Preferred combat styles through builds

Hello,

I really like when in games like this I am able to develop my own playstyle through builds: certain combinations of items and perks as well as classes, that make me be able to play in a certain way.

For example I just found a totally op amulet just now that apparently makes you have 5 times your life regeneration. I rolled a new ranger before that, going poison, second weapon spear and went for whirling slash. So now, I am using this amulet, standing in groups of mobs, blinding the melee attackers with whirling slash, having piercing poison arrows that go through to the caster backline and I can maybe even stand in the little purple flowers in freythorn, because of that amulet.

I really like this kind of game design philosophy, where the game unfolds to me with more possibilites the longer I play, because of the random drops and uniques that make you able to create certain builds. I also think it's a smart choice to make items a necessity for certain builds.

This has some caveats though, as I know from other games. You can get kind of cought into the drive to always try new builds, which is kind of a burnout you can get from games like these, never happy, always having to change and try something new. Maybe that's just me though. Also, like I found with Diablo 4, you can get spammed with too many possibilities at once.

I think in PoE 2 the calibrations of these features is just right. I am not finding things often that make me be able to play completely different. I think, maybe the amulet that I mentioned, allows me now to play in a way that is kind of a tanky ranger.

I really want to make one thing clear: I like the tactical combat side of things that PoE 2 tries to introduce, although maybe sometimes it's not very clear about what it wants, whether it's more about slaying hordes of enemies and seeing screens explode, other times about tactical positioning and smart build choices as well as good skill usage. I like both aspects of the game and I think that it is a very smart idea, if that is the intention, to make different maps in endgame and in campaign play differently and be either tactical or all out carnage.

Please just make sure, if that is the intent, to design the game in a way that both sides of the coin don't get neglected.

I for one think that PoE 2 is maybe running danger of neglecting the tactical perspective to combat now and then and for sure, this one needs more polish and work. But I can see the attempt here, if I interpret it correctly and I really like it.



In kind regards