[Edited] Not so fresh player feedback - Good game but many flaws (endgame instability)

Hello,

In a previous post I was searching for the overall feeling on the game. Now with a bit more mileage I can share my view on the game.

TL;DR: Game is gorgeous but highly unbalanced and endgame mapping is unfair on top of the many disconnection that you can encounter. Making you lose not only the run, but the loot, the map mods and the waystone. Really infuriating.

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Was hyped to get into PoE world by joining the EA of PoE2, I can tell that my first impression was that the game is gorgeous.

Indeed, the environment, the monsters, everything is superb. I am amazed each time I am entering a new zone and it only gets better.

The classes:
varied and great but a bit mainstreamed also when it comes to ARPGs, the great archetypes are there but it works.
Unfortunately, the endgame is based on build tier and the builds are not really using the class system but more the passive tree.
There are many many classes that can achieve the same build, e.g. Lightning Spear. This is super wierd as the first choice a player makes is the class but this choice is completely useless for the endgame.

Worse than that, if you picked a class that cannot achieve the best build tier, you will end up with such a handicap that you will have a hard time playing the late endgame

The optimisation of the characters:
Well on that note, we ain't gonna fool ourselves. This is complicated, so there are people creating builds and others using them. I am the latter, one downside is that it removes a lot of the player agency. This is a plague on popular ARPGs where I don't expect GGG to solve it for the whole genre.

However, the whole passive tree, gem selection, itemization, etc... Is left to some people for the player base to consume. Moreover, the game seems to be highly dependent on optimized build.

The worse being that you can even get wrong using an S tier build. I used the storm wave Inovker build from A1 to AC3 and it's only a friend who told me to go full damage that unlock the build for me. Going for defense node was a mistake that made me want to quit the game.

There is a huge lack of player guidance when it comes to character optimization which should be solved by GGG and not guide writers.

The class balance:
After switching from storm wave to lightning spear, the difference was so great it's not even fair. Projectiles are way easier than other attacks. They are not hurdled by any floor elements. There are close to no collision with the environment that you can clear a map without even looking at what you kill. It is a very huge flaw in the balance of the game.

The game balance:
There is the biggest flaw of the game. You can breeze through the maps and level up your way through the Acts BUT you'll get occasionally stomped by some of the bosses.

The bosses can be stomped or stomp you based on your build (cf. above). There is a huge need to balance some of them as either you go the S tier build route and you don't even see their mechanics or you try to enjoy the game with a more casual route and will be OS by many of their abilities, which is unfair.

Engame maps
I don't even know who decided that removing the modifiers of a map when it is 'failed' but it is utterly dumb. You should just delete the map node on the atlas.

A failed map means you died at least 2 times, so you already lost 20% XP + the waystone + the time attempting it. So losing all mods on the map is overly punishing for no reason. Especially when it comes to a corruption hub where you would have 5 atlas point.

Worse is the stability of the endgame, I spend all the time on A1 to AC3 without an issue (except that one chat thingy I solved with the /clear).

However, those rollbacks without safe state are utterly dumb. You get disconnected because the game decided that it could not handle your presence on the server anymore. It's already a nightmare experiencing.

However, the map being "attempted" could be as well labelled as "failed", the disconnection, don't just port you to your hideout.
It removes the map mods,
it rollbacks all loot you gather,
it removes the waystone.

I already got this on corruption hubs, T9 6 mods maps, T10 2mods maps, etc...

I want to try some of the other features of the endgame like the pinnacle bosses but this instability is pushing me just to stop the game.

I could not see myself recommending the game if you got the frustration of the endgame and are stopped after AC3 just for technical reasons.

To that, I can add the useless elemental patches on maps making the whole thing running slower.
The monsters dead but still chasing you.
The monsters not dead but not loading but still able to attack you (the number of death on that one is over 9000).

I have the recommended specs for the game and did not encounter that during the Acts so it's really an endgame issue and it's a huge let down.

IMO, GGG puts too much of the build options in the talent tree and items.

There is nothing to hunt for, nothing to grind for. You can just spec for it and put it on the auction house. So builds become paint by numbers.

Remove the trade, made truly varied and interesting skill support gems, and maybe even very rare skill gems. This would solve so much of the game.

Feel free to update this post once you have delved into the atlas and tried to level above lvl 90. I think the later trials will also alter the overall perception of the game.

Everything you JUST said in terms of things being difficult at any point basically boils down to one of the very first things you said, and that's that you are using other peoples builds. This is a lack of understanding of game mechanics on your part, not the game being difficult.

Players that do this, rarely IF EVER actually understand how their characters work and just see stuff dying and then think that replicating certain things automatically makes them work. There are numerous players particularly in hardcore that almost NEVER die, and have 0 difficulty with ANY point in this game, most of which often say that this game is WAY too easy. Once you learn the mechanics of the build you are using, and then bother to learn the way mobs move and projectiles move, you basically become unstoppable and in most scenarios, damn even unhittable if you're ranged and took 20 minutes to practice a solid moving pattern (figure 8, S, or U shaped movement only) and now that they just nerfed all the dangerous mobs damage, its basically impossible to die. At this point if you die, 99 out of 100 times it's safe to say it's a skill issue.

Long story short, stop using youtube builds. Develop your own. It will make you understand why things synergize with other things, and you will figure out your characters strengths and weaknesses way better.

It is laughable that everyone is using this lancer 1 shot build. Makes me realize how non creative most people have become and how few people actually want to play the game but instead just want to feel WILDLY overpowered. It makes me weep for games when everyone just uses the most powerful stuff and don't even understand what they're doing. If this thing moved faster, it would be almost as meme-able as the monk was on release in D4....and that got ugly.

bumped for update after 60 hours of game time.