That didn't take long...

I played for about an hour.
I'm just not enjoying it.

I made a Huntress and I just do not enjoy the synergy the skills have.

The first time I parried, it was cool. The 4th time I tried to parry I got stunned and almost died.

If it's this easy to get stunned -- I don't see this ever being something I'd want to build around, so right off the rip all the parry skills are never gonna be something I trust or want to use. Parry in Dark Souls feels like such a big deal, and the Parry skill in POE 2 just feels like you're risking all the penalties of death for very little. Fights with enemies in POE 2 just aren't intimate enough to justify risking death when you're fighting 5+ mobs at a time. The pacing for the whole game just doesn't feel right for that kinda playstyle imo.

Anyways -- I'm wearing all garbage evasion gear cause that is all the game has given me, and I don't think my character has dodged anything that I didn't actively dodge unless the enemies were already blinded. That just feels bad. Like my character is made of tissue paper. I have no life regen, no leech, and I'm just totally reliant on this flask.. and I gotta be honest -- It doesn't feel good. I don't have this intimate pressure that exists in a game like No Rest for the Wicked while fighting things.. Combat in POE 2 feels like I'm just being swarmed with random crap. It doesn't feel like some meticulously crafted combat experience where the developers have painstakingly created a challenge for me... and that completely kills the vibe I'm getting in POE 2 with how slow and clunky my character feels... It's like playing a Dark Souls character in POE 1 and it just doesn't work for me.

The only place it does work are on the boss fights... but even then I'm not sure I really am seeing the vision for this game anymore.


Anyways -- Some feedback on the spear skills:

The playstyle of standing in the whirlwind in order to build stages to fire off tornadoes just doesn't work early game. If I stand around in this whirlwind I get RAILED. The whirlwind doesn't help me with ranged enemies at all.. and the Twisters almost never hit what I need them to hit.. On top of that -- the enemies I most want to hit with the Twisters are ranged enemies... so for me -- the synergy of the skill just doesn't really make sense.


Rake is fun to use to get into range.. and it's fun to disengage out -- but Disengage is designed to be used with Parry.. so it feels like a waste... cause I just don't trust the parry skill. I mean if I try to use it while I'm being swarmed by enemies there is a good chance I just get stunned and that stun is basically a 100% death sentence... so it just isn't something I want to build around at all.

Disengage would be cool to use with the whirlwind skill but again -- it's a parry skill, so it feels a bit like the synergy isn't there.

Whirlwind has a nice defensive element, but it does nothing to help defend against ranged attacks... so while I'm standing in it trying to build stages so I can shoot off empowered twisters -- I'm just getting obliterated by ranged attacks. The synergy between these skills is cool on paper but it felt like garbage to me while actually playing.

I think there is something fundamentally flawed with playing an evasion character, and using a skill that wants you to stand in one space while offering you very little defense to hold your ground. This Whirlwind skill makes no sense. Especially considering that eventually you're going to be running through maps like speed racer -- stopping to build stages in a whirlwind so you can fire off some tornadoes is just never going to be a fun playstyle. I really think this ability needs to be redesigned to be used with Disengage (Or more accurately, Disengage should do something when you use it to exit the whirlwind instead of parry), or the Whirlwind should persist even after you move out of it so that you can fire twisters through it or something. It just makes no sense to me as it is now.

All in all, I just feel like the game has no idea what it's identity is.
In the early game -- I have low HP. Evasion feels like it's doing nothing for me. I have no decent way to guarantee getting decent or useful gear outside just grinding mobs with a character I don't even like playing.. I do garbage damage and I feel like my character is made of tissue paper.

This is coming from someone who loves souls-likes.. where combat is very methodical and active dodge is important. I just feel like POE 2 is confused about it's identity. It wants to be a stat based game and still kill you if you don't actively dodge... but it doesn't care about encounter design like any good souls-like does.

I keep wanting to play it like No Rest For The Wicked... but there is no encounter design. It's just you getting swarmed by random ranged attacks/enemies that rush you.. like a game where you rely on your stats to save you. But in the beginning of the game you have no stats.. and your abilities suck, and you hardly have any clear. So it just doesn't feel good to me.

Then you add in the game crashing every 10 minutes an I'm just... outta patience. It just feels like the game needs a ton of time in the oven still to me.

I dunno -- hope that helps some, but I think I'm gonna bench playing POE 2 until it has a lot more time in the oven.