POE 2 IS WAY TO DIFFICULT

I'm just going to say this since no one else will, and I'm being dead serious, maybe go play something else? I'm not trying to be mean, this game just isn't for you.

I don't even know how any of you could read OP's post. It is literally a wall of text(sans punctuation).

fixed

Here’s your text broken into clearer paragraphs for readability:

Respectfully, I’m sick of PoE2. I don’t want to hear about “oh it’s hard because you’re a Diablo 4 player and that game is so easy.” No. I’ve played PoE1, Diablo 3, Diablo 4, the Torchlight series, Divinity Sin games, Minecraft Dungeons, etc. I have played enough of these types of games to know how they work, but PoE2 is way too punishing in the campaign.

I understand that it’s meant to be harder than PoE1 and different, but being body‑blocked by enemies, being one‑shot by normal mobs, being animation‑locked into abilities and not able to dodge out of mechanics, not receiving any rewarding gear that makes me think about my build and choices during gameplay — it’s all too much. I by no means claim to be a great PoE player, but I have yet to get past level 32 on any character because it is that dreadful trying to progress.

There are bosses in the game that I couldn’t even beat because they continued to one‑shot me even while I was over‑leveled compared to them, so I had to get a buddy to carry me through. I like the bosses, I like the story, I love PoE1 and wanted harder content, but PoE2 isn’t it for me. I would rather play any of the Diablo games than PoE2. There is no reason for the difficulty to be this extreme so early on.

The only time I have any enjoyment is playing my Witch, and all I do is hold block with a shield and let my minions kill the enemies because I truly can’t survive. I’m not getting better gear, and all I have access to is the NPC shops because the AH is locked behind story progression that I can’t get past. I have friends that could only progress by finding random groups of four people, and even then it took hundreds of hours to get a build to a point where they could solo story content that fit with their level.

I love GGG. I think they are great, very transparent with information, and truly care about the community and the game. But I’m not having fun, and new friends that I get to play PoE2 quit after a few hours because of the early‑game difficulty as well. We can’t even experience the story or the endgame content because the difficulty through Acts 1–3 is so punishing that whether it’s us playing solo or together, we are constantly killed and even one‑shot.

Another thing: why does reviving a teammate take so long? I have fought multiple bosses with a friend where he died, and everything that hits me constantly interrupts the revive. It takes so long that in every single boss fight we’ve had, I have to try and solo group content or just die and reset.

The game isn’t fun at all. It’s too hard, and it’s not rewarding for the time and effort we put into trying to play. I really hope GGG reads this, because I do like the game, truly, but it’s not new‑player friendly and it’s way too difficult. I left PoE1 because I was one‑shotting everything the whole game and it became boring, but this game’s difficulty is too far in the opposite direction. As a new player, I’d like to be able to enjoy this game.

I just saw the new update with the Huntress, but I’m not sure I even want to try to play her because it will just become another character I can’t progress on. Thank you so much to anyone that reads this. I know it was a lot, but these are all my personal thoughts and feelings on the game.

And here I am disappointed that they made the game easier, because the combat challenge in 0.1 & 0.2 was so much more interesting. The game difficulty feels almost trivial now.

The curse of knowledge can make it difficult to be sympathetic to new players. And I want to try and keep that in mind, because I know that your frustrations are genuine.

PoE2 becomes very easy once you understand how to solve the problems with your build. Without that information, I'm sure it can be overwhelming at first. But if they make the game any easier, to the point where someone can breeze through without any consideration of how they are optimizing their character, then the game becomes basically pointless.

