/! \ Feedback from a 15 years POE player

First of all, very good job GGG

Then a few cons.

- Feeling of a soulslike game on every monster, when people want more relaxed gameplay... Hack and slash for a reason, chill gameplay along the map and challenge focused on bosses is ok...

- Very difficult to scale defense/HP point, makes the souls-like feeling annoying.

- Sketchy bullet-hell game feeling : shit-ton of volatiles... 100% strongboxes poping chaos barrage or volatile crag in a mess with rare monsters that pop chaos plants projectiles...

- Way too hungry mana spells, make mind over matter or eldritch battery like a hella dream to use. You still run out of mana with basic setup, even with crazy manaregeneration items and passive.

- Endgame atlas map need a bigger zoom-out to navigate (could be done with only a few icons if there is too much to load). More pinpoint on map welcome too.

- SKETCHY maps layout, a lot of labyrinthic, narrowed area that are impossible to read without the minimap open. WHAT IS THE FUN OF THIS ? Players are forced to play a load of catastrophic layouts to progress on atlas : people just quit. The only viable gameplay is : open layout map with easy reading terrain.

- Scarce way to manage Lv82 Maps...

- Random way to reach 6L - Dropped only one perfect Jeweller orb over a Lv 90 character with stacked progression (a lot of maps at 90). Not anymore a craft make it feel hum...

- Detonate dead called by rare ennemy, impossible to check, just random RIP.

GGG you need to fix the limit between an annoying stressfull gameplay that is opposite to hack and slash game, to a strategic hack and slash that you aim to build.

Permanent stressfull gameplay = player leaving the game
Hack & slash arent bullet-hell neither souls-like...
Balanced strategic hack and slash with a large amount of cool gameplay and a few moment of tryhard = OK

"

Trifaldin#1595 wrote:

- Sketchy bullet-hell game feeling : shit-ton of volatiles... 100% strongboxes poping chaos barrage or volatile crag in a mess with rare monsters that pop chaos plants projectiles...

- Way too hungry mana spells, make mind over matter or eldritch battery like a hella dream to use. You still run out of mana with basic setup, even with crazy manaregeneration items and passive.

- Endgame atlas map need a bigger zoom-out to navigate (could be done with only a few icons if there is too much to load). More pinpoint on map welcome too.

- Random way to reach 6L - Dropped only one perfect Jeweller orb over a Lv 90 character with stacked progression (a lot of maps at 90). Not anymore a craft make it feel hum...

I am only responding to a few of these because most I have nothing to add to your point.

On the matter of PoE2 being bullet helly, I think this is a bad thing in a game trying to do so much deliberate combat. It feels as if mobs are playing PoE1 while we are playing a souls-like in terms of animations and attack times.

About mind over matter, it isn't actually that bad, it is the second best defence layer in the game behind ES, as both mana and ES can be scaled by tree. Life is the thing that needs massive buffs, even the tankiest life builds are only half as much life as ES builds have ES.

The endgame atlas needing bigger zoomout I concider a symptom of the larger problem being that the atlas itself is infinite and thus you are navigating though an infinite sea of meaningless maps, thus why we need infinite zoom. I wish the atlas was FINITE, then I could actually complete it - but as it is infinite there is nothing worth doing.

I honestly do not care about getting a six link all that much, because so many of the supports suck and there isn't really much worth putting in the sixth link or even the fifth link.

Don't really have anything to say about most of this but I 100% agree that both volatile plants and volatile crag need a rework, they often do way more damage than any enemy around and are annoying to constantly evade.

GGG needs to make a call on what they want maps to be. What they want bosses to be.

Are maps a place where the player prepares himself for a boss fight?
Grinds gear and exp and get upgrades + interesting encounters and mechanics(like in PoE1)

Are maps just a permanent boss fight and then you have a "boss fight"?
Oneshot all or be oneshotted, no chill, pure focus. Boss = loot goblin.

Something needs to be chill. Either maps or bosses.
Atm everything is stressful and nothing is fully enjoyable.

I've been here since POE1 began, I'll just add, nah, not 15 years. It isn't that old. (not for us public, that is) But close...