Really Enjoying PoE 2, But These Two Things Are Making Me Quit

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Woofeliwowa#1985 wrote:

Hey everyone,

I'm a new player, and I have really enjoyed Path of Exile 2 so far! The gameplay, the combat, and the overall design are fantastic. But after spending almost 600 hours and leveling several characters, I've decided to stop because of two major frustrations:

1️⃣ Losing My Map and All Prefixes
One of the most frustrating things is losing my map and all the prefixes when I die or leave the area. It feels like so much progress is just wiped away, and it makes me hesitant to engage with the system at all. I understand that maps should have some risk, but completely resetting everything feels overly punishing, especially for newer players like me.

2️⃣ The XP Penalty on Death
The XP penalty is brutal, especially when trying to level up. Losing a chunk of progress every time I die makes the game feel more punishing than rewarding. Instead of learning and improving, I just feel discouraged. It creates a situation where one mistake can erase hours of effort, which makes progression feel like a grind rather than an achievement.

I really want to love this game and stick with it, but these two things are pushing me away. I hope GGG considers some adjustments to make the game more accessible while still maintaining its challenge.

Are other new players struggling with these mechanics as well? Would love to hear your thoughts!

I second that! The game is fun, but it's sad losing all that for a death on a map that isn't optimal (all the hidden barriers and holes)!

+1

It's good to see critiques of the faulty parts of the game's design continuing to be pushed forward, despite the common droning of the cultists.

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Zumac666#6492 wrote:

Just quit

I quit, uninstalled, and left a negative review on Steam. It's almost comical at this point how every patch/hot fix adds new crashes and performance drops while they are stubbornly clinging to death penalties despite a ton of negative feedback

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CovidPatientZero#0332 wrote:

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Zumac666#6492 wrote:

Just quit

I quit, uninstalled, and left a negative review on Steam. It's almost comical at this point how every patch/hot fix adds new crashes and performance drops while they are stubbornly clinging to death penalties despite a ton of negative feedback

Yes, new players are having fun now but they don't know GGG yet. The smile will fade as they destroy thing after thing, take away toy after toy, build after build, league after league.

GGG is kind of the real endgame, the game often comes down to us vs the devs. And the devs only care how the game feels, not how we feel.

GGG will never give a crap how you feel new player -- get that notion out of your head now or you'll never make it to the next patch.

Agree with your points entirely.

To me the game doesn't feel rewarding at the end to play.
The punishing your player mindset is what kept me from long term investment into POE1.

The combination of the two issues you highlighted mixed with the whole "one shot or be one shot" design of endgame where there's no difficulty/challenge/growth are my reasons.

I want fun boss fights and gameplay, I want to feel progression, rewarded for growth.

This feels like "build something that feels like cheat codes or die"

Doesn't have weight to it at all.

I really appreciate the discussion and everyone’s perspectives—it’s been great hearing different takes on this.

At the end of the day, I really hope GGG reconsiders their stance on the death penalty. I respect if their vision is to create a punishing game, but I also think there’s a balance between challenge and motivation. Right now, losing maps and XP on death makes progression feel frustrating rather than rewarding, and that’s the core issue for me.

That said, PoE 2 is one of the coolest games I’ve ever tried, and I’d love to come back if the experience becomes a little less punishing for the sake of being punishing. If GGG sticks to their guns, that’s their choice, but I hope they recognize that there’s a difference between difficulty that pushes players to improve and mechanics that just make them quit.

Thanks again for the discussion—I’ll be keeping an eye on how things develop!

I love PoE 2, and on paper I'm on board with death penalties. But I find that losing hours of XP on top of a whole bunch of map mechanics and setup time - usually to an unseen one shot drowned in an ocean of particle effects - doesn't inspire me to gear better or play smarter. It inspires me to stop playing for long periods of time.

If dying cost one hour of experience instead of however many it does now, I'd probably play more than I currently do. And then I'd probably spend more on mtx, so GGG wins too.

But even better would be toning down mysterious damage spikes, so death more often felt like the player's fault. Right now it's like, you died because you didn't plan for the possibility that underneath the poison pool and the purple plant and the lightning strike and the quadrilla slam and the enemy aura, three of which you dodged and two of which you knew you could tank, there was also burning ground so now you're dead.

All I can say is this...
I lost 3 hours of trying to beat tier 1 maps in the endgame , and of course, I kept loosing the exp so I kept getting thrown back to 0% exp at level 69 :)))))))))))) NO PUN INTENDED :))))


As soon as I had a few exalts dropped and I could use them to get a new quarterstaff I started to be able to move on
I am now doing tier IV maps.

P.S: I also got some help from nice people who gave me a better armour and a better quarterstaff, without their help I would've lost another 4-5 hours at least to farm for orbs/gear.

So, if you need help, hit me up in the game, I'll give you some help with your gear like others have helped me as well :D

I am playing a 95 Infernalist witch right now , most maps at this level barely give a percentage point even at full completion, yet if I make a mistake , or due to screen clutter get on-deathed, or even more annoying offscreened I lose 10% xp . That is easily 20 maps at worst case scenario or 10+ with 16+ juiced when they hit with a VAAL. While I am doing those maps , I am constantly seeing mostly junk and wading thru mostly empty filling areas and to make matters worse ground clutter filled maps like Decay. Blooming fields , or terrible layouts like Foundry and the risk/reward/fun factor goes down significantly.

B4 anyone leaves a post about "oh maybe you need better gear"...I am at the point most upgrades are 10Div+ if I am lucky. I am resistance capped , chaos capped , 2000+ life 18k ES w/Grim Feats and walk around with 22 Minions.

I don't care if I have only 1 portal, I don't care if the map loses all mods after death, I do care about feeling like my time is not being respected.

The way I see it if you're gonna have a harsh time wasting penalty, then there should also be a way of earning it back , just like a souls game. After the player dies open a new portal to a mini area where a new boss awaits, the player will then choose to engage or leave the area. Dying to the new boss would result in double Xp loss, Killing the boss would fully restore the Xp lost originally . This game is all about gambling so WHY not ? This option would only be available if player was over 20% percent to begin with.

Remember Happy players spend money and support the games they play, Miserable players move on.

It continues to impress just how many new threads like this show up on a practically daily basis. Between the horrid balance of mob scaling, the fact ES is the only good defense, the complete lack of available defense layers for warriors dedicated to red side, the miserable state of Life generally and especially Armour, these obnoxious death penalties are just multiple kicks in the teeth after being punched in the gut and falling to the ground. I can go 20 hours without a single upgrade to speak of and can't even be graced with a single level for my efforts because of how much random one shotting there is.

It's incredibly dumb how much this game wants its players to stop playing it. Imagine going to a restaurant, enjoying the food, and randomly the staff just slaps you upside the head in the middle of eating or refills your drink then spills it on purpose. Yall want our patronage or not? Fuckin a.