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

OP was right on the money. Newcomer.

It also doesn't increase the money GGG earns from the player. It literally burns you out, not hypes you up on adrenaline. Those times were there but have long since past. The clear times and the map design are horrible and the rewards feel subpar.

I don't understand why newcomers would disagree with veterans opinions? I sort of trust you guys to know what made it addictive.

Out of most of the games I've played recently, burnout happened a lot quicker and I wasn't running to the store to refill my dopamine.

You know when you buy skins is usually when you're standing on that mountain after you sort of "earned" it. I'll be buying a skin every couple decades when I reach my next milestone.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Without leagues, Path of Exile wouldn’t even exist as we know it.

Good. Go play those leagues in POE1. We're playing a different game.

No, you are not playing a different game. And if you think PoE as a F2P game will flourish (or even survive) without leagues and additional content every three/four months, you are mistaken.

PoE 2 will be a seasonal game, there's no question about it. So you're not playing a "different game", you're playing "the same game differently", which is perfectly fine.

But I actually want PoE 2 to flourish. I want it to be the best it can be. And for that to happen, it NEED an engaging endgame that people would want to play for hundreds of hours every league. Currently, the games doesn't have that, and not because of "lack of content that will come, just wait", but because of inconvenience and bad game design.

Have no doubt about it, PoE 2 will be measured just like PoE 1; player retention in leagues and the quality of leagues. I hope you understand that this WILL be a seasonal game and that "standard league" will be a low priority. It's not my wish, or Jimmy's wish; it's GGG.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Without leagues, Path of Exile wouldn’t even exist as we know it.

Good. Go play those leagues in POE1. We're playing a different game.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Let’s be real: no leagues means no fresh content . . . nothing new to discover

Lies. Removing leagues actually encourages GGG to develop real, novel content as opposed to some lame spinoff.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

but even the “bad” ones bring updates that keep the game alive.

GGG creating novel POE2 content and keeping it updated are both independent of leagues.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Without them, you’d just be stuck running the same boring meta builds forever in a static game world. Sound fun? Didn’t think so.

This is weak, dishonest sophistry. See above: adding to the game world and updating builds isn't bound to a league format.

You do realize that if they delete leagues the game is instantly dead right? Nobody plays standard, its a complete meme. Nobody will want to just play in a bricked economy forever, this ain't some MMO where you can just do that for years.

GGG are clearly intending to run PoE 2 as a seasonal game with leagues, they've already said when the game is fully out they're going back to the 3-month cycle for both games(or 4 whatever) and PoE 1 and 2 leagues will be 2 months apart to allow players that want to play both games on league launch to do so. If you don't like the concept of leagues, this game simply isn't for you.


And this isn't a "different game" lmao it's PoE "2". A sequel. If you haven't been keeping up with content creators and build makers, people have already found builds that break the game,oneshot bosses and clear entire screens. It's PoE 1 gameplay again already only 2 weeks into EA. We're just missing movement skills like Flame Dash.

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

without leagues

Yes.

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

and additional content every three/four months

No. You are making the same mistake thinking those two things are inexorably bound together. They are entirely independent.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

without leagues

Yes.

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

and additional content every three/four months

No. You are making the same mistake thinking those two things are inexorably bound together. They are entirely independent.

GGG will be running PoE 2 as a seasonal game with content every 3-4 months. I don't know what else to tell you, that is something that is just never changing. It's their business model.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

You do realize that if they delete leagues the game is instantly dead right?

More F R E S H'r mind-virus posting. Update the game world with actual novel content, not needless character wipes.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

You do realize that if they delete leagues the game is instantly dead right?

More F R E S H'r mind-virus posting. Update the game world with actual novel content, not needless character wipes.

They'll most likely be doing test leagues and resets during EA so yeeeahh.. They did say these characters are staying on Standard in the full game though. So that's something.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

No. You are making the same mistake thinking those two things are inexorably bound together. They are entirely independent.

