What I, as a POE1 Vet, don't like about POE2.

You clicked on this and are ready to flame for wanting zooming builds and trivial gameplay. Nope. Not at all. In fact POE2 is more meta zoom driven that POE1. There is currently one, yes ONE, build in POE2 that can finish end game at the time of writing this post, namely lightning spear. In POE1 Settlers of Kalgur I finished it as far as I wanted to on a witch minion build, Righteous Fire / Purifying Flame, Molten Strike (depth 300 in delve) and Cobra Lash Servant of Arkali.

So what dont I like?

1. POE2 is POE1 Ruthless with better gem availability. POE1 Ruthless held less than 1% of the player base. Its tough, tedious and demanding and for masochists. I played it for the experience of it but its not my favorite mode. But other than skill availability POE2 is the same. Well except the campaign in POE2 is LONG AND TEDIOUS .

2. POE2 pigeonn holes you into certain skill sets, there is very little flexibility. You cant even equip Killing Palm (although its unarmed) unless you are unarmed or carrying a quarterstaff with the dex requirements. So you want to make an ED Contagion Killing palm char? Forget it. Why cant a ranger swap out a crossbow? You want an acolyte of chayula that has skeletal reaver minions? Nope.

In POE1 I had a Pyroclast Mine throwing Marauder that was the first char I killed shaper with ever. Those skills are on other sides of the tree. The closest I have seen in POE2 was a Chronomaster HOTG but they nerfed that of course.

3. POE2 NPCs are fast, aggressive, pin you and kill you and there isn't jack you can do about it. Someone at GGG played Elden Ring and said "Hey lets make the game HARD where you need 50 tries to finish a map and lets give them one shot per map." Fire that guy. He is a massochist psycho with probably 3 bodies in his freezer. Well I am kidding about firing him but that gameplay is not fun. The only outcome of this design is to push people into screen destroying meta builds that make ANY BUILD in POE1 look slow and methodical. Those of us who don't want to play "The Build" just will leave and each league you nerf "the build" will drive more out.

If I have Fangs of Frost, Parry, Glacial Lance, Cull the weak complex combos, I want it to have a fair chance of killing the pinnacle boss. Since I hate playing meta builds that blow up screens I wont ever kill the pinnacle boss.

4. The campaign is LONG and tedious ... and promises to get longer. Sure I know there are people that are going to say they finished it in 10 minutes with a level 1 toothpick. Ok, whatever. For us normal people it takes 2 dozen hours at best to finish 3 acts. And then you have to go through it again. Since people in ARPGs often roll multiple chars that is hundreds of hours per league. WOW.

SO that about covers it for me. Your mileage may vary.

oh yeah and GGG if you are reading this. .....

PLAY YOUR OWN PRODUCT! Give the WHOLE TEAM 2 weeks where that is their only job. When we ask you how long it takes you to finish the campaign the answer shouldnt be "Well ... uh ... you see ... you mean like all the way through ... uh I dont know."

You just made this thread already. Can we stop spamming the forums with the same substance?

Bump your other posts

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Mashgesture#2912 wrote:

You just made this thread already. Can we stop spamming the forums with the same substance?

Bump your other posts

There may be similarities. Some crossover. But they arent the same. The first was why people are driven to one button builds. The second is about a commonly held misbelief that POE1 numbers smaller than D4 somehow means it is a bad game and this is an opinion piece about why I like POE1 better.

No forum rule violations.

But thanks for the BUMP. :)

if you're such a "PoE1 Vet" how can you think there's only ONE build in endgame LMAO
the whole game got basically slammed into the same ranges in 0.2.0 with a couple of outlying synergies that push things like bleed and ignites to insane levels.

You can basically make anything as good as anything else but with different focuses. like a melee skill is never going to snipe off-screen enemies, but you can make the AoE the size of the screen.

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Dan_The_Noob#9627 wrote:

if you're such a "PoE1 Vet" how can you think there's only ONE build in endgame LMAO
the whole game got basically slammed into the same ranges in 0.2.0 with a couple of outlying synergies that push things like bleed and ignites to insane levels.

You can basically make anything as good as anything else but with different focuses. like a melee skill is never going to snipe off-screen enemies, but you can make the AoE the size of the screen.

Lightning spear is "the thing" this time. Just like spark and infernalist was the last time. Thanks for the bump.

