Yet another PoE2 Player Perspective

- Game sound gud. Game look gud. Personally, I think its unmatched at the moment. Nailed and cleared way over the goal. I like my techno-aztec Vaal drippy. I like my monsters turning messy when I mess them up. They're so crisp I can actually follow along what the game is putting down and what the different characters/regions are about without having gone through their different dialogues and interpersonal backgrounds, especially with my own character's little quips that are infrequent just enough to where theyre inoffensive.

- For example, for some uncanny reason I've always been compelled to go directly to Shambrin after picking up the letter without having actually even looked at her face, she's placed so well that my monkey brain never failed to get the task done, so well infact I purposefully went out of my way to try giving it to the other NPCs, which actually ended up giving me more insight into who they are and what purpose they serve/represent in the world itself in a thoughtful way.

- What I actively dislike in 0.2 is that I fell asleep in Act 3 after a long facerolling binge of the game, and I don't recall Servi once telling Apus to get down from there. Thankfully I was able to settle for passing out amongst the bodies in the Aggorat listening to them preach hymns to Atziri. Very nice.

- In the early game I actively hated the idea of spirit but in hindsight I feel like that's just broke boi things. It eventually grew on me, and feels like a well thought out source of creating Player decision making and limitation, having it divorced from the concept of Mana Reservation. Its nice to have another front-facing stat that feels meaningful and rewarding to indulge in if I happen upon it, enabling divergent opportunities of gameplay I wouldn't normally have access to, but it doesn't feel like I'm getting broken over its knee over it. It truly is transformative, feels powerful and desirable if you have it, gives you something to look forward to when you dont, even if you don't primarily rely on it.

- I don't personally like Scepters, but in asseting that, because of that inherent bias against them I've never actually tried them, so I have very little anecdotal basis to articulate what it is about them that I've been trying to avoid, even as I've run around for hours without an offhand at various points with no particular benefit in doing so.

- Feels rough to have when not in blocks of 0 or 5 which makes me think man I'm being wasteful at times, which also makes me wish that instead of more ways to gain spirit, which feel like special moments, I wish there were also more sources of spirit discounts, to shift that negative feeling of it being "my fault/I got it wrong" to a feeling of "I just need to prepare/gear diff", because having such numerical values being slightly off or missed would then feel like a normalized experience. Clearly that's a sensitive matter though, seeing that for the most part, in the passive tree such discounts are reserved for Heralds.

- Spears and their respective skills felt quite underwhelming early on, and I love the idea of it being able to go between both melee and ranged combat, I think the kit provided executed on the basic idea very well, but just struggled on compiling on those building blocks regarding how involved the process of parrying is vs what you are risking, but overall executed on it better than what the general gameplan of something like the quarterstaff demands, despite the early flub necessating the creation of Cull the Weak. It has very interesting and fun looking options that have different little set-ups and one-two punches like Elemental Sundering and Twister.

- Spearfield is my favorite move of the kit, followed by Bloodhound Mark and Thunderous Leap, and I was ecstatic at the idea of making use of Caltrops, but unfortunately at the time I had access to it, neither the new Spirit Gem or the support gem seemed to function properly for me, despite others reportedly being successful in getting them to generate as described.

- I love the Re-Arm, I love the new ability to get knockback stats, there's even some eye-candy I hadn't had to opportunities to check out due to a scarceness of resources such as Spectral Volley, Gamebleshot, Salvo, Commiserate, the Elemental Chain/Fork/Pierce supports and the new Thorns support, I think thorns will need a few more tools available to really be able to draw it out as an option worth investing in but we're off to a good start, and I think the new Incision debuff needs a little bit more pondering and iterating on to really flourish beyond being a bleed precusor as I like the idea of it being a bleed amp for melee, but the improvements to Bleed are generally a dream come true of allowing a new avenue of play, I feel like we're 60% of the way there towards where Bleed should be as both an option, dip, and archetype of play. No thoughts on Herald of Blood or Haemocrystals, will just need more to play with to really see them for what they're meant to be, but while theyre pleasant already, they're just slightly shallow in some way I cannot elaborate on.

Additional things that compelled my interests I haven't had opportunities to try or engage with:
-Companions
-Tame Beast/Bind Spectre
-Bone Shrapnel Support
-Malady Support
-Volcanic Eruption Support
-Caltrops
-Volativity
-Ambrosia
-Crackling Barrier

- I like having movement speed on gear WHEN it is a choice. Right now its not a choice. I don't want a buff skill to move faster unless its expensive, like tailwind, or provides me a risk. I don't want some stamina meter or a sprint button or an out of combat boost since they're honking boring even for "practicality's sake". I don't think I'd even like some sort of charm or flask that performs that function either. I am positively partial towards the idea of companions for movement specifically because they have their stun meter, but even then, its slightly off mark even though its an option worth considering, even if its just for the skill movement penalty.

- I like skills like Shield Bash. I love skills like thunderous leap. I dislike Rake. I hate Disengage. Generally I feel like travel skills are in a decent place, the amount I bash my head around dealing with total attack time and cooldowns with these skills tagged with Travel feels healthy and a leash should be kept on them, but of course there will come times when there's exception to the rule.

- I am curious as to whether the total attack time restrictions on abilities such as Rake and Disengage belong, and lumping in as well Blood Hunt, the difference in the function and purpose of the dash between them and "dashes" like Siphoning Strike, Hand of Chayula, Cull the Weak, and Killing Palm. On the topic of Total Attack Time, its generally fine with Travel skills and big payoff/impactful attacks, but skills Toxic Growth and Electrocuting Arrow, mostly the latter since the reality of the matter is that I only socket and press those buttons when I want to die, and the new defensive support gems don't really help in that regard as much as they do with something like Thunderous Leap. If I at least weren't made to move when doing it as an option, it'd at least be tolerable, but its not like the "Always Attack Without Moving" Toggles actually do anything, nor are they clear in what those toggles do, even after searching up explanations nor do they have a tooltip.

1. Hand of Chayula - This move was a plain and unsung hero of my 0.1 experience. It's plain looking, isn't flashy, but reliable, like an all purpose fix-it wrench, and the best part about it is that it is unarmed, which isn't actually a good thing imo, but makes me feel like im engaging sincerely with the game and thinking out of the box by choosing it since its one of the rare opportunities I get to go outside of tight limited constricted braindead box of only picking what I can access in my specifc weapon tree that I wish there were more of in the game, and the benefits of doing so being nice.

- It turns the idea of actively pressing the button to use a mark or a curse from a nightmarish hellmode theres something crawling under my skin experience that actively inflicts damage onto my psyche, into making them feel like more interactive building block tools to a structured offense, especially with a wisened use of support gems and decision making. Such as hex bloom synergy, though I tried it out in 0.2 and they seem to have removed the Cursed Ground synergy making it last forever on the single mob, which at the time in 0.1 happened to be incompatible with hex bloom for some reason I can't seem to remember.. But I miss it, even though I get it, but boy was it comfy for bosses/single target, now putting it on just bricks the skill and makes it do nothing at all on impact regardless of what curse is equipped.

-Its nice and zippy, I used it for mobility between clumps of mobs before there were more readily accessible traversal skill options that actually served a purpose like Thunderous Leap, and overall it served as a nice contact point intersect between using curses and marks that I'd like to see more of in some fashion. This move genuinely made me even consider using staggering palm once, but seeing that the wave didn't taxi the curses I suppose I'd have to be fine with settling with never ever even considering to possible use Staggering Palm in any situation ever.

Ramblings:
I daydream about such a day where staggering palm and hand of chayula were mixed together, shooting cursed waves of the purple flames of chayula from my strikes, marking what I hit directly and propogating curses in streaks to the mobs behind it, while also opening up a new avenue of melee chaos damage, a Win-Win keeping Hand of Chayula while removing Staggering Palm from the game. Would I settle for equiping a unique to achieve a similar effect if offered a monkey paw? I don't have the authority to bear the responsibility of being the arbiter of making that decision thankfully, but I can still dream of the concept like Chayula themself, especially after remembering Mantra of Destruction only lasts for ONE attack WHILE being on a timer, yeah man remove that too and just roll it in to the hand as part of the heavy stun mechanic of this hypothetical skill that'd need to be rebalanced in other ways especially because of that damned bell. Chayula has enough hands to fit both, I promise. :^) But really, itd be better if something like Staggering Palm were merged into the function of Killing Palm while preserving the function of both as much as i'd prefer it in hand of chayula when it'd probably fit more with Mantra of Destruction coolness baked in, just like how I wish Cull the Weak had Disengage's parry consumption shockwave, evasion and cancel. Axe both Staggering Palm, Mantra of Destruction, and Disengage, do something interesting with their useful/cool parts for other lacking things that have a more solid base, rule of cool first but keep the vigilance in avoiding overloading them. (While im still here, boy howdy do I wish that charged staff and staggering palm counted as being empowered)

2. Spearfield - This move has been the all-star stand out pick of my 0.2 experience, even though I'm fearfully afraid of it falling off the deeper I go in maps, and even then it still has baked in utility beyond damage that makes it feel like an evergreen addition to my kit if I'm ever in the situation to have a spear weapon swap. It looks gorgeous, feels crunchy even when its doing nothing, you can use it with heralds, you can use it for defense and kiting, you can use it for piling on tons of status despite its low damage hits and the need to hit a mob's ailment threshold, you can improve it in so many ways that often don't clash with what you're trying to do with your other abilities.

- Its just a piece that fills a space that otherwise I'd just feel something is wrong with my build and strategy to try to overcome, without trivializing things, and its presence alone made in interested in nodes in the passive tree I would've otherwise ignore.

