Feedback from Ben_ and my comments

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[1:37:17.160 --> 1:37:17.700]
Like, the original scope for P.O.E. 2 was a new campaign, new class, new ascendancies, new gems, and a new gem system. Right? Like, that was the original scope, but shared endgame.

[1:37:38.280 --> 1:37:39.200]
And when we think about P.O.E. 2, what is good, it is exclusively the things that I just said.

[1:37:47.400 --> 1:37:49.120]
It's the campaign. Like, the one single thing that P.O.E. 2 actually does better than the first game is the new player experience in the campaign. It is so much better. Like, this game's campaign experience (PoE 1) is dog shit if you don't know what's happening. Vendors use, like, nine different currencies to buy things, gems, or nine different currencies. Like, it sucks. It's really bad.

[1:38:06.680 --> 1:38:07.060]
Whereas, in P.O.E. 2, the uncut skill gems and the vendors all being gold, it's so much easier to follow and understand what's happening. The hand-holding of the gem system for recommended stuff, even though often it's not the best, is way better than here's a window with 95 gems in it, good luck. Like, the way the game kind of pushes you into these archetypes of lightning versus whatever else, like, it all kind of just, it's just way easier. The game is way easier to play if you don't know what's happening. And that's really good.

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[1:38:45.560 --> 1:38:47.580]
And the moment you leave Act 3, or really Act 6, maybe, and start mapping, it just is bad. Like, if I think about every single change from the first game to the second game, I almost can't think of a single positive change when it comes to actual in-game content. The change from killing a map boss to killing all rares, who wants that? Every time I hit tab and scroll through a map trying to find the rare that's hiding in the corner to kill to get progress, like, it's just bad. The map bosses aren't in every map. Why? Map bosses are cool. They're fun. Why can I go an hour without fighting one sometimes? It just makes no sense. Towers? Jesus Christ.

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[1:39:31.960 --> 1:39:33.000]
Sextants got deprecated because they were tedious. And Sexteants are, like, a thousand times better than towers.

[1:39:41.580 --> 1:39:42.340]
Map layouts? Like, the worst P.O.E. 1 map layout is S+, and P.O.E. 2. I didn't even think it was possible to design map layouts that are so unfun.

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[1:40:00.860 --> 1:40:02.700]
And checkpoints got added? Jesus, man. Checkpoints? The moment people started asking for checkpoints in maps, that should have been infinite red flags exploding out of every single corner. If layouts are so bad that players want checkpoints, that needs to be a complete redesign of how layouts work. It's, like, how are 80% of layouts, like, unrunnable? Like, mire, like, augury, like, ah!

"

[1:40:34.120 --> 1:40:34.900]
The way loot works in the endgame, 95% of all items drop from rare monsters. Every single trash monster, there's no reason to kill it except for experience. It won't drop loot. It will never drop none of that matters. And, like, the breach problem as well. Like, 90% of all loot comes from breaches.

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[1:40:55.960 --> 1:40:56.820]
And so much of this shit is, like, oh, you can hand me the way with, oh, it's early access. But, is it really? Like, I mean, to me, when I hear, like, early access slash beta, what I think is, this is an unfinished game that's gonna be changed a lot constantly. It's been two months. What's changed? Like, what's changed? There's not even balance changes happening until, until resets come out. Like, with new leagues as if it's a fully released game. I don't get it, man. I don't get it.

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[1:41:23.800 --> 1:41:25.000]
If P.O.E. 2 stayed with its original scope of new campaign, new gem system, shared endgame, god, it would have been so sick. But, like, that endgame, it's not even like, oh, it's neat, just needs time to cook. It's just, like, every single change. Feels like it's just a change because it needed to be different than the first game. But, I don't understand how it's better.

[1:41:51.620 --> 1:41:52.020]
And, the phrase meaningful combat. I swear to god, I've heard the phrase meaningful combat a hundred times in the last, like, two years.

[1:42:12,320 --> 1:42:13,000]
PoE 2 has the most meaningless combat of any single RPG I've ever played. It doesn't exist. There is no combat. Every single build. You use one button, you right-click, the entire screen explodes. Like, what the fuck?

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[1:42:13,540 --> 1:42:14,320]
Why? Why is that a thing? Why is that still a thing two months later? Like, people are gonna be so used to that that when they finally take it away, there's gonna be so much complaining. And it is just so boring. Like, killing monsters in that game is so boring because you don't do anything.

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[1:42:16,120 --> 1:42:16,480]
Even when I tried to, like, not do that kind of setup, like, intentionally skipped heralds on cross pose, it's the same thing. You press the galvanic arrow, the entire screen explodes. Even this character, like, this character falls into the category of one-button builds.

[1:42:16,520 --> 1:42:16,720]
Like, this spear referred to as a one-button build in Path of Exile 1. To clear, like, an expedition, I, before I had the chest, I would, like, Enduring Cry, dodge monster abilities with Shield Charge and Frost Blank, right click, press Val Grace as a defensive button whenever I felt like it, drop Flame Moles on targets to buff my shit and do more damage, and Sniper Smark and need Panky Rares in there. And Path of Exile 2, you right click.

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[1:42:16,920 --> 1:42:17,800]
I don't know. I feel like splitting the game. Like, maybe splitting the game to save Path of Exile 1 from having a bunch of changes that fucked it up. But, like, god damn, dude, that endgame is, like, it's not even, like, oh, it just needs time. It's just doomed. It's fucking doomed, man.

[1:42:18,100 --> 1:42:19,520]
I'm so Doomer-pilled on that endgame. I don't know. Campaign's good. Campaign's fun. Everything after the campaign, why? Why?

[1:42:31,180 --> 1:42:43,840]
It's, I can tell you, I think I'm full nuke. Have you played a bad build in PoE 2 yet? Because I have. I have. That's how I started PoE 2. There's multiple bad melee builds. So, like, Titan, if you play it properly, is really good.

