My friends and I were really enjoying PoE2, until we reached the end-game.

My friends and I have been playing PoE2 almost every single day since it went into early access, thoroughly enjoying the game, and spending way more money on it than is probably reasonable. But all of that fun and support came to a screeching halt once we reached the end-game.

Our issue is not with the content being offered in the end-game, but with the way co-op is handled there. To be clear, our primary issues are:

1) When playing a map co-op and one player dies, that player is unable to rejoin the map or be revived and is essentially no longer able to continue playing with their friends. I can not properly express how ridiculous this feels to us.

If we are intentionally playing a game together then the primary goal there is to *play together*. A player's character laying on the floor "dead" and staring at a game-over screen while another player's character continues adventuring through the current map is the exact opposite of playing together. It is sheer boredom for the downed player and constant guilt for the remaining players who (rightfully) feels like they are wasting the downed player's limited gaming time.

2) We can not progress through the same Atlas map together, and are instead presented with individual/different Atlas maps rather than one shared identical map. After sharing progression through every step of the the entire campaign together we suddenly find ourselves playing what essentially feels like separate games. It's jarring, unwelcome, and it makes no sense. Why can we not continue to tackle the woes of Wraeclast together?

And yes, I am aware we can assist one another with our individual Atlas progression, taking turns or what have you. But that is not the experience we're looking for and it's inconsistent with the experience we've had throughout the campaign. I just don't understand how someone looked at the current end-game design and felt it meshed well with multiplayer.

My friends and I have limited gaming time, and limited opportunities to spend time together. We attempt to address both of those hurdles by combining these activities together. I understand that the points I raised are a non-issue when playing PoE2 alone, but for us this sort of setup is a deal-breaker. We can not see ourselves continuing to invest time and money into PoE2 if this is the scenario that awaits us in the end-game. There are too many other games out there that handle co-op better.

While POE2 has great base for coop gameplay, traditionally POE was alwas single player (85% by official stats). Coop in POE1 was terrible. And since they copypasted too much POE1 into late game of POE2, terrible coop transfered there too.

"

Azimuthus#1135 wrote:

While POE2 has great base for coop gameplay, traditionally POE was alwas single player (85% by official stats). Coop in POE1 was terrible. And since they copypasted too much POE1 into late game of POE2, terrible coop transfered there too.

because the multiplayer is not supported properly. Bad netcode (no frame skipping technology). And instead relying on input latency between connections. Make's the multiplayer almost unplayable most of the time. It is technology from pre 2000 being used for multiplayer connections. Literally no half decent multiplayer game in 2025 relies on this type of netcode as it's virtually unplayable.

Diablo 4 also stated all of their players play single player. Well no shit.. there's no match-making. This game has match-making (of sorts) but it is bare bones. There is no way to tell the connection of the group you're joining as there's no latency meter. And combine that with the netcode and it makes multiplayer not worth the hassle. I'm not even going to dwelve into how looting is handled which has everyone fighting over drops. And most of the players hosting multiplayer games has people demanding other players not loot but only leech exp.

#2 is fine tbh, I understand you had different expectations but if you play a decent amount of time in the endgame you'll understand and probably accept why the atlas is not shared.

As for #1, I wouldn't mind to be able to join back when dying and be limited to 6 portals in maps just like in PoE1, having access to more attempts per map might leads to more deaths anyway so exp loss as a penalty is more than enough.

I honestly don't mind too much about "repeating" the Atlas for each player. More maps overall, but they need to come up with another endgame alternative that is more "group" friendly that doesn't rely on maps or an Atlas.

However, the current "let a player lie on the floor" while the rest of the group carry the burden is kind of a worse penalty, from a limited playtime perspective, than playing solo and losing the map is (and everything attached to it). This is an unfun mechanics to a game that is otherwise very enjoyable in couch co-op, and probably online co-op too.

I'm not saying that we should be able to carry our friends' body and they should be able to get exp and loot, or that there should be no penalty for dying in endgame, but the current death penalty discourage players from actively playing with, let's say, friends or family that might not be as good at the game as they are. This segregate the playerbase and could lead to a friend simply leaving the game and never coming back out of frustration. Imagine being "told" that (or feeling like) you're a dead weight.

I can totally understand that you need to be able to pull your weight against Pinnacle bosses, but mapping in group should be fun, not friendship-breaking. However, it wouldn't be fair to solo players if members of a group could ressurect their dead teammates, while a solo player lose its map after one death. I don't know how they can keep the current "difficulty" and solo penalties on, except maybe giving solo players a second portal and group players one ressurection per group.

Maybe maps could stay as they are (mostly a solo experience, with solo progression and penalties based to make sense in solo), but they should introduce other endgame alternatives that are far better at leveling and getting loot in group, or at least, that do not lead to one player having to take a 10 minutes break everytime they die to a one shot mechanics.

"

Warrax#2850 wrote:

#2 is fine tbh, I understand you had different expectations but if you play a decent amount of time in the endgame you'll understand and probably accept why the atlas is not shared.

I understand it may be fine for you (and feel free to elaborate on why), but for us it most certainly isn't fine. When friends playing together are not working from the same play-space it's difficult for everyone as a whole to be excited about whatever progression is occurring at any given moment. You end up with a situation where one player is excited as they near a specific objective-node (e.g. a hideout) and everyone else playing with them is thinking about how they're not currently investing their limited time in progressing their own Atlas instead.

That's not fun.

+1

every one of my friends has quit playing entirely because of 1 death your out. go sit in a corner. really fun isnt it?

1. Your friend has a bad build. I'd suggest she looks at a guide.
2. They could make a guild atlas.

They make this game "multiplayer" by giving you a trading economy.

But basically every other aspect of the game is severely lacking in actual multiplayer/coop.

It was like this in PoE 1, and it's like this in PoE 2. The demographic of players they want to try to catch(same as in PoE 1) seems to be people that can play 14 hours a day. Not people that want to play a good game with friends.


I would love for this game to have proper co-op.

You can always just leave the map and start a new one. Honestly the single death thing is fine its the same for solo players and there should not be an inherent benefit granted to people playing with friends that they can keep playing a map as long as 1 person doesn't die.

I do agree with you that you should make atlas skill tree progression while playing together though and get your boss kill rewards. I can't see atlas map progression being in any way related though or you would be chained to the person with the least progression which doesn't exactly benefit anyone. Having a shared guild map would be nice though accessed through the guild hideout would be a huge win for everyone both co-op and solo