Essentially? Sure. In a PoE environment? Not a chance. Hell, the last five leagues of PoE 1 never went core. If you wanted to experience those, you had to play the leagues. Standard league never got anything but some drip feeds several leagues after. Hell, it almost became the norm; a league giving us temporary power, just to remove said power when the league ended to hinder power creep by not adding the mechanic to the core game.

Look, you can like it or not. I'm not judging you for wanting to play in a permanent environment. PoE 2 will be 99% centered around seasons and season mechanics will not come to standard regularly. EVERY balance decision will be made with temporary leagues in mind.

Deny this at your own risk, but I'm telling you that you will be very disappointed. It's their freakin' business model.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

More F R E S H'r mind-virus posting. Update the game world with actual novel content, not needless character wipes.

You do realise that updating the game by adding new layers of mechanics would still require you to beat campaign once again so you can understand the additions in a more sandboxy environment? Adden layers of complexity affect the balance of the gameplay as a whole - numbers are getting reiterated, additional challenges can be applied. So if you log with your current character after half-a-year and realise that its impossible to do anything cuz you have no anoints/catalysts/enchants for example and you cant even get to the content that yields anything to you without huge step back in the current progress (read map tiers) - youre most likely to simply close the game and say that its a shitshow now. Even old games that are receieving dlc/content updates are being replayed from scratch, because the properly designed campaigns should also help you to become introduced and adapted to new mechanics, so your build can make sense at the endgame.

I played PoE 1 less than for ~1 hour in total (just not my cup of tea). My last favorite ARPG was classic D2 20+ years ago, everything else didn't keep me as attached for more than a couple of hours. Lost Ark doesn't count, since for me it was more of a dress up game for characters than actual playing. So when I speak about PoE 2, I want everybody to understand from what perspective I'm coming.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

1. Slow Doesn’t Mean Better
The combat in PoE2 can feel fluid and rewarding, with mechanics that encourage skillful play. But everything around the combat—like movement, preparation, and pacing—feels unnecessarily slow. Removing movement skills like Flame Dash or Leap Slam doesn’t make the game more challenging; it just makes exploration and backtracking tedious, especially in large maps.

Frankly, exploration feels fine, now especially since GGG added teleportation between checkpoints.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

2. Difficulty Isn’t About Tedium
I keep hearing that PoE2 is “more difficult.” But is it really? True difficulty isn’t about inflating enemy health pools and dragging players into tedious, repetitive loops of poking, retreating, and waiting for enemies to finally die. That’s not engaging—it’s exhausting.

Heavily depends on play-style and chosen skill set. At some point I was playing exactly like this due to chosen skills, but eventually changed them into something that freed me from poking, retreating and waiting for enemies to die all the time.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

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.

Doesn't feels to me as tedious as you describe it.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

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. The lack of control isn’t engaging—it’s exhausting.

Yep, this one is too annoying. I have no faith in RNGesus, thus I trade for new stuff with exalts I find.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

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, especially in the early game.

Agree with this one as well. Pretty much forces me to use trade instead of crafting, which is the opposite of GGG's original intent.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

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.

I like current Passive Skill Tree as it is right now, as it is allows me to modify the play-style in a way I want, without much penalty.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

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 interesting, but in practice, it’s just another layer of grind.

For me gem-based skill system, where I can shuffle skills the way I want is one of the most entertaining parts of the gem, where I can try out various combinations and see what result am I getting without a loss. If anything, it deserves preset feature that allows to change gem combination during battle (or at some other time). And if all gems were stackable and usable from the get go, imagine what kind of passives GGG had to give Gemling Legionnaire to make this class feasible/desirable.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

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.

Agree on this one. Campaign should be done one time (maybe normal once + cruel once) and that's it. This is why I won't be doing any leagues and will just be patiently waiting for league mechanics to be transferred to standard league.

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

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.

Totally agree. Especially with every class getting 3 ascendancies on release, players should have capability to switch them at will, just like other passive skills. Yeah, it should cost some gold, but not too much. And trials should be less punishing - at least allow player to replay it until it is complete. Same with maps and endgame - single death and everything ends? GGG uses wrong approach, especially since anything can randomly one-shot you.