3. Lightning Rod - Its the kind of move that makes you nostalgic for it once you move on and outgrow it. My bread and butter in 0.1. I hadn't even looked at it after seeing how it was hit, as I was in shambles. The Ball Lightning synergy it had made it unique and was my first exposure to cross archetype synergy, something I feel this game desperately needs more of.

- The most brutal part of the changes were the 1 second charge up per blast on these arrows that have a DURATION, while the cut in the amount of chains each can do already is its own massive sting, but an easier pill to swallow. I don't know what happened, who done it, or how it was used to deserve this level of treatment but they need to free my man Lightning Rod, a real one since day one and a friend indeed. Absolutely gutted.

- Makes me have DISM Cluster B Histrionic thoughts of actually performing Weapon Swap Stormblast Magnetic Salvo, but I am not brave enough, I lack the courage and resolve even though I'm glad the functionality is there and the modifiers dont look that bad. Its just not the same man I feel in love with, and I'd be convincing myself that I'm losing something by occupying my swap in that way, even though crossbow affixes were apparently fixed.

4. Profane Ritual - This move is the pick-me girl of the occultist tree. Its beautiful, can do a lot for you without even trying, and doesnt stay in your way unless you want it to. It doesn't feel awful as a button press compared to Detonate Dead which I'd much rather have on trigger automation in which it excels at spectacularly, but this skill is quite delightful in its on right on trigger, and makes me wish I could somehow taxi other ailments through it rather than ignoring the damage component altogether, but I've never invested much time in digesting the inner workings of chaos damage and non-ailment damage over time, plus burning inscription and chaotic freeze seem close but slightly too out of reach to invest in beyond pure speculation as well as they seem to be missing something that I can't express beyond vagueness.

- The new Volativity mechanic "feels" quite complicated to me , even though it isn't at all, just a Gain Chaos Damage buff but you get popped (mitigated by armor?) when you stop, though I wish it counted as a hit, for shenanigan's sake or a way to give it to enemies despite the risk, it feels like only a quarter of the mechanic was shipped to be honest. Profane Ritual is still the kind of skill that gets your noggin joggin just by looking at it, even if you're just window shopping and not looking to explore and get freaky. I'm more than satisfied with it as a support and utility ability, but I want to live in the world where I see this as a primary damage ability as well, I'll go to that party.

5. Bonestorm - This move is borderline unusable without being able to abuse accessing my freedom of movement, but also feels like I'm skillfully timing and casting my ability at full power when I do so, like the intended method is a miscast, thus requiring my character to have to focus more to maintain the spell as if the flow of my mana isn't in sync with my incantation, and me exploiting that is me finding the proper conduit to flow my mana through in a moment of clarity and resonance my body and mind. Makes running around dropping a bucket of spit on these mobs kind of a skillful rhythm game of making sure I've got good timing and space to dump the whole payload to wipe them out efficiently or otherwise I'm gonna drain all of my mana from trying to either recast little spurts or run around holding it above my head.

- I hadn't tried it pre-0.2, but even though it looks like it was cut in half, I feel like it was still transformatively changed and I appreciate what the built in impale gets me, and it feels like the move evolves and grows with me when I finally had access to power charges. Its a good skill, its useable in a variety of different playstyles in my opinion whether using caster setups or attack payoffs, and not bad even if that channeling movement quirk was removed as a single target ability, but I'd rather it become a feature in some capacity to be quite honest (PLEASE NOT AS A SUPPORT GEM). I'd rather perfectly tap to run and dump on these mobs' head than perfectly sit in place to fire off a snipe.

- We both need more ways to pop impale stacks, and ways to not feel foolish for trying to cast with a melee.

- Personally I really felt the changes with the amount of damage monsters were dropping on me, in 0.1 I felt like if a slight breeze so much as blew by me my character would explode with not even ashes remaining, even though after some set up and revising my kit, I could pop mobs just as well. In 0.2 I did not have this issue throughout any part of the game through the campaign, every death was a series of hits or getting hit by 5 different mobs at the same time rather than a single adorned beetle while almost res-capped. However getting body blocked while being unable to roll, and getting shove seemed to return which made 0.1 unbearable, but in 0.2 it seems like it was adjusted to be some sort of middleground, but I still didnt appreciate it given how many small mobs can be spit out at you at once.

- Mobs definitely were a bit more bulkier in this version, but since I played a physical build I didn't struggle against this particular issue because I generally could actually feel the armour reductions on most mobs.
- Maybe its placebo, maybe something did change, maybe more things had their armour piercing reduced or damage reduced, or most likely, maybe because I had a bit of block chance this time while rocking a spear swap, I had a better time feeling as though my defensive layers were reliable with a little bit of armour, though it still didn't feel as a reliable or a dependable option to depend on for little hits, and mobs stunning the player is still overtuned.

- The Boss rebalances felt really welcome, as before in 0.1 I threw myself at them until I took them out in no-hit runs, such as Blackjaw.
I felt nice having the new tiered runes, even though I hardly had the resources to make use of them until cruel difficulty despite salvaging every socketed item possible, due to the drought I encountered from lack of magic find till I finally got enough regal shards for 2 or so regals to flip until I had an exalt, around the beginning of Act 3 of the campaign. They're a really positive change, but man they dropped a lot.

- Maybe placebo from having learned the value of movement speed and not blowing up from mob damage every 5 seconds, but it felt like during my run in 0.2 as if there were already work done to make getting from entry to boss/side objectives not a labyrinthine task compared to 0.1, but I'm more than glad this is getting another pass later down the pipeline because things such as finding the Trial of Chaos or the Molten Vault are still obnoxious rather than a challenge. I think more levels with winding paths and splitting branches leading nowhere should be more like Vastiri Outskirts, where once you get on that path, you can still get lost, but are able to recognize via environmental tells that you are for sure lost as a swarm of enemies clamber from their residence to greet you but at the very least you receive an inoffensive chest or corpse for the trouble, or more of those little alcoves that GGG seems keen on adding around such parts of the game. Getting lost is valuable, even for nothing, but not on your 8th or 12th time running down a straight line the length of 3 football fields that each then have their own forking football fields littered along them in one region.

- Concepts like: Whirlwind+Twisters, Tornado Shots + Projectiles, Gas Cloud+Detonators, Flamewall + Projectiles are PoE2 at its best, and are the healthiest encouragements to combine/combo abilties together, even if such things still need some tidying up around their edges or added variety/flexibility availability, like Eye of Winter or Mana Tempest.

- Rogue Exiles are cool.

- Recombinated percentages are scuffed and vex me. So that's cool. I thought they'd atleast make trash items useful as feeder items though.

- Love Base types with baked in effects/implicits, or a particular stat lean like more range, more speed, or more crit. Makes them feel dynamic rather than linear upgrades.

- I've both felt compelled and as though I've gotten more than full value selling the few exalt orbs I've come across early on just to access a tier 2 support gem, even when there have been tier 3 support gems available for alchemy orbs and chaos because for some reason its cheaper to use an exalt than trying to trade up from an exalt to 2-3 alchemy orbs when you don't have access to the Currency Exchange in Alva.

- The support gems are generally inacessible throughout most of the acts until you hit maps, receiving around 2-3 during my first act, most likely due to my lack of magic find. It gives me conflicting feelings because I like that I feel like I have to wager on if cutting the gem will offer me the utility I think it will vs what it actually will, or if I should hold on to it until I progress a little further to access the next tier of skill gems and keeps me excited to see them and add new ones to my arsenal. In either case, these currently aren't an incremental upgrade I have access to in my play, they are a resource I need to clutch tightly on and be certain of when I'm going to fire them off. I think because of how conflicted I feel in that regard, I think they should stay that way even though their drop chance should be ever so gently bumped up.

- Spirit Gem drop rate actually felt like they were in the perfect place.

- I will say for regular Skill Gems of the prior minimum tier skill level or two should have a chance to roll in vendor once you have access to the next tier. I think those should not be a hassle to get your hands on unless you're trying to get your hands on an up and coming toy you didn't even have access to before.

- It feels gross to not see Tier 1 and Tier 2 Support Gems anymore once you progress to a certain point, though I'm glad you can use the higher tier gems for each prior tier support, but I can't say I'd think the drop pool for them should be muddied, and I'm on the fence about tier 1 supports at the very least being vendorable. But yeah, I never have them, its one thing not to really have space for them since jewellers orbs are a precious commodity, but man I'd at least like to imagine having things to put in my sockets in the first place or switch things out when something isn't working for me. Even worse with magic find living rent free in my head.

It is not in a good place right now in this (EARLY ACCESS!!!) game.

- Damage is distributed well in my opinion (possibly even chaos damage), as well as Life & restoration options i.e. Leech, Recoup, etc.
Even if you cant access Spell or Attack damage specifically, you can get it in alternate forms like Projectile or Melee Damage, or things that share such as Physical and Elemental Damage.

Lets check on the things that actually make you feel like youre doing anything.
Here's a few examples.
Movement Speed distribution

With how much you need this state with how the game currently is, Strength starts are borderline prohibited from access to the stat, having to spend almost 20 levels just for 3%. Mercenary only gets access to it by being lucky enough to be born next to a Ranger as STR/DEX. Apt Notable name by the way.

What if I ever considered casting a spell as a Mercenary?

Hmm. That doesn't look quite right... That has me all jammed up in an expensive location to travel. Let me try again. Clearly I was cherrypicking there.


Okay, okay, how about if I want to try using Attacks as a Sorceress, or even Melee?


