Identity Crisis of POE2

I want to be concise as possible here. Maybe I'm an idiot and don't understand the grand vision of this game. After 900+ hours on poe2 and 250+ on poe1 I have a decent feel for how the games currently are.

Trails and the "choices matter", or needs to feel earned concept. This point will likely come up again as it is one of the major identity crisis issues. We are supposed to care, feel connected, feel accomplished when we make these choices and defeat the challenges right? Then why do we throw our character away every season? If that character had a journey I was connected to, it's gone on schedule. Seems counter intuitive, no?

This very weird holdover from poe1 where story plot points are tied to major stat line choices that cannot be changed. I'll just start by saying this always feels bad and flat-out dumb. For one you have almost zero idea how your build will end up and you could brick something important if you didn't use a 3rd party site and preplan the entire build (no third party site should required to solve for lack of functionality in game). Again if we did feel any attachment to choosing these things... it's thrown away against our will.

Boss fights only feel "meaningful" early in the story. This one highlights some of the design philosophy that seems to clash even internally. You have two basic build archetypes as it stands, fast mob clear or instant boss nuke... sometimes both. Why? if every boss encounter was supposed to feel epic, then why is the balance so FAR off, why are boss one shots still a thing? Are we all supposed to have 1 shot boss builds? I see NO cohesive principle for how the builds are created.

Meaningful combat? Oh boy. Am I supposed to feel like I'm going to blow for blow, agile footwork and crazy counter play? Or am I lawnmower of death? You have to choose one... let's take parry for example. How do I watch the wind up animations of 8 different monsters (only getting to parry 1 of 8 timing wise) while 2 of them roll at me and push me across the map 4 of them shoot a ranged attack and 2 others walk in circles trying to get in place for attack. Even if this did work, how would that feel "meaningful" when the next .2 seconds you are blasted again with no ability to parry? It doesn't work, if it did it likely wouldn't be fun and everyone seems to flock towards screen wipe builds anyways. Second point, if you wanted slower more meaningful combat then why do you keep building screen clear builds internally? You seem like you need to have some talks and figure out where you are taking this game.

The arbitrary slow down and skinner box methods. Do you want players to resent the hours they spend in game? Do I really have to elaborate here?

Elemental locking of skills, I assumed POE was the game of making choices and being able to be creative with builds. It is not, you have 1 or 2 choices and most of them are bad. Everything comes with a bane, and elemental locking means I never get to do ANYTHING fun like make an ice SRS, have a lightning wall or juice up my minions with some fun element. It's by the books are kick rocks. This feels HORRIBLE, being end game shuffling skill gems only to realize there is likely only 1 place it belongs... does not feel creative or rewarding. In my opinion all skills should lack elements that you can apply with skill gems as you see fit.

Lack of permanent progression will always trivialize my in game choices. Having to toss my character out every season makes me want to play less and less. It makes me less connected to the journey knowing it's rinse repeat and throw away. The combat is a mess and really needs to pick a side, slow and deliberate or fast and frantic.

Tip: Dont stand there like a nob with your shield out. Watch the attack animation, it will parry all melee attacks as long as you have stun bar.

Tip: Use Magma shield (gem) it will blast anyone in range.

Tip: Parry is only useful for skills that get damage from the parry buff. (spear)

Tip: You can parry bosses standard attacks which stuns them.

You dont loose your character at the end of the season. They (and all loot) gets transfered the the standard league. When the new season starts you build a new character but you dont have access to your loot which has now been transfered to the Standard league, unless you play with your old standard league characters.

Also forgot the Atlas is supposed to be this ever expanding thing... that we reset every few months. These ideas are conflicting.

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LordKillius#0678 написал:

Also forgot the Atlas is supposed to be this ever expanding thing... that we reset every few months. These ideas are conflicting.

Every new league its like a whole new universe. It would be pointless to carry over the atlas on a new character in a new league.

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Every new league its like a whole new universe. It would be pointless to carry over the atlas on a new character in a new league.

I agree it is all new, which made every choice I made last season... irrelevant. That is kind of my point. Either the choices matter or they don't. Right now a ton of design choices are inferred by the "choice's matter" ideals. And it conflicts with a revolving door of leagues(seasons) with no way to carry my previous choices over.

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LordKillius#0678 написал:

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Every new league its like a whole new universe. It would be pointless to carry over the atlas on a new character in a new league.

I agree it is all new, which made every choice I made last season... irrelevant. That is kind of my point. Either the choices matter or they don't. Right now a ton of design choices are inferred by the "choice's matter" ideals. And it conflicts with a revolving door of leagues(seasons) with no way to carry my previous choices over.

I'm not sure why you're so attached to your character when 15% of playing is dragging atlas around trying to find a citadel.

Seasons exist so that players can try something "new and exciting", if you don't want that, you can play your old character on standard. This has always been how ARPG's function - no matter if it's POE, Diablo, etc.

I don't understand the concern really. If you don't want to play over again I get it I guess but maybe you're playing the wrong game if you're that attached to a single character?

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I'm not sure why you're so attached to your character when 15% of playing is dragging atlas around trying to find a citadel.

Seasons exist so that players can try something "new and exciting", if you don't want that, you can play your old character on standard. This has always been how ARPG's function - no matter if it's POE, Diablo, etc.

I don't understand the concern really. If you don't want to play over again I get it I guess but maybe you're playing the wrong game if you're that attached to a single character?

It's not my reasoning I'm using. It's theirs, all these things are designed to be long term meaningful choices that effect your "journey" yet our journey resets every 4 months.