Xbox Series X Feedback

Overall I've found the EA to be very fun and enjoyable. Here are some bugs I've encountered, suggestions and a bit of an issue I see with crossbows. I played a Mercenary through the Campaign and into early endgame so far.

Bugs:

Rathbringer can get bugged if he (it) follows you down from his area. If this happens he will just stand there and do nothing. The Hyenas keep spawning and are worth XP, but will not come up onto the ledge once you kill the few that follow you. Rath will then have this insane health Regen that makes it tough to kill him in this state.

Since day 1, I've been seeing this issue where the game will just stop for a second, then "catch up". Inputs are still being taken and the game didn't actually stop, but when it catches up, it's almost like the game is on fast forward for a second when basically everything happens almost instantly. This doesn't seem to happen right away, but seems to start after 30 minutes to an hour of playing. And I've observed this running both a bolt using Mercenary and a Grenade using Mercenary, so I don't think it's the grenades causing this to do this.

Aiming issues with controller on Xbox. I've noticed that even if I'm using the right stick to aim, sometimes my character will still shoot in the direction they are moving and not in the direction I am aiming. This happens pretty much every time, even if an enemy is right next to me and should be the focus. The character should stay locked onto the target and stay facing the target. This has cost me many missed shots/grenades that fire away from the enemy.

Also on Xbox the screen will have this flashing effect when going back to town. Seems to start happening about 30 minutes into playing, and only rarely happens in the game maps.

Seeing an issue when re-running the same map. After a while, an hour or so, the game will keep pausing itself and un-pausing. This will happen rapidly and continuously. The only way to fix it is to log out and back in. Memory leak issue maybe?

Suggestions:

Crossbow skills are cool, but they feel bad to use. Things like the dodge roll cancelling a reload make it feel even clunkier. And on top of that when changing between firing grenades and crossbow bolts, often the bolt will not fire, it will just make this clicking sound each time you try to shoot it. I think the different bolts are really neat, but they are so clunky that I just switched to all grenades, as they at least feel smooth to use while attacking. Bolts very often are not ready to fire if you had to dodge. They should continue their reload through the roll. They seem to be the only class that suffers from this reload mechanic. Maybe it should be treated like the grenades cool down mechanic instead?
Also some crossbow skills have a "spin up" time, but there is no indication that it's "spinning up". Maybe a sound cue? I've had thos bite me as it made me think maybe I didn't hit the skill, but I did and now I have to spin it up again.

Crafting does not feel good. Going through the campaign getting equipment upgrades was very difficult. Most gear I've been running in the campaign was from Act 2 normal. And the resourced to make a magic item into a rare and max it out are non-existent through the campaign. I had to use trade just to get Exaults to upgrade gear, which still might be bad. And I'm trying. It wasn't until Act 3 I got a good weapon, and now in Cruel I feel it needs to be replaced, but so far no luck in finding one as a drop or a craft (just managed to get a new one in Cruel Act 3, and only because I got lucky using my only two Alchemy Orbs). And on top of that, not being able to even get close to capping my resistances feels bad during the campaign. By the end of Normal Act 3 it wasn't too bad, but I had to make an effort to get even close. Cruel actually feels better for this, as there was no penalty going from Act 1 to Act 2 Cruel. Maybe the penalty to them between Acts should be lower?

A suggestion for controller usage. Let the Left Trigger (on Xbox, not sure for PS) be a true toggle and not a hold to access your second skill bar. Could maybe make it an accessibility option in case some like it how it is now. This would allow a player to setup debuff skills on one bar, and damage skills on the other.
For example as the Mercenary I could have my Oil and Gas grenades set to RT and RB, and at the same time set my Frag Grenades to RT and Cluster to RB. So I'd open a fight with Oil and Gas, hit LT, then continue with my Frag and Cluster grenades for max effect. It can be challenging to have all four on the same bar. This would also help with aiming them, as the right stick is easy to use with those two buttons.

Crossbows:
There are 12 different crossbows (not counting the makeshift, which is only for starting out), but in reality they are all basically the same weapon. And the higher level versions just add damage, they do not change how any of them function.
Out of those 13, only 5 have an implicit that makes them unique. Those are:
Tense, Dyad, Bombard, Piercing and Cumbrous.
There should be other implicits, such as Cooldown reduction, better reload time, or faster attack speed. And maybe implicits like Dyad could be better. Loading one extra bolt is pretty meaningless for most bolt skills. Either those skills already load a lot, or they have 1. Perhaps let the higher versions load more bolts?

A UI issue:
Something I have seen a lot in the game. There are many times the word "less" is used when in reality something is being increased. Such as crossbow reload time. A skill like Rapid Shot says "50% less reload speed", but what that actually means is that it takes 50% LONGER to reload. The wording should be "50% increased reload speed" if it's making it longer, or "50% reduced reload speed" if it's making it shorter.

I definately consider myself to be a casual gamer, as at best I have a few hours a day I can play games, and PoE2 isn't the only game I play.
That being said, I really enjoyed the Campaign. I loved the environments and the maps, it was a lot of fun exploring all of them. However I cannot see myself wanting to do that over and over and over as new seasons release. It simply takes too long. And I realize that after playing it, I am sure I could do it significantlly faster than the first time through, but if I am doing that then what I am really doing is just trying to shortcut the campaign everywhere I can to save time. Which means skipping areas or boss fights that do not directly give me any characer power.
I also realize that the Campaign is designed to get your character levelled up to be ready for Endgame, which is why we need to do it again. Perhaps that can also be accomplished by implementing some sort of streamlined version of the Campaign? Instead of needing to discover area after area and waypoint after waypoint, have them all open from the start. On top of that, have the maps be 100% revealed and the Checkponts be active. This would only be an option once the Campaign has been cleared the first time. This is something that I feel Diablo 4 does better than PoE2, as D4 has systems in place to allow a player to level their character without needing to run through the Campaign again.

I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about any of this.

Thanks for putting out such an enjoyable EA product and I look forward to where it goes from here!