First time player - PoE2 EA Feedback

New to the PoE universe. Tried POE1 a few times, didn't get more than an hour or two into it before I quit.

Enjoying my time in POE2 quite a bit. Playing 2H warrior right now.


Here is what I feel will make the game feel better.

1) The game relies way too much on evades.

Evade being the only option to survive in fights gets old pretty quick. There are probably different ways to address this, but what I think is the most straightforward is to make characters able to take more blows and have to evade less overall.

So this might boil down to - make mobs deal less damage to where we have to evade about half as much as we do now.

2) Need a lot more mats that upgrade gear to yellow and to add stats to yellow gear.

If we are supposed to be able craft as we level we need 4-5 times more of the craft items that make gear yellow and probably 10-15 times more items to add stats.

Also more items to create sockets.

These numbers are probably conservative too. Currently if I get a good item I have to farm for crafting mats, and by the time I get the crafting mats, the piece of gear I started upgrading needs to be replaced... so why would I even bother with "wasting" mats upgrading the items.

Let alone crafting a white gear all the way to fully upgraded yellow.

3) Might be just me, but why don't items have a description of what quality they are in the item's tooltip?

As in what is "rare" and what is "magic" item - That is nowhere in the game. Add it to the item tooltips as either default info, or optional info that can be toggled, or give a short introduction of item types as a crafting tutorial.. anything.

4) This is a big one for me - make checkpoints actually SAVE map progress.

Talking about campaign maps here:

If I spend a hour clearing a map and die, I don't want to have to re-discover and re-clear the whole map.

If I have to leave the game and come back I don't want to have "wasted" large amounts of time for nothing and have to repeat it all.

Add a way to manually reset the map for those who want it or if player wants to farm the same map.

5) Figure out a way to save dropped items if you die.

There is no reason to lose loot from mobs you already killed just because you didn't manage to click on the loot before you died yourself.

This is just irritating and punishing the player for no good reason.

Either keep the map explored and map progress saved, so I can go back and pick up the items, OR mail them to player stash directly.

6) Respec costs are ramping up too much.
If I want to experiment with builds and respec 2-3 times I'd have to save up in order to afford it.
If I wanted to re-spec my full tree I'd use up all my money.

I'd say the cost of respeccing needs to drop by 2/3s.

7) Why is the Trial of Sekhemas the only possible way to do the first Ascension?
The whole point was to have different ways to ascend if one type of gameplay is not what the player wants/is good at.
So why is Sekhemas the only option in Act 2, then Chaos is in Act 3?
Why punish people who prefer the Chaos mechanics?

Have all 3 Trials available at the same time in the game so players can choose the one they want.

8) Have a way to increase inventory space.

I understand GGG devs want the inventory to be how it is, but it is ridiculously small and there is no need for it at all.

Its current size adds nothing to the gameplay except making my teleport to town every 2-15 mins. Why do I have to waste time running to the vendor all the time instead of fighting mobs? (picking up 4 large items fills the inventory and is a town trip.. I mean come on...)

If this is controversial, make it a microtransaction, or make it need a passive skill point, whatever, but it is a basic QoL feature that will make playing a lot more enjoyable.

9) Add stash/inventory sort buttons.

Having to spend time to move items around is plain silly. We are not playing Tetris, we are playing "loot vacuum" game.

Those who like to manually sort can still do it, but those who dont, can just press a Sort button and auto-arrange for greatest space-saving effect.

Forcing us to move things around feels like forcing us to... polish our weapons to keep them from rusting? Tying our character's shoelaces mini-game?
It's pointless and we should assume the character can auto-sort on their own same as they can manage to shove the item in their bag in the first place.

10) Add Character customization

This is a somewhat roleplaying game, customizing one's character makes them a lot more personal and is very enjoyable. Hopefully there are plans for that, but if not - why? Add it.

11) Add gear customization - I mean, this should be the most basic feature that can be in a game revolving around roleplaying and loot.

You want your char to look a certain way. Hate the hammer you got - go change its look to something else.

Also add SOME sort of color scheme, that can still be realistic and grim, but doesn't have to be all grey, black and washed-out tan.

12) A cherry on top this one - but add Armory.

I know we have 2 weapon sets that can switch some passive nodes based on the weapon you are using, but what I am talking about is creating a fully different build on the same character - different gear, different passive tree, different skills.



All this said, I am enjoying the game, the fights are a bit too tough, but I'm managing, the skills are varied and interesting, there are a lot of small things that show whoever created a level/map really was interested in their work.

Bosses, mini-bosses, mobs are creative. Game world is beautiful. Game atmosphere is sucking me in and making me want to play more.

Cheers!

Edited for typos and clarity.