Armor Break Mercenary Feedback

I've been pretty underwhelmed by the quality of some of the discussion posts written on early access, with so, so many folks giving bad faith opinions on the game because they liked Path of Exile 1 and this isn't Path of Exile 1. I don't know where that assumption came from, but it's exhausting. I sympathize. I guess. I don't know. I don't really care - I'm having a lot of fun with Path of Exile 2 and I'm a little frustrated that everyone feels the need to give the same banal take that this isn't another game.

So, instead of complaining about it further, I figured I'd be the change I want to see in the world lol.

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I've been playing Merc for around ~6 hours with the Crossbow, and I wanted to throw some thoughts out there:

- Ammunition is a lot of fun. I have to say - I really like the ammunition mechanic. It takes a minute to get used to, but I really find it fun to try and master. It's nice to have a pretty meaty mechanic to mess with on a weapon like that. Bow's available if a more simple option is preferred, but I really like the quirkier and more involved nature of the crossbow.

- Crossbow mobility feels pretty good, was worried. I used bow a bit to start, and assumed I would miss Escape Shot switching to crossbow. I think Escape Shot is better, but Permafrost bolts and the generally higher mobility afforded by being able to "offset" my attack time by reloading while moving sufficed really well.

- Armor Piercing Rounds and High Velocity Rounds seem to actually anti-synergize early on. This surprised me, as I expected the general loop here to be apply armor pierce with APR, and then consume the armor break for HVR. You can do that, but it seems extremely inefficient. For monsters that don't just die to HVR, HVR only deals ~2x damage (I believe) whereas it take significantly longer than two HVR shot / reloads to apply armor break via APR, even with a few supports.

I'm not totally sure what the intention is here - I suspect APR is designed to augment other sources of armor break later in the game, but the binary nature of HVR boost and the fact they're right next to each other on the gem tree does seem to suggest a build / spend relationship between the two. This could be intended though - and perhaps players will do what I did: spec APR for AOE and HVR for single target, until I could get other sources of break. After all, I think HVR still benefits from partial break, it just doesn't get the consumption boost.

- I found some early success in minions. Sort of unrelated to merc, but I experimented with Unearth as minion meat shields to keep monsters back. This worked pretty well, and I enjoyed that it did. I do not believe it would've in PoE1, or it would have at least been a waste of time. This is sort exactly the thing I was hoping to see in this game: skills having an identity and utility beyond being a base plate to crank their numbers. In Magic the Gathering terms, I'm enjoying playing Standard instead of Vintage. I cannot express how much I like this.

- Difficulty / Tedium has been a non-issue. I personally have not had trouble with difficulty as Merc, nor have I found the combat particularly tedious. And I did find PoE1's early game combat tedious. Extremely tedious. Hits feel more meaningful. As mercenary, I've died to only a few things so far, and each time I felt like they were explicitly my fault (one was Asinia literally telling me to stand still and me not believing her lol). I could've done something about each. I think this is the most notable thing for me. I feel like I have much more control over a combat encounter (especially a boss encounter), instead of just crossing my fingers that my build can handle this boss, like in PoE1 (aside from, for me, Izaro - whom I adore).

- It would be kind of nice if HVR prioritized targeting enemies that are already broken completely. This was probably the one thing I found a little annoying. I had trouble identifying monsters in packs as being armor broken and then not accidentally committing to a HVR shot on an adjacent monster that was not. With around ~6 or so monsters things get difficult to single someone out quickly. Not an "issue" or anything, as I bet it'll be nothing later on, but at least right now I do notice it occasionally.

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Anywho - curious what everyone else did with APR and HVR? Did you split them up between AOE and single target like I did, or are you committing to the build/spend? Are you using other skills with them to get the break (was thinking about using minions once I got some more spirit)? Do you find the ROI worth it?

i've also been tempted to play ranged, but had my doubts that it is playable without wasd or controller

Just have to say, at this point ranger/merc with bow/xbow is the absolute strongest class.