Minions feel way too weak and doesn't feel fun to play - POE2

TLDR - minions are functionally useless and clunky right now because they die too much and do no damage no matter what I do.

Edit 2: It looks like there's some confusion as to what I'm trying to get at. In this post I'm mostly talking about permanent minions (skeltons). SRS is good but it ignores the issue I'm raising. As you can continuously summon them they don't fall into the "respawns after a certain time category" making them a "constant dps" rather than an "if my summons are even alive at the time to do anything for a bit".

Sorry if I repeat myself a lot or there are some typos. English isn't my first language.

Before anyone goes crying in the comments to just get good. I've played minions in multiple ARPG's and made builds that took me to end game and even a bit of pinnacle though still very rough builds. I'm not expecting to blast through campaign. But I at least expect to not feel like every fight is just stacked against me because I'm playing minions. So far it feels and looks like there will be only 1 or 2 build for minions and only at endgame. Leveling with minions is shooting yourself in the foot because any other occult damage skill is stronger even with no modifiers to damage.

I love the idea of summons having separate skills and the auto revive is good quality of life but that's where the praise ends.

Minions feel very underpowered both in damage and survivability. Bossing just from act 1 and 2 half the fight is just waiting for minion respawns. I invested heavily into minion HP but just white mobs are enough to 2-3 shot them.

Also the flame hound from ascendancy is terrible and or bugged. The stats panel says it has 1.2k hp and 300 hp regen but its again getting 1 or 2 shot from white mobs. And even if it does survive a hit it doesn't regen at all. I think it's bugged because i have around 500 hp and basically non existent resistances but i can tank quite a lot before needing an hp pot.

Bosses one shot minions with almost anything and they get one shot after respawning making them just straight obsolete. Best i could do is ice mage skeletons because they slow and freeze, but the dps is still terrible no matter what combination of supports I try. In the stats panel it says that the only base/hit damage they have is from a scepter mod and the damage numbers seem to reflect that. Why is there no basic attack without scepter mods?

The since the base damage is almost non existent the passives from the passive tree does basically nothing. Health doesn't matter because it either doesn't work or the mobs are overtuned. Rare mobs sometimes feel like boss fights themselves and that's only 2 mod ones.

I feel like I'm playing a baby sitter of suicidal infants rather than a commander of undead.

I would like if someone somehow checked if the passives from the tree are applying or not.

Damage can be figured out probably but minion survivability is a serious issue as it stalls fights making them feel unfun. And if minions can't even survive one second after respawn then there's no damage and a point to have them.

This isn't to say the game is bad but it is frustrating. I feel weak no matter what i do even after grinding previous areas for gear so minions are better.

Edit 1: infernal hound is definitely not working properly and stat window is just lying.

150% increased minion damage and my minions still don't do any meaningful dps. Essence drain and Contagion do more damage with no damage modifiers. How and why? In the passive skill tree the minion passives say they don't apply to anything I'm using. So it makes me think that ,like i stated before, nothing is applying to minions.

Dreadnought area and any place with tight doors/corridors make minions block each other obviously making them even worse than they are.

Personal opinion: Why can't we dual wield scepters? Minions are pitiful right now so at least make it so we can have more of them to try and offset it.

Personal opinion: The first tier of support gems seem lack luster and useless with a few exceptions (duration, area of effect, multiple projectiles).

yes, minions = shit, they are too weak

We needs them titan quest level of stonk to be honest.

"

MantasLT2#1138 wrote:

TLDR - minions are functionally useless and clunky right now because they die too much and do no damage no matter what I do.

Sorry if I repeat myself a lot or there are some typos. English isn't my first language.

Before anyone goes crying in the comments to just get good. I've played minions in multiple ARPG's and made builds that took me to end game and even a bit of pinnacle though still very rough builds. I'm not expecting to blast through campaign. But I at least expect to not feel like every fight is just stacked against me because I'm playing minions. So far it feels and looks like there will be only 1 or 2 build for minions and only at endgame. Leveling with minions is shooting yourself in the foot because any other occult damage skill is stronger even with no modifiers to damage.

I love the idea of summons having separate skills and the auto revive is good quality of life but that's where the praise ends.

Minions feel very underpowered both in damage and survivability. Bossing just from act 1 and 2 half the fight is just waiting for minion respawns. I invested heavily into minion HP but just white mobs are enough to 2-3 shot them.