[1:42:44,720 --> 1:42:45,680]
If you do Herald Abuse, you just one-shot the screen easily. But, like, playing actual bad melee builds, the pushy, no phasing system, genuinely made me almost quit the game on day three. Like, it's just, like, the clunkiest, least fun combat I've ever experienced.

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[1:42:46,020 --> 1:42:47,220]
When playing bad builds, and then when playing good builds, the thing with Path of Exile 1, when you get to a character that's, like, fucking just zoomer, cracked, completely broken, the game is still, like, the game keeps getting more and more fun.

[1:42:47,500 --> 1:42:48,580]
Because there's one super important thing you can do in this game, and that is scale speed. Like, when it comes to how a character functions in ARPGs, there's, like, three categories. There's defense, offense, and speed.

[1:42:49,380 --> 1:42:50,500]
And this game, you are constantly being, just, like, thrown into scenarios where you're choosing one of the three. And any time you choose one, the other two suffer a little bit. In PoE 2, it took me, like, by level 90, like, my Titan would right-click and one-shot the whole screen, and from that point forward, there's nothing that I could ever do to improve the character.

[1:42:50,600 --> 1:42:51,260]
I could play for a thousand hours, it would never get better. Unless I, like, migrated to Trade League and bought Temporalus, because there's no way to invest in speed except one dumbass unique item.

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[1:42:59,220 --> 1:42:59,920]
Oh, I didn't even talk about crafting. Holy shit. That was, like, a ten-minute rant. I didn't talk about crafting. My god. Gear acquisition. What the fuck? Do I need to... I don't know if I even want to bother. Like, fuck me.

[1:43:15,360 --> 1:43:16,940]
Long before PoE 2 came out, we had a talk about why other ARPGs suck compared to Path of Exile 1, and something that, like, one defining factor that was super important to me. If the only way to get gear is to kill a monster and hope it drops a good item, that's really bad. That's really, really, really bad.

[1:46:44,700 --> 1:46:45,400]
And that was, like, D3's problem. That kind of became D4's problem as well. Like, that's just... That's just... That's not enough. That's not interesting. And PB1 has, like, eight systems that are, you know, that all are good at their own individual crafting thing.

[1:46:46,340 --> 1:46:47,480]
Like, Essences, Harvest, Delve, Metacrafting, Scowracking, Alting, Accommodating right now. Like, there's so many different things, and they're all good for different items. And then also in the early game, like, day one, day two, first 20, 30 hours, like, you wear shit you ID'd off the ground. Like, that has a place too.

[1:46:47,860 --> 1:46:48,740]
But it just gets outscaled, which I think is good. Every single map that I run in PoE 2, I have to pick up every single base type of every single item that I could ever wear, put them all in a quad tab, and then eventually when I get enough, I out them all, slash, like, augment, transmit, regal, whatever, and then three to one them in the most, like...

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[1:47:48,240 --> 1:47:49,540]
Tedious fucking clunky way ever. Like, the three to one thing, instead of being a vendor, like, the whole vendoring getting split up into, like, six different systems is one of those changes that's the exact same as the well.

[1:47:50,640 --> 1:47:52,020]
It is thematically good. It makes sense in-universe, lore-wise. It's good. But when I'm playing the game, I don't care about that. I care about fun. And if I want to turn 21 necrotic armors into seven rare necrotic armors, I'd rather just vendor all of them at once.

[1:47:52,300 --> 1:47:53,700]
I mean, necrotic armors you can't do, because, you know, they don't really fit in the window. But, like, with smaller things, like, if I have 40 breach rings, I could just vendor 40 of them and get back, like, 16 rares. But instead, it's like, I'm gonna spend two minutes doing a little three to one fucking thing with an animation.

[1:47:54,880 --> 1:47:55,380]
It's, like, cool. It looks cool. Lore-themed cool. But, like, it's so tedious. Tedious is, like, the key word for everything regarding the endgame mapping and whatnot. Like, I do a map, I leave, I scrap certain things based on if they have quality or sockets.

"

[1:47:56,680 --> 1:47:57,440]
I maybe disenchant if I need regal shards. I vendor if not. But only vendor bad bases that I picked up. Good bases have to go into a certain quad tap, and there's no affinities for any of this, and there never will be, because you can't set them up that way.

"

[1:47:58,680 --> 1:47:59,440]
And then you go back to your main quad tap to dump in all of your other shit, and it's, like, there's just, like, so much... Like, one of the best things about this game in the endgame is when you reach a point where you stop picking up six sockets, you've outskilled rare items off the ground, and you leave the game, or the map, you dump into your quad tab, 90% of your loot is going into affinity tabs, you put in the next map, you go.

[1:48:01,600 --> 1:48:03,020]
You can just grind. And map prepping? Map prepping? Holy! Like, I'm currently at, like, the worst part of Path of Exile 1 map prepping.

[1:49:59,580 --> 1:50:01,400]
Which is, I'm still doing blue maps, my sustain isn't good enough to bulk roll, and it's still, like, way nicer, because I don't have that horrendous fucking atlas tree.

[1:50:02,020 --> 1:50:03,020]
I can run maps that I want to run when I want to run them. I can roll them bulk like 20 in advance, and then just grab all 20, put them in the inventory, and just fucking blast.

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[1:50:14,180 --> 1:50:15,180]
On the atlas past the tree, there is no atlas past the tree. You have 30 points, and they all say you drop more loot. Like, they all say you drop 1% more loot. But, like, that is one of the things where, like, that will naturally get fixed as more stuff is added to the game.

[1:50:16,420 --> 1:50:17,340]
They'll expand that. Like, that's one of the things you can kind of hand wave away with, like, oh, it's EA. But, like, so much of it is, like, it's not like... It's not like the game is just lacking content. That's not the problem. Just need a moment. Catch my burn.

