My pain points with Poe2 after 200 hours.

First I want to say thanks, This game is really good and I'm really enjoying my time with it. More so in leveling character than End game, but seeing as end game was put together in 3 months. It's way better than was expected, and obviously needs some fleshing out.

That said, I'm always harsh but fair with my criticisms, it may seem like I'm dumping on the game but I assure you I wouldn't have played this much and still wanted to play more if that was the case. I just want to see the game get better, and I trust in the Vision GGG has. However feedback in integral.

With that out of the way.

Visibility.
While I really do appreciate the dialing back of on ground effects, you guys have made the game too beautiful. Yes this is an issue. If you look at most god tier gamers while playing an FPS they dial those graphics down so they get less foliage. Strange analogy I know considering this isn't an FPS. However it matters. A lot of effects get covered by the awesome plants and beautiful foliage. So much so that I have to check clips to see how I died. As annoying as those floating Red (ultimatum) and purple orbs (maps) are they are easier to see than ground effects. My QA take? Please make any ground effects supersede items on the ground and overlay on top of them. Even if its just a circle shader being added That would give us better visibility. you do a great job with the exploding behemoths, giving time, and visuals that let us know "Get out of there".

Ultimato
I never really liked either Ultimatum or Sanctum in poe1. However the new overhauls they have recieved, (and the change made to sanctum which is why its not apart of this gripe) have made me interested and happy to play them. Ultimatum or how I belovingly call it Alltomato Needs some love like Sanctum, Even before the Sanctum change I felt the easier choice was Sanctum, even if it wasn't that easy to start. Ultimatum's choices have always been severe and with good builds you could ignore certain things, making the trails stacking less of an issue. This leads to one of my larger pain points with the game currently, however I'll point out that current choices aren't the best. Turrets are unfun to interact with, Missing the spawning skulls that would be smarter as you leveled them up. static, tracking then moving. Impending doom should be called certain death, getting that in a "Survive" means it explodes after 2 seconds as it fills the room. I could take the Sanctum approach and say "Let's give them all the dangerous on hit effects. Extra crit, Vines, Always bleed and poison, and just don't get hit!" however unlike sanctum the attacks aren't deliberate and easily telegraphed. Infact you will get rushed much like in poe1 but you don't have a way to phase to get through the mass amounts of enemies if you can't just one or two shot things that come up. Incentivising overleveling and gearing. I admit I haven't yet worked with all choices in Ultimatum yet so I can't for sure say oh by 7 90% of the time you will hate your life.

Crafting.
There isn't any. We've gone back to the Yolo lose all your currency from early poe1 days. It was explained that runes would replace the crafting bench, instead it makes me wish for it more. 3 main reasons. Runes are missing some vital 'enchants' There is no chaos res, there isn't any crit (not chance to crit), there isn't any movement speed. And more importantly there aren't any tiers. 15 resistance at end game doesn't help, if runes scaled up to assist in getting gear to where you need it, and then also allowed you to overwrite. You could enchant lose currency and then later use more currency to replace it if its no longer needed. You essentially brick good items that could have gotten you further. Players have lost agency over how to customize their gear for a yolo gamba hope for the best pit. Where you make less currency than you can ever use. I do hope that down the line something is changed or systems not yet in are added to give more crafting options to make this feel not as bad.

Currency
Drops are really really low, and you have to sacrifice power or survivabilty for a Rarity factor, just to get some drops, and its not a small portion. It's you need over 100% (closer to 200%) to matter. While I get lower maps will get less drops, with how gear ends up after the campaign currently (of course it might be better after the removal of cruel), your character is no where near ready for maps. Resistances don't exist no way to get them readily. Runes not scaling doesn't help. Wanting us to Slam more is getting less and less impactful as more decent gear hits the market. I like gamba as much as the next person but the fact I can't get what is needed to craft regularly has me buying instead. (Also please implement a trading NPC for gear! People not responding/price fixing is crazy. Also not having to jump out during a map would feel so much smoother. Flat gold costs per type sold.)

Essences... instead of acting like Screaming, Shrieking or Deafening. Which is what I was hoping for when I saw the two types of essences: one acts as the before screaming based on ilvl, the second acting like the top three from poe1 so you can have some agency in crafting. However good luck even getting these. Your % on tree is no where near enough for it to even matter. People have spent days with it and got no real reward, to the point the essence tab is kind of a throw away now. The tree respec problem has been solved from PoE1, you guys did a great job lowering the prices and making it possible to not only try new things but also move around points in end game without too much issue as well. If you want to maintain the smaller tree which is understandable, please give higher percentages. Sinking 4 points out of 30 to hardly see the mechanic kind of hurts.

