Feedback with Pinnacle 8/8 600 hours of gameplay (a lot AFK, but not too much)

3 classes played / 7 builds tested, All pinnacle bosses 8/8 except Expedition. I’ve never been lucky enough to find the boss inside a logbook, and honestly, given the rewards from the mechanic, I’m not even bothered. In my opinion, the crafting provided by the poor NPCs has been nerfed so much that I feel sorry for them.

Obviously, being Early Access, there’s still a lot missing, and it’s noticeable, but the foundation is solid.

The endgame has become "either you one-shot or get one-shot." But that’s fine—ultimately, it’s the charm of this game. Reaching a point where you can destroy everything with a single button is immensely satisfying. It takes time, gear, skill in navigating the skill tree, and a deep understanding of the character and game.

Main issues encountered:The problems I’ve noticed across all builds are similar and stem from the game’s limitations.

One portal per map: The game isn’t ready for such a punitive system.There’s a lack of clarity. If you want to create a punishing system, you need to let players adjust their builds without dying inexplicably.Want adrenaline? Hardcore mode exists for that. Softcore players like me need the ability to take breaks. Work calls, kids, spouses, pets—there are plenty of reasons for distractions.

Solution: A detailed log of everything happening around me and to me. Removing "invisible death effects" improved the game, but it’s still baffling to die with a pool of around 14k ES and mana to something offscreen. This happens with every build: evasion, armor, ES… There’s always something that one-shots.

Atlas and progression:The system is tedious and forces you to play terrible layouts that penalize certain builds.Example: with a build based on Ice Nova and Frost Wall, in tight spaces, Ice Nova deals no damage, and Frost Wall doesn’t cast correctly. Additionally, Ice Nova’s damage is blocked by objects like trees, ruining the experience.

Visibility issues: In many areas, objects that block your view should become transparent.

Maps/juice: Too boring. Opening white maps with useless layouts, placing tablets, and redoing maps if you die… Don’t artificially extend playtime with these methods.

Specific mechanics:

Breach: In tight maps, fewer mobs spawn, resulting in less exp and loot.

Ritual: Small or tight layouts limit movement and drastically reduce obtainable points.

Solution: Make rituals always spawn in open areas, even in inconvenient maps.

Expedition: As mentioned above, I don’t know, I’ve given up on it.

Delirium: One of the best mechanics. Don’t change it! Suggestion: Add 6 portals to the Simulacrum. The random nature of the mods that can spawn heavily limits builds, and I don’t get to choose, as I would with maps, whether to attempt it or not. Losing a Simulacrum, especially the first time, after it takes so long to create, is not an enjoyable experience.

Pinnacle Bosses: With only one portal, nothing offscreen should kill you, and mechanics shouldn’t overlap.Solution: I’ve optimized my build to kill them in seconds, avoiding phases or difficulties.

Trade: I’ve been asking for an auto-buyout system for a long time, especially on console, and I’m not the only one. It’s frustrating to have to manually contact players for every purchase and hope they respond in a timely manner. This outdated system only encourages scammers and creates a negative experience for honest players.

Solution: Introduce a system managed by Alva, where players can list items with fixed prices (no ambiguous "1.5 div" nonsense) that are visible directly on the website. Add a simple "Buy" button, allowing players to receive the purchased item via Alva. This would eliminate scammers entirely and bring happiness to honest players. It would also reduce unnecessary frustrations and streamline a vital part of the game experience.

Crafting: Not worth it. Better to find pre-crafted items.Solution: Increase omen drop rates to let everyone craft items autonomously.

I probably forgot something, but these are the most important points.

Don’t limit the freedom of gameplay. It’s the worst thing for a pastime.

I agree with you on pretty much everything, except the "you have to one-shot or will be one-shotted is fine"

I believe this is the root of many issues. OP builds exploding whole screens with a single cast.

Some players enjoy blowing whole screen with 1 button, its stupid, but its also subjective and I don't want to ruin anyone's fun.

Problem is, balance to pretty much the whole game will take this into consideration. That means shorter breach time, faster Deli fog dissipation, faster monster attack and more 1-shot mechanics as 1 attack is the maximum mobs get against these builds.. more on death effects as again, only that can hit these broken builds, damage-sponge bosses and more invulnerable phases in boss fights and so no. Nobody likes that.

Also, what is the point of having PoE 1 and PoE 2 if they have same exact endgame? PoE 2 was THE WHOLE TIME marketed as "slow and methodical", "focused more on fights, bosses, engaging combat" .. These builds break that completely and turn the game into mindless mashing. PoE 1 was supposed to keep delivering this to players who enjoy that and it does. PoE 2 endgame needs to slow down.

Agree to a large extent.

The constricting layout of a fairly large percentage of the maps mean that some skills don't fire at all, not only ice but some slam skills or skills with a movement component like jumping - vault slam for example.

