Feedback from an experienced ARPG player new to POE games

First of all, I want to say that I absolutely love the direction of POE2 that is shown in the first two acts of the campaign. The slower pace, the boss fights, the fact that white and blue items actually stay relevant for a little while on a brand new character because it takes time to start getting Rares. The WASD control scheme works so well that I think I'll find it hard to go back to traditional mouse-based movement in future ARPGs. All of this is SUPERB, and if the goal is to make POE2 gameplay distinct so that it can exist alongside of POE1 and potentially draw in new players who don't like the zoom-zoom gameplay of that game, well, y'all have absolutely nailed that... in the first two Acts of the game.

The third Act is where things start to fall apart. The balancing of bosses goes from decent overall to absolutely atrocious. The one-shots that many bosses in Acts 1-2 start fights off with, which are fair and well-telegraphed, give way to cheap, constantly spammed one-shots in tight arenas from bosses like Blackjaw in the Machinarium. And one of my all-time pet peeves, bosses whose high-range moves track *through* player movement, adjusting in mid-swing so that the game just *moves* them impossible distances to still hit you even when you dodged out of the way, becomes ever-present. (Please, PLEASE fix this--it's a simple fix conceptually, enemy attacks should have a point in the animation, no later than 1/2 of the way through the animation, where they stop tracking the player, so that the player has a chance to dodge and the attack feels fair. This HAS to be fixed given the tiny arenas and slow movement--this is not POE1.)

The first Trial of Chaos you need to do for your second Ascension is another example of this same problem. Enemies that move incredibly fast, multiplied into arena-filling hordes that are impossible to dodge, at a point in the game where you cannot feasibly one-shot them and you cannot feasibly have your resistances high enough to counter the RIDICULOUS modifiers. It's not just an issue of bad balancing--these things need to be reworked, ultimately, because they feel like they were designed for a game like POE1, where movement abilities and one-shotting hordes of enemies before they can one-shot you is the name of the game. It DOES NOT WORK with the concept of POE2, and especially not at the point of the game in which it appears.

In a few short hours, I've gone from calling POE2 the best ARPG I've ever played, to quitting and regretting spending the money on early access. And I'm not alone on this. Act 3 (and from what I've heard, everything that comes after it) needs to be adjusted to fit with the slower, more methodical game presented in the first two Acts.

- Make sure one-shots are used judiciously, are fairly telegraphed, and do not track the player over ridiculous distances right up almost to the point of impact
- Do not fill tiny stages with so many enemies that it becomes impossible to dodge b/c of pushing and body blocking; instead, use smaller numbers of Magical and Rare enemies with clear move sets to keep combat readable and fair, but still tough
- Embrace the slower player movement and limited dodge roll--lower the speed of most enemies and introduce AI for Magical and Rare enemies that is more complicated than "bum rush and body block the player" to ramp up difficulty while keeping combat feeling fair through to the endgame
- Please, please do NOT introduce mechanics to the game that expect the player to have nearly maxed out all resistances (ESPECIALLY Chaos damage) dozens of levels before the player has any reasonable chance of doing so. Remember that your players are working with fewer Rare/Unique drops than they are in most ARPGs by the time they hit Act 3, and the enemy design (rushing and body blocking en masse) forces the players to focus on damage over defense to thin hordes out before they get trapped and die.

Right now, the game is way too much of an un-fun trial-and-error based RNG-fest after Act 2, for me to want to continue playing it. If fixed in the spirit of the game presented in the first two Acts, however, it absolutely will be my new favorite ARPG, bar none.

I know GGG has a history of listening to their players and implementing changes based on player feedback, so I have high hopes for the future of POE2, and look forward to returning to the game in a few months once some of these issues are resolved and the late game/endgame is in a better state.

Thanks in advance for all the hard work y'all are doing on the game, and I hope you have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!