Maybe I'm missing the point and skewing the value and importance of how things such as speed are. That I'm making my own strawman to set up my point. Perhaps you're right, but would it be too far to assert that there is a certain point that the (EARLY ACCESS!!!) game becomes a puzzle of solving mana rather than damage once you start getting your gear together, especially with the current priority king affixes revolving around +Extra Levels? Let's see what we have to work with in that regard as a Mercenary.

Is this something I'm supposed to just solve with gear?

This isn't to demonstrate something directly applicable to gameplay, or accurate representations of the tools both the player and the respective character archetypes have access to, but you can directly compare and correlate what choice and how far people are being made to go for these things via using something like the passive tree heatmap on poe2ninja, to check my point against a larger sample size than my own personal feelings. However it does help me build a case for the distribution and access of effective nodes that feel impactful other than chunky juicy bits of damage that we are inclined and compelled to actually care about, since having a bigger modifier often doesn't feel like its doing much for us when we putting impotent values from equipment through unless we traded for it, and are probably already doing alright at that point. It reinforces the thought that damage is the only thing I should care about since its the only thing I can see or reach that actually makes me feel something, and that's not to assert the other nodes beyond that are impactful in their utility, but having to go so far makes making that decision a much more painful opportunity cost to pass/fail that decision making, outside of the truly outright transformative Notables aren't being hanged with some downside or conditional, or provides something on its own independent of gear or skill like ailments. Various types of Leech sound pretty good until you realize you're in a situation where you don't have the gear, but damage recoup sounds pretty nice to just have for a few points so I'll save that other stuff for a Weapon Swap. Guess who has it? (Not telling the whole story, since STR/DEX has access to its own sources of Life Regen.. Bad example, but I'm sticking to it.) How the Passive Tree is structured in its current iteration (even with its missing early access features) plays off of the different paramaters and limitations of supports make your playstyle opportunities feel like a railroad right from character creation, the constant downsides need to be commiserate with the investment taken to acquire the power in some of these nodes, not just for the power within the node itself.

- I am fine with absolutely transformative notable such as Cut the Bone, Bestial Skin, or Lightning Rod amongst others necessating some travel if you're not annointing them in or using a unique jewel for it, often having things you'd want anyway along the way (in concept). But some of this is outright egregious. To me at least.

Here's my belief of the top 5 worst nodes on the tree as a scrub tier player:

Oasis - I don't see any value of this keystone, it seems like its you get less game features for nothing in return. It'd be different if it were something like Flask charges, but still I feel like overall it should be retrofitted completed.


Bulwark - For a couple of factors, it only reduces the damage from hits, not things that you would take damage from regardless if you rolled, and if your rolling, which isn't a movement or repositioning tool outside of the outlier specifically in which its used to push away small mobs jamming you up on all sides in which youd probably want to avoid that damage outright anyway with their borderline invisible micro attacks, and there's shields in this game. And just like active block itd make rolling just another button you don't want to press without the advantage of its neighbor Iron Reflexes. Egg on me if it turns out that less is multiplicative DR and enables some sort of thorns/trigger on hit/roll tank hazard playstyle or something.


Pinpoint Shot - I hardly get enough critical chance as is, that I'm not traveling so far for this just to hope its increased by the combined modifiers towards my critical hit chance when I don't even have a stat tab without them, or the crit chance of my main hand, while presuming its an additive increase. Yeah, pass. No, I'm not using Falcon Dive.


Casting Cascade & Thickened Arteries - Refer to pic for the former, and for the latter: Yeah this is never gonna happen. This is so miserable I almost forgot about it, terrible both in (anti)incentive and the kind of playstyle it encourages.
The Shapeshifting cluster - Looks like it was designed entirely for jewels, its too expensive and absolutely boring. I really really hope its placeholder even though I know we're very far off from receiving all of the clusters and feature's we're said to have when early access ends.

- During my gameplay in both 0.1 and 0.2, I only got excited to pick up white/normal item bases. I dreaded and often outright ignored magic items, and would only pick of rares for the thought of gold, only disenchanting them when I needed to trade up to an exalt to trade, often not even reading them even if there would be a pleasant surprise (never).

- You can hoard whites and chance orb them for economic value and utility pieces.

- You can apply the essences you actually have access to to whites to ensure you actually get something you need, in the very rare sleepless early morning binge hours when you get bold after getting smashed back to back, just furthering your own downward spiral like the exile you were.

- You can use whites with the new Warrior ascendancy

- Whites are one of the most exciting thing to pick up in this game, more than blues, more than yellows, less than currency, and yet I'm still never going to risk using my currency on them.

- Drops are unidentified, I don't have the time, patience, or inventory space to make room for blues, to bring to get bulk identified/individual wisdom scroll, and they don't sell for gold or disenchant into something I don't already have in abundance. Yes that single or second affix could be exactly what I needed to make or break a weapon even if it got hit with some junk when I try to orb it, but I don't have a reason nor opportunity to pick them up in the first place to find out if I should bother, not that I have anything to craft with anyway.

- I am sure someone out there is having a truly transformative gameplay experience spending 10-15 minutes picking up each and every individual item, playing inventory tetris to fit it all in between each pack of mobs or rare or boss as they drop a big ol' pile of stuff in their maps/campaign, town portaling to hideout (45 second+ loading screen), bulk identifying for value WHILE scanning for meaningful affixes both by range AND affix tier that they've memorized/reference at the ready off on their other monitor to stash it, salvage bench everything they can then selling their remaining junk blues and white, while disenchanting their yellows, go back through their portal (loading screen) pick up anything they missed from that existing pile, full inventory so portal (loading screen) again to clean that stuff up at the 5 different interfaces they just used, then going BACK in to continue their map or next waystone or next campaign checkpoint, maybe even backtracking to make sure they didnt miss anything.
I am not that person, I'll just prioritize things with sockets and quality for salvage, specific white bases for itemization if I have an alchemy orb on hand and general rares for either income or a lucky catch, maybe portaling to dump everything ive got on me in my stash until im done with my clear when full, before resuming my map without picking up and processing every single piece of crud off the ground so I can spend more time where the action is and I feel comfortable in asserting that in doing so I'm managing to go through a higher volume of items that touch my inventory without clogging up my finite spaced stash and while spending less time on what I would call tedious bullhonkie for lack of better terminology. Sour grapes. Tell me I'm playing the game wrong.

- In 0.1 I was excited to pick up Uniques, but in 0.2 having acclimated to the game more, I mostly picked them up as a neat task to fill up my collection in my unique tab, but typically was not excited since that often meant sacrificing movement speed and magic find.

- The only orb I genuinely feel any excitement to pick up for the sake of itemization towards applying to my gear were Alchemy Orbs, but finding them genuinely felt rarer than finding exalted orbs, despite being valued less on the trade site.

- The other orbs I feel actively like I am making a mistake and harming myself by attempting to use them on gear, both in the campaign and in maps.

- Jewellers Orbs are perfect, and it is only my personal greed that makes me want to see more of them. I haven't settled my feelings on the change towards how their upgrade function was changed, I mean I get it but it does mean that more often than not im not going to use a lesser jeweller's orb on the scarce opportunities I have access to a Greater, but Greater's are fun and I'm glad you can force 6-links with them which further maintains the incentive and tension of taking the risk to Vaal, making them the most interactive one, while leaving Perfect Jeweller Orbs a premium drop to genuine still be excited for.

- Gemcutter and Glassblower Baubles are like little pieces of candy when you get them.

- I somehow see Regal Orbs less than Exalted Orbs, but I suppose its not a pain problem since you can gather them through shards. Plus Regals are one of the few orbs with any value that you can technically buy with gold.

- I have nothing to do with Divines, and I've never seen a mirror.

- Never disenchanting for a Chance Orb.

- Using currency for crafting is not an option with what you have to work with/available to you. No, I don't sell, I only buy and cry since it'd take away from my ability to play the game. Currency only felt safe to use on Waystones. I do not like this compulsory feeling that trading is the only available means to acquire incremental upgrades/power/progression since it makes me feel like my own power and agency is out of my hands, when lucky drops and crafting should fill that space as I get lucky smashes, or fumble and recombinate, but I feel powerless and punished and actively trolling/harming myself even when preparing 4+ versions of the same item that have acceptable affixes that I'd like to try my luck and complete. This, amongst many other aspects of the game stated, is the dead ringer sign that this game's approach toward the balance between conflict and maintenance of human nature towards loss aversion is way off mark. Surely, all I needed to do to not have these problems was try the classic Du Pont approach, huh?

- I'd take a world where I had to deal with rolling isolated Increased Light Radius and Reduced Attribute Requirements any day over having a game where I deal with this. This is a mechanic the bemuses me so and eludes my conception and perception as to its benefit to the health of the game or what great evil it keeps at bay, with the black box around it functioning as some ascension trap, preventing me from achieving enlightment as im tunnel visioned into this karmic cycle of negative feed back of stacking wounds from microscale decision making and opportunity cost (not fomo). I could draw you a picture of dignity before you could express to me in any sensible and/or convincing way why it exists on gear, it gets me amped it sometimes makes me upset the entire conceptual system of Rarity on Items is in the game at all despite appreciating it when its time for me to stack it on my waystones & atlas. Its not only an inhibition on my character, but a direct attack on me, the player, which I'm not going to assert doesn't have its place in gaming, but it definitely doesn't have its place on gear.

- Until you get your first piece of Rarity of Items on gear, you have no gold, you have no currency, you have no means to get stronger not even from your passive tree because the current passive tree is so closely tied to gear, and you have no gear.

