Feedback lighning monk slam act 1 + 2

Hello,

I'm here to describe my experience with my monk.

First of all, my general feeling is that I feel better than I expected in the aspect that PoE1 annoyed me a lot. I have longed resented how some aspect of PoE1 turned out on the beta and wasn't keen to think than some stuff would be changed that much, though it might be a bit early. The graphics are excellents of course, yes sometime seeing stuff on the ground is a bit hard.

I do find the difficulty somewhat alright, it gives me challenges also I know that if I stick around and do more character, just knowing the moves/Resistance to take is gonna make my pacing way smoother.

On the 1st part of act 1 I quickly take the att speed support from basic attacks to the slam, otherwise I'm just too slow. I expect to change it later when i'll get more att speed from other sources. Like everyone I get ganked from time to time. I found the concentration of mobs maybe a bit too much for a starter when you got basic skill and barely any support gems.

On the late part of act 1 my main skill is actually the ice skills because they have betters range and fast casting since the bosses often don't stick too long in the same place that's ok since I can't spam power charge that somewhat expected. Once I got knew way to have power charges, the melee (although not really exactly on the boss) part got smoother with more rewarding dps even if I take some hits.

On act 2 my progression was rather smooth.

However :
- I seriously find stressful the sanctum mechanics, I don't mind being mindful of being hits for one room, but for the whole run it's rather painful. I usually always build a bit of extra survivability because I do often like doing some trade-hits. The relics somewhat helps to smoothen that. Buffs like +25% movspeed/att speed seems overkill at this point of the game on the first trial (unless speced in chill/freeze ?). It took me like 4/5 attemps to clear the trial, with the 1st going to the boss straight.
- The caravan map, as I play slam mostly this map is quite my nemesis (I died something like 7 times I think). The NPC does stall enemies, but it also means that If I ever try to get nearer to hits, I get caught in all attacks from mobs aiming for the NPC. I had to do a lot of poke and baiting to pass it. I guess it is okay if I don't see this kind of maps too often.
- Act 2 boss, there are 2 points I have too say and they both aims for... the 1st part of the boss! Which was the most deadly on me! (or consuming too much potions charges)
- The attack rate of the base bolt attacks seems really tight to me, I have to be rather perfectly in sync with it and keep as much distance as my lighning slam allow. I think the attack speed of the said bolt is a bit too much a this point of the game, or the damage, or the aoe when it hit the ground ?
- On the sandstorm part, the visiblity is way worse on the upper side and bottom.

Some general stuff :
- Despise my class not having physical defense I don't really get one shoot that much. My gear is mostly pick on what I found and a bit of crafting, I have yet to stop completely to progress and grind.
- I see a lot of effect on the ground, I had play Grim dawn a bit and had a very bad experience with 70% of death being crap on the ground. So I'm somewhat wary of how it will turn out, like having too much of ground stuff.
- The fact that the pace is slower than PoE1 endgame is a huge benefit for me. Despise playing games for long I'm not gifted with being extremely accurate on position and timing either on joypad and mouse and on PoE1 some micro-managing stuff was just too much for me. (Hello Sirius with the unique boot because fuck it)
- I had quite some death on huge chunks of mobs that run towards me, I'm not too sure about what to say about it apart from mentioning it. It is specially deadly if I have yet to find an up-to-date weapon.
- Talking about having up-to-date weapon. I see that like in PoE1 we still see a lot of loot coming from lower levels equipment which is rather frustrating. However I was able to get 1 good rare from gambling and 2 others from shopping in wild merchant which is very also satisfying. I might need to learn how to play around it. The difference in having a proper weapon is still very huge and (too ?) impactful for skill based character.

Now from PoE 1 :
- I'm quite happy to have see the 5 slots of flasks disapears. Spamming multiple flasks like every 5s is not fun and take focus out of the potential fun.
- I'm also happy at the simplification of gem management. I can't tell if how it is today it is too much but I do prefer that to PoE1. Also I hope for a reasonable complexity allowing me to may have to search from some tips on internet but being able to build myself mostly. I don't care if I am not ultra efficient but I do hope to not end up like PoE1 being like not even as 10% as efficient that builds made to wype the whole screen on one key. Which means that my progress in terms of loot got exponentially slower to the point of feeling not having change one thing in one character in 200h+ of mapping (red maps btw I was still able to do most of non uber content).

I have experience on various RPG mmo, d2/3/4 PoE1 on early and went back and forth all those years. I also played Elden ring and Nioh 2 that I went to mention because :
- I fill like the try hard is more fun than Elden ring, the timing aren't that akward and less punitive.
- It fill less try and die on one false move, yeah some stuff are not really forgiving but bosses seems more tuned towards a somewhat lengthy battle where you can recover from some mistakes and I do hope it keep up.

I had a different playstyle during late act 1:
The level 5 skill gems look to me like basic attack replacements. The lightning one is very strong damage wise and can be comboed with the bell for really high melee damage against bosses. There are also good skill gem options for it like repeating the last attack of the combo a 2nd time. For even more damage I used the left level 3 gem to get additional projectiles added to my attack after stunning with it. With these combos bosses can melt quite quickly.

"

LaraDorren#2828 wrote:

I had a different playstyle during late act 1:
The level 5 skill gems look to me like basic attack replacements. The lightning one is very strong damage wise and can be comboed with the bell for really high melee damage against bosses. There are also good skill gem options for it like repeating the last attack of the combo a 2nd time. For even more damage I used the left level 3 gem to get additional projectiles added to my attack after stunning with it. With these combos bosses can melt quite quickly.

I did used a bell as a filler when I couldn't generate power charges on bosses. I didn't checked the left skill lvl 3 and preferred to keep the basic attack for when I needed to manage my mana which I still lack a bit.

But yes I guess I should have take all skill gems just to check all supports gems.