Also the flame hound from ascendancy is terrible and or bugged. The stats panel says it has 1.2k hp and 300 hp regen but its again getting 1 or 2 shot from white mobs. And even if it does survive a hit it doesn't regen at all. I think it's bugged because i have around 500 hp and basically non existent resistances but i can tank quite a lot before needing an hp pot.

Bosses one shot minions with almost anything and they get one shot after respawning making them just straight obsolete. Best i could do is ice mage skeletons because they slow and freeze, but the dps is still terrible no matter what combination of supports I try. In the stats panel it says that the only base/hit damage they have is from a scepter mod and the damage numbers seem to reflect that. Why is there no basic attack without scepter mods?

The since the base damage is almost non existent the passives from the passive tree does basically nothing. Health doesn't matter because it either doesn't work or the mobs are overtuned. Rare mobs sometimes feel like boss fights themselves and that's only 2 mod ones.

I feel like I'm playing a baby sitter of suicidal infants rather than a commander of undead.

I would like if someone somehow checked if the passives from the tree are applying or not.

Damage can be figured out probably but minion survivability is a serious issue as it stalls fights making them feel unfun. And if minions can't even survive one second after respawn then there's no damage and a point to have them.

This isn't to say the game is bad but it is frustrating. I feel weak no matter what i do even after grinding previous areas for gear so minions are better.

Edit 1: infernal hound is definitely not working properly and stat window is just lying.

150% increased minion damage and my minions still don't do any meaningful dps. Essence drain and Contagion do more damage with no damage modifiers. How and why? In the passive skill tree the minion passives say they don't apply to anything I'm using. So it makes me think that ,like i stated before, nothing is applying to minions.

Dreadnought area and any place with tight doors/corridors make minions block each other obviously making them even worse than they are.

Personal opinion: Why can't we dual wield scepters? Minions are pitiful right now so at least make it so we can have more of them to try and offset it.

Personal opinion: The first tier of support gems seem lack luster and useless with a few exceptions (duration, area of effect, multiple projectiles).

Nothing to add. Complete agreement.

"

MantasLT2#1138 wrote:

TLDR - minions are functionally useless and clunky right now because they die too much and do no damage no matter what I do.

Sorry if I repeat myself a lot or there are some typos. English isn't my first language.

Before anyone goes crying in the comments to just get good. I've played minions in multiple ARPG's and made builds that took me to end game and even a bit of pinnacle though still very rough builds. I'm not expecting to blast through campaign. But I at least expect to not feel like every fight is just stacked against me because I'm playing minions. So far it feels and looks like there will be only 1 or 2 build for minions and only at endgame. Leveling with minions is shooting yourself in the foot because any other occult damage skill is stronger even with no modifiers to damage.

I love the idea of summons having separate skills and the auto revive is good quality of life but that's where the praise ends.

Minions feel very underpowered both in damage and survivability. Bossing just from act 1 and 2 half the fight is just waiting for minion respawns. I invested heavily into minion HP but just white mobs are enough to 2-3 shot them.

Also the flame hound from ascendancy is terrible and or bugged. The stats panel says it has 1.2k hp and 300 hp regen but its again getting 1 or 2 shot from white mobs. And even if it does survive a hit it doesn't regen at all. I think it's bugged because i have around 500 hp and basically non existent resistances but i can tank quite a lot before needing an hp pot.

Bosses one shot minions with almost anything and they get one shot after respawning making them just straight obsolete. Best i could do is ice mage skeletons because they slow and freeze, but the dps is still terrible no matter what combination of supports I try. In the stats panel it says that the only base/hit damage they have is from a scepter mod and the damage numbers seem to reflect that. Why is there no basic attack without scepter mods?

The since the base damage is almost non existent the passives from the passive tree does basically nothing. Health doesn't matter because it either doesn't work or the mobs are overtuned. Rare mobs sometimes feel like boss fights themselves and that's only 2 mod ones.

I feel like I'm playing a baby sitter of suicidal infants rather than a commander of undead.

I would like if someone somehow checked if the passives from the tree are applying or not.

Damage can be figured out probably but minion survivability is a serious issue as it stalls fights making them feel unfun. And if minions can't even survive one second after respawn then there's no damage and a point to have them.

This isn't to say the game is bad but it is frustrating. I feel weak no matter what i do even after grinding previous areas for gear so minions are better.