- You have no gold because you must spend it all on gambling to try and get magic find, because you cant just find or pick up magic find off the ground, you need magic find to find magic find gear to find gear to sell to get gold to roll for gear (early game) OR convert fiat currency i.e. into exchangeable commodity currencies i.e. Exalted Orbs (mid game) to buy gear on the website that has more magic find to find currencies off of the ground to buy gear to progress in the game.

- Gold is the most competitive resource in the game. You need it to maintain purchasing power at safe rates via Alva without relying on market exchanges and its ACTUALLY IN THE GAME. You need it to gamble gear or buy from vendors. You need it for respec therefore its literally the cost of
crafting mistakes and the cost of experimenting especially as certain interactions may be unclear as it takes time to adapt to the game's terminology, and even for when you're acclimated but need to pivot or reroute after hitting new milestones i.e. gear. But admittedly, I feel like I have a positive relationship with gold even if it is scarce from me. Its always for me there when I don't think about it but never there when I try to use it. I like that feeling a lot, and it means I need to get my ass back out there and play more of the game. Wait till I find out one day that gold drop rate is tied to magic find.

- You have no currency because none drops, so any that you scarce comes across, typically by means of picking up whites and blues to disenchant into regals (thus ensuring you have no gold) or salvage into whetstones and artificier orbs (meaning you cant use runes to fix your blues, not that they drop anyway with no magic find) has no use and is actively inhibiting your capability to progress in the game if you consider using them. You need to convert them into exalts and trade them for magic find gear to find magic find gear, to find currency, to buy gear to get to progress the game

- You have no gear because you're selling it all to gamble/vendor for rares because your gear dies at magic tier if you miss a regal and you STILL don't have one of your three affixes as magic find especially if you dont hit it in the gamble, making disenchanting a less incentivizing option even on SSF especially with how competitive the usage of gold is.

(Rant continued:)
- This is not friction, there is not even a choice or agency to be had, there is no other stat in the game that matters unless you have it. There is no need for damage if the ability to kill more isn't going to get you more loot. There is no need for movement speed if it wont get you loot faster since its not there. There is no need for defensive layers if dying isnt going to make you lose loot anyway since there was nothing there in the first place. I want to be Magic Find when I grow up, its power is maximum. It is a sword of damocles that hangs over the heads of those unaware of it as theyre driven into futility, and cuts at the throat of those who stare into its abyss and dare to perceive it, some bold exiles trying to maintain their peace in willful ignorance trying to cling to hope (yet I bet they make sure they keep some on their pocket to sprinkle on regardless).

- The drop rate/rarity of items with two players in co-op with no magic find should be the baseline drop rate in both trade league and SSF. I don't even think something like an NPC offering you a golden charm quest reward would suffice, not like you even get charm slots anyway. I don't want loot explosions, I don't want to play the market, I don't want an easy frictionless game, I want the ability to have a choice and a chance to feel clever, this is an ultimatum of kowtow or fail.

- Something in the structure of this game specifically is incompatible with Magic Find, even if there is historical context in other games where it has successfully been developed into an appreciable concept or tool to give the player a tilt in their favor should they engage with it or whatever other purpose it may serve. With how the game is paced, this feature is overwhelming, and due to its implications constantly looming over your head, you do not get upgrades off of the ground and you do not get upgrades from using currency on gear in Trade League or you are making a bad decision, and bad decisions are yet more items to be sold to someone else who also make bad decisions.

-If this is how I am supposed to feel and the standard other exiles strive for, then call me the Prince of All Saiyans, it being intentional is not a justification or explaination of what is attempting to be achieved here, I even tried looking it up, and came across the expression of belief of it intending to serve the function of another axis of power to scale the player and chase or something along those lines. I cannot see the forest for the trees. I have eyes but I cannot see Mt. Tai. I don't understand how this bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, let alone what that proverb even means, but I did have breakfast this morning and I am capable of gleaning that it applies here at a mere inferrence. Beam the vision and directly laser imprint it onto my brain and engrave it into my soul and I still do not comprehend it despite countless cycles of reincarnation in my pursuit of dharma. In this opinion, and inscrutable mystery be weary all his wits, and at the end of his cogitations, findeth more abstruse, and doubtfull objections than at the beginning. Please understand I am not trapped in this Plato's Cave from of the wonders of Magic Find outside willfully. I am fighting my own demons and boogeymen and they won't honking drop anything and clearly that would be my fault since that means I am effectively playing the game wrong to a prohibitive degree. Should've taken the rope instead of the river.

- The current state of trading and lootfilters highlights a sign of an information blackhole in which you are required to find answers to problems outside of the game im actively trying to play rather than in the game.

- Thankfully it narrowly avoid falling into the "Black Monolith" problem since you can work your way naturally from the problem to the solution at five different points of contact: the existence of the trade chat channel, the big trade button on the website which also provides an about page, the trade forum nested in inside the big forum button on the website, the item filter folder in Option -> Game -> Item Filter being an empty folder named "OnlineFilters", and the subsequent Item Filters button on the PoE website Account/Profile View which also provides an about page. (I wish it at least generated a .txt with this info in there in that folder but its fine, theres enough to infer where to go without being a burnout about it.)

- Initially I was under the impression I was supposed to understand what all the third party tools were such as Filterblade/poe2filter or the various overlays were such as Poe Lurker, Exiled Exchange 2 and so on, before even attempting to playing and engage with the game. Thankfully in my stubbornness I realize that it isn't the case, and though fraught with tribulation, it is possible to succeed without all of those things, the only people suffering being Free2Play players who at most due to the lack of having premium stash tabs, resorting to have to use primitive methods like the forum and develop some sort of trade shop culture. Thankfully those player don't exist at this time. I can let things like the Filters go because the game feels like there isn't really anything I should pick up anyway, its all unidentified, and the only thing I'd use it for are just identifying specific base types and various shards of stuff/currency. Definitely needs to be in the game though, all the various parameters are not structured in the game in such a way that it'd be an esoteric laboured process to parse and organize into a digestible ergonomic menu where you can find what you're looking for in three clicks or less. Especially considering community efforts.

- I feel like the current systems in place aren't some fashion of floodgates to keep the powerlevel of play moderate and down to a degree where the alternative would require GGG to step in and tweak drop rates/rebalance to account for volume of accessible performant equipment being passed down, or players facing insurmountable obstacles from a controlled few manipulating the market.

- I feel like the current provided framework is actively regressive, rather than a difficulty or mere inconvenience the players have to face as price fare for passage towards their goals. If having a tense standoff of players both dropping their items at the same time on the floor and hoping to safely and successfully pick up the desired exchanged item is the bottom level possibility of an exchange system opposed to not having it at all, I'd say its two steps above that, being around an arbitrary 3 out of 10. Coincedentally, that is somehow worse than what's in place games that follow a similar philosophy such as Warframe which I'd assert is a 4, despite PoE2 having more functionality, solely on the basis of how the gameplay and gearing functions, and what the mission is that the game demands you to accomplish.

- I am not a historical database on this matter, I don't know the mental associations other players in genre have had with this feature or speculations on staffing requirements against bad actors or how offline and awkward capabilities sustain what is currently in place, but I have the faculty to recognize settling for less, recognize spite, recognize how it makes me feel, and recognize what it influences beyond my own anecdotal & awareness filter. Systems like these really prey upon numerous of our dramatic instincts, namely: Gap, Straight Line, Fear, Destiny, and Single-Perspective instincts.

- I'd like to think the core of the divide in what the gameplay experience provides from the outside looking in is based on the difference between Solo Self-Found and Trade, but I cannot prove it even without all the black-boxes in place.

- However, just as there are a few high visibility examples of failures of a difficult or challenging game that tried to adapt to functional built-in integrated economy vs the forces of player behaviors like Diablo 3's Auction House featuring bidding & Real Money Trading as I've come to learn regarding this topic, there are also examples of games evolving, finding synthesis with their playerbase and gameplay systems without sacrificing communal bonds or game integrity, there's talks of the town of games such as Last Epoch's Bazaar and their system of gold aggregation, but I think this game could moreso derive inspiration from games outside of the genre to really shine, such as Final Fantasy XIV's Market Board system, with Alva or equivalent as our retainer, with gold limiting our buying power, modded by a combination of item level and affix weight/tier/roll, or even by vendor purchase price.

- I've even seen sound quality suggestions from the forums such as ones echoed by Sirius_Man#0785 and WarStalkeR#7616, even if by nature such things shouldn't necessarily be impletemented 1:1, but there is a sense that some player voices are indeed louder in their reception than others, looking at the coming patch.

- The main problem here is that these systems already exist for PoE2 on the website, even if they need to be retrofitted and adapted from PoE1, such as the instant buy-out I remember mentioned somewhere. They just need to be in the game and they need to not suck.

- If the idea is that it being scuffed like this is the intention, as some games and even gamedevs, argue its for some supposed health or community effort, the game systems need to support that, and with the current state of PoE2, it does not. If you're telling me that putting away the game to spend time on the website rather than out fighting for my life, playing the market begging and pleading for a chance to exchange for other's hand-me-downs is infact the idealized gameplay loop as part of PoE2 when not playing SSF, it comes across as communicating the idea that rather than being inconvenienced for the trouble, I should be actively punished for trying to participate and engage with the game and feel okay and good about that as its normalized and expected. Then believe it or not, I think I've heard of your playbook before and I'm not for it, Iceberg Slim.

- Dexterity feels bad to willingly try to scale, feeling off being tied to what's technically an offensive stat, whereas Intelligence and Strength are both actively tied to your survivability.