[1:50:23,500 --> 1:50:24,480]
Like, most of it is, like, very intentional choices that are, like, neat that look good, but when it comes to actually playing the game, it just, like, it just feels so fucking tedious.

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[1:50:32,140 --> 1:50:32,780]
It doesn't know what it wants to be. That's where I feel like the gem system currently is. I feel like the gem system doesn't know what it wants to be. Because originally, gems were going to be not damage multipliers.

[1:50:33,940 --> 1:50:34,860]
Like, supports were not going to be damage multipliers. But then they made the damage multipliers, and then they added a one support gem limit. Which just feels really weird. Like, I don't like it at all where it currently is.

[1:50:47,160 --> 1:50:48,600]
I feel like either of the other options are better than what it currently is. It's in this, like, weird, like, halfway point. Where, like, making it so there's no damage multipliers on support, and it's all utility, could be a thing that could feel good if it was done right.

[1:50:55,000 --> 1:50:55,740]
And just keeping the Poe 1 system of, like, your supports just make you do more damage also obviously feels good. We've been using it for 12 years. It's been good.

[1:50:59,980 --> 1:51:00,660]
But this current in-between thing just creates these really annoying scenarios where I want to use multiple active skills, and I can't because there aren't support gems for it. Like, I'm sitting there.

[1:52:36,720 --> 1:52:37,420]
On a 5 link, and getting a 6 link wouldn't matter because there's not a support gem that works that actually helps me. And it's like, that feels really weird and bad.

[1:52:38,640 --> 1:52:39,960]
And maybe as they add more active gems to the game, that'll be better if they also add more supports. But, like, I don't know if they will. We'll see if they will.

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[1:52:41,460 --> 1:52:42,580]
Oh, shit. The mana cost. Wait. I'm not even gonna bother. I'm not gonna bother. The funniest thing was when Karm was pitching in Guild Shad. He got, like, an insane weapon. Super good weapon. Like, fucking 700 top end plus 7. And his Hammer of the Gods cost more mana than his character had.

"

[1:52:10.000 --> 1:52:13.000]
I don't like the investment you have to do on a single gem in PoE 2. So one thing that feels kind of weird about that right now, it feels like the droppery and the whole way the gem system works would make more sense if you instead six-linked your character slot, not the gym itself. But the problem with that is you can't trade that.

[1:52:14.000 --> 1:52:20.000]
So like as soon as you consume that thing, you can't trade it. Which I'm pretty sure is why it doesn't work that way. I think... We consume a pull. Yeah, but like things being tradable is very important to them. It always has been.

[1:52:21.000 --> 1:52:24.000]
Like you make a good item, you can then trade it later. You six-linked that item, you can still trade it later. So like the gym itself being the thing that gets six-linked makes sense because then you can trade it later if you want to.

[1:52:25.000 --> 1:52:32.000]
But the downside of that is like the ability to test different skills is kind of limited as soon as you're in the end game. Because if you five-link a skill and you kind of like are like, wait, now I want to test this other one that's thematically similar but not quite the same.

[1:52:33.000 --> 1:52:39.000]
In this game you can just swap your gems and your thing but in that game you can't because like the gem itself is the five-link. I don't really know if that's a bad thing though.

"

[1:52:40.000 --> 1:52:44.000]
But I also generally play the game with pretty... Like I plan on everything I'm going to do very far in advance so like I don't really run into the negatives of that.

[1:52:45.000 --> 1:52:50.000]
I feel like in the campaign you can easily like test three-links and four-links constantly and test new skills. And by the time you get a five-link you should like kind of know what you want I guess. I don't know. Could you just buy and sell?

[1:52:51.000 --> 1:52:55.000]
Yeah true. But if you five-link a shit skill can it actually sell? I haven't looked at trade markets and whatnot. And can essences please drop?

"

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[1:53:25.000 --> 1:53:29.000]
Oh also one other good thing to talk about instead of only talking about the bad things. The breach boss is fucking sick. That boss is really good. And Arbiter phase two is pretty sick too.

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[1:53:30.000 --> 1:53:34.000]
I just, I'm so surprised by how little changes are happening though. Like that's the thing that really stands out to me. For an EA game like there's just like so little being changed.

[1:53:35.000 --> 1:53:41.000]
And I feel like they're afraid to nerf things. Because they know when they fix the current broken ass builds people are going to be mad. But I, I, I, you gotta rip the bandaid off.

[1:53:42.000 --> 1:53:47.000]
I, I, I don't, I don't think waiting is good. Like when they do the, the, the reset it's going to, or like when they do the nerf it's going to be with the, an economy reset.

[1:53:48.000 --> 1:53:53.000]
Which is like the, obviously the ideal solution for a finished game. That's how it always should be in a finished game. But I just feel like first impressions of like how a game plays is like really important.

"

[1:58:51.000 --> 1:58:58.000]
And if you just leave it for, I mean we're coming up on two months and we don't even have a date yet for Druid Huntress. So like is it going to be three months before the first reset?

[1:58:58.880 --> 1:59:05.000]
And if so like three months of combat being like what I have to assume is nowhere near where they want it to be. There's no way they're happy with the current combat in PoE 2. See time will tell.

[1:59:05.360 --> 1:59:10.040]
It's not even just Herald of Ice though like that's a big one but like even non-herald builds kind of do the same thing like galvanic arrow does the same thing. Lightning arrow without Herald of Ice can do the same thing it's a little bit weaker but just like the general like.

"

[1:59:10.680 --> 1:59:19.040]
I just like they talked so much about combos about like you're going to use multiple skills in PoE 2 and I haven't even come close. Like I haven't played a single build that uses even half the amount of skills that Path of Exile 1 uses.

