Why POE2’s Direction Is Worrying for Veterans and Newcomers Alike

I agree with you on the skill tree and drops/vendors.
Ascendancy trees need some polishing, for example: Blood Mage feels like a total lackluster, and Demon Form is not even working properly.
As for the vendors.. GGG should lower the cost of the items @ gamba vendor. Ain't no way a single ring costs 2k gold in Act 1, especially when amulets/rings barely drop in early game.
I'm aware they have already increased the drops from bosses and rares, but that's still not enough to craft a good item. Yes, there's "scarab farm" in Act 2 but that is most likely gonna get nerfed soon.
Having to say, it's much easier if you play with a full party or with friends since yall can just check if the vendor has some good items on sale, but then again, I don't want to rely on other people everytime I'm going thru campaign.
Might be a good idea to add some rare items to the story quests, and give the player like "4 choices". That'll help some folks who are struggling with gearing during the campaign.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Let me break down some key issues:

1. Slow Doesn’t Mean Better
A slower-paced game can be good, but it doesn’t automatically make it better. If you’re tired of POE1’s "zoom-zoom," I get it. But removing movement skills entirely, especially in massive maps that often require multiple trips through the same areas? That’s not challenging—it’s tedious. Even with rolls and movement speed buffs, traversing the world feels like a slog.

Travel skills and fast movement means the devs have to create harder and more punishing encounters to balance around the fact that some players can have 120% movespeed or dash around half the screen in a split second. bosses and enemies need to become faster and have larger aoes to actually pose a threat. but what about some other guy that has 30-50% movespeed? hes getting wrecked.

if ggg allowed faster ms, they will be forced to create content accordingly. which will force ALL PLAYERS to get a benchline movespeed or simply fail content. a good example is exarch or elder's bullet hell. even if you can see your path out of damage, if you have not enough MS you're still getting hit.

so i hard no for me, i dont want the gap between players to get wider. i dont need ggg creating a boss that shoots huge ass aoes because of the zoomers.

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2. Difficulty Isn’t About Tedium
I keep hearing that POE2 is “more difficult.” But is it? Difficulty isn’t about giving enemies inflated health pools and forcing players into a boring loop of poking, retreating, and poking again. That’s not engaging—it’s frustrating. True difficulty should come from well-designed mechanics and meaningful decision-making, not from artificially drawn-out combat.

isnt the mechanics in path2 more engaging? if it feels drawn out, its just a dps issue. you dont like poking and retreating? then what do you actually want? to stand in place spamming a skill quickly draining the boss's hp while you ignore everything he does because you can tank it? getting out of damage is meaningful decision making. or can you tell me if you were a designer WHAT would you do for a boss design to make it meaningful combat?

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3. Flasks and the “Vision”
Yes, flasks now refill on kills, which is better than the original POE2 reveal. But the addition of refill wells still feels unnecessary and redundant. The whole system feels like a solution to a problem that didn’t exist in POE1. Instead of adding depth, it just slows down the pacing. It’s another example of the “vision” overriding what’s actually fun.

halfway agree with you on this, but i do understand the notion that ggg doesnt want us to rely on flasking too much. mistakes cause us to suffer heavy damage. being able to easily flask up can trivialize making mistakes. and thus trivialize "meaningful" combat. which they did throw us a bone by giving us flasks that can gain charges over time.

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4. Crafting Is a Mess
No deterministic crafting is a joke. The devs say they want us to craft more, but how? Without reliable tools like crafting benches or alt rolls, crafting feels like throwing currency into the void and praying for a miracle. If the idea is to encourage players to build items from scratch, it’s not working. The lack of control isn’t engaging—it’s exhausting.

tbh i can understand where you're coming from. we played games like poe and LE, so deterministic crafting is a great deal/boon for us players.

but i would say that most modern gamers forgot how its like in diablo 2. you only actually looked for 1-2 mods on items the rest were just filler/bonuses. for example, one of the most desirable stats on a weapon right now is +skills. a magic item with that can be better than a 6mod rare with mods all over the place.

when crafting we only target 1-2 mods and the rest are fillers. in fact, the fact we have crafting at all is considered good.

you may feel free to hate this new system but i personally like it as i come from d2 and the way i see it. good rares are much more valuable as a result without needing them to be mirror tier.