Edit 1: infernal hound is definitely not working properly and stat window is just lying.

150% increased minion damage and my minions still don't do any meaningful dps. Essence drain and Contagion do more damage with no damage modifiers. How and why? In the passive skill tree the minion passives say they don't apply to anything I'm using. So it makes me think that ,like i stated before, nothing is applying to minions.

Dreadnought area and any place with tight doors/corridors make minions block each other obviously making them even worse than they are.

Personal opinion: Why can't we dual wield scepters? Minions are pitiful right now so at least make it so we can have more of them to try and offset it.

Personal opinion: The first tier of support gems seem lack luster and useless with a few exceptions (duration, area of effect, multiple projectiles).

Nothing to add. Complete agreement.

same here... im at the end of act 1 and cant beat Geonor becauze my Minions are 1 shot and way to weak... so i have to reroll complete charakter to do anything.

Saw a bunch of complaints about minions.

Put my xbow pathfinder on hold to roll summons witch and see if Geonor was actually impossible like so many are claiming.

It was immensely more smooth and faceroll than my first playthrough. Minions do absolutely cracked insane-o damage.

Your PoE1 experience doesn't do anything here. You need to figure out this new, very different game. Try new things, don't just bang your head against the wall when things aren't working or feel bad. Sometimes you just aren't picking up on the interactions that the devs intended for you to use.

And before anyone goes, "Wahhh I wanna play my way not the way the devs want me to play". Fine. Wait for it to come out of EA when there are more gems, more support gems, more classes, I'm sure you'll find something you enjoy then. Until then, stop saying minions are useless, it's just not true.

This becomes absolutely more apparent when you fight Act 1 boss and then Rathbreaker. The lack of control over where your minions fight coupled with lack of damage and tank abilities makes it feel like every boss encounter is fought at 1/3 potential.

Overemphasis on positioning for melee has effectively destroyed minion play completely. The AI cannot position and needs health just to barely survive. I know the devs said they all tested the hell out of melee but they're gonna have to throw minions a bone here or the Witch early game is gonna turn off a LOT of players.

"

wandrecanada#3292 wrote:

This becomes absolutely more apparent when you fight Act 1 boss and then Rathbreaker. The lack of control over where your minions fight coupled with lack of damage and tank abilities makes it feel like every boss encounter is fought at 1/3 potential.

Overemphasis on positioning for melee has effectively destroyed minion play completely. The AI cannot position and needs health just to barely survive. I know the devs said they all tested the hell out of melee but they're gonna have to throw minions a bone here or the Witch early game is gonna turn off a LOT of players.

Some of the boss abilities literally don't damage your minions by the way.

Not sure if it's a bug but there are several boss proximity AoEs that completely do not affect minions. The Druid's proximity slam being the main one that comes to mind.

"

Gogolo30#6034 wrote:

Saw a bunch of complaints about minions.

Put my xbow pathfinder on hold to roll summons witch and see if Geonor was actually impossible like so many are claiming.

It was immensely more smooth and faceroll than my first playthrough. Minions do absolutely cracked insane-o damage.

Your PoE1 experience doesn't do anything here. You need to figure out this new, very different game. Try new things, don't just bang your head against the wall when things aren't working or feel bad. Sometimes you just aren't picking up on the interactions that the devs intended for you to use.

And before anyone goes, "Wahhh I wanna play my way not the way the devs want me to play". Fine. Wait for it to come out of EA when there are more gems, more support gems, more classes, I'm sure you'll find something you enjoy then. Until then, stop saying minions are useless, it's just not true.

1.Please tell me what build you used.
2.I was never comparing the game directly with POE1. What i stated was that out of all ARPGs that i have played this version of summoner is very unfun due to the named reasons.
3.The point of both poe1 and poe2 is to have the freedom to try, use, learn, optimize and create a build that you enjoy for the content you enjoy. If as you said the devs intended for me to play a certain way there wouldn't even be many options for minions or creative build ideas.
4.Ofcourse I don't expect a perfect game with no limitations on EA launch.
5. An architype should be fun to play at any stage of a game even if it's not powerful or optimal. I'm looking at playability in general which is very bad for new players currently.
6.I've dumped every passive point into minion damage and life since i can just dodge everything anyway and i personally don't die much. But the minions do with all the possible help they can get that's the point i was trying to get across.