Feedback and Opinions on Path of Exile 2 from Someone with 5000 Hours in Path of Exile 1
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Hello, I’m Tuna, someone who has played over 5000 hours of Path of Exile 1, around 200 hours of Diablo 4 and Diablo 3 each, as well as many ARPGs, RPGs, and Souls-like games. I would like to share my thoughts on Path of Exile 2.
Campaign: In my opinion, the best part of Path of Exile 2 is definitely the campaign. The overall pace and difficulty of the game feel quite balanced, at least until you reach the cruel acts. Bosses are challenging but not in a way that is purely stat-based. Instead, they are difficult in a way that rewards learning and mastering their mechanics. This makes defeating them feel very satisfying. Additionally, bosses generally drop good loot, which is rewarding. While the game isn’t overly simplistic, it does try to teach you the mechanics, and you don’t struggle too much when trying to build the character you envision. However, I’m unsure about the replayability of the campaign. If you memorize the layouts, you can quickly reach your objectives, but the difficulty makes it hard to rush. We’ll see how it feels after playing through it 5–6 times. Perhaps if permanent buffs earned from completing tasks in map legends applied to every character you create in that league, it could enhance the campaign’s replayability. Regarding movement speed, I didn’t have any issues because I wanted to explore and fully experience the world rather than rushing to endgame. That said, the pace of the campaign changes abruptly in Act 3 and Acts 2–3 on cruel difficulty. By then, your build has somewhat come together, and both you and the enemies move very quickly, turning the environment into complete chaos. It’s hard to see what’s going on, which isn’t a good thing. Passive Tree: I really liked the passive tree. Its visual presentation clearly shows which areas offer what you might want, making it easy to plan the most efficient route. The nodes are simple to understand, and while each level-up doesn’t always give a power spike, reaching the major nodes definitely makes you feel stronger. The presence of some nodes with both advantages and disadvantages is reasonable, but a few are overly punishing—these will likely be balanced later. The tree doesn’t give you massive buffs on its own and is often scaled according to your equipment, which makes sense and emphasizes the importance of your gear. A minor issue is that searching for something on the tree can be tricky. If there’s only one corresponding node, it can be hard to notice because the highlight isn’t distinct enough. Graphics: The graphics are stunning. The only issue is anti-aliasing. None of the anti-aliasing settings at 1080p make the game look good enough. It’s either too sharp, too blurry, ghosted, or flickering. Performance: Performance is a bit problematic. It’s fine during the campaign, but issues arise in endgame. For example, I use Spark, and holding it for 4–5 seconds drops my FPS like 15. Adding numerous mobs and their movements into the mix causes an additional FPS loss, I hope they find a way to address this. UI: I like the appearance and clarity of much of the UI, but there are some problems. For example, the top-right map and overlay map look outdated (hopefully, these are placeholders). When you open the overlay map, the area modifiers are displayed as a full paragraph, making them hard to read. Similarly, the modifiers on rare mobs are also hard to read in the middle of combat. The stash doesn’t look good compared to the rest of the UI. Item modifiers aren’t easy to understand at a glance because of their paragraph-style formatting, and light blue text on a translucent black background isn’t visually appealing. When holding down the "alt" key to see an item’s modifiers and their tiers, it doesn’t show the maximum possible tier for that item, so you have to check the wiki. Charms don’t clearly indicate whether they’re active or empty, but I’m sure this will be addressed. Controls: Some channeling skills don’t work properly when using the mouse. For example, when using Bonestorm, you can’t move while holding it down. WASD controls work well without any issues, and playing with a controller feels great too. In fact, I prefer playing with a controller, but the UI doesn’t suit me as much. When spamming skills, some don’t activate, so you have to ensure one skill has been applied before pressing another. This is very frustrating. Crafting: Crafting is entirely luck-based. While I like the simplicity and clarity of the crafting system and how it increases the importance of looted items, the RNG-heavy nature of crafting is frustrating. This makes it very difficult to play in SSF (Solo Self-Found) mode. I enjoy SSF, but after realizing I couldn’t upgrade my gear at all, I switched to trade. Loot and Magic Find: After the latest patch, loot has become excessive. Especially in endgame, playing without an item filter is nearly impossible. Loot could be reduced a bit. I like the existence of Magic Find, but its current overpowered state forces you to stack rarity on your gear. Endgame: I like the Atlas system, but towers become repetitive quickly, and the tablet-related tasks get boring after a while. Sometimes, reaching a good content node requires playing many maps, and finding the three bosses needed for the Burning Monolith feels like it takes forever. Dying is overly punishing. Unlike many others, I’m okay with the size of maps, but having checkpoints like in the campaign and being able to teleport between them would be great. However, this would require changing the single-portal system. I strongly oppose reducing map sizes, as it would increase mob density, making it easier to get stuck and die. Endgame becomes incredibly fast-paced. Both enemies and players are extremely fast, and there are so many skills and effects that it’s hard to see what’s happening. Some rare enemies are so fast they lock onto you, and even dodge-rolling doesn’t help because they’re already on top of you by the time your roll ends. If such mobs also have mana siphon and you’re a caster, it’s instant death. While the campaign is very well-executed, the endgame gameplay is equally flawed and needs to be slowed down. I’m fine with losing experience upon death, but losing your Waystone, the node’s content, and any loot left inside is too much punishment considering how easy it is to die. On the other hand, I don’t support the six-portal system. Six attempts are excessive in my opinion. Last bumped on Dec 23, 2024, 12:20:50 AM
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Oh wow look another 'poe1 vet' who wants to make the game poe1 but with better graphics.
*yawn* so boring | |
" Actually I am completely opposite, I definitely do not want this game to be Poe 1, if you read my entire article you will understand |
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" I have almost 2 stash tabs full of maps. HCSSF is the only way.
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" hboi, are you paid to be this toxic? Literally all your posts I've seen are shitting on people for legitimate feedback, but not really discussing any of it. Especially since you couldn't possibly have read this one in the <45 seconds it took you to shit on this one. |
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" You're right I didn't read it lol. Sorry I'm so used to seeing the copy and pasted poe vet complaining about the game I figured it was the same. | |
" As much as I agree, that's not really productive either. HCSSF is the only way.
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" Same for me, actually losing the waystone is not a problem of course, having only one try per waystone is not a problem either, but for this to be fair the endgame needs to flow slower and the visual clarity needs to be increased, that is if I see what the enemy is doing and don't dodge and die, it's completely my fault, but dying and failing amidst all this chaos and fast mobs is not a very good experience with the current balance of the game. |
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