Boss - engame

After spending several hours playing POE 2, I would like to share some feedback on areas that I believe could be improved:

- Enemy Damage

The damage from Normal, Magic, and Rare monsters still feels overly high. White mobs, in particular, deal too much damage and often pose a disproportionate threat compared to their Rare counterparts.

- Stun and Ailment Threshold

In the endgame, the player’s stun and ailment resistance is far too low. While there are charms available to help mitigate these effects, they don’t seem to provide a significant or reliable solution, leaving the player vulnerable to constant interruptions and status effects.

- Defense System

The current defense system feels underwhelming. Evasion, for example, doesn’t seem to make a noticeable difference – having 40% or 80% evasion feels almost the same.
Energy Shield functions as little more than extra "life" and doesn’t bring any meaningful gameplay impact, aside from its automatic recharge. It could benefit from being more integrated into other mechanics to provide greater utility. (Dont know if it works the same in POE1, but thats just how i feel).

Armour is something I haven’t explored extensively, as it doesn’t fit well with my Monk build. However, it still seems unappealing and difficult to incorporate into agile builds.

- Perma-Stun

Players can be permanently stunned. A system similar to the boss mechanics, where repeated stuns build resistance, would be a welcome improvement to avoid frustration and maintain gameplay flow.

- Penalty System

The current penalty system is a major demotivator. Losing progress due to minor mistakes or experimentation severely impacts the enjoyment and motivation to keep playing. It feels overly punishing and diminishes the sense of accomplishment. (Yeah The devs have already mentioned that they want to change this, but I also think they shouldn’t take too much time with it.) My biggest issues with the current system are the loss of map modifiers and waystones. If players could at least be revived once or something similar, it would already be a big step forward

Overall, the game currently feels like it’s designed to challenge players in ways that often feel unfair, without offering sufficient tools to counterbalance these challenges. The defense mechanics and damage scaling, in particular, need more adjustments to make the game more enjoyable for casual players like myself