I really hope PoE2 makes build progression fun again

I just cant bring myself to enjoy new leagues anymore. Nothing about early league progression is fun. There are so many systems and mechanics that are just barriers you have to get over before you can actually play something fun and effective. Like sure you get upgrades like a good weapon but your build will still suck until the very end. Everything in PoE feels like its scaled and balanced for farming juiced t16/17. Before that its just a mess.

I think what you are describing as a negative, is one of the biggest positives for me.

In PoE, I think progression is fun. Why? Because you start out as a nobody, slow and weak. From that point, you actually feel every tiny bit of improvements all up until your build is minmaxed to the point of juiced T17s and ubers. Everything is noticeable - and every improvement feels great, from the passive tree, from gear, from flasks and even from Pantheons.

In other ARGPs (without naming names), your character more or less feels the same "all" the way through. The only thing that improves, are numbers. Of course, that is a bit exaggerated, but I do feel that you notice improvement and progression way more in PoE.

Agreed Phrazz. +1

"

Phrazz wrote:

I think what you are describing as a negative, is one of the biggest positives for me.

In PoE, I think progression is fun. Why? Because you start out as a nobody, slow and weak. From that point, you actually feel every tiny bit of improvements all up until your build is minmaxed to the point of juiced T17s and ubers. Everything is noticeable - and every improvement feels great, from the passive tree, from gear, from flasks and even from Pantheons.

In other ARGPs (without naming names), your character more or less feels the same "all" the way through. The only thing that improves, are numbers. Of course, that is a bit exaggerated, but I do feel that you notice improvement and progression way more in PoE.

Build progression is my favorite part of rpgs, often to the point that I dont bother with endgame in most mmos and arpgs i play. My point is that its awful in PoE.

Campaign progression is basically just passive points. Gear progression is so awful there that you are lucky to cap resistances by the end of act 10. You get basically no currency for crafting. League mechanics might as well not exist aside from low tier essences which are basically just alch orbs. You might get a couple of uniques from a small subset that actually drop there. You are lucky to get 1 that is usable.

Atlas progression is more or less the same. Early maps hardly give any loot or league currency. Its like an order of magnitude faster to rush map completion and then start progressing once your atlas is mostly finished. Even if you do decide to play it slow and farm essence or expedition for crafting you will be halfway through yellow maps by the time you have enough to make a single "big" upgrade. Loot is entirely tuned for endgame juiced farming. Early on its awful.

Also I completely disagree with upgrades being noticeable. You notice getting your gems and linked supports. But after that there are very few upgrades that improve gameplay, such as getting more movement and attack speed or explode. You can upgrade all your armour and still get randomly 1 shot by some overtuned rare mob or after-death ability. You can spend all your currency on a new weapon and you still have crap damage. Its not until you get a dozen or so end game upgrades all for the same thing or some expensive endgame gear-synergy that you actually start being able to change your playstyle.

If your build is still incomplete then any holes will become apparent as soon as you enter a map or fight an enemy with the modifiers that are balanced around having a finished build. Its not satisfying, its a chore you have to endure before you can play something thats actually efficient and functions properly.

There are some huge steps to getting a build together. Each lab ascendency is a huge character progression. Getting your 6 link is huge. Getting the perfect cluster is huge. For melee, a new weapon is huge.

Every lab I ran with my lacerate build was game changing. Getting bleed pops made clearing super satisfying. Getting Aggravated bleeding was a 200% damage boost basically. My shielding becoming 50% block was very noticable. And finally getting lucky block just as maps started to feel difficult was an insane layer of defense. Getting my Jack the Axe from my lowly 300dps axe was a massive jump in dps. Changing from a Tabula to an actual armor based 6 link was a huge jump in defense.

Not really sure why you feel how you do, maybe you're rushing so fast to do things that you're missing the actual progression because you're only focused on the final result?