Game Difficulty from a D4 player

Background: Experienced D4 player. Finished PoE1 campaign on one league in Xbox and reached level 79 (still newbie overall). I stopped playing any games other than online Chess since December 2024 and focused on work. Grabbed PoE2 this week to play again.

Anyway, back in December, I heard massive praises for the upcoming PoE2 where it will possibly be on par with PoE1 and obliterate D4. But this week I am reading a 50/50 opinion about PoE2.

Anyway, I had difficulty with Act 1 and almost thought of just quitting and stick with D4. I died multiple times against Count Geonor (Act 1 Boss). The dodge and roll moves I have to do remind me of the old and classic games I played in SNES and PS1.

Until I realized my issue is DPS. It was a DPS check. So I spent hours farming trying to improve my gear. I also learned I have to synergize my skills for DPS. I am not following any guide. I wanna approach PoE2 with an open mind.

After beating Act 1, everything became easier. Act 3 boss was way EASY and I didn't even die. Now I am on Act 1 cruel mode and it still feels I am on cruise mode. I'm running lightning spear Huntress because I was playing Spiritborn back with Diablo. So why not.

But I also read where veteran PoE1 players were having difficulty with PoE2 Act 1 as well when it came out.

Here's what I want to know:

1. Was the difficulty tuned out in the campaign when PoE2 was released back in December vs to what I am playing now? Basically campaign is easier now or was it difficult then because folks are not familiar of the game?

2. Is the difficulty that I experienced in Act 1 typical with new players?

3. If I continue upgrading and improving my build and maintaining the status quo until the end of Act 3 Cruel (status quo means I am obliterating mobs really quick), am I setting myself on a good path for the endgame. Or is there a wall that awaits me at the end.

PoE2 is balanced on a knife edge. For a starter character with gear found in the Act and a player of average skill, Geonor is going to be a challenge. Upgrade your gear a bit, a "twink" start, Geonor is easy.

Geonor is hard, maybe too hard. Or maybe easy, too easy. So to me, balanced correctly.

Edit to add: Skill is underrated. The two zones leading up to Geonor should be a hint that it's not going to be easy.

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BigBoom9240#8803 wrote:

Here's what I want to know:

1. Was the difficulty tuned out in the campaign when PoE2 was released back in December vs to what I am playing now? Basically campaign is easier now or was it difficult then because folks are not familiar of the game?

2. Is the difficulty that I experienced in Act 1 typical with new players?

3. If I continue upgrading and improving my build and maintaining the status quo until the end of Act 3 Cruel (status quo means I am obliterating mobs really quick), am I setting myself on a good path for the endgame. Or is there a wall that awaits me at the end.

1. Campaign was harder when it launched, then noobs/streamers cried and it got nerfed.

2. Yes. If you are clueless this game will be very difficult for you. It doesn't really teach you anything and support gem recommendations are not optimal, thus further misleading new players.

3. You've somehow managed to stumble your way (if you are being truthful and didn't just copy a build guide) to playing the most OP shit in the current league, so you will be fine damage wise.

Defensively you need to have some clue to play high end content and not die whenever a rare mob looks at you. My advice is to not play a pure life based build and switch to either hybrid eva/es or pure es at some point.

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arandan#3174 wrote:

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BigBoom9240#8803 wrote:

Here's what I want to know:

1. Was the difficulty tuned out in the campaign when PoE2 was released back in December vs to what I am playing now? Basically campaign is easier now or was it difficult then because folks are not familiar of the game?

2. Is the difficulty that I experienced in Act 1 typical with new players?

3. If I continue upgrading and improving my build and maintaining the status quo until the end of Act 3 Cruel (status quo means I am obliterating mobs really quick), am I setting myself on a good path for the endgame. Or is there a wall that awaits me at the end.

1. Campaign was harder when it launched, then noobs/streamers cried and it got nerfed.

2. Yes. If you are clueless this game will be very difficult for you. It doesn't really teach you anything and support gem recommendations are not optimal, thus further misleading new players.

3. You've somehow managed to stumble your way (if you are being truthful and didn't just copy a build guide) to playing the most OP shit in the current league, so you will be fine damage wise.

Defensively you need to have some clue to play high end content and not die whenever a rare mob looks at you. My advice is to not play a pure life based build and switch to either hybrid eva/es or pure es at some point.

1. I see. So it's the same story with Diablo 4. Mobs and dungeons were harder and more toxic back in Season 0 and Season 1. Then the mobs and dungeons got nerfed. Then we got power creep and bugs that make millions of damages to gigagillion

2. Honestly, the recommendations were helpful to me at some point but then I realize it's not optimal. I'm still trying to find the optimal combinations. Just really relying on my Diablo knowledge at this part.

3. I am using a Huntress Amazon Lightning spear. So far it's strong. I'm cruising Act 3 Cruel and been getting meaningful upgrades on my way. Far better experience than on D4. But what I am afraid of, same experience with D4, is after Act 3 Cruel, do I just face a giant wall or there is gradual buildup?

In D4, there's a giant wall between Tier 3 and Tier 4 difficulty.

The only guide I used for PoE 2 is looking at the wiki on what the modifiers mean and recently how the tier system works. But in terms of build guides, I am not following any Huntress build. I usually just try to play my own and maximize whatever I can and when I hit a wall in the endgame, that's probably the time I might check how other folks do it and check guides.