Path of Exile 2 Feedback

I have thought for a while that I liked Path of Exile 1 more than Path of Exile 2. I also thought I would be a player who would play both games (I still do with some caveats). However, I was going through my Steam library organizing my games on my desktop and was looking through my game time of PoE and PoE2 because of that. For PoE1, I have 2,000 played since December of 2020. This has been a lot of fun, but I definitely thought I had a lot more playtime. I don't think I am full degenerate or no lifer, but the only achievements I do not have are "All Ears", "No Stone Unturned", and "Grandmaster". I have generally been a 100 - 300 hour player per league or generally make 1-2 characters and grind about anywhere between 20-100 divines (depends on the league, but generally 20 divines is not that much of a stretch to achieve in a league). I still have not dropped a mirror, but I have bought a mirror shard to have in standard and I have done multiple pseudo high end meta crafts (think awakener orb slamming two elevated modifiers into one item and then finishing with item can have three crafted mods or something). So, not mirror tier crafting but a decent amount of end game crafting across the leagues. I have a headhunter in standard and have the divination cards saved up for mageblood in standard, but haven't got around to exchanging them for the item because it almost feels taboo to not have solo earned it in one single league economy. For all of that, I thought I would have a lot more game time - it is still a freakishly large amount of game time compared to any other game I have played, minus maybe a MoBa, but that doesn't really count in my mind.

Here is the thing about the PoE1 vs. PoE2 conversation that I would like to point out. PoE2 released in December and most of my playtime was during the holiday break (so essentially I have played 2 weeks and a handful of weekends). I am already at 200 hours of game time. I thought I would rank the game as a 7 out of 10. I thought there was a lot wrong with the game. Then I signed up to play in Pohx's private league and that was a lot of fun! However, PoE1 has not aged well by comparison to PoE2 after having played PoE2. If I did not have PoE2 as a comparison point, then i would still think that PoE1 was a near perfect game (because of how much play time I have on it and how much I find myself playing it over anything else I have on my Steam library). PoE1 might be a 6 out of 10 for my after trying to go back to it and I think that PoE2 is actually a 9 to 9.5 out of 10 for me. Yes - there is a bit of wiggle room in that rating because I do think there is a bit more that needs to be added before the game is perfect, but frankly it is way more fun than PoE1, which sounds awful to write because I really thought I liked PoE1 more than PoE2. What I realized is that I like how in depth the systems (crafting, the passive skill tree, learning about uniques, learning about the atlas, boss farming, map blasting, alva incursions and temple itemization, einhar, etc.). There are so many different things that you could choose to farm, which foundationally alters your play style and game play loop. All of those things are "better" in PoE1 than in PoE2 but that adds a lot of complexity which is okay for veteran players but might be overwhelming for new players. However, even though the rules are crunchy, in depth, and maybe better PoE1 gameplay is kind of mid. It feels good to shield charge flame dash or leap slam + frost blink to efficiently travel around a map, but the combat in PoE1 and the mechanics of clearing a map being situated around being able to either melt a boss in less than 5 seconds or blast a map in less than 2 minutes is either kind of boring or seemingly mindless if not boring at this point. I played PoE2 for a month and a half at this point and now I am not sure if I will even being able to go back to PoE1 because what is the point? Except, I still think it is cool? Because there are builds in PoE1 that I haven't played? I do not know if I can go back and play because PoE2, even if you do not agree with the game being better, the combat (I am not going to call it "meaningful"), but I would say that it is better. I am not single button mashing. I am actually running through a map. I am actually using multiple skills. The only thing I want now is to actually have a reason to use my weapon swap, but I think that will come with time. That and improving the atlas passive tree in PoE2 (admittedly high bar because the PoE1 atlas passive tree and the PoE passive tree post masteries is SO well developed). Those things will come with time, but everything graphics to mechanics of the game in PoE2 seems to have ruined me for PoE1 and I do not know if I like that or not, but I can definitely see myself continuing to play PoE2. I like mapping, I like the endless atlas even if it feels weird, I like trading, I like pseudo crafting (though I would like more methods or a little bit more determinism). I think the only thing that I really want more of is more points of interest per map. Side note: I do not understand why people dislike the rare system in mapping. it is just einhar beast hunting. I think it would fix it to have the Rare monster icon appear after you encounter the monster - that way you don't accidentally run past it and then maybe also have one empowered rare like a red beast compared to a yellow beast. I do not need map bosses per map, but like it doesn't take away or add to the experience either way. For me I just want more stuff in the map's environment to interact with - Niko, Alva, essences, strongboxes, abyss, the rest of what is in PoE1 - I would normally be interacting with 3 - 4 things per forsaken master and then another 1 - 3 things with the remaining juice I have on the map.

With all of that being said, I don't understand the PoE1 player base hate of PoE2. This is such an upgrade and I get it that PoE1 is familiar and PoE2 is not perfect because it is missing a lot of development, but again this is early access. There are 8 of 36 ascendancies released so far. There is so much game and play styles coming still. I just don't remotely understand the doomer mind set? I am already at 200 hours in PoE2 and have been playing it a lot more than PoE1. After playing for 10 hours in the league reboot of PoE1, I am not sure if I am even going to finish my atlas. I kind of think I might just grind in PoE2 until the economy reset and i might be okay with that. I am still having fun and at the end of the day this is a game that I play after work to unwind for the night, which is funny because I play it too casually to be a no lifer but not so casually that I don't get stressed from it. I can't commit too much time to this game and for what it is, it is a great game. It is fun and it is not perfect but it is good enough.

The reason for the hate is because GGG lied. They said that the PoE2 was supposed to get a separate team, turns out they've been pulling people from PoE.

Also, PoE2 is supposed to be for new players, it's designed to make it easier to get onboard with the game, as according to GGG, Path of Exile has gotten too bloated and complex for newbs.

That's not to say anyone can't enjoy PoE2. It's just got a different design philosophy, one that's supposed to be easier to get into.

The endgame is another issue as that's direct port of Path of Exiles mapping system, which will need a redo if they want to keep it inline with 2's changes.