Many old problems are still unresolved.

Hello everyone.
In the last 0.3 league, I left some feedback regarding some very serious issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible. Here's the post.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3851658

To my disappointment, and I think everyone's, these issues haven't been addressed, or even addressed. And I doubt that's because they aren't a problem.

In addition to the previous post, I'd like to add to the list of aspects that, in my opinion, require careful consideration and improvement.

The problems are intertwined and reinforce each other. I'll try to break them down into their components.

Skill speed.
I have no complaints about the concept of a more thoughtful and measured gameplay. It's beautiful, it's tactical, it's interesting. The overwhelming majority of skills are designed for this concept. Bosses are balanced around this concept. Regular monsters don't care about this concept, and they attack at high speed, in groups, against a player who takes a second to swing before striking, who doesn't have enough AoE to even stun all enemies so they stop attacking for even a second. No. The first act through Mace is still one of the most terrible experiences in PoE 2, because beautiful, massive attacks without AoE boosts are insufficient against huge hordes of white monsters with ranged attacks. Seriously, try clearing a location with Rolling Slam. The damage is enough, but to survive the somersaults, you need to eat your flasks faster than they refill (flasks still bad btw). And the key feature is that agility subclasses have an inherent advantage in all aspects, including this one: their skills are fast, have almost instant impact, and allow you to dodge attacks.
To match the player's pace, monsters should be slowed by 30% and have a 30% shorter attack range. Otherwise, the game punishes you for choosing the wrong build. And that's not how it should be.

Defenses.
Another advantage of agility classes is that evasion and deflection are significantly more powerful than armor. This can also be easily combined with block and ES. This means there's a high chance of not taking damage at all (evasion and block), and if this chance fails, there's a high chance of reducing damage taken by 40%. With a 5k hit pool, that's an 8k hit. To reduce an 8k hit pool by 40% with armor, you need around 40-45k armor. These are completely unachievable values, requiring far more investment than increasing your ES pool by 40%. The armor formula makes it extremely ineffective at all stages of the game. And again, it all comes back to glass cannons. And how fortunate that mobile builds with good clearing are an agility class, which can afford the best defense in the game. Meanwhile, oddly enough, strength classes are more sluggish, clumsy, and glassy. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A COUPLE OF BUILDS. But I'm not used to relying on exceptions as a basis.
It's wrong, and it shouldn't be that way.

Luck factor.
I'd like to point out the difference in gameplay experience between two completely identical builds (we're talking about the first acts), but one of them was lucky enough to find a strong rare weapon with four useful damage stats, while the other was unlucky and only had one useful stat. The difference in damage output is more than twofold. This is a real incident that happened at the start of this league. And I naturally wondered: "How can you adequately balance monster power if such a difference in character strength is left to chance?" It's like the Risk Scarab, which can grant an easy modifier and improve loot for one player, but can also grant an impossible modifier for another player, who either can't complete the map at all or will have to wait 5x longer to complete it.
The dopamine rush from getting a cool weapon is great. And it's even better when you don't have to be the loser who "just got unlucky" enough to find a decent item in three acts, which means they have to spend three times as much time on their journey, becoming three times more vulnerable due to the poor balance of defenses and flasks, and, unlike the deliberate difficulty of the content, gaining absolutely no benefits. Items provide excessive power, while the passive skill tree can't boast the same.
While this may be logical in some sense, in my opinion it is exaggerated and should not be so.

Passive skill tree.
I'll take the time to bring this up again. Each league adds 100+ new passive skills. It's fun. It's already over 1500+ points. But there's still no balance work on this tree. 120 points is woefully low (132 is for level 100, which only a handful of players ever reach). The low point count is compounded by the need to address new issues, such as mana cost, very weak flasks, inadequate defenses, and a lack of attributes. Only occasionally can you find a few points for an interesting trait, one chosen with care and maximum efficiency, otherwise there's no progression in power. After all, the core of the game is progress, the path forward. Not stagnation for the sake of a 0.5% damage boost once a week.
It's sad when you look at the tree and, instead of a multitude of choices, you see only a couple that are the most effective. Interesting ideas, dual properties, and any mechanics that don't provide a significant damage or defense multiplier are ignored.
So what's the point then? Why create the illusion of choice if there's no choice? The complex tree system is designed to create unique passive skill combinations. Now, it's more like the passive points from Titan Quest, where you just take points along the way to the desired property, only the most necessary ones, and no creativity.
I believe this system deserves more freedom of choice, because it shouldn't be like this.

