Feedback for POE2 - dont make the game idiot proof. say no to D4 andies and casual gameplay.

HC SSF only player. Dont care about trade.

First of all, good job GGG, the game looks and feels like a true ARPG. The graphics is top notch, movement kinda top notch (not polished enough).
So we will discuss in manner of, i first say a good thing, and than where it needs improvment.

Lets start with charachter creation, the tree, and gems.

Class\Ascendancy
Good - we will potentialy have a lot to choose from.

Bad - Ascendancies feel like intruders from poe1, pathfinder is straight up not a class for poe2, its strong side and personality is flasks - there are no flasks in poe2, using life flasks is not a personality. This needs change, either to affect charms, or beeing in somekind of way different, like a pure poison build (convert all damage to chaos or something else)
Deadeye is iconic, but kinda is not quite poe2 lvl. something feels off with that.

witch - dosent really look like a dark magic kinda thing, more looks like an absurd mage (even ascendacy is called blood mage, but has no blood skills in the game.

mage - kinda OK

monk - feels ok, bouth of them

mercanary - feels ok- a little lack luster, but still fells poe2 wise

warrior - straight up shit, doesnt feel like a warrior. block ascendacy feels like shit, totem feels shit, like a poe1 mech, with stacking a lot of totems, titan kinda OK, but doesent fit for poe2 playstyle. Its should have more rushes, more movement, momentum and warcryes and be a little more agile, it dosent feel like a dude with a big hammer and it doesent feel like a gladiator either its some shit in between and its not good. It should have more rage, power, be angry and not this little pony with flying hammers from the skies. It lacks brutality and iresponsebility.

The Tree
good - its bigger, more flex with travel nodes

bad - poe2 should be a game where we have choice and can control what our char is doing, and we still have starter trees, just make the center the start, and let everyone choose where they will go. a witch with a hammer going full on melee? a big guy going for bows? maybe its awkward, but we need to have the choice. There MUST be a possibility to fck up your char because of your choice - dont make the game idiot proof, than any idiot can play it and its not fun.
Overall the tree fells less impactfull, less interesting, just damage\defence = this should straight up change. A lot, A LOT of dead nodes, pen is useless, a lot of nodes are not unified and just straight up shit. The tree needs everything we had in poe1 + more to fill in with poe2. By dead nodes i mean - you take the node, and it does ZERO nothing to impact your gameplay. In poe1 we have a lot less of the dead nodes and clusters

gems.

this is a big one.
good, gem system is kinda nice, bad you cannot delvl and so on, but overall feels like an upgrade.

bad, gems are specific to a weapon, it is very strict, and the flex of POE1 is gone - THIS IS BAD, REALLY BAD. IT feels like a hard downgrade and a D4 trap, and it's awefull. Maybe because the choice we have on start is very poor.
there is no interaction between different spells and attacks (or its done poorly). gas cloud+detonator is the most.. ehm prestige one.
Everything else just seems like, hit three times and use another attack for more damage. there should be an upside of using a fire and ice spell like more damage or hinder or something like a big iginte on a frozen enemy or a strong freeze on an ignited enemy. poison and bleed and there are a lot of choices. i dont wanna be to hard here. maybe this is in work, but for today the choice is mostly use 1 skill and maybe a few other's to do additional damage independent.

Next defences
armour,es, life, evasion, leech

armour feels OP at the begining, and feels like useless shit at the end. armour formula needs an overhaul.

es , is way to OP, cause life is shit, no benefits of life and also the conversions that we had from poe1 (like reaper) are gone. feels akward and not good. and ES is the single best option.

evasion feels like the only option to go, it has a lot of buffs, its everywhere on the tree, and its straight up better in every possible way. ES+Evasion is the only viable option in high tier maps.

leech - is dead, its only attack based, (except blood mage) this feels wrong, feels like a forced way of using flasks, to have the slots filled - we dont need them, its a bad UI design choice and its just limiting. Bring back utility flasks - There is NO problem in poe1 and poe2 about button pushing. In poe1 you facerolled the whole content with 1 button and its still the same, you just dont need to press flasks no more. (another idiot proof thing so people dont get theyre flasks wrong - THIS IS HORSE SHIT, make us press more buttons.)

next bosses and game difficulty.
good = bosses look good and are different.

bad -
The game is made to casual, it feels like a downgrade.
A red attack, should be insta death, i play HC SSF, and it was way way way easier to play throu the acts than in poe1. Dont make the game "soft". The playerbase is POE1, we where there from start, you will get more players with time, dont need to go for all the softies from D4 - this is not the community we need to build. The bosses are straight up kitty cats, you dont get one shots its all telegraphed to the bones, you have to be blind to die. All thou Silverfist is actualy nice - he is plain has no mechanics but he is dangerous and you feel that, it is the one boss that made my heart rase the second time i got there (1st playthrou i was killed by him, by being to relaxed from all the other bosses). Viper kinda seems OK to, but OH MY GOD, what happend to dory? the final act 3 boss is just straight up shit, you can facetank all the shit, with MEH gear and not even overlvl. This is really bad, it sucks, i hate it.

