[Endgame Feedback] The Poe2 endgame mapping system is too hostile.

This is a more fleshed out version of my own post at https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3662882 where the title was formulated more like a bug report, which it is not.

I was doing a juiced t17 Gothic city map, found the boss arena early and decided to first clear the rest of the map since death = map gone.
When I came back to the boss arena, the boss was spawning in but the red barrier that does not let you leave the boss arena was already up and does not even let me enter the encounter, making me lose out on probably 5+ t15 waystones since the map was corrupted with 751% waystone quantity.

Calling this infuriating would be an understatement. Bosses in maps are pretty much the only way to sustain t15s, and being locked outside the arena without a way to enter is honestly a joke.

All this boils down to questionable design choices and the elephant in the room holding back poe2's endgame: one death maps (on SC).

Why is there this red barrier? Just reset the boss if I leave his arena of my own volition.
Why does the boss and the red barrier not reset when I portal out?
Why is the red barrier not a one-way to keep me inside the boss-arena but let me enter if I happen to end up outside?
Why only give me 1 life per map so I'm forced to full clear everything before tackling the more dangerous parts of the map? Same thing breaches, rituals, etc.

As a Poe1 player with over 9100 hours it's baffling how hostile Poe2's design is, especially in the endgame, where the majority of players will (should) be spending the majority of their time. Losing maps I spent regals and multiple exalts on to get 6 mods via 1 second of not paying attention, being stuck in a 10 second lever animation, on-death effects ... is such an incredibly frustrating experience that I have never even come close to in any other game, be it Poe1, or any souls-like.

I haven't even tried the Arbiter of Ash since I don't want to spoil the fight for myself, but from what I've already seen from videos and other posts the fight seems absolutely unfairly designed, at least in the visual clarity in terms of what his skill will do / what area will be hit by his AOE effects.

1-death-and-gone areas in the Poe2 endgame are just not the way to go, which much of the community seems to agree on.

Edit: typo

It makes every map worth the encounter and you cant just slam deaths into a boss to win. I for one like it.

They knew perfectly well that the game would be extremely unbalanced, broken, yet they decided to leave it as it is. I think this should have been addressed immediately.

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It makes every map worth the encounter and you cant just slam deaths into a boss to win. I for one like it.

"slam deaths into a boss to win" would still have the penalty of losing your exp; which my post honestly isn't even about.

Having only 1 life per map bends the whole endgame mapping system around it in a bad way.

Why is the red barrier that my post is mostly about even there? -> You better be sure you are ready to fight that boss cause you only have 1 attempt.
This arbitrary restriction completely locked me out of the fight I wanted to engage in, but just not at the moment I first ran into it on the map, since it could cost me the rest of the map if I happen to get killed by the boss.

Good for you that you are enjoying that this system "makes every map worth the encounter", maybe you will at some point start enjoying not having your time wasted by hostile game design. I sadly can not take such a response from an account with characters in only the newest Poe1 league (using mageblood) with only 13 challenges seriously.

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Hyperspacing#5593 wrote:

It makes every map worth the encounter and you cant just slam deaths into a boss to win. I for one like it.

That’s cool, Stan.

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Xovos#7151 wrote:

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It makes every map worth the encounter and you cant just slam deaths into a boss to win. I for one like it.

"slam deaths into a boss to win" would still have the penalty of losing your exp; which my post honestly isn't even about.

Having only 1 life per map bends the whole endgame mapping system around it in a bad way.

Why is the red barrier that my post is mostly about even there? -> You better be sure you are ready to fight that boss cause you only have 1 attempt.
This arbitrary restriction completely locked me out of the fight I wanted to engage in, but just not at the moment I first ran into it on the map, since it could cost me the rest of the map if I happen to get killed by the boss.

Good for you that you are enjoying that this system "makes every map worth the encounter", maybe you will at some point start enjoying not having your time wasted by hostile game design. I sadly can not take such a response from an account with characters in only the newest Poe1 league (using mageblood) with only 13 challenges seriously.

What you are describing sounds like a bug, have you thought about reporting the bug?

I find it strange that you would want to skip the single most rewarding part of the map. I would always take the boss fight as soon as possible, so if I do later die to something at least I got the bulk of the loot I was after.

I love this "wasting my time" line you people keep parroting, it's quite funny. A "game" that just holds my hand and gives me a win button is wasting my time, if I wanted to just sit and not actually put forth effort I'd go watch a movie.

I'm not sure what the others player's experience in A DIFFERENT GAME has to do with their knowledge of this game, but you seem pretty hung up on it.

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Hyperspacing#5593 wrote:

It makes every map worth the encounter and you cant just slam deaths into a boss to win. I for one like it.

Some day you will get 4 voidstones with this Mageblood.

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Dxt44#4050 wrote:

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Hyperspacing#5593 wrote:

It makes every map worth the encounter and you cant just slam deaths into a boss to win. I for one like it.

Some day you will get 4 voidstones with this Mageblood.

Highly sus. Mageblood without 4 voidstones?

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What you are describing sounds like a bug, have you thought about reporting the bug?

I find it strange that you would want to skip the single most rewarding part of the map. I would always take the boss fight as soon as possible, so if I do later die to something at least I got the bulk of the loot I was after.

I love this "wasting my time" line you people keep parroting, it's quite funny. A "game" that just holds my hand and gives me a win button is wasting my time, if I wanted to just sit and not actually put forth effort I'd go watch a movie.

I'm not sure what the others player's experience in A DIFFERENT GAME has to do with their knowledge of this game, but you seem pretty hung up on it.

It's very clearly not a bug and intended design. Have you entered a boss arena in a map? A barrier closes off the entrance a few seconds after the boss begins his spawning sequence.

I do not "want to skip the single most rewarding part of the map", I want to delay the most dangerous and challenging part to a later point, where I have cleared the rares from the map.

"I love this 'wasting my time' line you people keep parroting"; "you people"? You don't fucking know me. Don't lump me in with anyone else. I am not parroting anything. I have "wasted" over 9100 hours of my life in Poe and don't feel like my time was wasted because I enjoyed it. I don't enjoy unnecessary hostile design that wastes my ingame currency and doesn't respect the time I put into running the maps.

How am I "hung up on another player's experience 'in another game'" (Poe1)?
I only mention it at the end of the comment, since it is obvious to me from his comment, which makes no points whatsoever defending the systems in place in Poe2, that he does not even properly understand what I am talking about in my post.

Edit: typo
+ Not like he put any effort into making it known how much time he has invested into Poe2 or which point in progression he is at.

end game is extremely boring. it's the same maps over and over again. The variation is pretty bad. where are the snow maps? is there no snow in this game? lame.

also why are the best map tiers tied to rng corrupting? seems so stupid. like tier 15 is easy but theres nothing left for me to do except steam roll through until i get lucky with something harder?