[1:59:20.000 --> 1:59:31.400]
I played every single archetype. I think the build that I played that has the most character input in terms of like you press buttons to kill monsters is spark. Spark which is like historically kind of considered to be a non-interactive playstyle.

[1:59:31.880 --> 1:59:42.040]
Like you just press a button and the whole screen gets covered in proj but somehow spark from like a character input point of view has been the most engaging combat of any of the or like the most engaging while still being fun combat because it's pretty engaging to get your shit pushed in by trash monsters that can push you across the screen whenever they want on a melee character that can't kill anything it's pretty engaging just not fun.

"

...

[2:00:43.720 --> 2:00:57.400]
It's super awesome. This weird thing people see. What. I don't know, I normally, like the reason it's taken me like two months to really put it all into words is because I really don't like being negative. I want to enjoy things.

[2:00:58.320 --> 2:01:19.840]
And I just wanted to like wait, you know, and give them time to cook, time to change things and fix things, but it's been two fucking months, so who knows, who knows. At least Path of Exile 1 still exists and it's in a really good state. Oh, I've never been the big of a fan of direct feedback stuff.

[2:01:21.640 --> 2:01:40.160]
I've played Blizzard games for too long, I just, I'm, I just assume that shit's going into a trash can immediately. Dude, it's our mole now. Nah, I mean, like, I just want to play games, man, you know, you know. I want the want to play.

[2:01:43.680 --> 2:02:04.960]
I'm making a new character fucking six months into Settlers and I'm still just like, at the end of like a 14 hour grind, I'm like, fuck, I kind of want to just go for another 20, but like I probably should sleep. I don't know what sport I've ever played.

"

[2:02:05.460 --> 2:02:24.100]
My Spark journey in PoE 2 was really weird, because like, when I first league started, I played Spark Archmage to league start. I died in Act 3, finished the campaign in Act 6, then went back to Hardcore, and I really wasn't vibing with Spark, I didn't like it.

[2:02:24.460 --> 2:02:40.060]
I didn't like it because it was so non-interactive and like, I just felt, you know, I just wanted to actually experience some combat. And then after playing like five characters, I wanted nothing more than to play Spark, because it was non-interactive.

[2:02:41.680 --> 2:02:52.340]
Because like, fuck monsters. Fuck when they get to actually touch you and push you and stun you and like, fuck all that. And like, the casting while moving is like so much better than like clunky melee.

[2:02:52.860 --> 2:03:05.160]
That is one thing that is like pretty nice at super high gear level is casting while moving. Like once you have enough cast speed and attack speed that your character doesn't even slow down when you tap, feels very strong.

[2:03:05.860 --> 2:03:35.160]
But also like in Path of Exile 1, at like a similar gear level, your attack time is like .15 seconds. So you stop for such a little amount of time that you don't even notice the stopping. I can't wait to be CA. Yo, I got 43,000 gold. Time flies when you're just fucking ranting. Holy shit. I think that's enough to upgrade my recombinator. One more map. Was that actually 45 minutes?

"

[2:03:38.460 --> 2:03:41.060]
I was just talking about charms.

[2:03:42.060 --> 2:04:09.060]
I don't like charms at all in their current state. They feel really weird. Like, the charms, if you're using them the way they're like intended, really creates this weird scenario where like, let's say I'm like, I'm going to use a charm for freeze immune, right? I'm going to get my freeze mitigation. Because there's like, not really much other way to do it besides scaling ailment threshold, which is never actual immunity. It's just like lowering the chance of it happening.

[2:04:12.060 --> 2:04:25.060]
That means like, you're not going to get frozen for like, hours. Maybe for days if your build is good. You won't get frozen a single time. But you're never actually safe. Because all it takes is being unlucky and having two freezes in the initial timeframe, and then you're frozen.

"

[2:08:35.060 --> 2:08:46.060]
And just not having an actual like, reliable way to like, permanently fix that. Feels weird for something as impactful as freeze. Yeah, just raging fragments. Just, just, just have a fucking, like one of the rare settings in the game.

[2:08:46.060 --> 2:08:51.060]
Oh, and if it doesn't clear, whenever I'm talking about the game in general, I'm talking about the game when it's being played in a way that's like kind of roughly normal, I guess. Like so many problems are instantly fixed if you're just like a 0.1% like software trade juicer.

[2:08:51.060 --> 2:08:55.060]
But like those people don't matter. Like, they don't matter in Pathways Level 1 or Pathways Level 2. It doesn't matter. Like, like that gameplay experience is totally disconnected from the actual game.

[2:08:55.060 --> 2:09:11.060]
Like hardcore trade too, really. It's not just hardcore trade. Like, if you have like 2,000 divines on a build, it's like, it doesn't like, you know. It just doesn't matter. I feel like the turbo fucking no-life like hardcore self-pun experience is probably closer to the actual gameplay experience of like normal humans than the fucking 0.1% juicers.

[2:09:11.060 --> 2:09:23.060]
Like, ooh, I could just put on Temporalus and blink and one-shot the screen. Therefore, combat is good. Combat is fast. Game isn't slow. See? I have 9,000 decks and I have Tempest Flurry moving around at Mach 3. Game fixed.

[2:09:23.060 --> 2:09:29.060]
You're from the average player? You're close. Closer. Like, how hard do you think it would be for you to get your character in software trade? Like, you, someone that like is a big grinder and like knows everything, right? It'd be like, like a fucking day. Like two hours? Yeah.

[2:09:29.060 --> 2:09:34.060]
So like someone that like is not as knowledgeable as you, doesn't play as much as you, could do it in like a couple weeks. Something a little more, you know. Yeah, that's like a little bit closer to reality.

[2:09:34.060 --> 2:09:39.060]
Also, I fucking hate Temporalus by the way. Like, at least with blink. That shit is so dumb. There's like two ways to make your character go fast.

