Impressions as we approach the 6th of December

I've taken some time to review the footage from the stream from the 21st, and spent my last week monitoring opinions in the forum, other social medias and whatnot. Below are the thoughts that linger in my mind that I feel the need to express and possibly discuss with other PoE Enjoyers.

The good:

1 - Going from No Endgame around June to an "infinite" endgame in less than 6 months is great. With EA being basically an open Beta, testing the endgame for the existing playerbase is really nice. And having 3 existing acts is a great gateway for new players too.

2 - WASD movement, better controller support, only 2 flasks, dodge roll and a permanent portal action. My right wrist appreciates this greatly.

3 - Skill tree travel nodes with selectable stats! The notepad build list has "Strength Sorc ?" written on it, will see after we log in on EA. My dumb ideas aside, this definitely will open op the opportunities for builds a little more, at least in my opinion.

4 - Gem Leveling. I might be wrong here, but from what I understand, you can find leveled "clean" gems that you can inscribe your skills onto. This could make swapping out skills to try different builds a little easier, as we wouldn't have to go through a multitude of maps to level those gems.

5 - Actually using the second weapon set. Along with the weapon set skillpoint distribution, I think it's great. Sorc switching elements, warrior defending with shield to tank a big hit, only to switch to 2h for "dps phase". Thinking about it is exciting.

The Bad:

1 - Wisdom scrolls still exist. I just dislike them. The world will not end when I use them, but I will always have my negative opinion about the wisdom scrolls.

2 - Another one where I might have misunderstood, but from what I gather, getting Ascendancies requires from the players to go through a required round of a particular mechanic. Such as the first displayed trial being Sanctum 2. Personally, I like Sanctum, but I don't like Ultimatum. If I could run just one mechanic for all my ascendancy points, I would prefer it.


The questionable(Stuff that isn't confirmed/Not enough info about):

1 - Considering my experience last league, towns may end up being a nightmare to be in. Yes, some people buy MTX to flex that MTX at other players. But if I see the sun as a character in town, or hear a pet over the voicelines of NPCs, it will definitely take a bit out of the "First experience" for me personally. I outright hope NPC voices override any other ambient sound and it's just the background music and the NPC talking.

2 - More like a suggestion, but seeing the Infernalist's demonic transformation got me thinking that the classes are organised in "pairs". Like the Ranger and Mercenary being range-oriented. Now, this is solely my personal opinion, but it could be cool if the Witch is the "pair" for the Druid - his transformations being naturalistic and good, while hers are dark and occult. Hell, give the Templar an ascendancy with a transformation, a divine possession if you will. This opinion stems from what I've seen in Last Epoch and their Reaper transformation. "Me want Scythe mage-based character" is the simplest way I can say this.

3 - Avoiding the use of "daily" mechanics. Please, for the love of Innocence, I would heavily dislike the thought of "Oh man, I missed doing X Daily quest because I was at work and then enjoyed my other hobbies instead of sitting in front of my PC for a couple of hours". Settlers was fun as a concept, but the fairly "daily" management requirement killed it really quick for me (As seen by my lack of challenges). My soul craves to just log in whenever I want or when I have some friends to log in with and blast maps, not trying to make a schedule.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There, thoughts put out in the open because I have nothing better to do this Sunday morning. Something that doesn't fit the "categorization" I've made above is that I will dearly miss Blight, because I love the idea of a tower defense with a controllable character defending alongside it's towers. But it's EA, I can copium that it could come at a later date. Please GGG, it doesn't necessarily have to be Cassia and the ichor pump. As long as the core mechanics I just described are there, I will gladly sacrifice sleep and hundreds of hours in such content.

Last but not least, a small prediction about the map endgame they seem to keep secret:




What do you think, exiles? Can we have a civil discussion over here to help pass the incoming week until LOG IN time.

"

2 - Another one where I might have misunderstood, but from what I gather, getting Ascendancies requires from the players to go through a required round of a particular mechanic. Such as the first displayed trial being Sanctum 2. Personally, I like Sanctum, but I don't like Ultimatum. If I could run just one mechanic for all my ascendancy points, I would prefer it.

You can run only one mechanic for all your ascendancies.

Each "trial" can be performed on a of 3 mechanics (Sanctum, Ultimatum and TBA),
Each as 4 floors (difficulty) from what i gather, but Jonathan said you either do only one mechanic or mix and match what you feel like ^^

"

RefIux#3336 wrote:

"

2 - Another one where I might have misunderstood, but from what I gather, getting Ascendancies requires from the players to go through a required round of a particular mechanic. Such as the first displayed trial being Sanctum 2. Personally, I like Sanctum, but I don't like Ultimatum. If I could run just one mechanic for all my ascendancy points, I would prefer it.

You can run only one mechanic for all your ascendancies.

Each "trial" can be performed on a of 3 mechanics (Sanctum, Ultimatum and TBA),
Each as 4 floors (difficulty) from what i gather, but Jonathan said you either do only one mechanic or mix and match what you feel like ^^

This is correct.

There are 4 checkpoints for each Trial variant, and you unlock your ascension points by reaching those checkpoints for the first time in any of the variants. So if you do Ultimatum to the first checkpoint (which I think they said is 3 rooms?) you unlock your first two points, and you can then go do Sanctum to the second checkpoint (second floor boss) to get the next two points. If you only make it through the first floor of the Sanctum, you wouldn't unlock anything because you already hit the first checkpoint in Ultimatum.

This means you can simply clear the entire Sanctum and unlock all 8 ascension points without ever setting foot in a single Ultimatum circle. You'll get 2 points the first time you kill each floor boss.

"

Impirias#7782 wrote:

1 - Considering my experience last league, towns may end up being a nightmare to be in. Yes, some people buy MTX to flex that MTX at other players. But if I see the sun as a character in town, or hear a pet over the voicelines of NPCs, it will definitely take a bit out of the "First experience" for me personally. I outright hope NPC voices override any other ambient sound and it's just the background music and the NPC talking.

My starting character will have the Eldrich hunger helmet, Crystalarium Boots / Gunpowder boot, Talking Parrot (Enchanter Pack), currency use extra effects, thunder struck body armor, Pyromantic weapon effect, surfboard foot effect, painting ring effect, coin flip hip attachment, divergence character effect so I'm just purple, as many obnoxious aura effects possible and of course to finish it off the Goblin Plague.

/s I don't own any of that annoying crap.

i'm curious about why you see wasd movement (to simulate a joystick) as a good thing?

using a keyboard, you will never compete with a controller when it comes to precision and reaction time.

they implemented it to bring kb/mouse on par with controllers where you can move with one joystick and aim with the other joystick.

means, you have to use wasd and the mouse at the same time while using your mouse buttons to fire skills cause you can't let go of the wasd keys.

--

relaxing your wrists? how?

"

i'm curious about why you see wasd movement (to simulate a joystick) as a good thing?

using a keyboard, you will never compete with a controller when it comes to precision and reaction time.

they implemented it to bring kb/mouse on par with controllers where you can move with one joystick and aim with the other joystick.

means, you have to use wasd and the mouse at the same time while using your mouse buttons to fire skills cause you can't let go of the wasd keys.

--

relaxing your wrists? how?

Just want to throw out that I did put a comma in the note you're referring to, as my intentions were to list the little QoL things I found better for myself.

I see WASD+Mouse as superior, because it alleviates the current "click to move" set up that PoE1 has.


On the topic of mkb vs controller, my personal stance is that mkb is more accurate than a controller. But I do use both. Again, it's an improvement from my perspective that allows for different control types to be implemented and enjoyed by a different variety of people.