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5. Drops and Vendors
If you like the current loot drops, more power to you. But even if you do, they’re still poorly designed. Vendors have been given more power, but drops feel so sparse that crafting currency barely exists. The balance isn’t there. You can’t expect players to engage deeply with crafting when you’re starving them of the resources to do so.

i agree with you somewhat. tho its still manageable. i would prefer if the shop refreshed once in a while.

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6. The Skill Tree Is Disappointing
The new skill tree looks like POE1’s tree but feels hollow in comparison. The nodes are uninspired, and the restrictive layout makes it harder to create unique or unconventional builds. The inability to travel across the tree freely stifles creativity. And the absence of masteries? It’s a huge loss. Masteries gave builds flexibility and depth, allowing players to specialize and fine-tune their characters. Without them, the tree feels rigid and unexciting. Even basics like Life nodes, which helped define different defensive strategies, are missing, limiting creativity in ways that hurt the game.

i would argue that you CAN travel across the tree much better now. the attribute highway lets you select stats that you need. either way you WILL need to slap points into attributes.

as for missing life nodes, theres actually an interesting reason behind this.

with the lack of life nodes, players will find it difficult to multiply health. and thus GGG can more or less balance content around a certain health range.

compare that to poe1. most players try to strive for 4-5k hp, but some players go for 10-15k hp. one reason why damage spikes and one shots exist in poe1 is because the devs are FORCED to balance the game around the fact that 10-15k hp players exist. so some attacks hit for 4-6k. which would 1hko most players but just essentially poke the 10-15k hp player to use a flask pot.

by removing life from tree, the devs can focus on making damage only hit a certain range. players have to actually git gud and get out of the way when heavy hits are incoming.

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7. The Gem System Isn’t Fun
The new gem system isn’t engaging. It’s clunky, and the fact that gems don’t stack just highlights how half-baked it feels. The uncut gem mechanic might seem like an interesting idea, but in practice, it’s just another layer of grind. Gems should feel like an integral part of progression, not a source of frustration.

i agree with you halfway. i prefer being able to level up gems via xp. but on the flipside, if you grind enough you'll be swimming in so many its not funny.

on the flipside, it not being too engaging is a good thing. we dont need to worry about sockets too much and just keep playing. unlike in poe1 where having items drop with less than 3 links at the start feels real bad. we spend more time actually playing the game rather than tinkering with our gems. isnt that a good thing?

also, i really appreciate how we dont worry about sockets and colours anymore for the most part. no more chromatics. no more fusings. whether an item has sockets no longer is an issue.

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8. The Campaign Is Too Long
Some players praise the longer campaign, but for leagues, this is a disaster. Every league, we’ll have to slog through this overly long campaign multiple times. POE1’s campaign is already considered a chore by many veterans, and POE2’s is shaping up to be even worse. A longer campaign doesn’t mean better retention—it just means more burnout.

i'm neutral on this. on one hand its really long. on another, whats the other option? letting us into the atlas with free tier 0 maps that have no league mechanics until we hit level 66?

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9. Ascendancies and Trials
Why can’t we change ascendancies anymore? Is this supposed to be a challenge? It’s just restrictive for no reason. And Trials… who thought combining Ultimatum and Sanctum mechanics was a good idea? Trials are tedious, clunky, and far from enjoyable. It feels like GGG took the least-loved mechanics and doubled down on them, which is baffling.

no argument. agreed.

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I Want to Love POE2, But It’s Hard
As a veteran, I want to see POE2 succeed. I want it to be different, but it also needs to respect the core systems that have kept players invested in POE1 for years. Right now, it feels like GGG is prioritizing their “vision” over what actually works.

To the newer players defending these changes without understanding their long-term impact: you’re not helping. Ignoring valid criticism isn’t supporting the game; it’s enabling bad design. Constructive feedback is what helps games improve. POE2 has the potential to be great, but it needs to address these issues before it alienates the very players who’ve been its foundation for years.

i m a veteran too. 10 year player. your opinions ARE valid. but they are opinions. mine are too. its ok to have different opinions. i would say that you have strong bias stemming from your experience from poe1.

try looking at it from a different pov. do you actually want poe2 to become another poe1 where the gap between a noob and a sweater is so large that build guides become a necessity? thats where poe1 is at. when you talk about creativity, i ll point out that the more creative you become in making a build immortal or making a build one shot bosses, the more it forces ggg to:

1. nerf
2. make content harder

no one likes nerfs but a nerf but on the flipside, nerfs prevent players from being forced into metas. if ggg made content harder. guess what players are forced to do? go meta. where is the creativity when everyone goes meta?

look at how ggg nerfed cast on x/trigger skills recently. if instead ggg made content harder, EVERYONE ELSE would be having a more difficult time just because of this harder content while the triggerers would probably clear them with relative ease.

alot of design decisions ggg made is actually brilliant if you think about how they limit player power but by doing so allows them to create a more balanced end game where you dont need to be godlike. you dont need deterministic crafting. you dont need a build guide.