- I think the issue is in accuracy itself, its not a front facing mechanic, its something buried in the menu, you can't directly correlate what it even impacts for you in most cases because:
1. Its ignored by spells
2. Its irrelevant for Melee Strikers, even the ones that refract and fire off god-rays across the screen from a flick of their stick, and doubly so if theyre using Heralds
3. Its invisible on most mobs, (just like evasion is on us)
- one part because Evasive mobs aren't common yet,
- second part is that they run up to you anyway rather than run away from you to shoot you
- unlike with monster resistances, while we're just blasting them the primary feedback we get isnt "their life didnt get hit", its "it has more life, must have damage reduction", which you could argue works in that way.
4. With most of those other options narrowed down, it mainly affects one specific targetted vector of play despite dexterity itself having much more reaching consequences than that for lack of investment.

- I don't know how it'd play out but midwit take: I'd much rather have "Accurate" as a status I can obtain like how its a rare mod on mobs, but the mechanic is so vague and elusive I don't know what the ramifactions of that inaccurate statement would be.

- Dexterity is quite flaccid on its own and relies on conditions for it to shine such as scaling up caltrops, or nodes that scale with it,
but the thing is: other stats have access to that too while providing just as strong if not stronger benefits for the trouble. And I don't believe those other stats should have it rougher or lack having the different dimensions they can apply to your character altered since its one of the more interesting parts of the game that manages to also touch every aspect of it.

- I encountered a strange concept about it having some correlation to the value and capacity you're getting from crit on the basis of it affecting your chance to hit somewhere online, but I can't see this reflected in game at all, and comes across one of those -isms, espoused gibberish from a PoE1 player, such as referring to Trial of the Sekehmas as Sanctum to someone who has no concept or point of reference of what that is, engaging with PoE2 earnestly, which would beg the question of "Is playing PoE1 necessary to properly experience and engage with PoE2" which is a side, off-track topic that I'd argue the case that it is not, even though both the integrity of this game and GGG are seemlingly closely tethered to the legacy of that game, like being under a looming living shadow that actively tugs and tweaks things in this game just by association alone.


- Elevating the question since my distate for Accuracy stems from both its obscurity and lack of "tangible" impact since I never feel like I'm lacking it or yearning for it both at low and high levels, if I were to give up accuracy/dex right now and go run in, sword and board some level 79 mobs in a T15, would I miss it then? Would I be unable to defeat them and have what I can only understand to be a 10% chance to hit them? Seeing my blade or arrows just fly pathetically over their heads? Is it an early game trap that you'd be remiss in downplaying its? would that 10% chance to hit mean I have a 2.5% or better yet some even smaller multiplicatively miniscule chance to crit at a 25% crit rate?

- I think its nice and valuable and important and all that stuff for mobs to have another defensive aspect for me to plan around and overcome such as monster evasion, just as I like having evasion myself, but literally compared to strength and intelligence my only interaction with it is that I have a garbage heap numerical amount of it and it spits out a calculated percentile based entirely in hypothetical scenarios that I don't really get feedback on anyway, let alone I don't even have the depth perception to see how far away anything is from me at any given time to know if its relevant or effectual to my play.

- These are not good ideas or good faith suggestions at all, but if dexterity also touched things in the role of already existing Notables like Natural Immunity (Ailment Threshhold), Hefty Unit (Stun Threshold), or Quick Change Act (Weapon Swap speed, cant feel it anyway), I wouldn't be so diminished whenever I need to take Dex for requirements when I dont actively have something asking me to stack it like Falcon Technique or Falcon Dive. I want to like accuracy, but I can't date someone who won't show me what she's about, even if she always opens up to me in cute intimate moments like showing me what she can do with her main hand 9M away, or telling how when she was growing up she was 1.25 x Attacker's Accuracy over Attacker's Acuracy + (Defender's Evasion x 1/5)^0.9 and that back in the day my lowest chance to hit would've been 5%, but now that she's matured and I've gotten to know her a bit my lowest odds are looking like 10%.

- Hobble sucks + Terminology runaway bloat. Completely souless, unlike Blind.

- Pressing these buttons remind me of how in the other game I like to play (Warframe), over years of acceleration and escalation of player power: killing enemies is the best form of crowd control and survivability. In this game of PoE2, pressing these buttons is asking me to willingly surrender my life. I don't know how blocking was in 0.1, but despite the new shield bash, with the existence of player heavy stun, I genuinely believe if I'm in a situation where I need to press either of these buttons, it'd be more time and resource efficient to just wipe, respawn, and crank & pop another waystone.

- There's a tad bit of lee-way with resonating shield, parry doesnt have those luxuries.

- Block chance is good, holding a button to blockis harder to convince me, even with thorns. Yet again, sour grapes.

- As long as movement speed is mandatory rather than an option, movement speed needs to be baked into boots. At least make it a roll so its still something to chase. The new Wisps make movement speed even more important yet again.

Bad Bad, Not Good. I don't know how it compares to Monsters with "Accurate" but no way is getting tagged once and losing an entire defensive layer is the objective sought out/intended thing being achieved against players and their tools.

- Venomous Crabs in Act 1 when youre low level in rags, their damage feels a tad too high as they group up and just chunk you that early. I didn't feel like I struggled with them in 0.1 but in 0.2 I got rocked by them.

- Eternal Knights in Act 1, these things "felt" borderline impossible to deal with in 0.1, both normally and in cruel, especially during the boss fights, incredibly hard to kill and shotgunning myself on their reflected projectiles regardless of the distance away from them. They were much more manageable come 0.2, and a sign to me that whatever changes were made reigning in both damage and monster EHP was a step in the right direction, regardless of whatever my DPS was.

- Dune Lurkers in Act 2, it feels like they have a bit too much health at the point you reach them, coupled with your inability to hit/interact with them option, especially when theyre rare. They've been consistently frustrating in both 0.1 and 0.2.

- Vile Vultures in Act 2, I think these things are a very fun bully monsters to have hound your ass, and I always lock in the moment a rare version of these pop up, especially if it has a bubble or one of the drain auras. However, not that its a crazy amount, but man sometimes even at 25% movespeed these things are hard to get away from. Only when above 30% or higher does it start to feel like I can begin to out manuever them, and highlights the value of movespeed being an outright mandatory modifier on boots rather than just something really really really good that youd want to chase for things like clear and routing, even with travel skills. Even more exemplified in boss fights. I'd like to have gear that actually has 6 affixes, rather than 4, or be able to actually consider the possibility of using uniques either for fun, for leveling, or for their transformative alternate gameplay allowing properties, but movement speed and magic find are too overwhelmingly unbalancedly dominating with how they interact with the rest of the game both conceptually and in practice relative to other aspects of player power expression. Movement speed being the lesser of the two evils.

- Azak Bog is nightmare fuel to find your way around, and if I were a Bloon I'd take my chances with the monkeys rather than bang a corner and catch a stray from an Azak Fledgling. I don't think backtracking is generally an issue, especially with the extra helping of checkpoints we've been given, but man that location really makes me feel it sometimes.

-Venom Crypts, me and a mate of mine split up to cover more ground and it still took us 3(three) passes on both sides of this donut shaped map to triangulate and navigate towards the quest objective. Not good.

- In Maps there's this honked up mob that just *appears* and lasers you down instantly, both off screen and fast as honk whenever its actionable even when you interrupt it, I don't know what the hell that dude is on but I can't remember exactly which it is due to trauma. Whenever I realize theyre in my maps it makes me wish I had access to some sort of stealth mechanic or simply reduced aggro range, since I can't get away from it or even get behind terrain obstacles. Even with resistances socketed in. Its top tier but also so honking cursed, whatever it is if it was in the campaign I don't remember it dusting me like this. At first I assumed it was a new corrupted thing since I stopped when I got at maps on 0.1 but I'm not sure.

- Bugs and performance during this first week were terrible, and it tripled the time it took to get through the campaign as I was fully spec'd into Bonestorm, so I couldn't use my primary ability to get through many bosses without getting kicked from the game, instead relying on slowly chipping them down with pre-buff Spearfield + Bleed for around 20-40 minutes each with an Act 1 spear. Would've really appreciated not having to do that for Jamanra and Viper in Cruel, but it took me awhile to accrue enough resources to get exalts to get myself some magic find to get a reasonable spear since I didn't have enough gold to vendor a spear that was suitable for my stats, investing in my wand for mobs.

-Polcirkeln got gutted by the Herald change. Not unique, worse than hitting an ilvl 12 Sapphire Ring with a Regal. If this is being held firmly, add extra functionality to "Shattering" since its one of many tags that just remove corpses and do nothing else. Anti-synergy. Anti-feature.

-Wells suck. Purge them from existence.

- When trying to learn more about how certain systems interact with eachother, it became immediately stupefying to me regarding the nature of "build" culture in this genre, and in this (EARLY ACCESS!!!) game particularly its kind of frustrating as being exposed to that really seemed aimed to narrow my view on how to engage with the game, since that also brought to my awareness of there being ladders. It came across less as means to share strategies and cool interactions achieved with uniques and the right stats, or just some product of an emergent metagame as people discuss what happens to be what's strong/what works, and moreso feels like "builds" are discussed as this parasitic entity where youre effectively having someone else play the game for you or youre playing the game wrong, and not even in like a game difficulty or guidance way. This is a point I'm still trying to clarify and settle my thoughts on though, but two feelings I've come away with are that it might be the case that people turn to this manner of play because they don't feel enabled or empowered with the tools available to them on their own, making gameplay more of a community effort to solve rather than an individual challenge to overcome, and that come the transition to 0.2, it feels like people had forgotten the mounting issues in play that were cutting them bit by bit bleeding and depleting them in 0.1 after realizing that they weren't at the bottom of the barrel and that they can infact go even lower, having had the time to at least make some progress in solving their issues with gameplay that have been enabled via said community efforts rather than overcoming it personal breakthroughs, even though having new problems to solve is a good thing (under ideal circumstance). If every decision you make feels like a mistake, you go check the precedent to see how they've been solved, but here it just reads like people are so defeated it becomes a two-step process of getting smashed to build guide, a sort of conditioning when offered no room to breathe, persist, troubleshoot or experiment. Call it emergent gameplay or if you'd like but it tastes funny, and feels like its expressed way differently from the development of a metagame or methods to save time getting caught up to the current state of the game which is what I'd identify it as were this a different game. There is no space of an off-meta in this game currently, let alone alternative options to resolve problems you encounter along your run besides full pivot. (I can see why there's loud voices for something like Ascendancy Respec, not that I'm too familiar with many of the other demands and desires other players have.)

