LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG FEEDBACK !!! Mostly positive and constructive

Hi GGG
Here is my Feedback on PoE 2 !!! The sooner you read it, the more time you have to think about it <3
(ramping up the fomo XD)

1.INTRO

First of all I will try to keep it short as possbile but probably it's gonna be long (twss XD) and there will be memes, so you don't fall asleep.
The feedback will be overall positive BUT I will point out things that were/are negative in my opinion.
I will start with the negatives and end with the positives, in this order a good feeling will hopefully remain for YOU and I can show my big appreciation for your hard work.

I'm trying to be an efficent person and need to keep this message clear and understandable for you.
I work 5 days a week and in my spare time I try to play/test your game from a "casual new player" perspective. Because I'm still kinda new, even tho I'm semi-tryharding.
Check my profile if you like or get in touch with me if you want to cooperate or have any further questions. I would be glad to help you, if needed =)
If you want me to work for you as QA, sure thing lets do it !!!
I bring possible solutions to the problmes I mention, so it is not only crying about things but you already getting constructive feedback.

My feedback serves YOU, so you maybe can change some things compared to PoE 1, making your game more approchable to a wider audience, so please do not be offended if I write stuff in a funny way.
I've started PoE1 in 2019 Metamoprh league iirc. Didn't know shit about Leagues and stuff, no guides, no pob, just go in and play blind.It was awesome but I didn't
know much what to do in the endgame and quitted.I knew PoE 1 is the best Arpg so I had to come back and it was Sanctum League !!! Sweet Holy Baby Jesus this HONOUR (John Malkovich: WTF is this) !!!
I've quitted again, than came back prepared and ready to study. Back to Necropolis than Settlers and I'm staying now for good !!!
But BOY OH BOY there is lots of learning with you guys (melee not the most loved thing of yours) !!!

AND NOW here in PoE 2, OH BUOY I got PTSD when I've entered the trial of Sekhemas again as melee !!! So I will not whine too much about the Trial, because lots of other ppl do already
but designing this really beautiful Labyrinth and going the full way with it, without considering that melee players would suffer AF. Doing it, seems kinda crazy tbh but
I knew what class I was picking and how u handle things, so I'm not blaming you here. But I know that this isn't really beginner friendly gameplay and it might deter new players.
Maybe I'm being sorrowful because I didn't recieve the information needed to stick properly with this awesome game, few years ago =((
But I would love to prevent players quitting the best game in this genre due to lack of information or miscommunication.

NOTE: First playthrough was on Warrior but had to cheese Sekhemas Trial with Molten blast, which was "kinda"fun but also frustrating
because if I wished to play ranged I wouldn't pick a warrior. Maybe all of you at GGG are GodGamers and this trial is easy for you on melee but not for casual new players.
Intendend FRIST playthrough is as WARRIOR without guide etc. just going in and playing.
SECOND is on RANGER following a guide !!!
Stats:
-180 h played total
-Warrior 4 Ascendency Points lvl 70
-Ranger 6 Ascendency Points lvl 86 not tried the full Sekhemas Trial yet

So my opinions will vary dependend on the class I was playing, which YOU really should reconsider in future when making decisions pleeeeeeeeease understand.
It is SO crucial for new players what class they pick because you have a total different game experience depending on this choice.
Long time players will stick with the game anyway but I'm trying to help you to generate a newer playerbase.
There are many different ways to solve problmes like this and the EA is already ongoing but feel free to ask if you need solutions. I will not mention all because it
would escalate a lot but for example:
-Locking more difficult classes and unlocking them during the campaign (Scion-style PoE1). Now ppl could cry because ahhh Freedom OMG
but the excitment to unlock a new character class is so cool and generates new motivation etc.
AND freedom could sometimes mean being free to be dumb, especially if not enough infos are provided.
It's not big hand holding if you have for example the Warrior Class trapped in Act V or some lore thingy and we are able to play it after unlocking it.
Just brainstroming here.
-designing special rooms/melee path in the Sekhemas Trial more suitable for melee classes and getting a notification about it OR having some special melee specific afflictions which
could be obtaind from Balbala, pre-trial
- Designing this Djin Coins in different ways and names. For example Stone-Bronze-Silver-Gold- Coin for the different trials, same with Ultimatum.
For better visual and allround information. etc
-For ranged Classes this trial looks fun, maybe the endboss is difficult but that is totally cool.