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Seanprice798#2395 wrote:

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Pathological#1188 wrote:

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Seanprice798#2395 wrote:

I can boil down your entire diatrabe to "this game isn't for me". To which the obvious the conclusion would be to just go play the game you're describing...which is Path of Exile 1...which you can still do as it's literally the same game it has always been.

Go play what you like, don't ruin something that other people like just because it doesn't fit your needs.

Oh hey, still posting here Seanprice? Enjoying the trip yet?

More nerfs incoming, many more to come in the coming days, weeks, months. Are you going to like it? Savour every blow to your beloved game?

Your salt sustains us.

You're a weird and miserable little guy, aren't ya? It's strange that openly acting like a child throwing a tantrum as if they got their favorite toy taken away is an accepted practice by people, and even gloated about.

I've got guesses about how your actual life is, but that's neither here nor there. You enjoy this "holy" crusade you think you're on. I'll be still enjoying PoE2.

Well, until they fix it you will, anyway!

It's funny that your posts are all so directly attributable toward yourself :D You are the one having your favourite toy slowly leak away from you, you are the one posting endlessly on the forum despite claiming you're enjoying the game, you're the one throwing tantrums about people's behavior on the forums :D

I'm gloating, sure. It's fun. It's a fun show to watch. Piece by piece, your world falls away from you. The tone of my posts is altered to match that of those I respond to - people who argue in good faith and have reasonable and reasoned points get replies in turn, while militants like you get laughed at.

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exsea#1724 wrote:

[...]

You make some sense, and at the same time you don't. I'm here to discuss, if you wanna troll I'm out.

If I try to watch from both perspective, do we realize that saying :
- PoE2 not for you, go back to PoE1
- PoE2 not for you, go back to D2
are the same pointless arguments in both directions ?

You talk about Elder bullet phase, you can dodge without barely moving at all, only side stepping. That's a bad example (but we could argue there are other examples). Have you seen Zarokh hourglass phase ? THIS is 100% movement speed issue.

Why are you all so fixated on the zoomers, aren't you just jealous ? (no troll, serious introspection question) I'm not a zoomer, so I just farm slow content like harbingers. And that's fine, cuz I have the CHOICE. Zooming isn't a fatality, you know that ? That's why it's fun, cuz there is lattitude, it is a player CHOICE about what you farm.
At the moment PoE2 doesn't have that choice. You'll have to be slow. How is that close to an upgrade ?

Movement skill missing is not about zooming for me, it's about fun. When OP was talking about poke and back, it's like it doesn't create any fun situation. You always do the same pattern, and if you go too deep, you're dead (map lost etc, wow so fun). With movement skill, I can actually try to challenge, dive in, sometimes getting caught, sometimes getting out of it. It creates engagement, epic moments, FUN. At the moment it feels like playing tennis, but all points are decided on serve. That's not fun on the long run.

Talking about the zoomers, you realize that top players beat the game also in a week ? Same "speed" as PoE1. While many things wheren't solved before hand. Why aren't you mad about the zoomers now ?

To keep it somewhat short, you also talk about becoming a god. Isn't it the goal of the game ? You kill, you improve your char, to kill harder, to improve, to kill harder. Why are you killing mobs ?
And because we all have different time/skills, you need a large scale, so that everyone finds a challenge. Why the zoomer should get bored after 2 days because it requires you 2 weeks ? It's also ok if you don't kill last best boss, it's a goal for you to improve.

I don't get it, where is this "mimimi" coming from ? Maybe people play this game with a "single player" mind ? "I want to be able to beat the game also ?" Is that jealousy ? (those are not rhetorical questions, I really don't get what drives ppl)

Now, and specifically towards you. Your build in settlers is using a headhunter (+ flicker strike xD). That's beyond me. Arguably the most zoomy item ever. How can you be against zooming, but using it yourself. Are you really complaining about zooming because you can't see there are other gameplays possible ?