Please keep the new prices as having to follow someone's build when you want to mess and try new things hurts my soul!

Boss scaling
Early game bosses scale a bit too aggressively health wise, each time a friend and I reached a wall we stopped got more gear, but there were a few bosses that felt woah and didn't come back till later. Forge master molten vault, was slightly overturned. Only by a few percent. Fight is great even when we were playing perfectly, we'd hit the wall and end up dying to lava even after gearing. We need to wait for cruel level gems to come back and do it. (if this is by design understandable) Comp was Frost non cast on crit sorc build and a slam warrior/with totems. This was observed before drop changes so this might be in a better place without needing a change. Solo everything was easier for sure, though this boss was one of those exceptions where it was well tuned. (Yes after playing 2 player group play 1 player felt MUCH easier.) End game mapping they feel okish was hoping for a bit more. More on that later.

Mapping
There are still pain points for mapping one or the other would fix this issue. Maps are Massive. I'm not against this. But clearing one side then going to the other to find out later that I missed 2 in little cubbies that I've not explored then have to walk all the way back feels bad.

I think a check point system in maps would work better for travel maybe 2 - 4 per map in corners or center then one side and the other depending on randomization design. (I know ai teaching is a pain in the ass this is by no means the easier option). Alternatively have the rares always show. I personally would prefer the first cause having all the rares visible trivializes running around the map and exploring, however I do understand that training AI to spawn things in certain areas might not be the easiest to pull off, though if it's already started with the new system I think it would be helpful in maps for sure!

Another pain point for maps is. There are bosses in these maps that we've never seen before that require a lot of investment to walk in the door. To get a single one off attempt against a boss of that level when it took 1-3 attempts for someone who according to Steam achievements is top 2% of gamers to kill end game bosses. Feels bad, I would suggest allowing a player 2 or even 3 portals to maps. If I'm dying more than 3 times in a map I am either doing something reckless or need sleep. Yes softcore andy. But If the end game of Soft core. Doesn't feel like soft core. The waypoint system sustain of waypoints of the one you are doing is as bad as it is currently. Losing a waypoint is already punishment enough. HC there is no conversation you have lost your character.

I would argue that SC is getting punished too harshly. It's called softcore not mediumcore... though there is an opportunity here to help get people more into hardcore play with a leave as is mode >.>

You already lose the waystone which is more than enough of a punishment. You lose the events in the map, a bigger issue as these events are the only way to DRIVE your sustain (bosses) or character progression. Losing these mechanics, means you lose the path of progression for your character. Yes it is infinite, however if you can't get meaningful upgrades when you are playing the game starts to feel stagnant. Not everyone will say oh well lets make a new character they will simply stop playing. Which despite how a small loud fraction of the community might feel, Looking at the "get gooders" and the "go try D4" andies. I think the large silent majority are happy more people are enjoying the game and want to see it grow. Because growth means more money for GGG to do more things and make the games we love even better.

Running 5-7s and having 1s and 2s drop when you are running a yellow (with over 250%) to try and sustain simply doesn't work.

I'm all for the less than 6 portals. 3 I think might be the sweet spot for instagib mechanics and getting trapped when you hit a ritual/breach/delirum, along with learning/relearning a boss.

Edit: Losing a map due to unexpected disconnect, Closing your portals, Losing the map buffs even if you have completed said map it doesn't show as completed. This being a growing pain might be necessary to not wipe special events at least till fixed, but as stated before. Would be great to keep them permanently.

One small minor gripe on maps. Honestly was hoping boss maps were a stronger version of bosses in campaign with new stuff to learn. Also more epic colosseum type fights instead of killing through a normal map to fight a boss you fought before. More health 1 or 2 new mechanics maybe a few packs leading up to The bosses lair then the fight. I know that would make the time investment thing not equal to the larger maps but if they have more health and are scarier with the new mechanics. Might be something to look into? I feel that your Bosses are the draw to the game for a lot of people at this point and might help! (they are really fing cool)

Once again Thank you so much for everything. Your game is great and can't wait for more things to arrive. I know its only been 2 weeks Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy new year.

I really think there is still a lot of work that needs to go into this game before it is ready for full release.

I totally agree. As I said 2 weeks in to the 6-12 month timeline. And I'm trusting the vision and process.

for GGG to ever say POE was a homage to diablo 2 then to make their whole end game the den of evil is awful. people HATED the den of evil. having to track down 1 monster you missed is the most annoying thing.

Simple fix is either highlight all rares on the map right away or put some actual movement in the game.