Dungeon Crawler Of The Year (Until Maps)

For context, I started with and eventually bricked a Bloodmage at level 43 before eventually rolling a Pathfinder to get enough gold to respec - I’m now on tier 1 maps. Overall, the campaign feels like a DRPG (in the vein of Wizardry) the first time around considering how often you have to return to a hub to check for and upgrade new gear, but the maps feels more or less the same as POE 1.

I’m enjoying myself, but there’s so much missing I don’t what character/builds are worth sinking time into.

Bloodmage Specific Feedback:

- Considering that there ascendancy nodes that benefit bleed/physical/leechs builds, the bulk of the relevant nodes are in the strength section of the tree, often on the opposite side of where you start as a witch. On that note, the lack of level 7/9/11/13 physical skill for Occult is very conspicuous (they're not even listed as 'coming soon'), while the chaos spells have plenty of passive nodes, but no ascendancy dedicated to them.
- I think picking up life remnants as a core mechanic feels a bit asinine in a game where avoiding aoes is integral to gameplay, the node itself is mandatory to access the others and it doesn’t benefit you unless you have 4 ascendency points to pick up “Gore Spike”.
- I don’t know if “Gore Spike” counts my current life or my base amount of life based off the tool tip.
- I genuinely don’t understand why “Open Sores” is a blood mage node considering you can covert curses to auras or simply buff their duration with support gems or skill nodes.
- It’s ironic and indicative of how under-tuned the bloodmage is that it doesn’t benefit from the keystone ‘blood magic’
- Overall it feels like all benefits to playing Bloodmage (i.e crit or tankiness, bleed/curse) aren't build defining and should've been keystones at best, and aren't build defining.

Pathfinder Specific Feedback:

- Not too much to say. I'm happy with poison pathfinder as is.
- Flask Pathfinder (Flaskfinder?) as an inherent issue where the majority of flask nodes are nodes that don't contribute to actual survivability, just sustain. I wish more flask nodes gave damage/stat buffs when using flasks, like "Cooked"

(Possible) Bugs:

- If you kill Mektul, the Forgemaster but die before picking up the key item, you can’t reenter the arena to pick it up.
- Minions get stuck on doorways, frequently getting stuck outside of boss arenas when they become sealed off.


Balance:

- Attribute nodes feel bad to take in the early/mid game because of what little benefit they give, stat wise, without the multiplicative effect of notables (or jewels if you have them)
- I personally don’t take issue with the ascendancy trials because none of the classes I’m playing really feel like they benefit from ascending :^)
- It feels very off-putting that the number of charm slots are tied to a belt’s level.
- The drop rate for uncut spirit gems seem off considering how vital they can be for builds.
- Please let players remove or replace socketed runes (at a cost). Crafting a piece of gear to solve resistances feels moot when you find a better piece of gear that you don’t have the resources to give it sockets/runes.
- Improving the quality of bows that deal chaos damage seemingly does nothing.
- The spirit cost for minions don't match their ability or utility. Currently it feels like warriors and arsonists are worth their weight in tankiness and damage, respectively, compared to any other minion.
- I presently have no reason to engage with weapon swapping because my poison pathfinder deals with mobs and bosses the same way.
- Being able to break down flasks into baubles would be very much appreciated.
- Act 1,2,3 on cruel feel significantly easier due to only difference being enemies deal more damage and bosses get more moves (which I appreciate)


Suggested Quality of Life:

- Give passive respec points as a quest reward with normal passive points.
- There should be a way to view all gems without clicking on a skill/support/spirit gem.
- Vendors should have a notification icon when they have new items
- I wish a could view a gallery or list of status icons
- I honestly can’t tell how useful accuracy is as a stat.
- Being able to bookmark items in shops so they remain after the shop is rerolled would be appreciated
- Move the Silverfist boss farther away from the checkpoint - having to outrun him while dodging mobs is obnoxious. I can’t think of another boss where this is an issue since most have their own closedarena.
- Campaign maps are often too big. Even with 30% movement they feel like a chore to traverse, which has the knock-on effect of boots that don’t movement speed useless - especially given that most characters start -4~ movement speed when fully equipped.
- Please increase the drop of spirit gems throughout Act 1 & 2. They feel very scarce considering how vital they are to builds.
- I wish I could read what my skills do by hovering my cursor over them in the bottom right of the UI like POE 1
- The bar for stun build build from blocking should be over your character or at least take be bigger. I can see the intent behind having it next to health, but it’s presently too small. There should also be an interface option to have it be above your character like how life/mana can be.