170+ hours in and the update ruined my experience

Let me start by saying I totally understands this game is still in Early Access and we should be expecting changes with updates. However, I feel compelled to share my disappointment here because I really love PoE 2 and I'm pretty sad with this recent development, to the point I dont really want to invest more time in my character.

Here's my story...

I'm a level 77 Gemling Legionnaire using crossbows with only rare gear, I have looted quite a few legendaries but never got some of the most popular ones adapted for my class. Nevertheless, my rare gear has fairly decent perks that I have carefuly curated. I have 170+ hours in the game, mostly spent on this character. Note that I almost always play solo and it took me quite a bit of time to reach the end of the 3rd act in Cruel. Maybe one of the reason is that I figured a bit late that it was not so much about looting gear but more about crafting the gear you need, but I love a challenge and a game with some level of difficulty so I kept going with a mission. The loot rate being a bit savage, it took me quite some time to craft stuff that was half decent but I was finally able to approach T6 maps with buffs (boss maps, irradiated) with some confidence that I could see them through. Im almost at the cap for lightning resistance (66%) but other elements are in the low 30s, its been pretty difficult to find high elemental resistance gear that also gives decent attributes boost to be able to equip higher tier stuff, but the loot being a lot better in higher level maps, I was starting to have the feeling I could get there.

To be clear, irradiated T6 Atlas maps were still quite a challenge to complete with my crossbow build, but a challenge I enjoyed taking since I could reap bigger rewards/loot if I had a bit of luck.

I also just recently started to look into the trading aspect and accumulated some exalted orbs (like 25) to maybe get some better gear soon.

So here comes the update and first thing I notice is that some of my gear cant be equipped and half of my passive tree skills are unallocated. No big deal so far. I decide to take the free one-time full skill reset and take some time to reallocate everything trying something different this time by following a guide from someone with a much more powerful crossbow gemling legionnaire than me. After spending some time reorganizing my skill tree, skill gems, support gems, etc. I went to try the new build which was a total failure as I got killed a couple of time in some Act 3 Cruel map lvl. 61 that I used to do easily. Sure, the news skills required a new technique and approach, but I was constantly running out of mana and felt super weak for this map level. Maybe it was because I didnt have all the recommended unique gear, maybe it was because my skills can still only be socketed with 3 support gems and maybe it had to do with some changes made after the update... Probably a combination of everything.

I never expected to be as strong as the full build with the gear I was missing, but something still felt very wrong. Told myself that these things happen, overcame the frustration of losing my XP and I decided to rollback all changes and respec my character with my previous build. At least I could probably resume my ascension to higher map tiers, right?

This process again took some time, but I tried rebuilding my character and the first thing I noticed is that I couldnt re-equip 2x skills that I had mapped before. Seems like you guys removed a perk in the Gemling ascendancy tree that allows +3 skills to be equipped. Frustrating, especially because we cant change our ascendancy class and it seems one of the major perk of being a gemling is to well, equip more gems, but I take a deep breath and continue my mission. I sacrifice my herald of fire and one attack I used the least, but otherwise return to a pretty similar state pre-update. "Things are going to be okay", I remember thinking.

Unfortunately upon reaching a fresh T6 map with no buff, something I was previously doing with relative ease, my character loses a lot of mana and I end up struggling a lot to stay alive, not being able to defend myself. My build just felt like it was attacking slower, dealt a lot less damage (even if my crossbow damage was buffed after the update apparently, going from a top damage of 290 to 310 approximately), the herald skills were triggering less often and I was constantly missing mana. Im not having fun anymore at this point. Do I need to go back to lower tier maps where the loot rate and xp gains are worst? Spend god knows how many more hours in the hope of finding something good in these trenches? I was so happy to reach T6 maps confidently and could already imagine T10 and T15 maps soon, but now? I'm a bit exhausted just thinking about it. I wanted to explore other classes once I 'finish' this Legionnaire (i.e: being able to complete T15+ maps with ease), guess its going go take a while.