I saw you already hotfixing and making changes so THANK YOU VERY MUCH already and ty for listening to your community <3


2.NEGATIVES:

a)
MY Biggest negativ point (this will sound very crazy) is a totally different aspect. The biggest issue is that lotta people NOW assume that EA is the full game.
Because of how good the game already is and of how much we can already do !!! But this is a misconception YOU really need to solve.Even I didn't know if this is the
full campaign and the rest of the story develops in maps or if it's only half.
Anyway, so idc how mauch redditor-hate I get or content-creator-hate I will recieve but you should have a CLEAR CUT before releasing the full game !!!
I mean like 1 or maybe 2 months servers SHUT DOWN at some point !!! You reconsider the proper amount of time yourself and announce it on time.
Not deleting the progress now, just shutting down the servers until full release.
In the down time, building up the hype again, keeping the community UP TO DATE with changes, stress testing with QA-Teams made out of some
pro-streamers and casual QA-players aswell, maybe. With NDA or not or semi-NDA.
Making the final polish, giving us the exact DATES of release and than dropping the best bomb on us !!!

I know this sounds crazy and maybe at first sight a loss in revenue but this will probably be your only chance to do this in the next 10-15 years or maybe more, if things
play out well.
And in the meantime you can rethink your Vision of PoE2, I don't say change but rethink and optimize. We know you want to speed limit us, and it's often said PoE2 is souls like BUT it is also P O E !!!
My personal Souls-like experience I had in PoE2 was Act 1-3 normal difficulty(on Warrior) with the resource and item scarcity and no guides, afterwards it is getting
easier probably until Pinnacle Bosses. Also on Ranger is way different and easier due to MS-nodes on passive skill tree. Than the game opens up and is getting more PoE-like.
So the balance you want to have between Souls-like and PoE-like is really hard to handle and often bound to game pace but it shouldn't mean u limit yourself just because you
want to slow us down. Overall 10%-15% more MS would be nice maybe especially during the campaign.
So I imagine that this vision is a hard task to manage and you want to give us the ruthless-mode taste in the game and I know that getting the right drops than feels amazing
but this is not easy. If you find the sweet spot of drops in the bitternes of item and resource scarcity than you probably get the perfect SOULS-POE feeling you imagine.
I mean starting slow and ramping up feels than really rewarding.

b)
LIMITATIONS. I know you had to cut down lots of stuff to make this huge game more welcoming, which is totally understanable. BUT cutting down stuff shouldn't mean
limiting your own amazing content. I imagine pumping so much knowledge from PoE1 in ppls heads that accumulated over years is not what you wish but console players and new players
are not THAT stupid XD.
It kinda feels FOR me and I can say I played PoE1 actively for 1 year, it feels like lots of cut downs. I know PoE2 is great and new stuff will come and there is still lots
of stuff I didn't see in PoE2 but small things for long time players, you know what I mean. Please just keep reading, here a few small points with ONE very drastic:

-MASTERIES:Masteries in passive Skill tree !!! WHERE ARE THEY ?? I hope you implement them, this is what makes the passive skill tree so nice in PoE1 and it is simple to understand with NO
downsides. It creates also so much diversity, PLEASE bring this back. I imagine you keep it for later if you need to rebalance stuff in game but at least some masteries would
be nice.OOOOOORR some cool DOUBLE-choice Possibilites at the KEYSTONES. Ez pz to respec and you have a lil bit more of variety.

-FLASKS:Flasks Brothers and Sisters Flasks ???!!! Ok so first of all, WHY the heck CAN'T WE have 2x Life or 2x Mana flasks at the same time ??
Utility flasks, just sad. You could just leave us the GRANITE,JADE,QUICKSILVER and maybe add a Energy-Shield Flask, sorry dunno if a thing like that exists.
Leave the charms in game, they are great <3 !!! Two flask spots also totally awesome with more charges, than ONE LIFE/MANA + ONE UTILTY would be soooo fine !!!
And if somebody cries because they want Utility flask but need life and mana aswell than bring back the beautiful purple Hybrid flask (let it drop in maps first) if scared of
balance. This isn't tooo much, c'mon. And you can't say balancing, i saw some streamers getting WILD and than balanced by you with patches and nerfs, without having Uti-flasks XD.
I really hope u bring that back, they were also all looking so fancy !!! Even selling MTX for flasks, literally missing out on revenue opportunities.
Now you ask BUT how would you craft on utility flasks if needed ????!!! AHHH very simple I say, with RUNES, let us add sockets to flasks and than create runes.
But flask crafting LATER !!! Runes next point

-RUNES: Changing RES runes in gear. I think you can change 3x runes of one kind in this Reforge device into another but not sure. Anyway my solution here:
3x fire = 1x cold
3x cold = 1x light
3x light= 1x fire
or something like that.


Now imagine you put THIS into this reforge device:
1x GEAR-ITEM with fire rune + 2x fire rune = 1x SAME GEAR-ITEM with cold rune
easy change and you have a sink for too many runes =)

OR let us use Artificiers orb to pull out the runes but than ppl would horde them for sure.

