Honest feedback on the current state of PoE2 after 900 hours played .

Last Epoch just launched it's second season so decided to give it a shot it's honestly amazing how good it feels to see not only loot drop, but loot that improves your build.

Here, i have to buy my upgrades with whatever meager drops i manage to stockpile with nothing of value ever really dropping meaning i have to sit on my ass not playing while i search various items with the clunky interface that is, somehow, worse than for PoE1 as there are so many missing parameters in the drop down menu that finding something easily just isn't really possible.

But yeah, it's nice you're doing something about the loot, monster speed and atlas but it feels like slapping band aids on a festering wound.. the underlying issues are still there, main one being the vision for this game clearly still being ruthless.

Anywho, i agree with most of the OP's points cos it's really hard not to if you spent triple digit hours playing this slogfest of a game.

I honestly feel like POE2 has lost itself in trying to do everything, resulting in a lacking experience across all of its systems and gameplay direction.

Why have this giant skill tree with all the versatility and variety possible if no one is going to want to try it?

Why are we trying to be a power fantasy ARPG but making most skills unusable without 3 extra steps?

Why are we balancing this game like its an MMO and restricting loot around a trade economy when this is played mostly as a solo coop game?

This game has tried to do alot of things but its holding itself back from doing anything right, it wants to be a power fantasy ARPG with one of the most diverse skill trees one could create and make an infinite number of builds possible but 70% of the player base is using a single build because they feel as if its not worth the time or effort to try, and who can blame them? bad builds can barely clear the campaign and make an already drawn out process longer, you want meaningful combat but make every skill and ability terrible to use apart from a select few that seemingly play outside of the box.

The campaign is very much a pain point that isn't going to leave this game because of this rough place POE2 finds itself trying to be a souls like, i don't think anyone wants to play the same souls-like every 3 months or the same hard story every league to access new content, i find it a complete waste of time and kills any motivation to go try out new things being gated behind a 20hr hinderance.

While doing all of this it is also trying to be a Pseudo MMO by what feels like restricting loot drops and making things Rarer and drop in pitiful amounts to support an trade economy which is just taking away from what could be rewarding content, i honestly think this should be axed to focus on making POE2 a good game before making everything so asinine only few people will enjoy it.

"

Vyrelant#0538 написал:

I honestly feel like POE2 has lost itself in trying to do everything, resulting in a lacking experience across all of its systems and gameplay direction.

Why have this giant skill tree with all the versatility and variety possible if no one is going to want to try it?

Why are we trying to be a power fantasy ARPG but making most skills unusable without 3 extra steps?

Why are we balancing this game like its an MMO and restricting loot around a trade economy when this is played mostly as a solo coop game?

This game has tried to do alot of things but its holding itself back from doing anything right, it wants to be a power fantasy ARPG with one of the most diverse skill trees one could create and make an infinite number of builds possible but 70% of the player base is using a single build because they feel as if its not worth the time or effort to try, and who can blame them? bad builds can barely clear the campaign and make an already drawn out process longer, you want meaningful combat but make every skill and ability terrible to use apart from a select few that seemingly play outside of the box.

The campaign is very much a pain point that isn't going to leave this game because of this rough place POE2 finds itself trying to be a souls like, i don't think anyone wants to play the same souls-like every 3 months or the same hard story every league to access new content, i find it a complete waste of time and kills any motivation to go try out new things being gated behind a 20hr hinderance.

While doing all of this it is also trying to be a Pseudo MMO by what feels like restricting loot drops and making things Rarer and drop in pitiful amounts to support an trade economy which is just taking away from what could be rewarding content, i honestly think this should be axed to focus on making POE2 a good game before making everything so asinine only few people will enjoy it.

True words . Very true .
This feels like an mmo now that you say it . Every league we have 2-3 supreme builds and noone cares about anything else . And they are right to do so because as you have said , most builds cant even clear the campaing .

On the economy note , yes : They are trying to restrict the economy by limiting drops but still allow this blatant RMT that has been going on , which is by far more harmful than players dropping some divines and gearing their characters out faster .

