A feel about the game

Alright, so Chaos trial, Ultimatum

i like how it is, and it feel way better than in PoE I, but damn the boss of at the end, the weird plague bird, wasn't ready for it, might be now.

so i decided to go to the jiquani's machinarium, got some heist vibe in there

until i found Blackjaw. so i farmed, optimised a bit more my stuff, and tried, tried, tried, over and over for almost an hour, he is either bugged or really really badly designed, some rotation he do doesn't feel natural, all of his aoe are greater than your dodgeroll, some of his attack hitbox are off and hit you even when you are far from his reach, particle doesn't even reach you yet you still get one shot. the arena is weird, and you can't really circle around it, pillar doesn't cover you from his fire breath or projectile. There is so much stuff to fix and to do make this boss feel better to play against

and even after fighting through all of this, killing him doesn't feel rewarding, i'm happy for it to end because i won't have to go through it again not because it was a fun fight.

but thanks for the resist i guess.

on another note, support skill gem lvl 2.

it won't go to 20, it won't upgrade the lvl 1.
i'm having a bit of trouble to understand the design here. it might stray too much from PoE I without being unique in a good way.

the lack of mobility gem is already weird in itself, where is the good old "add x to x elemental damage"

sometime this new gems system feel good, sometime it feel weird, like it progress quite slow while also being with your weapon and skill tree be the only way to increase damage, gem always feel behind. i'll probably do an overall feel once it's fully unlocked, but for now this feel like hours and hours of farm to just do something you might regret due to low currency ammount.

and being able to have only one support gem is also weird, unlocking the possibility to have another support of the same type will probably be something quite strong for combo with some spell

i already envision nuking the whole map with poison grenade / fire grenade combo

anyway, enough renting for tonight i'll play for a bit and update this later

Zicoatl, it was a fun boss, saddly i think i burned him down quite fast to fully enjoy it but this def was among the good one,

Ignagduk, i dunno about that one, the patern are good and all aside from the corridor one, wich, we might need to remind, unless you are close to her and run behind her, will mostly kill you because we don't have any mobility skill

i don't really know how to make her fall from her broom, sometime it seems to be time, sometime damage, instruction are unclear on that one.

not much to say more, playing time was short last night, back to it now.

The queen of filth, not much to say, found it meh, the whole zone, and the time it took to reach it for all of this time to be a fight like this i mean, yeah, too big of a map for so little fun to have. still liked the bestiary of the zone, felt real awkward, real path of exile dark vibe.

The molten vault, yeah THAT'S IT, medium sized map, original game mecanics that play with the whole visual and physics. damn this place was amazing and for once i would have love to spend more time in it.

and then, BACK TO THE PAST THAT SEEMS TO BE SOMEHOW THE FUTURE (should've read the lore i guess)

so yeah, all three zone are amazing, all the style are amazin, the inca/maya theme is incredible, this is what the game should be teased with, because that's one hell of a twisted view, a wonderful city into some hellish sacrificial nightmare then some dark technological cave, yeah for real i really loved the...

i mean, aside from the map size ofc, like what the hell.

alright so for the bosses, the molten vault boss, seriously i thought it would play a bit more with the sun down bellow, like sometime wall would rise with the sun and you would need to adapt and dodge stuff with but the boss just, died, fast, using grenade scattershot festival. in itself the boss design is great, but i guess i'm on the right track since i'm destroying most stuff.

theeee, rectangle army of spear and the "i wont stay in your grenade" girl

forgot the name, to tired to go back in time so i can see it on the map.

remember when i said dodgeroll felt unecessary ? well congratz, it is necessary.
because without it, everything would simply hit you. spear attack that while being well indicated are simply to fast to walk past even ONE, imagine three in a row and you in the middle. arena slowly shrinking, aoe spam that goes bigger and bigger that even with dropping wide grenade that almost lit my whole screen (and force my GPU to activate it's last fan almost everytime it blew up) felt miserable against.

where is the skill in spam rolling, dropping an attack, and keep spamroll because you just can't DODGE any attack. i think the soulslike vibe is just not right for this.

and the end ? she just disappear and only 5 small guy are left, iirc the name include something like armada or blockade, you don't even fight them all.

there is so many weird design choice on this i don't even get how it went all the way into the game.

and now, the next boss...

so alright, let's slap the tech guy from IT, going full gravity suit.

i mean, the previous boss was harder. fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me kinda stuff.

i really died because i tried to roll out of the falling meca, instead of like walking then rolling before it fall.