-The game felt insipid and linear, not particularly rewarding to my time, nor rewarded for leveling up with little room for experimentation with how the ability tree functioned.

- The very worst part of the game besides the performance was the scaling level of enemies, making it like I'm not even working towards anything in the game, only to get a superfluous explosion of nothingness from enemies with little numbers that feel like they don't even reflect anything I'm actually doing. Tried a bit of each class before settling on Corpse Explosion Necromancer since I didn't even have to try anymore from the very start once switching.

- Didn't get far with this one, don't plan to. Don't care if it gets good at the 80 hour mark, its boring and doesn't compel me to meet it own its own level to engage with it with sincerity, it feels loveless.

- I hated being in the campaign and wanted to be over and through with it as possible to instead run the monolith. Instead of the monolith, I ended up falling in love with their dungeons, though the monolith was quith enjoyable, it felt nice to have alternative competitive and genuinely rewarding location that both challenged me and served their own individual purposes without overlapping or creating that theme park feeling. I ended up rolling a Void Knight for this process. I want to have their Echoes in PoE2 for melee.

- Despite both games offering a pretty thin package at the moment, I pretty much had the inverse experience of PoE2, where I love the campaign, didn't care for running maps over and over again cranking up Waystones in line with my Atlas & route.

- My favorite part was the legendary crafting, hunting for the cream of the crop uniques AND rares(exalteds) only to jam them together to get the best of both rather than abandoning one just because it paled in comparison despite being useful early on.
loved the QoL, SSF-lite & trading alternate progression paths being both viable and toggle-able. and filters.

-Crafting felt functional for holdover, but paled to drops yet generally made me feel nothing in particular.

-Endurance was fun to play around, this is something that I'd really wish were just a one-off unique in PoE2 since power packed into this little stat would otherwise be a little out of place.

- I dream of a world where we get idols that are somewhere between whats offered here that fill in little gaps of personal power, and the idols in the PoE1 Phrecia league that accelerate and amplify everything I already want to do in simply playing the game even more in little ways that aren't fulfilled by the Atlas tree, while playing the little subgame of inventory tetris to consider my options with what I've managed to procure, and it'd be new currency sink.

- They have their loot filters in the game and they work and I dont get what feels like either nothing or reductive lootsplosions. And I dont have to identify my gear.

- I understood it, but I didn't like how gold seemed to aggregate in one place, especially after switching off of Circle of Fortune (like an atlas for target farming) to the Merchant Guild's bazaar, but the actually having the ability to purchase gear instantly felt like a magic trick, though I don't like how its divied up between several NPCs.

- I didnt think I'd like the idea of having the limited ability slots ontop of a class spec that made those other abilities impossible to access every ability in the game, to the degree that I probably won't be returning to the game, but otherwise I generally came out nicely and I really liked because able to change around how much moves function, and because that same feature allowed me to use moves outside of my specializations, even if the effect was often impotent it made it feel bigger than my limited set of abilities.

The game came across as absolutely impenetrable, like I needed to strategize and develop a foundation of why things are the way they were and what I should be working towards before even trying to launch the game and create a character, but once it clicked and I got in, it felt really good to get new toys and skill gem unlocks/levels, even though it was still like wading through a dense fog of perpetual vagueness praying im moving forward in the right direction in trying to keep up with enemy threat and wise use of my resources, making it a draining experience to try and stick with in the long term despite its evident richness and depth, my eyes slowly glazing over and rolling into the back of my head in a daze of blasting and getting blasted. I tried both Settlers and Phrecia. I tried a Blastchain Shadow on Settlers, then unlocked Scion and switched, grinded Oni-Goroshi and got to Act 5. Then started Phrecia and played Ice Shot Whisperer /w Tornado Shot Ballistas.

- I loved how rewarding Settlers felt just for me running around progressing through the campaign, giving me meaningful gear upgrades regularly, unlocking new features of my town as I unlocked new areas, and the previous league mechanics dovetailed really nicely into progression such as accessing Bestiary, Delve, Blight, and Heist, even if I didn't spend long with them to see the full scope of what I'd receive for investing in them despite really looking forward to getting to Harvest. However, I really struggled with the idea of transitioning gear with how the socket system functionally controlled my ability to access skills, though links were still fun and made me consider the various axis of power in which I could manipulate my abilities therein in themselves once I encountered equipment that interacted with the sockets themselves, such as Tabula Rasa's white sockets, and abyssal jewels.

- I never felt like a fool for choosing to use my orbs on gear though to try and get things linked or roll for an affix. And this was before I discovered the bench, I especially felt like I had agency and hope to swing things into my favor with the ability to ensure I got one of what I needed through crafting at the bench, even if it took a bit of elbow grease to unlock the recipes. Plus, I felt like I actually had enough to do so, even before vendoring, and the option to gamble at Gwennen as well as with gold at Faustus was quite refreshing in helping me not feel stuck. The game dies without your ability to access skill speed or movement speed though, however Magic Find in this game does not feel like I need it to succeed or have the most basic of basic progress/forward momentum in this game, but rather felt like a win-more affix that I'd be happy to see and hunt for on gear as a means to get more power. Also getting bits of each attribute felt always welcome and impactful as they directly impact both my defensive layers and offensive capability. Will also say I did not really appreciate the ability to cross through the center of the passive tree, even as a scion, but I cannot quite articulate why at this time, just didnt like it, but the Ascendant starting point node hop felt nice though.

A few things that stood out to me:
- I hated the blinking and mad dash high speed running through blasting aspect of PoE1, and I hope it does not return in anyway and I'm glad that apparently the team this game has has been firm on this, even though we're getting a few new cool travel skills like Thunderous Leap, and some support gems that make using them feel less like tightening a rope around your own neck for pressing them like the Untouchable Support Gem (even though I'd hate to actually socket it). But man getting around from place to place IS slow and sometimes a painspot, even in maps, and some people have suggested things like a passive out of combat speed increase or shrinking the regions or even more checkpoints and various things like that, while I've seen the main pushback saying that that translates to them as a matter of players getting bored/not having interesting things in an area trying to skip things/run past them. To be honest, I hate the former concepts, and I disagree with the latter reception by GGG, because I feel like this is an opportunity to turn such vague antagonisms into another thing to solve as a player tool by means of the companions system, which also would loosen up player necessity to always have boots with one less affix since it will always be reserved for movement speed otherwise theyre useless or leveling gear at best if theyre a unique. (or just pretty please make it an implicit on boots, but have the chase still be in how much they actually provide. If my body armor is gonna make me slower as a hidden implicit while still rolling everything else normally, let me have some go fast on my boots but preferably visible and chase-able.)

- I already miss having access to BOTH gold respec and orb of regrets, however some of that feeling is just lingering bad taste of gold respec from 0.1 as gold has become a much more manageable resource in the changes leading up to 0.2, so I can see how they've lost their place even if it hurts.
- Playing PoE1 with no gear made me realize my torso armour slowed me down, so call me dumb but I spent a lot of time running around without chest armour until I got a tabula rasa, at least till around Act 3-4. I wonder if that's a strategy someone's used before just to get around a bit better but I doubt it given how easily you die in these games. Colour me shocked when I logged back into PoE2 the next day, take off my chest armour, and realize that I got a small spurt of extra movement speed. I don't know why this exists or who its for or how this adds gameplay complexity/challenge as something thats not even exposed/visible. Bare minimum: Justify it. Hardmode: No reference to immersion i.e. "Its Heavy :^)"

-My favorite part of the game were Cluster Jewels. PoE2 needs them, no negotiation. Even if you honking monkey paw me on this.

- PoE2 also needs a Mirage Archer, and Forbidden Flesh/Flame. Chop chop.

- Charges do something passively, I like that at lot, however it was also really easy to get them. While still getting a reward/payoff for using them. Theyre too strong in that game, and while that does make me feel like I don't want to have charges that do nothing until consumed in PoE2, I do wish there was at least a node that provided such a function, as generic consumption options like Charge Infusion still consume the charges despite damn near being that mechanic ripped out as a Spirit Gem., I'd rather the charge duration be shorter and have to try and scale up their duration back if I could have Charge Infusion without consuming them rather than relying on something like chance.