OR let us upgrade 3x same runes into a RES RUNE with higher values but than u can not change the element.
Anyway you know what I mean, simple and endless possibilities.

-ITEM LEVEL on UNIQUES ??? : Somehow I have a "Lifesprig" Wand I-lvl 73. Req:Char lvl 72 and 164 INT. How this should be a lvling item ??
I might have picked it up from the ZEN map from the Seer, with a higher Map/waystone inserted but this kinda causes an issue imo.

-MAGIC FIND: Ok at some point you need to pay me for giving you ideas OR refreshing your own creativity or just hire me =)
I stumbeled upon this topic yesterday and also here so simple solutions to RARITY AND QUANTITY.

SO listens closely please.
WHAT HAPPEND TO ALL OF US ARPG PLAYERS ???!!! I play since Diablo ONE and we only have 2 Fingers, what lore accident happend that we only can use 2 rings ???!!!
Were those the same Demons that took Wirts leg, that ate our fingers and ears ??
Why we only have 2 fingers ??? No ears ??? No 10 rings and no earrings. Literally stuck in 1996.
So same as with the HEIST-AMULET you have in POE1 , you could unlock new item slots. Let us say for example 2 extra ring/earring slots and a cape slot JUST for a new item type.
MF or Quantity Items. SOOOO easy.
You do want to have it in the campaign ? Make the quests in the campaign !
Only in maps ? Than put the quests in maps.
Maybe add some extra stats on them or not, totally up to you. Let those accessoires-items be farmable im Delirium or anywhere else.
YOU STILL DON'T LIKE IT ???
Okay, add a small shamrock symbol which represents MF/Quantity to your maps, so those specific stats from those extra items are only active in those special maps. Maybe the campaign is also
totally marked with this mode. And than players can decide if they juice their special maps or not and do not have to chase for one special stat on every item.
So before you have an arguing and screaming community you could present easy solutions.

-QOL 1
You definetly need to establish a HELP channel in chat. With a different coloration. So everyone who is NOT interested in helping new ppl in chat can just mute and ppl knowing stuff
and willing to help can filter messages easily. It is insane for new players to ask for help in global if chat is going wild or meming hard AND not every person has the confidence to do so,
remeber we play ONLINE games =)

-QOL 2 THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS !!!
I wanted to write this also for PoE1 aswell long time ago, please implement !!! Very ez and humongous QoL !!!
If I open my skill tree and type in for example "Blood Magic", please make a small button next to search bar that brings me to the marked position and centers above it (maybe zooms in)
or something !!! I know for multiple nodes it would maybe just zoom out or do nothing. Something similar to google maps, like if you hit on the locate button.
You know what i mean ?? I hope so. IF this is already in the game, than please excuse me !!!

- TWO PORTALS: Two portals maybe for maps, due to lots of the "on death" effects and one shot mechanics. Like, it would wake you up when u die first.
But I peronally kinda like this "hardcore-ish" gameplay style you invented. Gotta admit really like this solution.
Hmmm you could also let us choose how many portals we wanna have, 1-6 and the loot AND XP is bound to the amount of portals we choose.
The less portals we take, the better the loot and higher XP.

-NIGHT TIME MORE pls: I would like to see more MAPS/WAYSTONES happening at night time.Creates great atmosphere similar to A1 please. Not negative but just recalled it now.

-FILTER AND POB: Here I will talk about new customer aqusition and customer service you should/could provide in a small gentle manner.
At some point you could advice your customers to use specific things to enhance the game experience you get from the product.
Ofc they are not mandatory but you can not totally rely on the community to tell people to use a filter and where to find it and to use PoB and maybe look at some guides.
It is totally different if actually a developer studio advices the player base to start using guides at some point to fully reach the potential of the game and maybe learn
some new stuff than actually relying that people trust some guys on YT. And it would be a WIN-WIN for both sides, you advert for content creators they advert for your game.
You could promote specific content creators or not, or switch around. Just the fact that you as devs would point at information, would be very helpful.

