PoE1 improved upon D2 and became the best ARPG, PoE 2 devolved?

i dont even know where to start. Title sums up my general thought

Gold is just a TERRIBLE mechanic, it feels awful and the try to make it scarce and useful just means it's horribly useless and annoying. Having plenty of transmutations and alteration orbs was a way better option of cobbling together an acceptable state of your gear

movement skills are just missing, doing something actively to go faster is a FEELSGOOD mechanic. The recent rake animation canceling bug just proves this all the more in my head, having a way to press a button and move faster is like the pinnacle of ARPG not feeling like a complete and utter slog

D2 had the most busted and overpowered of them all, literally teleport through areas in mere seconds, poe1 reigned this in a very acceptable state, while it does get a bit stupid at VERY high action speed %, that is not the norm and simoly hardcap it if needs be.

Pace of the game just feels off aswell, the parry into disengage for a charge ability into rounds of whirlwinds and boosted twisters is actually GREAT, but i dont wanna do it on every white pack that's 90% of the area, with trash mobs you want "trash" combat, either some simple 2 tap combo is fine or a more invested one tap windup skill, we dont wanna play piano just to secure 5 white mobs.

that's also why people end up playing only skills that circumvents all the payoff and stuff, cause it's just unbearable to play for 100% of the time, it is however a lot of fun when you bust it out and completely demolish a big rare or boss.

i'm sure there's more to take on here, and i'm not even complaining about endgame because i am aware it's not even remotely finished (i hope) but some things are actually good design, there's just these GLARING things that poison the game from being what it could be.

The balance of things being so horrifyingly bad is well... expected of a EA, but the VISION of the game is just blindsided by some diablo 1 masochist trying to force waddling on everyone.

its like yea, maybe 5 years of powercreep will eventually fix this game, but why kill the game before that happens.

vote with your dollar, condemn purchasing anything, leave a steam review, let your voice be heard where it matters because they dont care here.

Level design is large and empty. There aren't any layers to the environment. You only interact with the "level" by walking through it. You don't have chasms you can leap over, water you can tread through or swim in. You don't have cliffs to scale or tunnels above or below where you naturally walk. I've been playing No Rest for the Wicked, and they may be the PoE successor. PoE2 is not trying anything new other than re-polishing PoE1 and making it tedious. Such a shame. I had such high hopes.