[2:09:39.060 --> 2:09:51.060]
And if you don't have one of those two ways, which is like deck stacking with like Tempest Flurry or Temporalus, then you're just like, you have like a hard cap on how much you can scale speed. Without the dupe, yeah.

"

[2:09:51.060 --> 2:09:55.060]
Without the dupe, there wouldn't have been as many. It would have cost a lot more. Command of the Force is okay, but how much moves did people actually get from that?

[2:09:55.060 --> 2:10:07.060]
Like when Rue linked his character, it was like pretty slow still. At least when he linked the number in the thing, it might have been faster. 200%? That's pretty fast. Like 200 is pretty solid. Like he linked a screenshot and it was like 114 or some shit. I was like god damn, like fucking snail over here.

[2:10:07.060 --> 2:10:21.060]
I just want move skills. Like real move skills. Like even in this game, if my character is kind of slow, but I'm moving with move skills, it feels a lot more interactive. Maybe it's the backtracking issue. Like maybe it's not like the speed or how you're moving, but it's why you're moving. Maybe that's the problem.

[2:10:21.060 --> 2:10:35.060]
I don't really know. I just constantly feel like I'm just like walking to walk, to walk somewhere while walking. And like, I want to fight things. But I'm just walking. Maybe if they fixed map layouts, the mobility thing wouldn't be as big of a deal. It probably wouldn't be. But god damn, the layouts all fucking suck. Like they all suck. There's like two that are good. Maybe three out of like 30.

"

[2:10:35.060 --> 2:10:49.060]
And they're so empty too. Alright, it's time. Upgrading the guy. If the graphics better in Poe 1, create a Poe 2. I feel like that's like a comfort thing. Like Path of Exile 2 looks fucking beautiful to me. It looks really good to me. But like when you've like played something for so long, it just like, it becomes like your normal.

[2:10:49.060 --> 2:11:00.060]
Like for me, I genuinely think like WoW looks good. Obviously it doesn't, right? Like objectively it doesn't. But like to me it looks good. Oh, I'm on it. We're watching the stream. We have some more clean. I'm not really sure.

[2:11:00.060 --> 2:11:14.060]
Like visuals, I've always been like a form over function kind of person. Like I don't really give a shit how things look for the most part. I appreciate it when it does look nice. But like, I mean, I don't care that much. I'll be honest. I guess I do kind of care about the theme. I don't know how to even describe this in words.

[2:11:14.060 --> 2:11:22.060]
Like one of the biggest things about Torchlight that turns me off actually is the graphics. But it's not like because they're like low quality or something. It's like just the way the game is designed. Like the arcadey thing versus the gritty like fucking PoE stuff.

"

...

[2:16:07.060 --> 2:16:08.060]
But. ES is pretty dumb. But. I feel like. That's the kind of thing. They'll actually. Fix. Probably on the first balance pass. Like. My expectation. Is. Grim feast. No longer. Has any overflow at all. And. Every single ES node. Down to the tree. Is cut in half. That's my expectation. For ES. I don't know. What they're going to do for mana. I don't know.

"

[2:16:50.020 --> 2:16:51.020]
Life is like really weird because I feel like life is only a viable stat if you strength stack. If you don't strength stack, life is complete dog shit. It's unplayable. You'll just get one shot by random things all the time.

"

[2:16:53.020 --> 2:17:03.020]
I think the defense of a warrior that is strength stacking is really good defense. I think it's about where the game should be defensively. Like a 4.5k, 5k life warrior, maybe a little bit of max res, some block. I think the game feels good at that point.

"

[2:17:03.180 --> 2:17:07.180]
When you have these 20,000 ES CI characters, it's dumb. They're just invulnerable. Even the hybrid characters that just get 2k life and 6k ES with Grim Thieves to 12k is kind of excessive.

"

[2:17:09.180 --> 2:17:10.180]
ES is too strong, but warrior did feel... I wouldn't say it felt good because good feeling defense means your character is invulnerable and nothing ever hurts you, and obviously that shouldn't be that way. But it felt balanced. It felt right. In terms of how much damage boss abilities did, how dangerous maps were, it felt right.

[2:17:11.480 --> 2:17:17.480]
At about 4.5k, 5k life with some block. But the only way to get there is strength stacking on a life is built. So I don't know what they even do about that. Like do they nerf strength from like 2 down to 1 and then buff base life? They buff life on gear?

[2:17:18.400 --> 2:17:23.400]
I don't think they're going to add lifens on the tree, and I don't really know if I want them to. Lifens on the tree are so weird. You got me thinking about that.

[2:17:25.280 --> 2:17:26.280]
On one hand, I like the agency of being able to choose to invest in a reliable defense whenever you want it. But on the other hand, at a certain point it's not really agency because it's mandatory. The choice that I have is do I want to have like 40% life in Act 3 or like 70%?

"

[2:17:27.140 --> 2:17:30.960]
But like I can't skip it entirely because you'll just get killed by everything. And then in the end game you kind of eventually reach a point where you spec into pretty much every single life node that you path by. And that doesn't feel very good.

[2:17:32.960 --> 2:17:36.040]
Like a lot of life based builds in this game end up with very similar like skeletons for their trees because you just have to path by all the life nodes. Then you just get like the damage nodes that are good that you path by. And that isn't ideal.

[2:17:36.000 --> 2:17:43.160]
That is another thing though that I think really contributes toward the campaign being a lot easier for new players is life nodes not existing. Like in Path of Exile 1, if you fuck up, if you make a bad choice, if you have no clue what to do and you spec points that are bad, your character is going to be duolog shit because the tree is so powerful and the points are just so important.

[2:17:43.720 --> 2:17:49.500]
In Path of Exile 2, if you fuck up and make a bunch of bad choices, defensively you're probably still pretty close to someone that made good choices. So it's not going to be like as brutal of an experience.