Yeah lots of ppl say they just wanna play without preparing a lot and I'm sure PoE2 clearly offers that but still there is a difference in game quality if
following a guide from a veteran player or not, especially for new players.
AND one of the actually best parts of PoE is planing your character, using PoB for this is so much fun but requires knowledge.
Starting by using guides from pros and learning and than maybe planing your own build is actually the best part.
This is a whole different topic tho, just sad if players brick their build and have to start over, could also be not so dramatic due to Gold-respec costs.
Anyway hope you understand my message here for advising and directing new players a bit in a direction =)

-TRADE !!! OK GGG we need to talk about this now. I am not writing feedbacks or lotta stuff in Forums, so now is the time.
NO NO NO stay here don't run away GGG you know what I'm gonna say XD.
GEAR-TRADE IN GAME. Guys do we really need to wait another 10 years that you implement an IN-GAME auction house for gear same as for currency ???
Is this planed for the last league before PoE 3 3 3 3 3 ???
Please we are almost there. I do not know what technical diffiuclties there are exactly but it would be so nice.
Imagine a map(no fighting map) ehm maybe something named like Oriath Square. A marketplace with lots of traders there (NPCs).
Clicking on them would open IN-GAME straight the window of PoE-Trade, that's it. From there you navigate as usual.
Server stability issues ?? I dunno as said but it would be massive, especially because trade is so cool in this game.

Ok so that's it for the negatives, I assume you get a lot of feedback from many people and hope you can filter the necessery one and make use of it.
Now I will follow up with my positive feedback.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING GGG <3

3.POSITIVES
So this is totally free if you read it but I will say only good stuff now !!! Basically good for your soul
and appreciating your work, up to you if you want to hear it or not. I do imagine you have lots of stuff to do now, that is why I'm mentioning it.

a)
HOLY GGG !!! This game is amaaaaaazing soooo much love to you <3
SPOILER ALERT:First of all THANK YOU for throwing me back into my Diablo2 times, the design of the acts reminds me strongly of D2 and there are also
lots of small easter eggs, like treveling EAST, the hooded One looking like ahhhhhhh you know exactly WHO <3 !!! Titans Grotto strongly reminds me of this one level in A2 D2.
Cementary in A1, the whole Jungle and even some Music Tracks in A3. Holy Moly level design BLESSED <3. I do expect A4 to be caverns/hell like and A5 be like Mountains XD ...
A6 a surprise... dont ask me why.

b)
Combat system, totally awesome, the combo stuff and the interactions between different skills, so insanely cool. And feels so juicy to smash a mace in monsters face or
gas arrow ignite ahhhh just so good <3 !!!
Sorry played only 2 classes so far can't tell more but sooooo nice !!!

c)
The Story seems very interesting, great voice acting and looking forward to more. Miss Einhar and Izaro tho... READDDY EXILE ???!!!
Great atmosphere overall LOOOVE it <3 but talking about it i need to copy pasta it up top aswell but overall I would like to see more MAPS/WAYSTONES happening at night time
please. Same as A1, this is such a simple yet great tool to creat more souls like atmosphere. Also A1 ma favourite overall but seems kinda smaller compared to the other ones,
sadly.

d)
crafting overall seems nice and cool still connected with lots of gamba tho. Maybe if the drop rate of greater essences is buffed it will seem a bit more stable and
more like crafting and not so much gambling.

e)
Blooming field with the Delirium fog on it. Soooooooo good looking map insane. Sadly lots of stuff like breach gets downscaled if much is happening so dunno if my settings
are wrong or if my PC just a bit older. But still, I mostly care about performance and this is good.
My lesson from PoE1 is, that if you have too much time to look around than your build is prolly crap XD ... #skillissue XD
And WILLOW omfg looks so good !!! But this Boss, this old dude from the Cementeray, yeah his one-hit smash attack seems like a homing-missle.Kinda knows where I dodge roll,
kinda cheaty somehow but overall map is awesome !!!

f)
Hero Classes and Ascendecies. So fine, so good, looking forward what we get more.
Just reading atm 12 classes a 3 ascendencies ?????!!!!! OKAY guys at some point we really need to discuss my QA position in your company.
Where do I find the time. Even writing this feedback costs me a few hours of progress. Holy moly but this are some great news ... 12 classes !!!

g)
GLOBAL CHAT <3 !!! I just love it !!! It can be sometimes annoying but you can DND or just switch channel but most of the time very entertaining !!!
And with a great community !!!

h)
The MAP design,I mean like the ATLAS. But wish you could add day/night cycles somehow. It would be probably be light and gamma effects changing the map appearance, maybe optional.
But the Atlas, looks very cool reminds me of old Might and Magic stuff. Clearly you played good games !!!

i)
Bosses and Boss mechanics !!! Amazing work !!! Still not done lot of them but from what I've seen on YT, they look amazing. Insane work, so far Balbala ma favourite !!!

j)
Mob diversity and design is awesome, really great work there

So I will wrap it up here, there is plenty of good things in the game and I hope there will be more and please still care about your first child GGG.
TY very much for everything, hope you had great Christmas and wish you a happy new year and as mentioned above, if there are ANY questions, just feel free to ask
Bye bye <3

"Shine boldy, so all may find you when the night falls"