Game is too punishing for a Casual players.

Hi,
I'm a relatively new player and wanted to share some frustrating experiences I’ve had with the game. In general, the endgame feels way too punishing. If you're a new player, you're definitely going to die while mapping, and the punishment for dying is so harsh that, at some point, you can barely continue playing.

This might be fine for Path of Exile veterans who know exactly how to handle every challenge, but for someone like me, who keeps dying, it's discouraging. In the end, I got stuck at level 70 with a Blood Mage build and had to start a new character. That’s how bad the XP loss feels for newer players. Some might even quit entirely after hitting such an unbreachable wall.

Another major frustration is that when you die, all map modifiers—like bosses, irradiation, expedition and even corruption are gone. I mean I haven't even cleared this map, I have died, why corruption is gone?. Like, what the heck? I get that this game has a 1999-style mentality, but come on, it’s almost 2025. Chill out and let people have fun! The game is already punishing enough due to its lack of quality-of-life features, like the absence of an Auction House.

Of course, I understand that PoE is about cleansing the land from corruption through pain and suffering, but this is too much suffering for someone who only plays for a couple of hours after work. I’m not a streamer who plays 16 hours a day as a job. For a casual player like me, trying to unwind after work, the game feels brutal. A tiny mistake ends up feeling like getting hit in the balls with a chainsaw—that’s what dying in PoE 2 feels like.

Here are some suggestions to improve these issues:

Lock map modifiers: Even if a player dies, they should be able to retry the map with the same features intact. Losing the keystone itself is punishing enough.
Revamp XP loss: Instead of losing 10% of total XP, players could lose only the XP earned within that specific map. For example, if you farmed 30,000 XP running this map, you’d only lose that amount upon death.
Add an Auction House: The current trading system is a total disaster. The main complaint is that it’s way too time-consuming.
Make respecs easier: I regretted choosing the Blood Mage ascension almost immediately. It should be more viable to respec into a different build without needing to start a whole new character.

I think any good game needs to be challenging and punishing in some extents.

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diablofdb#3816 wrote:

I think any good game needs to be challenging and punishing in some extents.

That's just your opinion, and you clearly don't understand what a casual player seeks in a game if you think every game has to be "challenging" and "punishing".

This game is going to start bleeding players like crazy, either because they hit a brick wall in campaign(but most will just reroll and enjoy the nice campaign as much as they can to get that 30$ value out of their purchase) or when they hit endgame. This thread is just more proof of how horribly this game is designed for new players and casuals. And even for veterans of PoE with thousands of hours this game is just worse than PoE 1 lol


This is only the beginning, the player numbers are gonna plummet in the coming weeks.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

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diablofdb#3816 wrote:

I think any good game needs to be challenging and punishing in some extents.

That's just your opinion, and you clearly don't understand what a casual player seeks in a game if you think every game has to be "challenging" and "punishing".

This game is going to start bleeding players like crazy, either because they hit a brick wall in campaign(but most will just reroll and enjoy the nice campaign as much as they can to get that 30$ value out of their purchase) or when they hit endgame. This thread is just more proof of how horribly this game is designed for new players and casuals. And even for veterans of PoE with thousands of hours this game is just worse than PoE 1 lol


This is only the beginning, the player numbers are gonna plummet in the coming weeks.

So its just your opinion that it doesn't.

Keeping 50% of the ppl happy is good enough I guess

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diablofdb#3816 wrote:

I think any good game needs to be challenging and punishing in some extents.

Yet Elden Ring exists and appeals to more casual than hardcore players. Amazing how they did that without having mechanics that intentionally punish players. Almost as if, making content challenging INSTEAD of punishing IS the solution.

Yeah, this pretty much sums up my thoughts on end game. Either don't remove the map modifiers, make it so we have multiple attempts, or remove all the one shot mechanics. Also, the same needs to be done for the trials. Either make it so I don't need to farm another token to try again, make it so it's not a one and done, and/or remove the BS honor mechanic.

Another suggestion is to make it so we have an easier way to get better loot. I've been using the same gear since level 60, and I'm now level 73. Having little to no gear progression unless you get super lucky with RNG is going to drive people away.

I mean I don't see why the end game can't be like the campaign. The campaign was fun af. This end game seems like it's just there to discourage all but the most hardcore of players.

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Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index#1288 wrote:

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

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diablofdb#3816 wrote:

I think any good game needs to be challenging and punishing in some extents.

That's just your opinion, and you clearly don't understand what a casual player seeks in a game if you think every game has to be "challenging" and "punishing".

This game is going to start bleeding players like crazy, either because they hit a brick wall in campaign(but most will just reroll and enjoy the nice campaign as much as they can to get that 30$ value out of their purchase) or when they hit endgame. This thread is just more proof of how horribly this game is designed for new players and casuals. And even for veterans of PoE with thousands of hours this game is just worse than PoE 1 lol


This is only the beginning, the player numbers are gonna plummet in the coming weeks.

So its just your opinion that it doesn't.

Keeping 50% of the ppl happy is good enough I guess

Yeah but it’s more like 99% of people who agree with him and 1% who agree with you

So you say.

These forums are the best place to get some salt you never did experience.

My only 3 complains - atlas navigation/empty map nodes/the replacement of crafting with a lottery

I mean, I really don't think your assertion here is accurate. I haven't struggled greatly with any of the bosses and I'm new to ARPGs and I didn't play PoE 1.

I would first make sure that you're playing the game "correctly". Are you grasping its mechanics? Are you understanding how skills and gems work? Are you building correctly?

Make sure you're engaging with the game correctly before coming to this conclusion. The game really is not very hard and I don't know why people keep saying that.

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outlander19900#0213 wrote:

Keeping 50% of the ppl happy is good enough I guess

Yes on steam already a 60% player count reduction. Give it a month until most players have hit the endgame and maybe less than 1%.[/quote]

Completely normal, PoE1 leagues also tend to bleed of 50-80% of their players within 2 weeks.
I did all content in PoE2, Doubt I am alone. All thats keeping me is pushing my build to the max, even though I don't need it.

On top of that its christmas time, so a lot of people are going to enjoy time with their family, rather than with doriyani