Why PoE2 fails as a slow, deliberate game, and why that should not be pursued.

The reason it is not, and should not strive to be a souls-like experience, is in simple term that it has too much RNG. A souls-like doesnt include RNG in its gameplay for a reason, the more you add, the less it becomes about skill and being deliberate and the more it becomes about having good luck. It is the difference between playing chess and playing the lottery.

This also has nothing to do with difficulty as a game of chance can be extremely difficult, such as the stock market. So I am not saying that the game shouldn't be difficult.

The game cannot be slow and deliberate, because of its heavy reliance on gear, which in turn heavily relies on RNG. Because the existence of god-rolls, it makes trying to force a slow and deliberate gaming experience impossible. If you try to force it, that hurts people that dont have good RNG on their gear. So if you adjust the game for the majority of players, that means the people with good RNG are gonna steam roll the game.

Furthermore, because of the RNG loot, and currency, the game itself does not promote going slow and deliberate. It promotes killing enemies, and going as fast as possible to secure currency and loot as fast as possible.

Lastly, the amount of enemies that come at you, do not facilitate being slow and deliberate, but to try and take them out as fast as possible. Again, if I was to point at dark souls, you usually only fight 1 or 2 enemies at a time, that can kill you if you are not careful. You generally arent swarmed, except maybe in select circumstances like with rats, and slimes.


If the devs wish for the game to be slow and deliberate, then the goal should be to minimize the impact of RNG on the game. if you are going to push the RNG as a big focus, then you should stop focusing on souls games, and focus more on rogue-likes like Dead Cells, or Hades, or looter shooters such as borderlands 2. I honestly think the game leans more toward being like Dead Cells, especially with how endgame and trials works. In which case, I would focus on developing and the increasing meta progression like a rogue-like would have. The more meta-progression you have, the more replayability that you will have, and generally the more satisfying and well liked it is.