The Core Problem with PoE 2

Path of Exile 2 risks becoming a failure, and the main reason is its endgame. Even after fully building your character, it just doesn’t feel satisfying—your hero still feels slow and underwhelming. On top of that, being forced to play through the campaign twice makes the experience even worse. Many players don’t even make it past the first act, and only a handful ever reach the endgame. Now imagine starting a new season with this system—most people just won’t bother.

I built a warrior who can one-shot bosses. Sure, there will always be "experts" saying, "Well, don’t make a build that one-shots everything—problem solved!" But let’s be real: the essence of any ARPG is creating the fastest and most efficient build possible. One-shotting enemies and bosses is the ultimate goal in games like this. Players spend hundreds of hours farming divine orbs and Mirrors of Kalandra for this exact purpose. If the game becomes boring after reaching that goal, the issue lies with the game, not the player.

The spell and gem system is outright terrible. There’s also zero balance in difficulty. This leaves the gameplay in a weird state—it’s either way too easy or absurdly difficult, and neither feels rewarding.

Yes, the visuals are stunning—no one can deny that. But the maps are way too stretched out. Why am I running through massive empty spaces instead of engaging in meaningful combat? It feels like the developers artificially padded the game length just to boast, "Our campaign takes dozens of hours to complete!" In reality, 70% of your time is spent running through oversized areas, while only 30% is spent fighting bosses. This is a terrible formula that makes the game feel sluggish and repetitive.

Another strange issue is the overwhelming number of positive reviews. For a game with so many obvious flaws, the high ratings feel suspicious. It’s almost as if they’re being artificially boosted because the criticisms far outweigh the praise. If nothing changes, PoE 2 could turn into a ghost town within weeks. Confidence in the project is dwindling because it’s clear the game needs an almost complete overhaul to survive.

At its core, PoE 2 feels like an unfinished product. Yes, the visuals are amazing, but they’re just a shiny wrapper hiding a mountain of problems. Developers are quick to nerf overpowered spells, but they ignore the bigger, more fundamental issues. If they’re not willing to address these flaws, they’d honestly be better off releasing PoE 1 on a new engine. We were expecting a masterpiece, but what we got is a divisive project that leaves players more frustrated than entertained. It’s bad. Really bad. There’s simply nothing to enjoy here—Path of Exile 2 is completely unfun.

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HerDoColeN#6568 wrote:

At its core, PoE 2 feels like an unfinished product.

That's probably because it is. It's in early access. Most of what you mentioned feels to me like an issue about tweaking the parameters rather than foundational issues. And when the 1.0 is out there'll be 6 acts, and there won't be a cruel difficulty anymore.

Are you ok? You know it's a early access for testing right? It's an unfinished game that will be tested for 6 more months before release.

It's much easier to balance a game by slowly adding and fixing stuff than removing every broken or unbalanced thing.

They wanted a slower game, that's what you got, but don't worry, as we dont even have half of the skill gem and support out yet. Almost no uniques and no crafting either.

If you expect to be able to zoom with every classes or skill, then you clearly didnt follow the news.

Also, they clearly said that they will add act 4-5-6 before the official release and they will get rid of the cruel difficulty.

You say they only fix overpowered gem and it's completely wrong. They already did a fix for the loot, the crafting, the dodge roll and more.

Not every game as to be to you liking. Dont like the current state? Then just go play something else and come back later.

Sorry bro, but i dissagree with you. The game is in early access.

I dissagree with you about doin the fastest clearing maps and one shot bosses. They wanted slower poe so its slower. Battle with bosses is epic, long, difficult and when you kill it, the satisfaction is guarranted and i love it! Its like "I killed it! Jesus fucking christ... I fakin made it... Yeah im awsome Lets move forward!".

And one shooting maven, sirius and all uber elders... Really?

I always finished season in poe 1 by one shooting or one bursting shot all bosses and the game become boring. I just quit? Cuz im bored.

Here, i got challange everytime i met rare monster. Well depends on affixes they can be riddiculusly strong. Like magma barrier and health regen... Its unkillable xD

But goin back, yes the game is slow and let be slow on 1.0 release.

Thank you

My warrior is only level 25 and already doesn't feel slow or underwhelming. My sorc at level 50 also doesn't feel slow, but it does feel underwhelming because fire is terrible atm.

I saw slow and i saw Warrior. Theres your answer.
I started a Warrior too, got to lvl 75.. realised its just going to be slow forever so i started a ranger.. Lvl 30 now and its night and day. It feels smooth, snappy and enjoyable.

not to mention the terrible state of the market, I don't understand how it's possible to have all those divine orbs for mediocre items

"It's just early access" is no excuse for horrid game design that completely disrespects the player's time. This is just Ruthless 2.0 atm and it will fail hard at retaining players. Just you wait until the first league reset lmao

If they want to be having leagues every 3 months there needs to be some big changes, nobody is gonna come back every league to level in the slow af campaign and play the scuffed endgame with hardcore mechanics.

The game does feel awesome to me. I always thought DIV had the best joypad controls but PoE2 brought it to another level having a way better dodgeroll and the ability to go backwards while shooting is pure gold.

I consider myself as one of the worst ARPG players of the world, uni- & multiverse.

I cant even kill the first Eldenring Boss on his horse but i had so much fun doing all the PoE2 bosses with my ranger. Ofc i died a couple of times but after some training i was able to beat every boss. They always scream out loud when they attack. FLATTEN!!!! TENDERIZE!!!! ohh how i loved this.

The only reason why im taking a break from the game is because i run out of waystones. It was totally selfsustaining till i had very bad luck at lvl 6 1/8.
I used my last upgraded stones on "good maps" but the bad luck continued.

If i would not have run out of waystones i would play it all the time.

Great game. Feels very atmospheric due to the knowledge that even a small standard monster can nomnom your soul within 1-2 bites if you dont play careful.

Performance is very bad. Stuttering, tearing. Very few disconnects.
But its early access. Things will get better.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

"It's just early access" is no excuse for horrid game design that completely disrespects the player's time. This is just Ruthless 2.0 atm and it will fail hard at retaining players. Just you wait until the first league reset lmao

If they want to be having leagues every 3 months there needs to be some big changes, nobody is gonna come back every league to level in the slow af campaign and play the scuffed endgame with hardcore mechanics.

Well, let them say "it's just early access" and then whine when NOTHING gets fixed...

Sorry but the game is FUNDAMENTALLY broken... the problem is that they FUNDAMENTALLY decided this game needs to be Ruthless 2.0 with inspiration from Elden Ring and Diablo 4...

Sorry but a game put in early access still has the main idea set in stone... and the main idea of this game is BAD!!!

Anyway, the "it's only early access" crowd is delusional and the perfect customers for scammers like GGG