Why POE1 Phrecia is a Better Game than POE2

* Deterministic crafting (bench, harvest, etc). POE2 is just a slot machine. Runes add some MINOR determinism but of course you need to drop them to use them and that is RNG and there are limited types of runes. You could add a lot more runes and make them purchasable but still that wont get to harvest where I can change a fire modifier to a cold one. This is probably my BIGGEST problem with POE2 since I usually play SSF. I don't want to be FORCED to trade.

* One death in a Map is just a bad idea. OK, I know there are a lot of one death proponents and I would be fine with a semi-hardcore mode. For a 54 year old single father with a career like me that cant play 12h a day, I need to be able to use all of my portals because one moment of a kid running up to me distracting me shouldn't end my map. For semi-hardcore why bother having multiple portals at all, one death and they can keep going back and forth as much as they want. Options would be best.

* POE1 has multiple endgames. Although I hate the relic system in Phrecia, the Atlas tree is a work of art, the Atlas from POE1, Delve, Heist and more are there for the endgame. POE2 endgame is hastily thrown together and ill conceived. I don't want to get random content but would like to specialize in things I enjoy. If you want endless maps, why not take inspiration from delve and add scarabs and an atlas skill tree?

* Ascension. I LOATHE Sanctum and Ultimatum. Now you force us to do them? Why? In POE1 I just wait until I am overpowered and blow through the lab. Maybe it would be better to just ditch the trials and let people ascend at certain levels? Let people that like these 2 mechanics run them but don't force us.

Some are going to exclaim "but its Early Access." Sure but its not like they haven't been building ARPGs for years. They have the code. They simply didnt use it. Until they have these 4 things figured out I cant envision playing POE2. POE2 has a lot of good games but these 4 things just ruin it for me. I dont know why GGG has such an obsession with RNG but unless you can play 14h a day the RNG is annoying and if the target audience is those that can play 14h a day that means those of us who cant will have a bad time.

Wow Surprised no flaming.

I dont think most poeple who still browse this forum care about POE1. The moment legacy of Phrecia hit i feel like these forums have become a much more reasonable place, when POE1 raging fans left to play it.

I have tried once in past POE1. I didnt find it fun enough to play for long. I have 0 interest in it. I do have fun in POE2.

I agree with most of this.

Deterministic crafting i believe will come eventually so, not really worried about atm.

One death per map, i don't know how to comment on this because, i realize they don't want all builds to forgoe defense in favor of glass cannon, and i like the idea behind that for various reasons i won't go into, but, i still feel POE2 hasn't acheieved this goal at all. When a heavily armoured defense oriented character can get randomly BTFO'd by a same lvl boss/rare/pack he ceases to be considered heavily armoured. It's also just lazy design.

Multiple End-Games. This is great in POE 1 and would be in POE 2 as of current patch. I loathe 'juicing' up maps, boring af, cuts into the A in ARPG. I want the areas to just exist and i go there to fight. I don't want to 'create' it.

Ascension is just terrible, so i agree something drastic needs to be done there. No idea what its like playing on sparky i've only used melee so far(was the whole point i came back to POE. Melee sucked so hard i left.), but i assume ez mode, hence why some geniuses come to tell you its ez. Whole thing feels untested by even the lead coder for it.

+1 million

https://youtu.be/h5wMKFrQiM0?si=mgSgferNj4FroLdP

Tri says a lot of the same in his latest video.

I really want a crafting bench and all the above.

I don't even like runes because there's so little variety and it's such a small effect.

I'd rather have a crafting table where I could choose like 17 different effects.