difficulty in game

it scales not even. at the start to t10 maps youre a god, basicaly facerolling the game. and after you will get destroyed by different shit like a white mob or onground\afterdeath effect. It needs tuning and defences are a part of that, bring back suppression, max res, transcendancy, petri blood, leech. There is no challenge i would say, its straight forward, i dont need to do a lot of farming for different mechanics (blight for oils, delirium for clusters and so on) all i have to do is farm currency and slam exalts till its good and go again and kill everything. IT SUCKS. HARD. Make the game hard again. Get rid of this linear easy to gear concept its horsecrap. Make us work for it. Farm, get good, better and than go higher.

lets go further
item rarity and scarcity in general
item rarity is a fun mod, its good, but feels kinda a OP, and the stage upgrade from powerhouse build and rarity with low damage in lower content - is not even near.
rarity right now is king, it is way to overpowered for 1-2 stats in an item.
Rarity needs a nerf by at least a 50%.
And rarity also just brings scarcity of items to zero, you're overwhelmed with rares and it feels like there is no need to go further for bigger rewards.

crafting
the crafting options in general are shit, runes are a permanent craft(by itself is good, but the options of runes we have are shit), and it feels optionless. the bench should be there, and gathering different mods from items you collected. maybe a permanent 1 time craft too but a part of randomnes should be there.
lets say just a random life mod (not exactly a tier just a random tier) and you have to get 10 rare items with life mod on it to get the craft for 1 time use.


endgame - feels like its not there, atlas tree is a downgrade and its fcked.
just bring back poe1 atlas tree and add the boss trees from the new one.
endgame should have an atlas (for completionist)
btw = the game feels aweful punishing for completionists. quest are not doable(show up as not done in act map), traders show up like a task in map.

final
Why did people love POE1 and what made it so good.
1) The variety and the possibility of doing absolutly different things and earn unique rewards for the method you choose
2) builds had a big big variety, meelee caster, caster with melee and all sorts of viable shit
3) target farming and crafting - crafting was and is the big deal in poe1 and its completly gone in poe2

what is good about poe2
1) bones, it has the structure to be good and the best
2) more people can play and get into
3) bosses do feel more "alive"

just combine it.
overall poe2 is very very good, but its not near poe1 at this stage. it lacks variety and possibilites, craft is gone, builds are "diablo like" choose this and you are OP. tree feels like its not doing anything except adding damage or adding defence in a straight way.
Make the game harder, bring back Chris W. cause this is not his vision and its clear that this is not it.
Dont go for the masses of people and the numbers, go for the HC fans, or just give us POE1 with the graphics, physics and acts. And give POE2 for all the D4 andies that casauly wanna destroy every boss and the whole endgame without POB and strategy.

Summing it up. Good job GGG, but this is not for the POE1 fans out there, its way to easy and simple. Chris we miss you. we love you. we need you.

+1

I have 2 characters at maps and more at Cruel.

+1 agreed.

All the shit has to be fixed.

+1

got to maps with spark sorc, LA deadeye and HoWA pillar gemling.

rn working on my witch

Thank you guys for reading :) there is still hope and i belive.

Great feedback and I agree with most of your points except one. I like the challenge but it shouldn't be that hard like you said in terms of build making. I think there a still a lot of ways to make your build pretty weak and it's already too hard for complete casuals (I've tested it on my friends haha). I think in terms of build making difficulty it perfectly balanced, but yeah in terms of specific nodes power or stats like armour vs evasion the game should be balanced.

"

Great feedback and I agree with most of your points except one. I like the challenge but it shouldn't be that hard like you said in terms of build making. I think there a still a lot of ways to make your build pretty weak and it's already too hard for complete casuals (I've tested it on my friends haha). I think in terms of build making difficulty it perfectly balanced, but yeah in terms of specific nodes power or stats like armour vs evasion the game should be balanced.

ty, i agree it is already to hard for complete casuals - and this is the problem, it's not easy enough for them and it's not hard enough for the vets of poe1.
It is possible to make the UI intuitive (it already is) - we just need to have the option for all the old vets to "force" some desicions in our build to lets say use a bow with spark if i want to.
But its EA so hopefully this feedback finds a way to the devs and we get a little bit of that crisp poe1 feeling :)

also realy miss Chris W. in the videos.. poe2 is kinda his child.. but seems like he doesnt love it