- Herald skills are wicked in that game. I don't feel like we need that level of power in PoE2, but what I do miss is that in PoE2 they don't apply to spells. I like the idea of having an extra or spicy oomph that are specifically reserved for attacks, since spells inherently have numerous advantages despite not having the ability to scale them outside of a more strict (feeling) set of hard modifiers, such as not having to interface with abstract stat muddying mechanics like accuracy, but I'd like for some abilities that allow my spells to have an extra layer of personalization too regardless, that isn't just "cast more spell but automatically". I don't know if that looks like more things like flame wall and mana tempest, or combo things like pre-nerf ball lightning /lightning warp and eye of winter, but I feel like that is something that specifically Summon Raging Spirits provided and what Bonestorm feels like when charged. I'd like something that competes with spirit economy for spells like the Heralds do for attacks

- I loved Masteries, and it made me feel a sense of synergy and rewarded for clever pathing on the tree to pick up things I already may have wanted that I would've otherwise ignored, and provided an interesting problem to solve with which and how many to get while still routing towards notables as I develop and personalized my character towards something I'd like to attempt to achieve, whether or not itd work.
It also resolved some of the feelings of dread from trying to incorporate a tools into my kit, even if just to dare risk experimenting, for the idea of searching/pathing towards something that synergizes with my gear/ascendanies/gems thats on the opposite side of the tree in other classes' early clusters,
In PoE2 feel like Masteries would be a panacea of sorts for a few different areas, such as the flask/charm nodes, something that looks powerful but an opportunity cost like Waters of Life would make that point cost worth it while making me consider Efficient Alchemy, or for a less impactful but synergistic gain Efficient Alchemy itself would be a prime candidate, but id dare to ask for things like Crystal Elixir or Lucky Rabbits Foot to be masteries, even if reduced in efficacy, but also accessible if I for exampler were starting in the Dex/Int part of the tree, if for some reason something more attractive like Succor was moved into that area near Heart Tissue rather than the far netherrealm next to Tainted Strike. Its nice to have things worth travelling far on nodes to access, but its soul-killing to not have more moderate tools to spec into, and everything seems so expensive and far to access, even within my own sextant of the map, even though im glad it isnt like delving into esoterica to find anything in it while memorizing specific tags/mechanic terminology to look for.

Rant:
- I don't feel rewarded for most things I take in PoE2's passive tree, and most things I'd like are really really saturated on the top and top-right sextants of the skill tree, no matter what class and skills I've played, I don't even look at the left and bottom-left sextants, let alone get curious. Its not even close. PoE1 really highlighted this notion, that it borderline makes me want to not interact or engage with this aspect of the (EARLY ACCESS!!!) game until pathing and nodes of access gets overhauled and iterated on, as I'm sure theres a whole suite of tools and mechanics we've yet to receive in this already thin package given how much has been promised further down the line. I'm literally (figuratively) bleeding on trying to just make attribute requirements that I don't even feel like I have enough points to breathe and break even trying to get to any notables, so sometimes if I haven't planned out my route even if I already know what I want, I just sit on my points until I find a point efficient path on the tree planner on poe2db or poeninja, but in a way its nice that attributes are valuable in this way on gear. If I lock in those points thats several hours of my time I lose trying to respec, which I don't have conflict with since I don't want it to be free, I have a problem that it takes me 3-5 points just to get the a notable tree, then 3-5 points to get the notable itself.

- I feel like Notables like Cruel Methods (hugs close, gives you something effective early plus extra for your trouble if you need it BY CHOICE, isn't too specific with parameters of what its giving you while being basic, gives you hope) is PoE2's passive tree at its best, and nodes like Swift, Tough, and most particularly Sharped Claw are PoE2 at its worst (literally in hell and still costs you 11 levels of gameplay at worst, only applies to attacks and they all made out of tickytacky while being basic additive nothingnumbers that are slightly bigger than than the others), barely functioning solely for the sake of the two rather flaccid jewel sockets its placed between. Its like the getting the aesthetic shape was more important than how it relates to what you're achieving for yourself gameplay and what you're being asked to sacrifice. Maybe its a wild take, but I think most notable trees would feel more satisfying rather than painful to grab if you removed a single travel node from each of them.
Look at this honking thing:


- Even if you didn't add that power that you'd lose that those nodes give you back into the game onto their nearby neighbors or even used the space gained from that sweeping change for all new clusters it'd be a much welcome change. I feel pain in almost every choice I take already in this game despite generally enjoying my time, getting a level up would've the only time I'd expect to feel respite in this horrid, torturous land called Wraeclast.
If I were deep into the fighting game scene rather than being cursed to be the scrub I am, I'd compare pathing in the tree in PoE2 to be playing Ultimate Function vs Function 3 when I'd much rather have the Marvel Vs Capcom 3 experience. (not comparing PoE2 to Marvel Infinite since I'm sure if it came down to it we'd for sure get the X-Men as returning cast features, and not "necessarily" saying I'd want the PoE1 skill tree or level of power/type of gameplay either as if its MvC3, don't lynch me on this reference just asserting that most of the time im getting pure numbers for something I already have unless its with a catch (but the pure numbers sometimes just have a catch/prohibitive requirement anyway) rather than giving me new numbers with bells and whistles attached to use).
Each point I allocate feels like another step in a desert as I'm dehydrated from drought, with notables being mirages rather than oasises for brief respite in my travel, and I feel like more paths between webs would be a much needed horse to travel with for sanity such as the Link Skill notables, but useful, present in the game, and with less nodes.

Other than that as far as PoE2's future goes im generally more excited for new/original content rather than returning content, though I wouldn't have a bad taste in my mouth should old/retired things find their way progressively in, but I think its best if they have been changed at its core into something new for PoE2, even if its just a tweak on purpose/function. I don't want to play those other games. I don't want to play PoE1. I want to play PoE2.

-I still don't quite know what a twink is.

-More features that make use of Impale, or even Impale and Pin synergy. I'd love if there were a way to rip out all my impale stacks in one big burst on a weapon swap like a detonate ability, or just some way to chip through those 60 stacks easier and an extra way/incentive to either access/try to apply Pin even though the light stun was already a very good addition to the mechanic. At the moment I personally rely on Spearfield, but something like a support and some nodes would be nice too.
As a side point on this, Impale in particular made me excited that Foci were available offhands even with melee, but made me feel as though I were objectively (read as: subjectively) making a foolish decision to try to cast with a melee equipped, seeing as the only option to do so would be using the rather flaccid Spellblade notable which in itself seems more suited for a Cast on X / Herald or Invocation sort of playstyle, but simply giving up a wand costs me so much more with how this game feels tailored towards stacking as much skill level as possible then trying to solve mana. I wish there were more nodes like Spellblade, or even the inverse of spellblade where spell stats would benefit attacks in some capacity. (not ignoring Crown of Eyes, but the inverse of it should exist too. Currently too restricted by specific weapon requirements and inability to offhand wands/use wand+1h weapon offhand like spear(though I understand why), even more skills that generally required ANY martial weapon rather than unarmed would give Crown of Eyes more room to breathe with just a Foci)

-More Hazards, make even things like lightning rod, frost bomb, toxic growth and stormblast bolts hazard tagged. I think Hazards are a very fun archetype and I'm excited to see how theyre further iterated on, hopefully slightly separated from traps but not wholly divorced/divided from eachother (I'd hate the idea of two separate things that overlap thematically/conceptually, such as there being both Traps and Mines rather than them being the same imo). Don't get me going on this topic as I'd get too excited and ask for things like like Stormlance and Spear of Solaris. Additionally Detonator combos are really really fun and cool. I wish there were interactions with the two tags in some way. (Don't know where to put this but I wish Explosive Spear's little pulses weren't just cosmetic. Also FIX Trail of Caltrops! It doesnt drop any or do anything, not when I roll which is what I initially thought it referred to, and not when I evade via high levels of evasion. I WANT CALTROPS)

-A way to "trigger" attacks, even if it were just limited to something like strikes being able to trigger melee hazards. Or a trigger combo consuming abilities, but has to compete with your support gem slots or costs spirit.
I feel like Caltrops the projectile attack support gem was a step in the right direction towards having actually interesting options. Putting these thoughts out now makes me wish there were a tighter alternative to combo where rather than building up to just dump it into a bell, there was something where your aim was just to combo as much as possible for things like Mantra of Destruction or effects like, but i suppose that's literally just Rage or how I understand Volativity to work for chaos ailment users. (I promise im not singling out quarterstaff) Having some sort of Combo "efficiency" support would be nice too, that kept some of your combo value upon expenditure, reminiscent of a similar combo multiplier retention feature from Warframe.
I understand the goal is to kind of get away from the one button playstyle, even with maintaining some flexibility for an option, and I agree, thats not something I'm necessarily looking for, however what the core of the issue is that im looking to fill by the nature of this request is a way to sort of lubricate the process and incentive to use things like on primed enemies like siphoning strike, staggering palm, killing palm, boneshatter, falling thunder and cull the weak. I want a reason to use things like rapid assault or whirling assault rather than just looking at them as a button to press whenever I want to just kill myself and get off the game. They don't feel good to use compared to the brand new bloodhunt and primal strikes abilities, and definitely not to something like that feeling of vibing out shooting lightning arrows then suddenly your orb of storms pops, not that they need to be at those respective scales of capability. Even combos like having a skeletal minion on weapon swap for soul offering buff feels better, and Charged Staff just barely gets away with it because it has the spell tag.

