Constructive feedback for PoE2 Dawn of the Hunt (playing PoE since 2013)

Hey GGG,

I want to give you my feedback and I hope this reaches you in some way, shape or form.

Items and leveling:
I can say that obtaining items is in good state even though a lot of people say it is not. If you are checking the shop every time you level up with some basic items with Maximum Life and with some resistances you should be fine. That being said, at no part in the game (I think) the player is shown that every level the vendor resets. In my opinion if you show that to players for example in the tutorial when you kill Hillock (whatever his proper name is) inform players about the shop resets, new and casual players will have a lot more easier time leveling up.
Also adding additional Artificer Orbs through the campaign was a really good change also. However I think that you also need to show these things as using Artificer Orb and socketing Runes somehow in the campaign questline so that the players are aware of that.

Gems and leveling:
I think skill balance need more work to feel good. I've leveled up to endgame several characters and at some point in the game I think the player is forced to use a specific support gem combo for their spells in order to feel good. If you don't use some specific supports it feels way too punishing and hard to progress. Also unfortunately some skills are better than others and build variaty is on the low end. I think that up to a certain point in the campaign everything should be viable, so that new players feel less punished if they try to experiment.

Monsters and leveling:
I think everything is in a good state except when you approach the end of the acts. Act 1 Manor, Act 2 Dreadnought, Act 3 zone with Viper Napuatzi. The monsters in these zones in my opinion are a little bit overtuned. That being said I also don't want everything to become very easy. Just as you said in the recent interview if you make all monsters slower than the player, that would indeed make the game boring to me due to the lack of challenge. So please try not to appeal the masses by making everying easy, because this won't be a good change for people like me.

Azmeri Wisp and Rogue Exiles:
I think these two are awesome addition to the game. Wisps current speed is very appropriate to the current speed of PoE2 (a little bit slower than PoE1 which is good). I wish they were just more rewarding. I don't feel excited enough when I see one. A little buff the I think should be good.
As for Rogue Exiles, when I saw the trailer I felt like that was one of the best things there. The combat looked engaging like real PvP (please add that also ^^). However was I see currently is in a very bad state. They are a little bit on the squishier end and I still haven't purchased any item from the trade site (Level 88 Amazon here). I just wish they are more rewarding and appear more often. Also atlas nodes for Rogue Exiles feel underwhelming. Started by picking them, because I wanted to see more Exiles, but still the chance was pretty low, so I respecced to strongboxes.

Endgame mapping:
I can definitely can say the it's way more engaging and a lot better now. I'm able to see legendary maps a lot more often which is very good. Towers are way less annoying now. Encountering bosses more often is way better. I'm having way more fun than before. However there are some thinks that need some polishing. Progressing the Endgame questline to unlock your Atlas skill points is very slow. Even though it's more interesting, I can say with certainty that it's a lot slower compared to 0.1 where you needed to do 10 maps for each quest. I'm doing T15 maps while still having to reach Corrupted Nexus of +6. I think this needs to be a faster process.
Also Temporal Chains modifier on maps is slowing way to much in game where you have to dodge everything and avoid being surrounded.
Shrine are very hard to click and activate for some reason.
Also I want to discuss the change you made recently about showing all rares by default in the map. I know a lot of people wanted that (mainly because maps are on the larger end), however I think here you didn't think enough on this change. Now I'm chasing rare after rare, rarely looking at monsters and gameplay, but looking at the map to go to the next rare. Which is bad for my gameplay experience, because I'm less engaged. I definitely wanted some addional help to finish map faster. But showing the rares from the start is too much for me. I think you had to do instead the reveal to happen after 90% of the monsters are dead, that to happen at 50% or 60%. I really hope this gets changed, but now that you delivered that to players I will be alot harder to achieve.
Also Mark wanted feedback about map sustain. It's very good now. If you are able to clear your maps, you never run out of maps. Also if that happens, you can also buy some from Doryani and use them, or combine them to the next tier from the bench.

Last thing I want to say:
Although I know that there is a lot of pressure on you guys right now, please try not to always appeal the masses just to make them feel better. As you said in the interview sometimes when you make a change for one group, this could affect another group in a negative way. Also this is not a copy of PoE1, so differences in gameplay, speed, monsters are to be expected.

I'd like to add a few things to your post since I agree with almost everything you've mentioned.

Maybe an alternative solution to the rares being shown on the minimap, could be something like the blood trails that show up when you click the Blood Chalice in Trials of Sekhemas.

After you kill a Rare, maybe this blood trail shows up temporary and gives you a general idea of the direction of the rest of the rares on the map (or the one/few ones that's close to the one that you just killed).

I feel like a solution like that would be far more engaging instead of relying on the map and rushing to the rares.

Also, I will totally agree that the last sections of each act (Manor, Dreadnaught, Black Chambers) have some pretty overtuned monsters compared to the rest of the zones. Maybe a minor damage nerf to them would be nice (as they are numerous and they pack quite the punch).