[2:17:50.500 --> 2:17:51.500]
And the respec-ing. Oh yeah, that is one thing that's really good. Which I think they might change to make it a little bit more friction-y. But in PvE 2, you can respec so easily. Like you can try things, you can not be certain about how you want to build a character, and you can always fix it over time because gold respecs are so accessible and it feels really good.

[2:17:54.620 --> 2:17:56.800]
We kind of have that in Path of Exile 1 now with the gold that they added this patch. But before they added gold and respec-ing with gold this patch, you get 24 respecs in the entire campaign. That's it. Like you fucked up? Nah. Make a new character, bud. Like you're done.

[2:17:56.800 --> 2:17:59.600]
And I'm pretty sure we got gold respecs in this game because of Path of Exile 2. Like they had that in that game and they were like, wait a second. Let's port that back to the first game. And that feels a lot better. Like having some, you know, having some flexibility.

[2:17:59.200 --> 2:18:03.440]
That's all of them. Yeah. Currency and respecs feels really good. I don't think they're ever going to do that in the second game. But I do like it.

[2:18:04.180 --> 2:18:09.180]
Just because, I mean this is minor, but I like when I'm just kind of running. I level up. I get a new point. And I'm like, wait a second. Now I can unspec this one thing and get these two other things. And I like being able to just do that on the fly.

"

[2:22:27.120 --> 2:22:30.760]
It feels nice. And then also being able to trade for regrets in case you didn't have gold for whatever reason. Kind of nice, but I really don't know if they're going to change on Ascendancy Swapping. I don't really care one way or the other.

[2:22:31.560 --> 2:22:34.800]
I love how one thing I didn't even talk about, which I'm sure pisses off a lot of people, is the one portal maps if you die. But yeah, I don't know. I hope they keep one portal maps so that you guys have to experience the same bullshit that I do. You know?

"

[2:22:35.040 --> 2:22:41.520]
I talked about this like two months ago, but like there's no world where Revenants would have stayed in the state they stayed in in this game for seven years if softcore players actually had to deal with death. You know? Like they would have fixed that shit. Like so fucking fast if death mattered in softcore.

[2:22:42.520 --> 2:22:45.040]
Like all of like there's so many mechanics that are just like bullshit that like take forever to change because death doesn't matter. So you guys having to deal with that in Path of Exile 2 helps me. Let's go. Let's go. Let's Moreover. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Okay. Let's go.

[2:22:45.520 --> 2:22:58.760]
Oh, do we still flip on the mechanics? Yeah. I mean currently they're disabled, right? Like the main one is currently still disabled because there was a bug with shattering making it not render so it's accessible for now. I definitely want them to rethink my death entirely in that game.

[2:22:59.760 --> 2:23:02.760]
Like the push for slower gameplay and meaningful combat should mean that monsters kill you with their abilities when they're alive by attacking you not with post death bullshit. Most importantly post death mechanics should exclusively come from the monster itself. The monster should have a post death mechanic always.

"

[2:23:03.760 --> 2:23:11.760]
Instead of the current system where everything doesn't explode but everything can explode. All it has to do is get the right arch in a mod and then it explodes. I think that's really fucking bad. Like the big bloated dudes that explode on death are a perfect example of a good on death mechanic.

"

[2:23:12.760 --> 2:23:21.760]
But like periodic explosions making the minions explode every single time with that game spawning like nine fucking arch nem mods per rare meaning it's on I think it's like two thirds of every single rare that you kill. The minions explode on death because of the periodic mod. That's just like way too much. Way too frequent.

[2:23:22.760 --> 2:23:27.760]
But like the little blood guys that spawn puddles when they die like the bloated dudes like I don't really mind if monsters have the mechanic if it's telegraphed well and like feels fair which the most of them do. I just fucking hate arch nemesis dude. I've been ranting about arch nemesis for three years at this point.

"

[2:23:28.760 --> 2:23:35.760]
Also does anyone know why in Path of Exile 2 rares sometimes roll like nine modifiers? I think in this game they roll from two to four and then you can give them extra sometimes. In that game they roll from like two to like ten. And then the keystone gives plus one to two. But like why does it? Is it like a bug? Like have they talked about that at all? It feels like a bug.

[2:23:36.760 --> 2:23:39.760]
Is it a rare just randomly just has like ten arch nem mods? Map effect scales it? How? Also I fucking hate that keystone for plus one arch nem mods. Because it's mandatory. Like you have to have it. It gives you like it's so much more loot you have to have it. But it makes it makes the gameplay worse. Because arch nem mods are annoying.

[2:23:41.760 --> 2:23:42.760]
You unclicked it? Yeah. I unclicked it for a while when I was weaker. But like.

[2:23:53.760 --> 2:23:54.760]
It's not scary at all. I mean nothing is scary at all right now. Because the game is absurdly easy. Because the balance is not in a good place. But they're gonna fix that. And then once they fix that. That's the thing that like. The balance being in this state for so long. It masks like all of the underlying problems. That you just don't even have to experience. Because everything just gets one shot.

[2:23:55.760 --> 2:24:10.760]
So like all the feedback that could be happening. On a lot of the like underlying problems. Isn't because everything just gets one shot. I mean if you've played certain ways. I mean every single character that I've played. If you just click the points that work for your skill. Just one shots everything. As soon as you have items that have like two mods that are useful. I think.

[2:24:11.760 --> 2:24:23.760]
I can only imagine if I was playing in trade. And I could just. Instead of having to spend ten hours to get a weapon. If I could just buy one. Like it would just be instant.

"

[2:24:24.760 --> 2:24:25.760]
I mean. I mean. Did they even buff essences? Like they said they buffed omens. But essences didn't even get listed in the patch notes. Right? Like they mentioned in the Q&A. That. Greater essences were too rare. But in the patch notes. There wasn't a direct change. Except the. Yeah. Like the boss tab. You can target bosses now. Which is. Makes it easier to target them.