5. Endgame is directionless. There is no real goal to be obtained. I nPOE1 you progressed through the atlas to finish your points and build your end game tree or you worked to get maven and then shaper or you tried to get deeper in delve. The POE2 endgame feels like random wandering.

6. Movement in POE2 is SLOW, plodding. I find myself wanting a sprint key but dodge roll actually slows you down. I miss quicksilver and frost blink.

I havent made it through act 6 this league and I am not going to. BG3 Patch 8 just landed and I am playing that now.

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Dan_The_Noob#9627 wrote:

if you're such a "PoE1 Vet" how can you think there's only ONE build in endgame LMAO
the whole game got basically slammed into the same ranges in 0.2.0 with a couple of outlying synergies that push things like bleed and ignites to insane levels.

You can basically make anything as good as anything else but with different focuses. like a melee skill is never going to snipe off-screen enemies, but you can make the AoE the size of the screen.

Ppl need to learn what "exaggerations" are. It's not meant literally; it's meant figuratively.
It feels like ONE because the few builds that are not a pain in the ass are not nearly where it is - enough.

How many builds do we have for Spell-Caster right now?
Essence Drain/Contagion? And?

How many builds do we have for Bow-Slinger right now?
Lightning Arrow with 3% presence? And?

How many builds do we have for Melee-Enjoyers right now?
Hammer of the Gods? Rake? And?

How many builds do we have for Minion-Cucks right now?
Storm Mages? 1-2 Spectres? And?

How is it for ascendancies that don't use anything "Spear" related or can utilise "Crossbows"?
What is with "Acolyte of Chayula", with "Pathfinder", with "Chronomancer", with "Stormweaver", with "Blood Mage", with "Infernalist", with "Witchhunter", with "Warbringer", with "Titan", with "Gemling", with "Invoker"?
All of them below 3% presence, while every single one of them had at least some good builds in 0.1.0 or was even top of the meta.
Now, "Amazon" with 45% dominates everything, with "Deadeye" being broken as always.

Sure, there is "something" you can play, if you compare it to D4, but there is nothing to play if you compare it to... PoE1.
And the last time I looked, the game was called "Path of Exile 2" and not "Diablo 5".

"

JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

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Dan_The_Noob#9627 wrote:

if you're such a "PoE1 Vet" how can you think there's only ONE build in endgame LMAO
the whole game got basically slammed into the same ranges in 0.2.0 with a couple of outlying synergies that push things like bleed and ignites to insane levels.

You can basically make anything as good as anything else but with different focuses. like a melee skill is never going to snipe off-screen enemies, but you can make the AoE the size of the screen.

Ppl need to learn what "exaggerations" are. It's not meant literally; it's meant figuratively.
It feels like ONE because the few builds that are not a pain in the ass are not nearly where it is - enough.

How many builds do we have for Spell-Caster right now?
Essence Drain/Contagion? And?

How many builds do we have for Bow-Slinger right now?
Lightning Arrow with 3% presence? And?

How many builds do we have for Melee-Enjoyers right now?
Hammer of the Gods? Rake? And?

How many builds do we have for Minion-Cucks right now?
Storm Mages? 1-2 Spectres? And?

How is it for ascendancies that don't use anything "Spear" related or can utilise "Crossbows"?
What is with "Acolyte of Chayula", with "Pathfinder", with "Chronomancer", with "Stormweaver", with "Blood Mage", with "Infernalist", with "Witchhunter", with "Warbringer", with "Titan", with "Gemling", with "Invoker"?
All of them below 3% presence, while every single one of them had at least some good builds in 0.1.0 or was even top of the meta.
Now, "Amazon" with 45% dominates everything, with "Deadeye" being broken as always.

Sure, there is "something" you can play, if you compare it to D4, but there is nothing to play if you compare it to... PoE1.
And the last time I looked, the game was called "Path of Exile 2" and not "Diablo 5".

For once i agree with you. I guess the only people who are happy with the "build diversity" are those who never touched PoE1. And no it has nothing to do with it being EA, we have more than enough skills and ascendancies, it's the entire design philosophy.

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onetruelai#7327 wrote:

For once i agree with you. I guess the only people who are happy with the "build diversity" are those who never touched PoE1. And no it has nothing to do with it being EA, we have more than enough skills and ascendancies, it's the entire design philosophy.

When a patch is so bad that it brings ppl together who normally "fight" for the opposite side, you know something is wrong.

Well, it could be so good that we don't have anything to fight over anymore, but yeah...