GGG - despite all the criticism, please don’t do this!

Unfortunately, the inevitable has come – we’re seeing many opinions about PoE 2 being "too difficult," often written by people who expect the game to practically play itself. Many games, including souls-like titles, have gone through this same phase and unfortunately, not all developers were brave enough to stick to their original vision and keep the game as they intended.

The game is absolutely not too difficult! Those claiming otherwise simply haven’t yet grasped the rules of the beautifully crafted world you’ve created. I’m speaking from the perspective of a PoE1 player who spent most of my time using pre-made builds. I’m not even a hardcore Souls player. Currently, I’m in Act III, and I’ve died around 60 times. Despite that, I believe this is an incredible experience that will be remembered by many for a very long time.

However, for this wonderful experience to continue, you must not give in to the criticism about difficulty or complaints about bosses being overpowered. Don’t make the same mistake as the developers of Lies of P or Elden Ring. The game is excellent, and the vast majority of players surely enjoy the current level of difficulty far more than they would after the introduction of nerfs. Critical voices will fade faster than you think, and more and more players will want to join this amazing journey.

So, on behalf of myself and everyone who doesn’t rage quit after the first boss, I ask you – please don’t introduce nerfs. You’ve created something incredible, and don’t let inexperienced players ruin it!


To the players:

For heaven’s sake, understand that dying during a boss fight doesn’t mean the game is poorly balanced or too hard! Reflect on your approach to the fight, the boss’s attacks, your build, and the skills you’re using. If you still can’t beat it, just step back and level up a bit more. Start experimenting and simply learn the mechanics instead of pouring out complaints that might ruin the masterpiece that is PoE2.

You are just a single player though. And they'll do the best to get as many hooked as possible. I am not saying what will happen, but you wanting the game to be a certain way doesn't mean much.

the game is easier than poe 1 and people are asking it to be even easier

get a grip, and get good

"

You are just a single player though. And they'll do the best to get as many hooked as possible. I am not saying what will happen, but you wanting the game to be a certain way doesn't mean much.

Look at the numbers – if the majority of people didn’t like it, would the game have 80% positive reviews on Steam and such a large player number? I don’t think so.

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pushon#5992 wrote:

Unfortunately, the inevitable has come – we’re seeing many opinions about PoE 2 being "too difficult," often written by people who expect the game to practically play itself. Many games, including souls-like titles, have gone through this same phase and unfortunately, not all developers were brave enough to stick to their original vision and keep the game as they intended.

The game is absolutely not too difficult! Those claiming otherwise simply haven’t yet grasped the rules of the beautifully crafted world you’ve created. I’m speaking from the perspective of a PoE1 player who spent most of my time using pre-made builds. I’m not even a hardcore Souls player. Currently, I’m in Act III, and I’ve died around 60 times. Despite that, I believe this is an incredible experience that will be remembered by many for a very long time.

However, for this wonderful experience to continue, you must not give in to the criticism about difficulty or complaints about bosses being overpowered. Don’t make the same mistake as the developers of Lies of P or Elden Ring. The game is excellent, and the vast majority of players surely enjoy the current level of difficulty far more than they would after the introduction of nerfs. Critical voices will fade faster than you think, and more and more players will want to join this amazing journey.

So, on behalf of myself and everyone who doesn’t rage quit after the first boss, I ask you – please don’t introduce nerfs. You’ve created something incredible, and don’t let inexperienced players ruin it!


To the players:

For heaven’s sake, understand that dying during a boss fight doesn’t mean the game is poorly balanced or too hard! Reflect on your approach to the fight, the boss’s attacks, your build, and the skills you’re using. If you still can’t beat it, just step back and level up a bit more. Start experimenting and simply learn the mechanics instead of pouring out complaints that might ruin the masterpiece that is PoE2.

Agreed.

People having trouble with the early acts really just need to dig deep and do better. It is not this huge undertaking they make it out to be.

And melee is perfectly capable of damage AND the sanctum run. So there is a lot that is just not true going around, its just high egos with some people thinking the game is the problem when they die or have issues, but not them.

I would say there is definitely room for tweaks and what not but nothing on the level that the loud people here are asking for. They want POE1 reskinned as POE2 from what it seems, which is not happening.

