rate the endgame from 1 to 10

2/10

No real innovative thinking coming from POE1.

Mobs in End-game are super fast POE1 style whilst players are confined to the new normal max speeds with no blink/leap/dash skills to prevent getting crowded and killed.

1 Death per map and losing the waystone is going to hamper progression very seriously for >90% of the playerbase.

XP loss on Death is an anachronism from D2.
Given that POE2 is meant to be an evolution, we can dispense with this punishment as POE2 is much more difficult and the XP loss is insult added to injury added to punishment.

I would like to see a change such as waystones only being needed to progress / expand your atlas. Nodes already completed do not need waystones and can instead be juiced with something like scarabs and used for practice, farming more waystones and currency and XP. This will remove the need for more than 1 death per map, and as these already completed nodes can be farmed indefinitely, we can drop magic find as a stat.
This will not make the game "easier" as these completed nodes will be the same difficulty as when they were first completed.

1/10

0/10

Delve Infinite Layout generator is bad and worse than Atlas of Worlds. We cant target farm maps, we cant target farm what we want, we cant build a character around what we want to farm.

This design make us build only all around builds, which kill build variety which is great in Path of Exile history. U cant build a boss killer toon, or Blight character, or Lab farmer, u cant play around anything. Very poor design

What triggers me is: why? Every league there is less than 10 ppl pushing for infinite delve. Why they are importing all the bad designs from PoE1 to PoE2? And why the all great design mechanics from PoE1 are left of PoE2? I dont understand

2/10

i just dont see the point
what is there to do?
nothing drops
the mechanics are inconsequential
the bosses are basically non existent
there is no crafting
im just kinda running through maps not sure of what im achieving by doing that
nor what im supposed to be achieving
the quest thingies dont help bc, citadels? what citadels? i havent seen any
reaching higher maps feels like a whim of fate wether or not i even get to bc no waystones drop even with full investment into them
i cant make my character stronger bc the drops are just pure piss
tiered drops are basically just normal drops with better useless explicits
"oh boi, cant wait for my T3 belt with giga life regen stun threshold and charm duration but no resistances"

i really, REALLY dont get what they were going for here

I'd give it a solid 4/10.

It is an interesting concept and I think theres the core of something workable in there, but it needs a lot of refinement. Pinnacle bosses seem a bit iffy in terms of being able to find them for starters.

2/10 at best:
- I'm forced to do maps I dislike
- There is little to no crafting
- Random one shot deaths make you loose too much progress
- I'm a slow learner, need time to practice boss fights but I cannot
- Tower runs are boring/useless
- Maps are too big
- Not enough boss fights
- Being forced to kill all rares suxx
- Visual clarity did not improve

Unfortunatly I'm not sure EA is the only problem here.
"the vision" is missing and "1 death per map" is such a terrible idea.
Let me fail and practice, do more boss fights...

I give it 1 out of 10 for two reasons:

1) The game lacks of graphics optimization (CPU Spikes/Stuttering) that should be the FIRST thing to fix, rather than thinking about the gameplay/nerf/buff.
2) More serious is literally the silence of GGG and Technical Support, which for weeks has not responded to my emails/our emails (there are a lot of people with same issues, even with an hardware better than mine).

I'm not in a clearly position to judge PoE 2 in general, except that at the moment it seems like a graphically improved version of PoE 1 but the gameplay is just more slower and that doesn't mean it's always a bad thing imo.

If I can say my personal opinion it is that the Warrior seems like a slow cow to me.
Really, it seems like something extremely slow and boring to play.

Im rating it 4/10.

Reasoning:

1. I would like just GO into the maps, instead, im feeling wrong if i'm not doing preparations, such as juice the map, apply emotions, get the towers, get the tablets in order, get the correct modifiers, get the correct map layout. Then you can enter and feel rewarding. Then death kind of always there which makes me alt+f4 :D I would love it so much if i could just GO. Maps could be slower, worse, but i could just go without feeling that i'm doing it wrong.

2. Too much loot, yet upgrades mostly come from trades. Loot seem a bit meaningless in such case.

3. Crafting is there but I almost do not engage with it. Doing T15-18 maps, got x3 lvl 91+ characters. I have found 3 greater essences, none of perfect gems, very few of other mats. I can't craft without trading.

4. One portal for maps/bosses feels frustrating, i cannot try out the boss, it feels very bad to lose an invitation which cost a lot while you know that you will probably die due to inexperience. I want to progress the boss, instead, i'm just avoiding them completely.

5. Can't search, conveniently navigate or zoom out from map.

6. Towers seem to be a waste. I'd say if you reach the Tower, you just unlock it right away without needing to go into in ant clicking the thingie at the second floor.

Moreover, not related to endgame, but the balancing of game, monsters, damage feels off. I can comfortably do a map, kill all and everything, but then upon clicking breach im insta killed by a roided breach worm with certain modifiers. Overall, the flow seems to be in chaos.

8/10

Too fast, feels more like poe 1 than poe 2

3. Being honest curently the xp penalty is one of the worst mechanics ever in POE 1. Having also less access to contend in a random(LUCK) or chance, it is also painfull and should not exist in any game.

Hard work and Grinding should do just fine.

Also, the currency scarcity it is just insanely bad for me.
Less drops is good, less currency drop, that is not good, as the main goal is to make your gear, not to farm and hope to drop. In this game at least.