's for sure.

"

FatPoney#4282 wrote:

Not sure if this is a stun mechanic or not but maybe it should build up to a larger stun instead of micro stuns ?

There are Stuns and Heavy Stuns, I do not know if the latter applies to the player character or just enemies. I would expect so.

"

FatPoney#4282 wrote:

A 83% evasion rate sounds like a number you'd typically see in end-game scenarios. Is it realistically possible to achieve that much evasion early or mid-game during the campaign?

I've been at or above 70% since about level 35 or so. There are diminishing returns with Evasion Rating, so the more of it you obtain, the less net benefit there is to having more. I'll grab my skill tree and post it, but please bear in mind that in general I'm a baddie and I'm making my build up as I go along.

As promised. This is at level 73.