so i slap the boss, somehow discover there won't be a next one because hey, it seems it was the act III Boss, yaaay

so now i need to... What the, so no act IV, no map, nothing

you just go back to Act I and do it in "cruel" difficulty. 27h of gameplay, for 3 act, (alright some are afk, some are failed trial of chaos, gonna talk about it in a bit)

but still. even if we take like 4h of those it's 23h for 3 act. in PoE I it's almost 10h for all of them. then you can have the fun of the endgame.

if i'm not dumb, act IV, V and VI will probably come later, early access and all, i can somehow understand. But sending us back to Act I

i can't even fathom how season will work like, each season we gonna have to play for like what, 50h before reaching endgame ?

sometime i feel like there is no thinking into some of this. i understand, taking sometime to enjoy the scenery, the complex gameplay (when dodge will get removed i guess it'll be complex... one can dream.) and the crafting/gem building system. the hours of theorycrafting are indeed endless and for once i'll join the crazy guy using excel calc.

but i don't feel, or see, how the pace being so slow bring anything to the game.
that for real, aside of some weird boss mecanic, the biggest downside i see.

the whole game for now is amazing and fun to play, i can't wait to reach endgame, even tho i'm not that hyped about redoing all 3 act. The art is amazing, i didn't have much bug, the game felt fluid, combat are dynamic, some boss are hard, in a real fun way.

the level design on some of this map is really well thought and it feel clearly alive.

so long, for now, and i'll be back ounce i'm done clearing act I to III in cruel difficulty i guess. Keep up the good work !

Level 71, Cruel act I to III rushed saturday, atlas exploration on sunday (today)

first spell in 4 link, almost all resist are near or at 75% (aside from chaos, i hate you)

the damage are high the survivability depend on the enemy type, and/or affix combo.

slowly but surely optimizing all my item, the game is at a point where i'm having some fun just rolling in map.

so, let's start with Cruel Acts, at the beginning it felt like it was shorter / faster until i reach Act III where for really, map size is a problem. there is some balance to find between the player speed, the map size and progress/fun of the game, for now it feel too slow even after "rushing" all three act.

i won't mind replayig the whole game from scratch once it'll go full release

but there will be a problem in clearing 30 to 50h of content every few month for each new season.

especially if i have to fight again silver fist and blackjaw... and the somehow bugged fight of the poison witch that somehow looped into meteor phase and poison spear several time in a row thus almost preventing me from stunning her and even doing damage. Odd fight, still won.

Anyway that's it for the beginning of the game

Skill gem progression.

It feels, maybe too much, spaced out. I swapped several time the build i used, and thank god you allowed us to respec using gold because i would be at like my 4-5 character without it and there is supposed to be 12 weapon in full release. I doubt i'll change much, but i'll probably make a witch at some point.

so now i'm playing shock/electrocute Voltaic grenade into Emergency Reload / ShockBurst rounds this melt most rare in one electrocute phase, and need 2/3 for unique (and that was before i remembered to activate attrition)

i don't know how much this current build will carry me into the Atlas, but i'll find it soon enough.

Item progression,

Normal, Advanced and then Expert, without even mentionning item Tier, my build is probably far from being done, but i think i won't need to pay attention about it for a while, might need some more exalted tho because i'm not maxed on affix/suffix.

Socket and blacksmith stone are the next need to finish optimizing the build

same goes for gemcutter and jeweller ofc.

it feel somehow easier to have "good" item than on PoE I, and essence feel less random too i guess ?

for now it doesn't feel like a headache to use and play with so good job on this ! (it's almost fun, but for something that much complicated it's amazing that it's almost fun and not some 9th circle hell stuff)

Inventory management, god damn, so yeah i'm hyped about some of those chest tab that will be brought from PoE I, like, the map tab (it's coming soon i know)

and all item for relic and temple, breach, expedition (but they seems to be just money like gold now ? for the better i won't lie.)

will Delve make a come back ? one of my favorite activity to do in PoE I time will tell.

Skill Tree,

and you will add 6 more weapon, and skill gem for them, and specifities for them like grenade for crossbow. all this while balancing distance betweend common interest node, yeah good luck with all that o7

Atlas Skill Tree,

can't wait to see this one be as big as the previous game, or the future skill tree lmao.

Atlas,

alright time for those 500h minimum, i love the map design and how it work, the whole game design arround it is good the map feel almost endless and probably have the possibility to be expanded season upon season or even changed and that is one of the best idea i've seen so far. i'm hyped for the future of the game for real because endgame content is already promising.

anyway back to farming i'm only 50h in anyway, and there is some Shock magnitude node i need to get for my build.

probably more on the Atlas one i'll be real deep and start doing higher tier map but for now there is some "get gud" to do.

overall i think the game is a blast and can only be better, can't wait to see how it turn out i'll be back at lurking the forum and news for the time being

Good job everybody who worked on the game, still do, and will in the future o7