"

[2:24:26.760 --> 2:24:35.760]
But unfortunately. As long as a breach. You know. Has the current loot spread that it does. Relative to non-breach maps. It's kind of hard to ever justify doing that. I mean like. Currently. Greater essences are. 1 in 40. Of all essences. That number needs to be like. 1 in like. 5.

[2:24:37.760 --> 2:24:46.760]
I played for. Over 200 hours. I never once. Equipped an item. That I crafted with a greater essence. I only use like. 2 total. Because they just don't exist. It's not even like. Greater essences are like. Fucking. Like. Broken. Like. You're adding a random mod. Of a type. It's not even.

[2:29:43.760 --> 2:29:44.760]
It's not even like. Greater essences are like. Fucking. Like. Broken. Like. You're adding a random mod. Of a type. It's not even. It's like. If it was like. The rarity. If it was adding. A tier 1 mod. Every single time. I would get it. But like. I'm gonna. Greater essence. Defense. After grinding. For 300 hours. To get. One. Defense essence. And. It's still like. A 10% chance. To win. Because. There's so many. Tiers. That aren't good.

"

[2:29:45.760 --> 2:29:46.760]
Like. I just wanna. Craft items. I just wanna. Upgrade things. I mean. T13. Fuck. Oh my god. The tier system. The tier system. What the fuck. I forgot about that. Why doesn't it do anything? It's just bugged. Right? It's just bugged. I think it just bugged. Like. The part that was bugged. Was like. Certain tier 1 modifiers. Were being cold. So they couldn't spawn in the first place. They just couldn't roll in the item.

[2:29:47.760 --> 2:29:48.760]
But like. It. It. It just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. It just like. The. The. The. The formula. For how it. Like. How strong tiering things are. It's just way too. Uh. Way too weak. Like. I. I. I would rather have. Two. Untiered items. Instead of one tier 5. And that's. Weird.

"

[2:29:49.760 --> 2:29:50.760]
No. I. I. I don't mean like. The. The tier. On. Affixes. I mean like. When a tier 5. Expert bow drops. I should be excited. And I was. On the first couple days. Until I found. Like a bunch of tier 5 items. And realized. They're fucking dog shit. Like they're not. Meaningfully better. So. Not buy enough to care. For how rare they are.

"

[2:29:51.760 --> 2:29:52.760]
No mods lower than level 44. Can roll. Yeah. Like. Accuracy. Life and mana leech. Log in. Log in. We have the identify all in one. I think the tier 1. I would like that as well. It would be nice to have. But. You reach a point in this game. Pretty quick. Where you kind of just like. Stop. Needing that. So it's not like. As important.

[2:29:53.760 --> 2:29:54.760]
The disenchant guy. Contributes. To like. 99% of all the items. That I've ID'd this league now. I'm ID'ing them. To disenchant them. You go. Know what? God bless wrong. Made accuracy. They did make accuracy less rare. Or. Less common. I noticed that shit. Just from all that. The crafting helmets.

[2:29:55.760 --> 2:29:56.760]
Accuracy was so rare. They did make that less rare or less common. I'm gonna always say that backwards. They made it more rare. Eating good. I dropped two divines during this rant and a Valdez box. What do you want leech?

[2:29:57.760 --> 2:29:58.760]
I haven't played with leech enough to know if it's good or not after the buff. I haven't played any builds that really use it. I played around with it before the buff and basically the only time that my life went up after doing damage was if I used Hammer of the Gods.

[2:29:59.760 --> 2:29:59.760]
Mana so annoying. Yeah there's one thing that's different about how mana rolls. In Path of Exile 1, mana can only roll out armor items that has int. If there's no int requirement it can't roll mana. For like the core four armor slots.

[2:30:00.760 --> 2:30:01.760]
In PoE 2 everything can roll mana which obviously is intentional because they want mana to matter a little more hence the whole spirit change. But like who likes mana? Who enjoys creating interesting character power so that they can attack?

[2:30:02.760 --> 2:30:03.760]
Like mana is cool for mana stackers. Like when mana is your offense and defense stat. Mana is really cool and I like it. When I'm playing melee and I'm fucking pressing earth shatter. I just I just want to be able to attack. There. That's what the BM is for.

"

[2:30:04.760 --> 2:30:05.760]
Maybe if leech was a little better it could be a thing. I know there are some BM builds that are played. But like hypothetically if you... If you have a bunch of plus gem level stuff to the point where like your mana is totally bricked. Going blood magic probably just means your life is now bricked.

[2:30:06.760 --> 2:30:07.760]
Because... Like if your skill costs like 300 life per attack. And you're attacking twice per second. Like that's a lot of recovery you need. And it's not easy to get. I mean originally like a month ago I was thinking it was gonna be like early february for druid huntress and end of february for the 26th. But now I have no clue.

[2:30:08.760 --> 2:30:09.760]
Now maybe it's like late february for druid huntress and like april for the 26th. Who knows. First game we have 15 mana in spam for days. I prefer mana being something that I have to think about to solve. But the solution is not really that like expensive.

[2:30:10.760 --> 2:30:11.760]
Like for this character mines just in general are super cheap. I spend a few points on... Well I spend like 10 points on reservation so I can run the auras that I want and have my mines be cheap enough that I can still reserve them.

[2:36:40.120 --> 2:36:41.400]
I commit some life to arrogancing an aura for mana regen. And then if it costed a little more, I could add in some minus mana crafts on my gear to fix it a little more. I could click some reduce mana on the tree and just take a little bit.

[2:36:42.680 --> 2:36:49.800]
Like I don't need like a ton to fix it but it's just like a little bit to fix it and then it's fixed forever. Like if I were to get a six link I would need to like have enlighten which I do have thankfully. And then maybe upgrade my clarity like 10 more levels. Like that's the kind of investment that I like for mana.

