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

OP wants another ezy hack and slash like PoE1 or D4. I don't see the need for another one, there are plenty of those.
This game is "Souls-like", according to the Steam profile. The devs should fully commit to that vision. It should be much harder than it's now. The ezy mode where you buy your items has no place in a souls-like game. Also analyze all builds that easily one-shot every non-rare mob in T15 and nerf them, hard. Each fight should be meaningful, even with a trash mob. Also eliminate magic find and reduce the drop rate for the good items.

+1, thoughtful and well written feedback...

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ClockworkShrew#7536 wrote:

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

Utility flasks were something unique in PoE1, setting it apart from other ARPGs. They weren’t just about healing or resource management but offered strategic tools to adapt to different situations. While they weren’t always needed in every fight, they added depth and flexibility, letting players fine-tune their builds for specific challenges.

Late to the conversation, but flasks definitely needed changing. They boiled down to:

*Life flask IF you needed it
*Quicksilver flask
*Defensive flasks (armour/evasion/resistance)
*1-2 actual utility flasks (phasing, onslaught, freeze immune, etc).

And all of these you wanted automated anyway. That's why Mageblood was the best item in the game, and nearly every build wanted one (improved flask effect AND 100% uptime). Even without it, you usually had flask automation, because rolling them manually was terrible, and added unnecessary key presses for buffs you wanted up 100% of the time anyway. With PoE2 trying to have character press more keys instead of being 1-skill ponies, having these buffs automated by default is a no-brainer.

Charms need to remain as they are, as conditional buffs you spec into, with some improvements:

1) 3-slots at endgame, always.
2) Variety and more interesting options, but that will come with time and development. This is still early access, after all.
3) CLARITY. I find this to be a MAJOR issue. The game doesn't tell you when your charm is out of charges or when it's full, so suddenly you get surprise frozen because you didn't realize your thawing charm was expended before.
4) We can discuss whether the point of them should be to have weaker but constantly acting buffs like flasks used to provide, or stronger limited use options. Personally, I think they ARE more interesting as the latter, but I am also a consumables aficionado in games.

💯

I disagree with not all, but most of what you said. Also, you don't speak for everyone so maybe change your dramatic title.

Lots of people did not like POE1 and for that reason I don't think its a useful benchmark especially since for both games to coexist, differentiation is needed.

Pacing - That's a hard disagree from me. Everything is on adhd twitchmode now a days and its become utterly boring. When I experienced the slower more methodical combat I immediately thought "about effn time". If they change this it will be a major disappointment. Judging by the concurrent count, there's a lot of us that feel this way.


Difficulty. I don't think this game is difficult. Once I learned my character and abilities difficulty dropped significantly. At first I found it frustrating, but I was being impatient and in the end I appreciated the steep curve. Its easy to swap out skill and sup gems or to farm necessary resistance. I do not want 1 build face-rolls. I want to find my own solutions to challenging problems. In D4 the only reason I tried a different build was to stave off boredom.

POE1 gem and skill tree was a complete turn off. I do not want to need a study guide to play a game.

Conversely, I went into POE2 cold and figured everything out with relative ease. No guides,no youtube, no forums. I was able to figure out which resistances I needed, what abilities work and when.

Crafting and drops needs improvement. Full stop. Agreed

Don't touch the campaigns. Its a good story and the world is interesting. I don;t know how having a long campaign stop you from having fun. You're still progressing.

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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.

Its bad design for you. POE2 is my GOTY. The challenge could be increased actually.

You want a bigger skill tree, faster combat, a shorter campaigns, easier bosses and an easier game. You have that essentially, its POE1. You do realize that's what you're asking for, right?

And new players can't express themselves because ...we're contributing to a bad design? Maybe this game is for new players.The market is already inundated with 1 click facerolls. I want them to dig into difficulty. I want to be challenged. If you're having to back up and poke then build differently. I've played war and merc and the only time I was forced to run and poke is when I forgot that POE2 is not a Diablo clone and that I have to meet the challenge. That challenge is part and parcel to the depth for whole demo of players and its been sorely lacking in ARPG.

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jollydiablo#0370 wrote:

the only time I was forced to run and poke is when I forgot that POE2 is not a Diablo clone and that I have to meet the challenge.