-If I had a skill gem that functioned like tempest flurry, where each non-channeling/buff/summon gem i put in were the attack chain as my custom combo in sequence, like rapid assault -> spearfield -> thunderous leap + knockback support + splintering support, id be one happy fella, and I feel like I wouldn't have the game solved for me as I feel like what you trade is the individual power of those moves using them manually/individually especially as you can't reuse supports. Hell, if this were how the default attack sockets worked, I wouldn't feel demoralized having to choose to use it when I run into the situation of it being better for damage vs all of my other attack skills in my weapon tree (for some reason) but giving up rule of cool, plus it'd mean youd only get one slot to do this, opposed to being able to slot multiple Cast On spirit gems AND you'd be able to fall back on that neutral poke when you have no mana rather than blowing up for not having it bound/slotted. Even wands and bows could use this "default attack sequence" slot since I never want to use those built in attacks or feel rewarded for it, but I feel like crossbow bolts ammo are in a good place (grenades tho?? :^) ).
I don't want easy gameplay that allows me to do everything at all times since pressing another button isn't really difficulty, not that im arguing that this would be a "QoL" addition, but I just want a reason to use more skills and see my character do cool shit in a freestyle way, rather than narrowing down what covers the biggest part of my screen with the biggest modifiers. It kind of falls into the same feeling of pianoing flasks did in the first one, but for skills, rather than feeling like a setup and timing payoff way.
I think the removal of the gemling's ability to have 3 more total skill gems was positive, but if being limited in the amount of skills you can use with your character overall without many means to get is a matter of the creative goal rathaer balance, i'd rather just scale up one move that has no interaction with the others and buff myself up rather than use a wide breadth to achieve a unique effect since I'm often rewarded more for performing the former, there's already a limit on the amount of buttons bound anyway (not sure how to use the alternate set tbh).
I don't think an added degree of automation is necessarily the solution and would like to retain some manner of limitation for the sake of creavitity sparked from friction, but there needs to be a way to open up the interactive combat in the same way that meta tagged skills, Tame Beast, or Bind Specter does as people assemble the pieces that fit for them personally, in my opinion. Plus I feel like in my limited knowledge that it'd be something new. (I hope beastcrafting comes in some completely reimagined way that makes use of these beast/specter gems)

-Mark flexibility: I feel like Bloodhound's Mark is the right direction to make marks if theyre going to stay as restrictive as they are now, as well as support gems like single out. I hope some of the already existing marks get some of its treatment, not that I have a suggestion to clarify what that would look like besides some sort of flexibility in application if the amount is not going to change. But I was thinking along the lines of updating freezing mark for example, and giving it the shattering palm effect while keeping its existing nova on death, or more radically, having the existing nova on death apply the shattering palm effect, in a haemocrystals sort of way. (Fuck, just remove shattering palm, I hate it but keep its unique coating for something else.)
In either case, I'm never compelled to mark mobs, not even rares, only bosses, since its more effective to just try to kill them rather than spend a quarter of a second to wave my hand around, and thats not because my ability to kill them is often in a situation where I don't have the opportunity as if I'm speeding through like theyre weak little nothing afterthoughts (I do not subscribe to the gameplay ethos of just having the power to just kill everything while theyre offscreen as i just run around empty fields picking up candy like Spark Archmage was, or the idea that clear speed is the only objective to achieve even though it is objectively what I should prioritize as a player to maximize my income/power progression), its often because even though I do have the concern of target priority, I dont have the opportunity to risk prioritze making them easier to deal with while dealing with everything else on the screen so i might as well deal with them all on the same time which marks do not help me accomplish, even with their novas, unlike Bloodhound's Mark + Haemocrystals.

- Need more staged skills (and supports for them) like Freezing Salvo, additionally I believe Hailstorm Rounds should inherit the tag. I want a reason to use things like that more often as theyre a fun alternative to cooldown based ability gameplay.

- When all the acts are accessible, I really hope that cruel stays in the game in some capacity.
and to my understanding the idea is to run maps for a majority of your playthrough once the campaign is done and over with,
the campaign looks to have had a lot of work put into it, with each area having its own flow of spikes and drops of challenges
and setups and sense of conquest when you get to the next stage in a way that isn't reflected in maps that makes it feel worth investing some sort of reason to revisit it another go round.
It'd be nice to have some incentive, maybe some sort of lessened version of the Phrecia idol system you earn along the way,
but I would personally even be satisfied if it were just a superfluous tacked on option to have rather than being retired/sunsetted when the time comes, itd be nice if there were some middleground of a value proposition to keep this aspect of the game evergreen.
Personally, I'm a big fan of target farming in my grindy looting games, and though the bosses from the campaign show up in maps, it felt sort of like a sore spot that on repeat fights in the campaign their drops were pretty much the equivalent of killing a rare mob (and thats being generous).
I am the kind of person that farming Oni-goroshi is an appealing prospect to, though I feel thats an extreme example. But fighting post-game cruel versions that have their own Uber-Hillock sort of twist to them as another fight to learn, rather than try your luck approach that you take with them in maps with their stat boosted on top of dealing with customized waystone modifiers with potentially toxic but funny/challenging rare mob modifiers.
It'd be nice to have something to put my character through besides monoliths and pinnacles when it comes time to realize my character's power at full strength, and I'd love to have magic find on something like idols to chase.

-In 0.1 I was under the misconception that "Advanced" and "Expert" versions of gear were here to stay, but now in 0.2 seeing that it was revealed that they were placeholders (even though some items are tagged Tier 2 or Tier 3 now, and all of those things that were renamed still share the implicits i.e. Cultist Bow -> Adherent Bow -> Fanatic Bow, Dualstring Bow -> Twin Bow, etc. even if I'm now to presume the art and possibly the function is placeholder now too). That misconception however made me presume I could get higher versions of uniques, especially given how heartbroken I was when I finally got ahold of an Expert Makeshift Crossbow I was disappointed I could not Chance Orb it, thinking I could get an "Expert" Mist Whisper. While realizing things like the Crude Bow had no variants, making me realize something like the Widowhail was special in its power/function (that seems to have been taken away in 0.2, r.i.p. Concoctions.) especially how it was actually kind of difficult to get a white base Crude Bow despite starting with one. I wish that the game opened up Itemization in this way to me, and playing Last Epoch with its LP system exacerbated my feelings on that, without needing necessarily that level of power.
But the idea of "yeah I use this piece of equipment just to level faster, leveling gear to transition out of" is really honking boring to me, and misleads my expectations of playstyle options when those things otherwise offer truly transformative playstyle opportunities given how much I am asked to sacrifice by equipping a Unique in the first place, communicating to me that they truly function for the sake and sole purpose of passing down to ALTs and only exist to make you "go faster = play less of X content" rather than "play this way now" which I think is more engaging and gives affixes on rares I'd otherwise ignore some space to breathe, rather than a false illusion of gameplay opportunities.
I'd want to play in that muddied pool where you still have gear competing over the same base such how the Rusted Greathelm shares /w Wings of Caelyn & Horns of Bynden, while the Corroded Greathelm (Advanced Rusted Greathelm) has access to its own design space for uniques, but being a rarer line to chase due to competing with upgraded forms of Wings & Horn (or simply being used to make such upgraded forms strictly through Orb of Chance) as well as due to being inaccessible on the lesser base Rusted Greathelm item, and while maintaining the existing room for limited drops that also share bases that can't be chanced like Sacred Flame or Olrovasara, and items without enhanced counterparts like the Crudebow and Hardwood Spear or new various spears that exist in the same range as other recurring(placeholder?) enhanced spears (i.e. lvl 51 Seaglass Spear vs. lvl 51 Swift Spear which is a stronger lvl 21 War Spear, sharing the increased Projectile Speed implicit, whereas the increased base crit chance is unique to the Seaglass, just like the Striking Spear is unique in its lightning implicit with no counterpart). I don't think it'd be necessary to sacrifice one for room to have more, I sincerely believe they can co-exist while maintaining the design space for uniques in a wide breadth of areas to access rather than limiting, cramping and bloating it, causing conflict. Even if those enhanced bases are placeholders now for further iteration regarding base type variety, such as us one day not having Gemini Bows & Guardian Bows that do the same thing as Dualstring Bows & Warden Bows but better.
I want to be able to use, itemize, and chase Uniques in that way rather than picking them up to collect dust as eye-candy for my Unique Tab, since the only way to push them at the moment are the just looking for a higher roll that's already a thin marginal different or hoping a Vaal does something to it after socketing it, while keeping my interactions with them strict and specialized as gear that aren't necessarily better or worse than rares by definition of their immutability/inability to craft on them. Right now I'm not happy or thrilled for most Uniques beyond the limited drops, already associating the thought of them just not having a place in my kit from what I lose in rares/what I am and am not allowed to do, just seeing an implicit roll-range difference is boring when it comes to Uniques (with exception for things like Erian's Cobble & Ventor's Gamble), and hoping that the unique you got that enabled a new aspect of play got hit in a balance pass for being overtuned (numerical value-wise, not in function) rather than existing in a range of power and play expression is despair-inducing.

-Need more Uniques like Bijouborne Double Belt where even a high/maximum negative roll can be a desired grab just like a minimum negative roll, even if in the inverse of offering valuable high positive rolls and high negative rolls, or high positive rolls and minimum positive roll offering desirable utility in some way.

-We need more priority threat mobs like River Hags, even if used sparsely. These are sincerely the most fun and engaging mobs to fend off while you're fighting your way through the hordes, especially when find yourself in a situation where you need to wager the option of repositioning or standing your ground. I like mobs who's existence I have to actually acknowledge.


-Please let light radius allow me to zoom out more, since even the dark areas in this game arent dark enough to where it really does anything unlike in PoE1 where I could actually see it.

-I'd like for the ability to perform damage to myself that counts as a hit at somepoint, even if its heavily restricted/conditional in some way.


-The game won't be in a good state until even Punch is viable in Monoliths. (Engagement Bait, my real point is that the game is dying to Survivorship Bias. shouldn't be easier or have more automation under some faux-guise of "QoL" but various things are becoming complete non-options so they get overlooked in the process of not even getting talked about/interacted with anymore, not that some level of omniscience is expected or reasonable)