What aspects of the game are actually an improvement over poe1?

Graphics are better, storytelling is better, bosses are MUCH cooler.

That's it.

Some of the art is very cool as well, but other aspects of the art depart too much from the classic style and seem like a downgrade to me. Orbs, for instance, look WAY less cool.

None, except the graphics and a little more, poe 1 >>> poe 2

They've worked on this game for 6+ years WITH PoE 1 as a template for a lot of stuff, giving them valuable ideas, mechanics and feedback/statistics and a TON of design already "done". I don't think it's very critical of me to say I expected more.

Now, what's better? Graphics, sound, story/acts, boss fights and overall presentation. The rest? Considerably worse.

graphics...thats pretty much it

Bossing, information display, slower gameplay, graphics, passive tree, itemization, skill gems not in gear, visual queues etc etc

What isn't better?

I basically like everything in PoE2 more than PoE1. And I have 2500 hours in PoE1.

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AintCare#6513 wrote:

not here to argue, especially with ppl that are still stuck in a rut that the poe1 became

In the past 2 years I felt that PoE had become a parody of itself. 20 million crafting option, way too many skills, way too many defensive layers, gameplaye that became quicker and quicker with each patch, timeless jewels and cluster jewels that were basically needed but you didn't know about unless you read the wiki. After 2500 hours PoE was so much different from the fun game it once was.

The campaign and bosses during the campaign.+++

End game is just broken and boring right now, needs tons of balance and
more engagement. Bosses are pretty lame end game but only because you just build to one shot them and skip all mechanics. But it would be nice to see NEW bosses and not just reskins with same mech.

Heath feels fine and balanced during the campaign, but as soon as you get to maps, EHP of health chars goes to shit and ES / Mana can get about 3 to 4 times more effective HP making warriors/supposed tanks one shootable fairly quickly through map progression.

Only two items give health chars a decent increase in life. Morior Invictus and Against the Darkness.

If you str stack you can get 50-70% increased Str, and 40-50% max life with these two items alone. Which is insane, but also very stupid.

I have to concede, even though I've mostly dropped this game for now (I know, I know. I've played PoE1 for 11 years, and been disappointed most of them since 0.8c, got I miss 0.9, but I want to hope that GGG finally figures out how to make a game good, it has so much promise) that the Boss Fights are pretty good.

Even if the one shot mechanics splat Warriors too easily.

Other than that, I would have to dip into the things that the OP said to ignore, like graphics and audio.

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MagosX#1099 wrote:

PoE1: You stand still in the middle of 1000 mobs attacking, not caring, 99% of the time you take 0 damage, 1% of the time you get 1-shot.

PoE2: You actively predict and dodge enemy attacks. You dodge skillfully, you survive. You fail, you take damage, or die.

I don't dodge. I kill everything as quickly as possible like I did in POE1. Dodging means less attacks, which equals more mobs surrounding, stun locking, and killing you. Now add a mana siphon rare while you're surrounded and you can't attack, which means you're dead anyway. That's a typical simulacrum.

Dodge works for bosses, and that's it.