Chasing after meaningful combat , we lost meaningful player progression ..


Trying too hard to be the elden ring of arpgs . I get the revolutionary spirit . I really do . But this still should be an arpg . Which is about loot , progressing you character and blowing up monster hordes.

Do not agree on loot. A slight buff would be fine. Dont flood us with yellow stuff like other arpg do.

+1 OP

I agree with pretty much everything

"

keroysho#6433 написал:

Gonna start off strong and say the game has identity issues in my opinion . "It" cannot decide if it wants to be Poe1 2.0 or Path of Dark Souls .
We have one foot in giga blast zoomer monkeyland and the other in wheelchair racing up the stairs .
I think the developers have to decide what they want this game to be , because everything is dependant on that .

-1

They are outliers that get fixed in balance. Its not meant to be brain off. It will be slower than POE1.

Whether its next league or 2 weeks from now. Overturned things get patched out eventually.

"

keroysho#6433 написал:

-Major performance and server stability issues :
Probably after a few months in we could expect the game to run without malfunction . This should be number 1 priority . There was an insane amount of crashes in 0.1 , lot of them being caused by bugged interactions (like choir infinite bolts), too many breach monsters spawning in one place, windows update, nvidia stuff etc etc . A lot of fixes have been made and it went quiet for some time but now it seems to be back . Rollbacks,crashes,lagg spikes are once again frequent and it's a horrible experience when you are trying to play the game .

+1
Yes stuttering, loading, invisible floor/monsters. All this stuff needs improving for sure.

Internet: Give us prediction mode already.

"

keroysho#6433 написал:

-RMT , botting :
This also is a top priority in my opinion . The amount of RMT and botting in this game is crazy. Get it out please .

-1

Its an online game, you're never stopping this.

Not saying I want them to do nothing about it, its just not something you can "get it out" with online media.

Reduce it absolutely.

"

keroysho#6433 написал:

-Alt-tabbing simulator/Trading is dogwater :
Seriously . It's 2025 GGG . Drop the stubbornness and put an auction house into the game. Find a way to make it work or think of something to fix trading because this is a joke . We spend too much time on external sites and most of it is not time well spent . Wasting too much time spamming chinese dudes who never respond . Its tedious . Half of the game happens in the browser and other apps(trade site,regex,build sites,PoB,loot filters and could even put overlays here because those are externals too) .

-1

I dont want automated trading in the game.

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keroysho#6433 написал:

-Lack of crafing: Don't really have to further elaborate on that , crafing is non existent . What little we have is pure RNG . Deterministic crafting is still only viable at the higher end with insane budgets.

+1
I think basekit, we just need 1:1 POE1 harvest and essence. Scrap their current essence system. And give us some BASELINE crafting.

I think POE1s version of harvest is more than fair for that.

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keroysho#6433 написал:

-Leveling and campaing :
Too dragged out , gated and slow . I get seizures thinking about having to make another alt . Campaing is long , loot and upgrades are hella rare, it's not the end of the world but needs a bit of polishing .

+ or - 1

Ill agree some polishing, I feel like as the game develops, along with this next patch comming out. The campaign will be more smooth.

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keroysho#6433 написал:

-Some QoL issues:
Checkpoints need their 10th hotfix. There are still maps where you have 1 at the start and 1 at the end .

+1
Yea I dont get why you cant manipulate the checkpoint map with the arrow keys.

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keroysho#6433 написал:

Death log maybe?

+ or - 1

Adding something like this to the game, its just more processing power. And the game is currently struggling as it is performance wise.

Would like it but it can wait.

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keroysho#6433 написал:

-Lot of mobs still on cocaine/Too many oneshots and on death effects:
Both during the campaing and in endgame mapping you just meet monsters that oneshot you or nuke you down. Still a lot of them are too fast and crazy . Projectiles coming at you from offscreen, the flash himself jumping you at the speed of light, combine that with 3 on death effects that follow you and 3 other that are spawning under you(some with like 5 sec delay) doesn't make for a good experience . It's not hard , it's annoying . Bosses too love to delete you without telegraph , let's say it happens on a citadel map which you spent 1 hour to path to .. Your day is made.

