Constructive Feedback on Patch 0.2’s Direction – Restoring Build Freedom and Fun

Dear GGG,

I loved patch 0.1’s campaign and endgame, sinking over 1,000 hours into leveling six characters past 95, farming 100+ Temporalis, and beating T4 pinnacle bosses with every class, even “weak” ones like Warrior. My gemling stat-stacking sparker, a build I crafted myself, felt rewarding despite not following a guide. The game wasn’t perfect.. endgame lacked depth, crafting was clunky—but it felt alive with possibilities. Patch 0.2, however, has left me struggling to find that spark, and I’d like to share thoughts to help steer PoE2 back to what made it great.

The heavy nerfs to skills, Temporalis, and clear speed seem aimed at the top 0.0001% of players.. those zooming like streamers with min-maxed setups. Meanwhile, casuals and dedicated but less-skilled players like me are slogging through content that feels punishingly slow. In 0.1, most skills could succeed with effort; now, >50% of players lean on near-identical storm spear builds, which feels like a Diablo-style “correct” meta, not PoE’s wild, diverse sandbox. The top players are still zooming, so the nerfs mostly hit the broader playerbase, reducing build variety and joy. Slower clear speed also makes loot and currency feel scarcer, amplifying the grind without reward.

I worry balance decisions are anchored to outlier streamers rather than the 99.99% who don’t play 24/7. PoE’s magic has always been its freedom.. letting players chase insane builds (like PoE1’s seizure inducing flicker) or off-meta creations without forcing a singular path. Crafting remains a pain point, still too punishing for experimentation, and the endgame hasn’t gained the depth we hoped for post-0.1.

Consider feedback from casuals and mid-tier players, not just streamers, to keep PoE2 welcoming for all skill levels. Casual Andy who's sunk 500 hours into a league should be able to have a shot at beating the end game content. Right now I don't think too many are doing all T4.

I want PoE2 to feel like 0.1 again.. a game where any skill (except siphoning shot) can shine as a main skill with creativity and effort. Thanks for listening, and I’m rooting for you to nail this!

I totally agree. I started playing in PoE2 0.1—never touched PoE1—and I put 500 hours into my Monk. Had a ton of fun, even with the kinda bleak endgame. Now? I’m just struggling to keep playing. Feels like I’m racing against inflation, trying to farm exalts faster than prices go up just so I can upgrade my gear.

Yes I have decided I will not be playing anymore til something gets patched to improve how endgame feels. Right now it doesn't feel rewarding or valuable to do. It feels like an absolutely horrendous 100+ hour slog just to target your towers and blast through your points while your not actually getting drops that are worth much of anything, hoping that once you allocate all your points that you will be able to get better drops and more loot and you end up with just a lot more garbage that the loot filter doesn't even care about. It feels so bad playing through this endgame

Yes, if you are not copycat the spear build, ur playing in hard mode. Great, I want to play skill i want and the way i like but I can't. Please do something about it before it's late, game turning into path of spear very quickly.

This is the world you made by your own! All the patch 0.1 ppl around cry about zoom-zoom meta and they want slug and meaningfull combat. And I told you: you always will choose zoom-zoom playstyle over "the vision". Now enjoy - you got what you asked: dead league, zero loot, zero pation to touch it )))

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sinking over 1,000 hours

If 0.1 version roughly took 4 months and you have played over 1000 hours. You you have played every day at least 8 hours. You play more than many streamer. I said you are clearly on that 0.0001% bracket so that's why you feel the nerfs. I say your understanding of casual player needs fixing.

You: 1000 hours (total play time) / 120 day (0.1 was running about 4 months) = 8,333...hours per day

very dedicated average joy: 3 hour per day x 120 days = 380 hours

I said you are extremely hardcore player.

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Randompasi#4598 wrote:

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sinking over 1,000 hours

If 0.1 version roughly took 4 months and you have played over 1000 hours. You you have played every day at least 8 hours. You play more than many streamer. I said you are clearly on that 0.0001% bracket so that's why you feel the nerfs. I say your understanding of casual player needs fixing.

You: 1000 hours (total play time) / 120 day (0.1 was running about 4 months) = 8,333...hours per day

very dedicated average joy: 3 hour per day x 120 days = 380 hours

I said you are extremely hardcore player.

+1.

When I saw him referencing himself as a casual/mid-tier player, I laughed.

I mean, there are many, many great things about the game.

Unfortunately they've been forgotten due to how bad this patch was...
- No loot drops
- 200% nerfs to builds that weren't even being used
- 0% buffs to builds that had <1% utilization (Hi Chayula)
- No currency drops
- No endgame drive
- No mobility or way to scale it
- Campaign is absolutely atrocious
- No Crafting & they
- Trading is terrible & no AH in sight due to 'Vision'
- No versatility
- We can't use orbs or try out gems early because vendors don't sell them and nothing drops them

I don't get it tbh. Even from a data point of view, it makes no sense what happened in 0.2.0.

And the biggest problem of all is how all of this made it out of QA & came as a surprise to them in the immediate post-patch feedback.

This last part is what really makes me wonder what's wrong on their end that they don't see this. Or perhaps feedback hasn't been enough on our end.

The Ops oriented person in me would tell them to functionally survey a huge pool of players from different playstyles / hours invested / $ invested to find out what's wrong.

Patches like these with emergency corrections aren't the way forward, even in EA :/

+1
Fix your game!
Stop launching garbage..

Player count already dropped in the last 3 days
LE season 2 is coming out, please give us something to go on in POE2 lol