Hey! Run and poke can be a fun and engaging choice of playstyle!

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jollydiablo#0370 wrote:

I want them to dig into difficulty. I want to be challenged. If you're having to back up and poke then build differently. ... That challenge is part and parcel to the depth for whole demo of players and its been sorely lacking in ARPG.

Couldn't agree more.

This post echoes almost all of my concerns with the current game state. I haven't played in a couple of weeks because I failed my third ascension and it completely demotivated me from playing the game.

I had 3.8k/4k honour pool going into the third floor- had 600 by the time I got to the boss due to scarcely visible on-death mechanics and traps designed for WASD movement. Don't even get me started on the movement and auto-aim mechanic. Lost to what I think was a tornado? That spawned on top of me.

Wasn't the sanctum one of the least-played mechanics post sanctum league? Why would they make it a core mechanic required to ascend? I'm personally taking a break at least until they come out with a balance patch. I tried to just put my head down and get through it, but it's just too much of a slog in current state.

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Samy355#3220 wrote:

If i compare POE2 to the earlier stages of POE1 where it had the same situation of repeated acts with higher difficulty. I dont think POE2 is worse it would be a bad comparison to compare POE1 Final Stage after many years to the first Month of POE2 Early Access. But overall i hoped for a bigger change between POE1 and 2. At the campaign i felt they made it better then POE1 as, for me, i found much more currency and the boss fights felt better (basicly more fair) then in POE1 where it was digital total easy or unbeatable with current gear. In POE2 you could much easier compansate bad gear or level. But in the Trials and Endgame it switched to be much more annoying then POE1 ever was. Those one Try Runs to a Trialmaster Boss or the Citadels or anything Endgame based are just annoying and they give no motivation or fun to do them. If i fail i feel annoyed and frustrated. Even if i whin i only feel some kind of releave but no fun or real joy because it was just pain to go over that border. If there would be a difficult task which in the end is fair and the struggle to pass the task feels like a "game" and makes fun it would be nice. But those one Try mechanics and those gamble mechanics (f.e. get the right 3 parts of the trialmaster key) are not fun never even when i run them with a overpowered char and have no difficulty they dont make fun they are just annoying. I hoped those mechanics would be less or gone on POE2 for the first half of the game it was but the Endgame brought all of the garbage back and added another level of gamble + frustration to it.

Your opening statement would be perfectly fair IF they had learned nothing in the last 10 years.
This game was originally supposed to be an expansion (which I feared would just expand the mess Poe is I ), I was delighted when they announced it would stand alone as that meant they could restart from scratch with 10 years of lessons learned and not make the same mistakes again.
Sadly they have, prime example was energy bar used to be like it is in poe2 and customer complaints got it changed to the large expanding crescent (yet now that’s back to the thin line).
The endgame is stale but will improve as they add mechanics. The campaign is backwards and should start easy and end hard but does the opposite.

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Kaboinglefop#0955 wrote:

Disagree with almost everything. Put in 300 hours into poe2 already, it will easily beat the past 10 years of poe1 for me.

I am a fan of the vision, and I like ruthless' direction.
I despise speed / power creep. I like things being impossible. I love trial of sekhemas.

But you and I are different. I have as much time you spent in elden ring and DS3 instead in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin challenge runs. I hated the casualization of the souls games. So obviously GGG is not targetting the same audience, but I am an old player and the slow direction of PoE2 is for me, just like ruthless was for me.

Also an old player at 58 yrs old, and I also don’t mind the slower play, but dislike the balance and loot systems

Great points, well said, well written. You've listed many of my frustrations. I am worried with the current retention of the game that GGG won't take the criticism seriously. The game is performing so well across all platforms as far as player retention. This retention will soon fade as I feel the majority of players aren't experiencing the end game. I have around 8k hours in poe1 as well and I really want to see this game succeed but there are some core fundamental issues that seem like it's their vision and I don't see changing.

Thanks for the write up.

I've been following feedback posts everyday and this is by far the most well thought out and well written feedback to roll across the forum. GGG not only needs to read this but study and implement. everything in this post clearly outlines both mine and many other players frustrations and concerns. post needs to be at the forefront, the first thing they see. bump this post.