The majority though, in the hundreds of thousands, are enjoying the game. Its only the few select minority here that are stuck in Acts I/II and saying its too hard, or melee cant do sanctum, or melee has no damage ... etc..

It is what it is. End of the day have to hope GGG puts their foot down like they have in the past and not buckle to it.

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pushon#5992 wrote:

Unfortunately, the inevitable has come – we’re seeing many opinions about PoE 2 being "too difficult," often written by people who expect the game to practically play itself.
....
don’t let inexperienced players ruin it![/b]
...
For heaven’s sake, understand that dying during a boss fight doesn’t mean the game is poorly balanced or too hard!

See, thats exactly the type of defense for the game that does absolutely nothing to even try and understand where most of the criticism is coming from.
If i look in this forum then i absolutely do not see the same thing as you.

1) Nobody wants the game to play by itself, people don't argue the game being difficult in general, they argue the type of difficulty.

2) "Inexperienced players"? I see a whole lot of people with thousands of h into PoE1, so if these are "inexperienced" to you, then man oh man...

3) Nobody complains about dying from a boss. Again, it's how you die that is being argued.

Your criticism of the criticism is simply unfair. You dumb it down to something that has never been said actually. You just see that someone has criticism and thats it, you're done. Its already sacrilege to you. But thats really not how a healthy debate about a version 0.1 of an early access should look like.

I think the feedback is more nuanced than that - at the moment, most feedback is either "wtf ggg game is too hard" or "ggg this is best game ever, keep it like this"

There are a large number of obvious upsides and some critical downsides.

1. The slower paced gameplay is great - it makes each encounter challenging and makes it interesting.

2. The dodge roll mechanic is good in theory, but it needs work. It currently feels too sluggish. It needs to give more iframes akin to a dark souls medium roll. Currently, it feels like fat rolling in dark souls.

3. The map sizes are a polarizing topic, but I like the ultra large maps. It makes the world feel immersive. PoE 1 maps felt like a quick zone that we ran through. PoE 2 maps actually get the scale of the world right - a village should be large enough to have multiple lanes of houses and a couple of "squares". Ramparts should be large, forests should be dense, deserts should be vast; the player should feel the scale of the world.

4. The boss mechanics are awesome - Draven, Mastodon, Count Geonor, Jamanra and even the mini bosses felt really unique and had great mechanics. That being said, they are quite bullet-spongy. At least for the campaign, either the boss HP needs to go down significantly or the player damage needs to go up. The mechanics make the fight challenging, millions of HP make the fight tedious.

5. Drops feel too ruthless in nature. People in act 3 running around with blue items seems a little too harsh. Alchemys are ultra rare, regal shards don't drop often enough to make crafting rares commonplace, exalt drop rate is fine, but regals are the real bottleneck.

6. The atmosphere of the world is amazing, the quests are great, the visuals look incredible, the soundtrack is awesome. Overall, the presentation of the game is top-notch.

7. If the current difficulty spike is the expectation, the end game maps are going to be a slog with a single portal. However, it remains to be seen what player power creep will look like. That being said, the end game atlas progression looks truly genre-defining. Combining the atlas with delve was a great innovation and I'm looking forward to infinite maps!

In summary, I think PoE 2 has all the elements to be a fantastic game but is still rough around the edges, as expected, seeing as it's in early access.

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Ashwin#7887 wrote:

I think the feedback is more nuanced than that....

+1 to your post, that is how criticism or suggestions should look like that contribute to a game being the best it can be.

"

See, thats exactly the type of defense for the game that does absolutely nothing to even try and understand where most of the criticism is coming from.

Of course, precise feedback is better than generalities, but my post was intended to draw attention to the need for caution before making any hasty decisions, should such a situation arise, and to encourage a broader discussion.
I’m also not claiming that everything is perfect. I’m merely pointing out the emerging criticism regarding the difficulty level, which, contrary to what you might say, is indeed being voiced in one form or another. My post is motivated by what I wrote at the beginning – many games have faced this issue, and unfortunately, it often went in the wrong direction.

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auspexa#1404 wrote:

the game is easier than poe 1 and people are asking it to be even easier

get a grip, and get good

People don't have to get a grip or get better, the masses just wont play it. they can make it like this but people wont play.

I've died 10 times on a boss because I didn't dodge in time, that's not good gameplay.