Navigation.
I still see negative feedback regarding the size of locations. Players don't understand why they're so huge, as you literally get lost in them while looking for the exit.
When they increased the display radius of points of interest in PoE 1 in league 3.27, I thought, "That's a great idea. They've probably done something similar in PoE 2. It will solve the problem of large locations, as players will see exits, waypoints, and other points of interest much earlier than when they're within sight." But alas, the miracle didn't happen, and characters can still miss things. This emphasis on realism doesn't correspond to realism, since the average person's sight radius isn't 8 meters, and, for example, the entrance to the crypt in the cemetery in Act 1 could have been seen from at least 20 meters.
Also, I had an interesting thought back in league 0.1: "Will I be able to complete the acts without using the minimap, and how much longer will it take?" Now I understand that in some locations, it will be too difficult without a minimap, even with a good layout. Classic landmarks are missing in many places. Minimal breadcrumbs. And try not to miss points of interest, since the camera's field of view is even smaller than the minimap's.
Perhaps this is a new standard, but I believe increasing the highlight radius of points of interest will significantly improve the "problems of large locations."

I understand there may not be enough time to implement and fix everything I've planned. So I'll just wait and hope for the release, returning periodically for at least a couple of acts. The game has incredible potential, and I want to see it.

" many problems are still unresolved"

well yeah, that's why it's in early access bro

"

Zoddo#7578 wrote:

" many problems are still unresolved"

well yeah, that's why it's in early access bro

Yes, you're right. I understand that perfectly. I wrote this post because I see a lot of narrowly focused feedback that doesn't address the topics I mentioned. And because it's happening so actively, it's getting more attention.

Endgame changes are planned for 0.5. Okay, there will be plenty to do in the endgame. But it will only be available to a short list of builds, for obvious reasons. Okay, it will be a celebration of meta-endgamers, fine. They'll have plenty to do, maybe 10% of the player base. I'm worried that times are tough for the remaining 90% of players right now.

"

Zoddo#7578 wrote:

" many problems are still unresolved"

well yeah, that's why it's in early access bro

Who gives a fuck if it's EA or not? It doesn't matter at this point. Feedback is feedback. We still give POE1 feedback, right?

"

Zoddo#7578 wrote:

" many problems are still unresolved"

well yeah, that's why it's in early access bro

I paid for this game a year ago. You are a loser, also.

"

Skill speed.
I have no complaints about the concept of a more thoughtful and measured gameplay. It's beautiful, it's tactical, it's interesting. The overwhelming majority of skills are designed for this concept. Bosses are balanced around this concept. Regular monsters don't care about this concept, and they attack at high speed, in groups, against a player who takes a second to swing before striking, who doesn't have enough AoE to even stun all enemies so they stop attacking for even a second. No. The first act through Mace is still one of the most terrible experiences in PoE 2, because beautiful, massive attacks without AoE boosts are insufficient against huge hordes of white monsters with ranged attacks. Seriously, try clearing a location with Rolling Slam. The damage is enough, but to survive the somersaults, you need to eat your flasks faster than they refill (flasks still bad btw). And the key feature is that agility subclasses have an inherent advantage in all aspects, including this one: their skills are fast, have almost instant impact, and allow you to dodge attacks.
To match the player's pace, monsters should be slowed by 30% and have a 30% shorter attack range. Otherwise, the game punishes you for choosing the wrong build. And that's not how it should be.

The above is correct, and not only applies to melee.

It also applies to chaos caster builds since hexblast was nerfed. Yes, I get that chaos is a leveling build and optimally you just use it with contagioned minions that you follow around, but if you actually try to cast those spells you'll find things like rituals, delirium, and breaches quite impossible, because your cast time can't keep up with insta-jump-slamming white mobs.

At the end of the day, GGG has spent 100% of its money on graphics, all with a poor understanding of basic combat.

And I would suspect that the artists were contract work and are now gone, so this is all being ignored because of a budget that doesn't exist.

Presumably they think they can lie / hype their way into a profit. Only works for so long.