EDIT : OMG, now that I went through all your characters in PoE1, you are only playing Flicker strike. And you really have the audacity to come here and talk about zooming ? Playing only Flicker ? Are you just a troll ? :D

Deterministic crafting is not necessary. The current system works fine as-is...

IF players have more than enough currency to craft with.

Or, if modifier weights are balanced for solo play rather than being so insanely weighted that it would take hundreds of thousands of ex to get just two or three of the modifiers you want on one item.

Trade becomes a non-issue if players can reasonably progress their gear without it. Deterministic crafting is unnecessary if players have enough currency and a good enough chance to create their own gear with orbs.

You can't have random crafting, super low weights balanced for trade, and scarce currency drops all at the same time. Not unless you really, really want trade to be the primary way for players to upgrade their gear. And guess what? If trade is the primary way to upgrade gear, players will absolutely, 100% abuse it to get the best gear they possibly can and make your progression system look like a joke, because that's exactly what it is.

This has been a problem for over a decade and every single "fix" has been nothing more than a band-aid. The bench? A band-aid. Fossils? A band-aid. Essences? Band-aid. The root cause is currency scarcity and low mod weights. Nobody wants to trade for their upgrades. Everyone would rather be able to find or craft those upgrades on their own. But the game says otherwise.

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Stealthrider#5426 wrote:

This has been a problem for over a decade and every single "fix" has been nothing more than a band-aid. The bench? A band-aid. Fossils? A band-aid. Essences? Band-aid. The root cause is currency scarcity and low mod weights.

The rootest cause of them all is the fact that "crafting" is just gambling.
Even if you increase currency availability, that will still lead into some people getting their perfect rares and some don't. Because it's gambling, not everyone will get lucky.

For it to become notably better, crafting should step away from being gambling, and instead should become a limited, but deterministic way to improve/make gear.

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Skiller2009#5689 wrote:

You lack a level in settlers.

But i got my 100 done.. in hc. In necropolis too. Also in affliction.. liked backpack and...

However.. i cannot recommend. Its dated. Poe2 is an evolution.

A friend had a great word i cant translate i think but it sounded cooler in his mothertonue..

You are an 'evolutionssperre' .. evolutionary lock.

Well you profile is private so how would we know you achived all that?

Just registering my strong disagreement with the OP, hope the Devs keep going on their vision.

I've also played poe1 since before they fully released it and they only had 2 acts and npc names were "place maker quest guy", have played every league(except maybe 1 or 2) and pretty much had the same reaction as all of your points in the original post. the game is slow as fuck, the skill tree is meh (no life nodes??), the gem system is fucked, 50 different support gems if i have 10 skills? no thankyou. i want to specialize my characters, thats what made poe poe. Having the tools to make such over powered builds if you had the knowledge was one of the main reasons i kept playing, each league i'd make about 5 or 6 characters with builds i'd never played before, the current gem system just feels unengaging and the support gem limit just feels like i'm being pushed toward a meta. This game feels closer to diablo 4 than poe1 in its current state(not a compliment). POE1 was a masterpiece, i dont understand why they've stripped so much of what made it great a great game in the first place. I know its still early access but im getting the same vibe i had when i waited for D3 to be realesed after playing d2 for my whole life and being severely let down. Hopefully they address a lot of these issues before the full release. The combat system and story line is great but it seems they got lost in the whole "make it accessible to everyone" that they pretty much lost the essence of PoE. Atleast they didn't make all of the items take up the same amount of inventory space like d3 did.

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Hyperspacing#5593 wrote:

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ErdrickDragonsbane#5911 wrote:

I just checked the Steam Charts. PoE2 has dropped 12.3% of its player count from 7 days ago. Monday to Monday.

10.6% drop from Sunday to Sunday.

24.4% drop from Sunday the 8th to Monday the 16th.

Going to be really curious to see how much it drops by NEXT Monday, but without big changes between now and then I won't be shocked to see it reach as far as a 50% drop from Sunday the 8th to Monday the 23rd. I've been seeing the discontent rapidly increasing as more and more players put in 50+ hours into the game.

even if it drops another 50% it still will have more than POE 1 has ever had in the 10+ years its been out.

Well poe1 peaked at 229k in july so, 50 % of poe2's which is 17th lowest was 196k highest 437k and 50 % of 437k is 218k