Why does this feel like you have to be a Masochist to play.

To preface I played next to no POE 1 I dipped a toe and saw 5 billions systems to learn and went "nope I want a life"

Bought into POE2 as a Diablo 4 exile due to zero respect for player time and money. Played every season to endgame grinded for days to never get a Mythic in two years.

POE2 release was difficult for me but manageable once I figured out play what the drops provide. Started on Infernalist SSF and started getting alot of Ranger gear so swapped to Deadeye and made it into the start of endgame for both. And plopped down for the bigger supporter packs cause I felt GGG deserved it I had fun but it was challenging.

Started this League doing Ranger and I cant even get a toe in the door. Bosses are not the problem. I am dying more to getting swarmed by trash mobs or offscreen shots than anything else. I am not gonna keep slamming my junk in a door all night just to make headway.

I think GGG forgot the first rule of a good game. It can be challenging but it still has to be fun.

Difficulty should not be used to punish players. Yes that initial gearing process I have no issue being challenging. I don't mind boss fights being a test of skill. But psycho trash mobs and terrible loot just feel like sadism at its finest. Then again they seem to only care about the streamers so they scaled the nerfs to them... Now all of them are quitting too.

Then to top it off the Legion Commander Set cosmetic that is in the POE2 shop is now disabled after working pre patch.

They (GGG) just gave 0.2.0B -- an Early Game Buff.

How is that for you? Did you play 0.2.0B already?

Yeah, I feel that like WTF Why am i letting this game punish me, it is too much im getting bored really bored 22hrs in still in act 1 cruel and its just like fuck man i gotta go another 20+ hrs through the same shit with this shit gear and shit drops banging my head agianst this wall for no payout to probably just hit another wall in maps. Its just too slow.

"

They (GGG) just gave 0.2.0B -- an Early Game Buff.

I played a little yesterday. If it dropped since then then no I have not played it.

I did notice things were a little faster to die yesterday but when you die in 2 hits that does little to help the situation.

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kidmo32#7064 wrote:

"

They (GGG) just gave 0.2.0B -- an Early Game Buff.

I played a little yesterday. If it dropped since then then no I have not played it.

I did notice things were a little faster to die yesterday but when you die in 2 hits that does little to help the situation.

It is possible that another Buff is done. So far, there is some kinda pattern for Early Game -- in terms of these "complaints" (streamers, etc).

Though, 0.2.0B just came out yesterday, so they'll (GGG) need more time until they actually come to that conclusion.

The Huntress class also does seem to be (I just started today, and don't know yet) a bit weak Early Game.. -- but again, need more time for more quality feedback/data. I heard/know that streamers (Mathil, for example) did OK during Campaign, but even they have said things like the skills/gems for Huntress are weak in general.

How's your gear? Do you have Magic Find/IIR on anything?

I am not sure who this game is designed for. The speed of player vs. the speed of mobs and bosses is just not for an average person. What's worse, there are so many one-shot mechanics that you simply cannot avoid unless you are way over-leveled or just lucky.

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chobo999#2010 wrote:

"

kidmo32#7064 wrote:

"

They (GGG) just gave 0.2.0B -- an Early Game Buff.

I played a little yesterday. If it dropped since then then no I have not played it.

I did notice things were a little faster to die yesterday but when you die in 2 hits that does little to help the situation.

It is possible that another Buff is done. So far, there is some kinda pattern for Early Game -- in terms of these "complaints" (streamers, etc).

Though, 0.2.0B just came out yesterday, so they'll (GGG) need more time until they actually come to that conclusion.

The Huntress class also does seem to be (I just started today, and don't know yet) a bit weak Early Game.. -- but again, need more time for more quality feedback/data. I heard/know that streamers (Mathil, for example) did OK during Campaign, but even they have said things like the skills/gems for Huntress are weak in general.

How's your gear? Do you have Magic Find/IIR on anything?

Gear has been a RNG crap show. Cant seem to get magic find or anything beneficial. All boss drops have been for other class gear.

"

kidmo32#7064 wrote:

Gear has been a RNG crap show. Cant seem to get magic find or anything beneficial. All boss drops have been for other class gear.

Other than loot drops. Do you do any Crafting (Recombinator, etc) at all? Or looking for upgrades at Vendors?

This game's biggest problem is they "balance" around "trade", make trade frustrating and boring and mind numbing tedium, and then in 200+ hours on my warrior running plenty of T15 by now I still can't get above 4000 life, feel squishy as fuck with 78/78/77/47 resists and 70% armor, and am stressing constantly over not dying to avoid experience loss and haven't even tried any of the pinnacle content yet because of how long it has taken to collect anything despite my best efforts. There just isn't nearly enough sense of progression in this damn game. It's almost worse than PoE1 and I hated the gear wall I'd always hit in that game, too. The grind should be there for those who want it, but I want to be able to try more than one class and actually feel like I achieve any sense of real progression once I'm in maps. I should be finding drops at least comparable to what I have now like once every 50-100 comparable rares at worst, yet I can go through 500 and not get anything worth an actual upgrade. And it will only get worse as more classes are introduced with their weapon type.

They seriously need to split Trade and Self Find in an intelligent way. They need to steal from Last Epoch. I doubt I'll ever be the kind of person to reach Uber (not that they have that yet, per se) but I'd at least like to be able to feel like I can just play and progress. It starts getting so boring when I feel like my effort isn't rewarded while kept in a constant state of stress over exp loss from death, and what little tangible progression I have in experience can just go away in an instant from some random bullshit oneshot or over tuned mod on a pack of minions I don't notice in time.

However...

0.2 feels like it's moving a step forward towards more "SSF-like" Balance, as opposed to Standard/Trade -- personally, that's a win to me (longer-term sustainability, growth, etc).