+1

Usain bolt is in several mobs still sadly. All the Utzal mobs(vaal stuff) are way too fast, they even dash to you with smoke attacks. Even the extremely large guys carrying a several ton sword can run faster than us.

They have toned many things down, but there are still just question mark fast mobs that seemingly have no cooldown to abilities to close in on you.

Ie:
Large birds from act II leap slam spam if you attempt to get distance
Some human axe wielders slam sprint spam attack you as well.

Some more touching up like they did already. There are a lot of mobs so it takes time.

"

keroysho#6433 написал:

-Tedious and boring endgame:
Despite some cool additions endgame is still horrendous . Having to look for tower overlaps , spending mutliple hours of preparation just for 1 hour of fun is not enjoyable .
Lackluster league mechanics , and no real way to "spec" into them.

Maps are too huge and not rewarding enough .
I had all the strongbox nodes for days and i never saw a single unique one .
Breach is nerfed to the gutter , it drops 5 splinters on a good day. And you have to pick them up 1 by 1. Still.
Wisp is cringe , annoying to follow and doesn't make any difference on rewards.
Rogue exiles barely appear even if you spec into them , and if they do they drop blue items.
Ritual and its omens have been buffed allegedly in 0.1 , yet i have seen only 1 whittling since february . LoL . Insanely unlucky i guess.
Expedition is ok.
League mechanics need an insane buff (all of them) and you a have to feel the difference if you spec into one on the atlas tree . Which brings me to my second point , that the atlas tree is dumb and is barely good for anything . Needs much more options.

+1

Theres a lot in here ill just say the mechanics need to be slightly more rewarding. Essences for example, even when you trait them, barely show up.

And when they do, they are going to be the NON improved versions. So its just a gut punch taking all those nodes, when you could just stack rarity.

"

keroysho#6433 написал:

Atlas tree needs a full rework.

+ or - 1

I dont really know what they can do with it. I think they need to improve the mechanics baseline first, like above essences ACTUALLY showing up, and then work on expanding the atlas tree.

The nodes and how you get points could be a bit more generous. Not just in the ammount of points we get, but also when we can actually attain them. You have to get pretty far into mapping before you can even get a single pair of points for any of the outside mechanics.

"

keroysho#6433 написал:

Map mods need some rethinking

When only 1-2 of the positive mods are making a difference , but all the negative ones make you hate your life i think there is something wrong .
Only rarity and quant is worth running , but we have the insane negative ones like crit,temporal chains,all kinds of ground effect,ailment threshold,gain damage,enfeeble,evasive-armored etc etc.
Frankly i dont know what happened but my map rolls have been crazy , it's always atleast 3 of those negative ones with the worst overlap possible . Maybe i'm very unlucky.

+ or -1

I think tuning the mobs speed and getting things in a more reasonable pace for people to react will help with things like chilled ground and temp chains as mods.

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keroysho#6433 написал:

LOOT

Yes . Loot is awful i dont understand why this is the case and was not adressed as soon as possible . This is an ARPG , so loot is core .
Yet we dont get any . To begin with we need more chase uniques , more divine-like drops that give you a dopamine rush but just much more loot in general .
Bosses dont drop anything , rares drop 1 exalt on a good day .
I have been running 100 rarity on gear and i barely got 3 or 4 notable rare items and like 2 valuable uniques .
Dont even talk about currency , because getting 5 raw divines after playing for 1 week atleast 10 hours a day is unacceptable for my liking.
Trade is also on the verge of death because noone has money to buy anything .

Loot needs an insane buff.

-1

I dont think loot is in dire need of an insane buff. Its the mechanics in the maps that are just not rewarding, or dont show up at all.

Rares loot chance, wisp loot chance, boss loot chance...

All of this is being addressed in the next patch I believe.

I agree with everything written here.

+1

+1

+1