1.177 hours of gameplay. I can't take it anymore.

This is my first experience in an ARPG so intensely like this, up to the point that I upgraded my GPU just because of this game. Bringing the first problem already. (spoiler: it's not a positive review)

Optimization

It's not an exaggeration to say that 20% of my playtime is about trying to make this game work. Cleaning shaders cache, GPU settings, game settings, changing CPU affinity, .bat for startup with CPU usage cap, intern NVIDIA config changes to not be recognized as POE 1, bought new GPU, PC formatting, BIOS settings... Everything, done and undone in different combinations, just to get a "sweet spot" of 30FPS synced, and still stuttering very frequently. I don't know if this is a shader problem, since when it needs to download all again it runs smoother but not loading things in the process, but there's a HUGE problem in this game performance. I wish I was the only one with this problem, not gonna lie.

Game Difficulty

Ok, I managed to play a lot of this early access. Even being my first ARPG, it's not by far my first experience in buildings and character constructions. By the campaign, was playing with what I found funny, taking notes of things I liked, and then looking at popular (or not so popular) builds to have a base of what I want to do. Iceshot deadeye, demonic infernalist, plague blood ritualist, infusion amazon. Also played some popular builds at the moments to have a greater feeling of what is a sweet spot of power...

...All of this, to be able to take a stun lock of mobs, being freezed by the third time in a row even with a freeze charm, being insta-killed by white mobs while 75% of my skill tree and equipment being focused on survival. It's true, bosses are hard too, but I liked it in comparison with the rest of the game, I love souls-like games, but it doesn't make sense to put this element while you are surrounded with quick, full of particles, dumb mobs that are supposed to be killed quickly.

Every map I did, even focusing on the challenging gameplay that the game proposes, I felt like in the far west at 12 o'clock, but against everyone in the city, needing to take the first quick blowing shot to remain alive, because no matter what I do to survival resources, not even 5k ES with evasion was helping me survive white mobs. Not one-shot boss mechanics, not bad RNG rares, white mobs.

Loot/Crafting

Ok, I played the game after a lot of effort, I didn't stopped playing when facing unfair gameplay... let's build the character and take some gear, then...

Considering the current 0.2.0g drops, that are really buffed and I am grateful for this, I'll do a map at the end game and take 20 to 30 pieces of maybe interesting gear with potential for "crafting". But only 10% of them will have at least one mod that I like.

I take those 2 or 3 gears and they have potential. We then put some exalts and hope the next modifiers will also be good for them. We get a 10% of getting something interesting.

Now that the mods are interesting, let's check if the tier of those mods are good for my level. Another 10%...

Perfect! I did it! One good gear for my character! It's my weapon! I got the 0,1% for the weapon I wanted! Now I just need to do this to my secondary hand, helmet, chest, amulet, ring 1, ring 2, maybe ring 3, gloves, boots and belt...

That's why currency exists, as well as the only "online" component of the game, to get items that fits my build, right? so let's search one of those... 10 divines... for one piece, that is not even perfect, and probably no other build uses, since I'm doing my own build from scratch... I'll just need to play 50 more maps to get this currency... just to when I get it in exalts, now the divine is double the price, and also what I wanted is more expensive than before...

Because of this, more than half my equips I made myself. "Made" = got lucky to find and slam exalts. And now I want you to think about someone trying to do their own build. They will change their equips and weapon a lot, experimenting different things: ring pools, evasion pure, evasion + hp, evasion + ES, pure ES... all trying to survive the monsters above mentioned. And also correcting their resists because if it's not capped you become even more fragile than normal.

I always have 1 stash of useful rings and belts and another for useful gears to switch between them during gameplay, just because of the "crafting system" we have.

Trade Market

Ok, somehow, between trying to get currency and making the game work, not knowing what's killing me more between white mobs and stuttering, I finally can buy something at the trade center...

When I DM the person to buy... nothing. I wait for 2, 3 minutes, and nothing. Then I try again with another, and another and another... I still remember the day I stayed for 1 whole hour in the market just trying to buy an unique tablet to use in a tower. All of them "price fixers".

And speaking of the devil, you get something to try to sell, and look that people are selling for 1 divine. Ok, that's the price, right? Immediately, tons of people insta-DM you wanting to buy that thing that actually people sell by 2 divines or more, because the ones that sell by 1 never answer you. Again, "price fixers".

Together with the crafting system, remember when I said how I crafted? We can also use essences, omens... a lot of things to "help" in the process... but there's something in common in all of them: none of them are the main currency used in the market after 2 weeks of season. Only divines are used. At this point, linking the concept of price fixers and RMT, I don't think it's wrong to say that divines are a cryptocurrency...

Also, none of the things that could be useful to others people buy from you. Why? because we just have a few builds, and the items are perfect for those 5 builds, and key items, or the item will rot in your selling stash. If you got something that everyone needs, well... you're part of everyone, so now congrats, you "crafted" your own gear and doesn't make sense to sell it.

Final Consideration

Said all of this, I played for 1.2k hours because I really loved the game, the concept, I loved the early access and don't regret spending my hard-earned cash into this. But there's so many things that needs to be adjusted, so many things that screams to me to not play this anymore... I really hope this game get better at some point...

Seriously bro you need to take a brake... 1100+ Hours??? How many hours you play per day?

we are already in the 6th month of early access... this is like, 200h per month, 50h per week, less than 7h per day...

that's even the usual work time per day in a lot of countries, and you still don't say someone work too much by simply having a job...

You said it so well, I will only say this, I curse the names of the DEVS of POE2 daily. All we really want is a game that is enjoyable and GGG doesn't seem to care. It feels like they are on some power trip. I have never rage quit a game so often like this one. I rage quit 4-5 times a day. I love the game, but it is too difficult. I told my buddy to get it and he won't play anymore.

"

Ramiko#4950 wrote:

...All of this, to be able to take a stun lock of mobs, being freezed by the third time in a row even with a freeze charm, being insta-killed by white mobs while 75% of my skill tree and equipment being focused on survival.

I genuinely don't understand why someone would invest this much time and effort into such a thorough feedback post and then just choose to include what is absolutely and unquestionably obvious nonsense. There is no way on the surface of the planet we share that 75% of your passive points and you are defensive and you are being insta-killed by white mobs. One of those two things is just a big silly lie and it's impossible to tell which.

If you're struggling this much, post a link to your build. Someone will be able to help you overcome whatever it is that's holding you back.

The great IRL escape becomes the great time-wasting flop of the century. heck... millenial. lol

Wow, you go all that from 1 hour 10 minutes 37 seconds and 200 milliseconds of gameplay?

:P

hi, 0.2 is miserably designed in many ways. well poe2 as a whole. communication the worst part of all.

that be all

Congratz for ~enduring~ this for 1k hours!

"

Hendel#1528 wrote:

Wow, you go all that from 1 hour 10 minutes 37 seconds and 200 milliseconds of gameplay?

:P

Today you learned that Europeans have a different way of delineating numbers. They use periods, North Americans use commas.