Let's look at a few of the points in the OP.
Frequent one-shots from normal enemies.
If this is true, then you are probably neglecting your defenses, or going about building your character in some strange way. You should not be getting "frequently one-shot from normal enemies"

Some quick tips:
- Make sure you get resistances on your gear, use runes and charms
- Life regen helps a lot. use flat regen on gear and vitality support gem
- Get adequate amounts of the basic defense types, like Armour or Energy Shield.
- Layer other defenses where possible, like block or %armour applies to ele damage, or reservation skills like Wind Dancer
- Have a method of crowd control with your skills, like chill, freeze, pin, stun

The revive mechanic takes too long, gets interrupted by enemy attacks.
Okay so first of all, they can't just allow you to revive allies instantly. It would be too overpowered and make boss encounters in particular, trivial. I think the time it takes to revive, is actually in a pretty well balanced state, where it is possible to revive allies during a boss fight, but difficult enough that you have to be smart about it and pick your moment.

The game feels hard, not for gameplay skill reasons, but for game mechanics & tuning reasons
Hmm. So like I said, when you understand the game mechanics, the game actually becomes far too easy from my perspective. Even 0.2 felt pretty easy, before they nerfed the monsters.. And I don't possess god-like gamer skills. It's a straight forward matter of knowing how to build your character decently, and applying it. Follow the tips above. I'd even be happy to play a bit with you in-game and give you some pointers. Just let me know.

I receive little to no rewarding gear, making progression feel stagnant. Gear drops don’t feel meaningful.
So, there is some RNG involved with the drops you receive, and many people have brought up the disproportional power you get (and therefore rely on) from gear. In my experience of making some 10+ characters, I've never had an issue. But, I can understand why people would.

Here are some tips:
- Obviously, keep an eye out for drops that will help. But not just rare drops, magic and white bases can be potential upgrades too, which leads to:
- Craft frequently. The moment it feels like the content is beginning to be challenging, your attention should be on getting gear upgrades asap.
- Learn what modifiers are going to be useful to you. In general, Life, life regen, resistances, and defenses are what you want early on.
- Make sure your flasks are up to date
- If you are fighting a difficult boss, try to identify what damage type they're using (cold, lightning, etc) and use a charm which helps you prevent ailments and damage from their attacks. Stack resistances for that damage type on your gear.
- Check the vendors when you level up. Sometimes they can have a huge upgrade for you.
- When looking to craft, buy, or gamble for a new gear piece, try to upgrade your worse piece of gear, or the gear piece that will have the greatest effect. If you are playing an attack based build, your weapon becomes extremely important, so investing into your weapon will help a lot. if you have Iron runes, put them into your attack weapon. If using spells, you should have plenty of damage to get the job done, as long as your skill gems and tree are decently set up. Sometimes you have to play around with your support gems to find out what works, too.

I have plenty of experience in ARPGs (PoE1, Diablo 3–4, Torchlight, Divinity, Minecraft Dungeons), so difficulty isn’t due to inexperience. I can’t progress past level 32 on any character because of the frustration.
Okay. Well, I suppose every game is a little different. But if you are actually hitting a brick wall by level 32 every time, then you are doing something wrong with your build. The actual game-play aspect is not too hard (it can be a little challenging sometimes, sure). But I think you can do it, you just need to rethink how your character is built and geared up. =\

Final thoughts:
If they make the game any easier, we'll be entering PoE1 levels of mind-numbingly easy one-click gameplay with very little demand on character optimization. I like the game being very challenging. I wish the game would kick our ass more, actually. I like to feel that when I get powerful later on, I achieved it with some struggle, not have it handed to me. Difficulty in games like Dark Souls for example, are compelling challenges, and I don't usually waste my time with games that are trivially easy. I wish they would make the game harder.

If you can't progress past 32, it absolutely is due to lack of knowledge and inexperience, and how that's affecting your build, gearing, and playstyle choices.

It's okay to be bad at a game. No one starts out good.

As an aside, I usually find that when a game forum is filled with people complaining about difficulty then it's usually the case that the game is tuned about right lol.

It means that the game is challenging but also fun enough to care (or be frustrated) when people want to beat it and can't. If it was difficult AND not interesting enough to care then people'd probably just drop the game altogether and move on with their lives and forget about it, without commenting on difficulty or anything at all.

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TrangleC#2047 wrote:

Has that changed or is the game still too hard?

Most people find it easier since 0.3. So end of august.