[2:37:03.720 --> 2:37:12.440]
Like it's something you think about a little bit not too much. I just want my skill to kind of work. My enlighten just dropped on the ground. I was going to have to lab farm for it. But I skillfully just dropped on the ground.

[2:37:22.600 --> 2:37:35.800]
I'm going to spin on Poe on. I think Spirit... Like... Spirit is better than mana reserving. But the current scaling of how much gems increase in cost per level is just too much.

"

[2:38:43.200 --> 2:38:47.800]
Like with having Spirit in the game you could still get mana to a point where it's kind of similar to Path of Exile 1 where it's like to fix your mana you need like a couple points. Maybe like one or two mods on your items then you're good.

[2:38:47.960 --> 2:39:35.600]
And the way it feels to me on most builds that I've played... If you're using level 19 gems on attacks... Just a mana pot is enough and you don't have to ever think about it ever again. But the moment you want to scale some gem levels for damage... You are fucked. Like for example on Gas Era with level 19 gas... Whenever I went to fight a boss... I did a small respec where I flicked like five points of Flassistain. Changed a clear aura... A herald to combat whatever for Flassistain. And then I had my mana class to be there for... The boss. And like that... Is like a good amount of investment I think... To solve that problem. For like a mix in a boss fight.

[2:39:36.840 --> 2:39:45.720]
But hypothetically if my bow had plus seven proj and my clover had plus two... I don't... Know if there is a solution... That could work. Because my skill would cost 400 per attack. And I convert full to fire so I can't even leech. So like I don't... I don't think it'd be possible to fix.

[2:39:46.760 --> 2:39:59.080]
Why don't you gold him up too? 33,000. I think once I get 100,000 I'll go to my first recombinate attempt. I also have mine is gonna be used by flat damage attacks and spells. Attacks yes. Spells no. It scales with percent increased spell damage. Because of this line where it says it does that.

[2:40:00.120 --> 2:40:35.800]
But that's only exactly the stat percent increased spell damage. Or like percent increased spell damage while holding a shield. For example would also work. Those seven grenades you didn't have to fight. Seven's a decent amount. Respect players time to lead all RNG. Ball again there's a button that says win. Let's go. Ball again. The biggest thing when it comes to RNG that matters to me is the RNG of gear progression. And because there's no actual like incremental anything in Pv2 for the most part. There's just like there's no feeling of progress to me.

[2:40:36.360 --> 2:41:00.200]
And I feel like the feeling of progress progression is like the main thing this entire genre like exists to cause. Like that's why it's fun. It's tricking our brains into making progress in our lives. And in Pv2 like whether or not I get a good Breach Ring in like 20 Alchemy Orbs or 200 is just totally random. There's nothing that I could ever do to improve that. So like I might get an upgrade today about even five days. Who knows?

[2:41:01.000 --> 2:41:13.000]
In this game every map that I run is getting me a little bit closer to what I want. There's like four different systems of progress that I'm working towards. And every single one, even if I get nothing in the map that actually helps me in that moment, I know I'm a little bit closer. I got a little more cushion currency to get fossils. I got a little more juice to roll my jewels. I got a little more gold for my recombinating. I got more alts.

[2:41:14.000 --> 2:41:35.640]
Like there's always constant small improvements and because of how strong the crafting is, I know I'm going to convert those numbers into items. Yeah, a bit more fucking conquer maps in the ground. Get my influence gear, my woke gems. Like there's like a thousand different things that I'm slowly working towards that every map helps me. Instead of just like, I'm pulling a lever on an alchemy orb.

[2:41:47.600 --> 2:42:10.040]
Flat fire dispels, is this on a wand? Crystack men? Correct. That does nothing. Let's do more years. Yeah, we'll see. Like the gear progression process is definitely the kind of thing that like more systems, more leagues can fix. So like that's the kind of thing that like right now it sucks, but like I mean maybe eventually it'll be better, but like the reason that it is the way it currently is, is because they want drops on the ground that matter for longer.

[2:42:11.760 --> 2:42:59.880]
Like if crafting is too good, you reach a point where you just don't care about drops on the ground at all. And I think that's not ideal. This is something that I've talked about in this game for like literally since Heist League. Like since Heist League basically when they added smart loot. Like I think the amount of crafting in this game is really good, but it means that a randomly generated item on the ground, if it uses the same mod weights as crafting tools do, it's just never going to be good. And they fixed this problem in Heist League with well rolled loot, where loot rolls with like thematic synergies.

[2:43:00.200 --> 2:43:20.600]
Like it'll like roll a bunch of lightning mods, and it also rolls them with higher tiers, and it knows that life's a good mod. And this meant that like hypothetically, if an item dropped on the ground that had a fucking parenthesis next to it, and then it said smart, or tier five, or like whatever system they want to name it as, you would pick it up and you would be excited because you know it's using a system that makes it better.

[2:43:20.760 --> 2:43:32.280]
Like when you're walking to the end of a fucking blueprint, like those rares can very often be pretty solid items. Like I hover over every single one and check because they can just randomly be like plus 200 spell damage cast speed. They can just be super good.

[2:43:33.880 --> 2:43:53.240]
And instead of dropping 500 rings in a map, in like a juice map, if just like five of those dropped, like that would fix the problem of like things on the ground not mattering. But completely killing all crafting so that base drops are relatively better is just really boring. Never going CAA. Soon brother, soon.

"

It took me thousands of hours to figure out how to kill Uber Sirus

"

Banneddd#5088 wrote:

Nothing in poe 2 is original: EXPEDITION,BREACH,SHRINE,STRONGOBXES,ESSENCES,RITUAL. Nothing new.
Just a copy paste but made it tedious.
Have fun holding down the tempest flurry hotkey in poe2 guys.