Only thing I don't see as likely in the OP's list is a death log if only because historically it was never going to happen. Obviously, it could but I ain't holding my breath

"

Sargoth_CZ#3391 wrote:

Also, what is the point of having PoE 1 and PoE 2 if they have same exact endgame? PoE 2 was THE WHOLE TIME marketed as "slow and methodical", "focused more on fights, bosses, engaging combat" .. These builds break that completely and turn the game into mindless mashing. PoE 1 was supposed to keep delivering this to players who enjoy that and it does. PoE 2 endgame needs to slow down.

This was certainly my impression as well of what 2 was supposed to be, and even though they said the current EA endgame is supposed to be a placeholder, or certainly incomplete, they have established a precedent with the "Anime Skittles" atlas - obliteration builds and speed meta. That said, I'm pretty fond of those in 1 but was expecting something different here.

I have some issue with your trading complain and solution.
Where do you see honest people being abused/scammed?
An item is being priced at X you either buy it, negotiate for it or just skip.
I am missing to understand where the problem lays in your eyes.

On the other hand, i would gladly accept a buy-out system as well, perhaps with the following options

[Buy] You buy outright the item
[Whisper] to possibly cut a better price for the item if the person is online

and also add an option for the seller to either disable [Buy] leaving [Whisper] as the only option in case they set a very high price and they want to negotiate for it or get deals/offers

"

HeartBeat#6967 wrote:

Where do you see honest people being abused/scammed?
An item is being priced at X you either buy it, negotiate for it or just skip.
I am missing to understand where the problem lays in your eyes.

The trade website has a lot of people price fixing:

1) Leave an item public with a lower price than normal, but with no intent to sell it

2) Unaware people will use the website to price-check a certain item

3) Price fixers will then buy the item at a lower price and re-sell at a higher price

At this point, there are so many price fixers mixed in with honest people who don't know how to price their items that the trade website has become useless as a price-checking tool. You can only reliably sell something if you had previous knowledge about their overall worth.

Not to mention price fixers making trading unbearable: you have to whisper 5-10 people to get to someone to actually sell you something at this point. And telling people to stop whispering "obviously low prices" makes no sense: if there is no way to check what's underpriced, what's fair priced and what's overpriced, there is no way to know where to draw the line on who to whisper.
This is specially bad in sub-10-exalt items because you never know if that item up to trade has been there for a day because that player doesn't want to leave their map to sell it (too cheap), or if it's a price fixer.

An auction house/automated trading will completely kill price fixing: you can't underprice to deceive less knowledgeable people because your item will be automatically sold.

The most common counterarguments are:

"

"But if you misprice something down, it'll get sold immediately and you'll lose your item"

So where's the "gid gud" argument now? With an auction house you can reliably price-check, publish an offer and let the market do its thing.
Git gud and check the price before blindly putting an offer out.

"

"But easy trading makes the game too easy"

The game is already far too easy in itself.
The only difference would be improving your character's gear much faster, instead of wasting an hour blindly whispering people to get them to leave their maps to trade with you.

And if someone personally doesn't want this game to be "too easy" for them then trade less, play SSF. The options are all there.

This is basically a single player game, co-op at best. Not giving players the freedom of choice makes no sense if there's no PvP where people could abuse that freedom.

Anyone that argues against freedom of choice that doesn't directly impact their gameplay in a single player game is out of their minds.

Personal preference. I would still treat poe1 as the main game when a new league come out.

"

Sargoth_CZ#3391 wrote:

I agree with you on pretty much everything, except the "you have to one-shot or will be one-shotted is fine"

I believe this is the root of many issues. OP builds exploding whole screens with a single cast.

Some players enjoy blowing whole screen with 1 button, its stupid, but its also subjective and I don't want to ruin anyone's fun.

Problem is, balance to pretty much the whole game will take this into consideration. That means shorter breach time, faster Deli fog dissipation, faster monster attack and more 1-shot mechanics as 1 attack is the maximum mobs get against these builds.. more on death effects as again, only that can hit these broken builds, damage-sponge bosses and more invulnerable phases in boss fights and so no. Nobody likes that.

Also, what is the point of having PoE 1 and PoE 2 if they have same exact endgame? PoE 2 was THE WHOLE TIME marketed as "slow and methodical", "focused more on fights, bosses, engaging combat" .. These builds break that completely and turn the game into mindless mashing. PoE 1 was supposed to keep delivering this to players who enjoy that and it does. PoE 2 endgame needs to slow down.

In this type of game, it’s inevitable that builds eventually reach a point where they can one-shot everything, and that’s a blessing for 90% of the players. Imagine if I, with my current gear, couldn’t one-shot everything—what would happen to those who can’t invest 300/400 divine into a build? They’d end up facing boss fights that are impossible to complete. It would turn into a game for the few, not for everyone, and Path of Exile already has a difficulty curve that isn’t accessible to all.

At most, they should allow crafting the invitations to make them more challenging, but at that point, if the difficulty increases, the rewards they provide should also scale accordingly. However, this risks leading to a situation where normal drops are reduced to compensate for better rewards at higher difficulties. It would turn into a dangerous loop for the majority of the player base.