Something else that I was hoping would be patched with this big release is in relation to weapon swapping when you have 2 crossbows. One of my crossbow gives +3 levels to all projectiles skills. The only way to know which one of my crossbow is equipped is to open the skills tab and check at the levels, but even then I almost always have to un-equip and re-equip my crossbows to make sure that their buff is applied and to know which one is equipped currently. Sometimes my skills level is not +3 even if I have the right crossbow equipped until I actually remove it and equip it again. It's a confusing mess, but something I lived with for some time. Not patched.

That's about the end of my rant. Do I have any suggestions or ideas to improve this situation? Maybe some, like I dont understand why we can't change our ascendency class, or why respecing should be so expensive. With all the build combinations possible, I think it would be more inviting to be able to test different builds easily and even if I have enough gold to respec my character 10 times, it still feels like Im locked into a build once I start to go in a certain direction with the skill tree. I can spend hours in the game already without needing to make a new character if I want to do a different style of the same class. I can still live with the way things are currently though and this is not my biggest frustration.

More importantly, I want to feel that my character is strong when I have invested almost 200 hours in it. Now Im maybe not the absolute best player out there, I get it, but I still consider myself pretty decent and beyond the 'noob' stage. I love playing challenging games and you could say Im a try-hard type of player. The recent step back is a bit of a slap in the face and Im just not tempted by going back to lower tier maps with the way the loot drops currently. Maybe I need better gear and/or more support gems socketed in my skills, but then make it easier to get the gear we need to progress. I want to feel that the time I invest is properly rewarded. My friend has been watching me play and is a bit discouraged by the fact I still cant rip T15 maps after all this time, which is one of the reason he doesn't want to play often. I was being resolute to achieve this mission with my crossbow gemling legionnaire, but now Im just exhausted.

This is one problem with promising players that their characters will be kept in a standard league and still be able to experience all the new content. The others are, they miss a huge chance to onboard players into the league experience, and there is less hype around the new content, because exclusivity in itself is a big factor in drawing players into playing fresh starts.

The truth is, once your character migrates from current league to standard, it is in an interactable graveyard. The simple fact is you cannot buy everything you need to respec, and all of the traders are now playing fresh start in the new league. Your build is bricked, your currency is worthless, you may as well start a new character because that is the type of journey you are undertaking anyway. GGG does not have the time or resources to balance two leagues at once, especially in EA, and when they also have to allocate resources to PoE1.

Trust me, if you try the new content on a fresh start you will enjoy it more anyway. The economy is not totally messed up, and it's a brand new challenge instead of the same old grind.

You do not have to "complete" the game on one character, and keep pushing. Being too attached to that idea is what makes you play the game in an unfun way. The best way to play is fresh league start with some buddies blasting campaign and low tier maps until you get bored, and then you wait for new content and do it again.

You are not wrong but you played it wrong.You are still being a POE1 player not a POE2 one.

In POE is exactly like that, you are presented a series of tools free to use and you yourself go find a way using these tools to solve all the problems, or as we like to say make a build. But in POE2 is simply not like that I would even describe as against that, you are giving tools alright, but you don't get to create a solution, there are pre-designed solution embedded in the game you need to go find,the things if you do that one shot the screen do exist but most tools will never be that even if you have godly gear and all the skills, it's not your build it's their builds, you have to play as THE VISION way to get the satisfaction, or just enjoy the eternal mediocrity hell as you currently in.

If you insist on playing the game with your own understanding, it will be like this stuck in a rock and hard place, you are not bad enough that you can't continue but without the perfect solution you can't get satisfaction either, it's unending grind.

And that designing guideline shows in many parts, like "we have 100 new support skills", well most of them are design for a specific situation and totally useless if you not gonna play that type, and those types? Exceptionally specific, usually just two or three skills apply.

If you start following THE VISION, would it be better? Well no, this game just sucks, it's a car built with top quality parts but can't drive, honestly, realize that, give the 0.2.1 patch a test when it comes out, and if that fails again, leave, THE VISION is not for your wellbeing.