My honest opinion about POE 2

Dear developer team,

POE2 has been amazing so far. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the passion from a dev team, and an even longer time since I’ve been this excited about a game. The last game that gave me this kind of sensation was Divinity: Original Sin II. I’m truly grateful for the hard work the dev team has put into this game—my experience with POE2 has been overwhelmingly positive except for two things:

1. The Trials of Ascendancy
These feel terrible and absolutely gave me a long and painful mental breakdown. I think there are two major reasons:

No sense of accomplishment: Successfully completing the trials doesn’t feel rewarding at all. The design is so punishing that, rather than satisfaction, all players feel is relief that they don’t have to endure the suffering for a while.Contrast with boss fights,almost all the boss fights in the game are incredibly engaging. Some are harder than others, but they’re balanced in a way that even when I died repeatedly, I didn’t feel depressed or demoralized. I could see where I needed to improve, and when I finally beat a boss—whether by mastering attack patterns or upgrading my gear and skill gems—I felt accomplished. The trials, on the other hand, are pure suffering.

The mechanics are not engaging: What do the trials offer? All I’m doing is dodging mobs’ attacks, and even if I dodge well, it’s not something to feel proud of. On top of that, some attacks are nearly impossible to dodge in the first place. When I finally manage to survive to the final stage, one accidental mistake wipes out all the hard work and resets the entire trial. That feels absolutely terrible.

For context: I’ve been engaged in high-level content in World of Warcraft for the past eight years, including Mythic raiding (cutting edge achievements) and high-end Mythic+ dungeons, which are some of the hardest content the game offers. I’m no stranger to dodging mechanics or difficult challenges. But the Trials are on a different level—they’re demoralizing.

2. No way to retrieve loot after death
This is particularly problematic when a unique item drops, and you die watching. It feels incredibly unfair and disheartening. Other items aren’t much of a problem, but rare drops should be sent to the player once they appear, regardless of whether they’ve been picked up or not.

Here are a few suggestions I believe could make the Trials more enjoyable.:

1. Allow multiple chances before failing the entire trial.
For example, give players three deaths before failing completely. When a player dies, they could revive at the last stage’s checkpoint, with honor and other progress restored to that point. That said, I understand that the Trials are not, and should not be, a walk in the park—they’re meant to act as gatekeepers. However, I firmly believe that the first Trial should serve as a soft introduction rather than a reason for players to quit. Later Trials, like the third or fourth Ascendancy, could present more of a challenge, but the first Ascendancy, in my humble opinion, should be easier to accommodate the average player. Right now, if the first Ascendancy isn’t completed, it becomes very difficult to progress through the campaign. This is especially true for certain classes—notably the Witch—where the lack of Ascendancy makes the experience significantly more frustrating. FYI. I am playing with one of my female friends and she cried her heart out after trying the Ascendancy trial. She was absolutely annihilated, like all her effort was for nothing. It wasn’t just frustration— it was real anguish and torment, like she’d hit a wall she couldn’t get past. Watching her go through that was honestly heartbreaking. A game shouldn’t make someone feel this way. And she is also no stranger to dodging, and not new to gaming. She still hasn’t completed the Trials to this day. Honestly, I’m the only reason she’s still playing the game at all. We both think the game is an absolute masterpiece, but this part—the Trials—feels completely out of place. It’s like a thorn in an otherwise flawless experience.

2. Replace current mechanics with more exciting ones.
Dodging ground effects is an awful and boring mechanic. It doesn’t give players any sense of accomplishment when they succeed. It’s just tedious.

3. Keep player mistakes in mind when designing challenges especially early on.
If one mistake vaporizes all the effort a player has put in, that’s generally poor design. Imagine working hard for a full year and then not getting paid because of a single error—that would feel awful. Players shouldn’t lose everything because of a mistake or two.

I absolutely love this game, and I know the developer team listens to the community. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and consider these suggestions. I haven’t played POE1, so I’m not sure if these ideas overlap with anything from that game, but the current state of the Trials could really use improvement.