I'm enjoying the game BUT...

Hello everyone,
I’ll admit it — I’m currently enjoying the game.

Sure, it’s far from perfect, and many aspects clearly need major improvements or changes (I won’t bother listing them here — plenty of other threads already do that). The content is also relatively sparse for now, but I think that’s fairly normal considering the game has just been released.

I was slowly starting to get bored, but I have to admit the latest patch really reignited my desire to play. And so far, I'm satisfied with the changes (I was worried there would be too much valuable currency dropping, but the balance feels good — especially considering I'm not optimizing my farming at all yet, since it's still too tedious/not fun at all).

HOWEVER, there’s only one reason I’m having fun right now:
I’m playing LS Wind Serpent's Fury.

I blow up the screen with a single click and bosses melt like snow in the sun, and I really enjoy that. As dumb and straightforward as it may seem, that’s how I enjoy playing a hack 'n' slash, especially after investing a good number of hours into my character.

That said, I’m fully aware that GGG wants to move away from this kind of gameplay, and everyone knows this build is going to get annihilated in the next patch — just like Spark was (rest in peace).

It saddens me, and even though I want to love PoE2, I’m also worried that future design choices will end up pushing me away.
I trust the community to come up with new builds as patches roll out, but I believe GGG has the power to eventually prevent 'one-button' builds in the long run.

I started the league with a Storm Wave Monk and I know for a fact that if I’d stuck with that character, I would’ve already stopped playing.
The build really did its job at the start of the league, but after the first week or two, I started looking for 'something a bit better'.

So here’s my question:
What build are you playing, and what keeps you sticking with the game ?

Have fun everyone.

I myself I'm quite puzzled at any need for instantaneous mass screen clearing straight away on the T15+ maps because I personally feel that would defeat the purpose of growth.

I'm serious now, so this is what I'm rolling.
Dark Monk lvl 90...don't use a quarterstaff, I only have 4 points ascendancy, I just go for chaos double resist and hits have chance for extra chaos damage.
I use a bow, I use a lot of skill speed on Snipe, have tumps of critical damage
I mass poison for armor debuffing
I spiral volley with 3/4 frenzy stacks with a lot of chaining

then I'm wearing spear/buckler as secondary
equip to this for Mark skill to blind entire screen
disengage for frenzy stacks, it knocks back mass enemies for more projectile damage
buckler has loads of stun resist
I have ES of 2000 and more stun threshold with passives + All my evasion just nullifies the chance of stun.
I use tame beast, I have a small beetle....it can't die ever (its bugged and lags don't know why...), it has physical damage aura to buff my damage by like almost 20%.
I use Ghost Dance as my only meaningful spirit skill, it just gives me ES for free on getting hit or with parry.
Lightning Warp for more travel with disengage + the shocked ground from it is just insanely helpful.

With all that said:

"Dual Classing" imo is awesome.
Tame beast is exciting to find better ones, I have 3 great pets, the other 2 mass slow by 30%, shroud walk and create a fire path to explode my poison arrows.
The playstyle I have I enjoy to keep me alive and to counter and retaliate, with Snipe being an easy skill for bossing.
T15's are pretty easy and I'm excited to find a better bow because I haven't been lucky at all, there are some great unique's from the special end game merchant but I need to find my 2nd one...

I don't know what else to say, I think this is a cool game but I feel people want an easy complete and move onto their next character? Not too sure.
I hope they do nerf LS spamming to the ground but at the same time bolster the good mix up of weaponry and allow players to branch into that easier with some way to obtain attributes easier and have more ways to get the uniques they want like for the unique merchant.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I personally haven’t tried any chaos builds or beast taming mechanics yet. The idea of being able to capture a mob and use it later sounds like a good concept to me.

Regarding your reply, I’d like to highlight two points to clarify my mindset:

"

TrunktenUK#3407 wrote:

I myself I'm quite puzzled at any need for instantaneous mass screen clearing straight away on the T15+ maps because I personally feel that would defeat the purpose of growth.

I’m not aiming to be able to clear the entire screen instantly as soon as I reach T15. I actually think it’s healthy and normal not to be able to do so right away.
However, I also think it’s fair to eventually reach that point after enough progression or time investment into a character.
This is the aspect that worries me about the future of the game. I get the feeling that GGG is trying to prevent players from ever reaching that stage of 'power', no matter how much time they invest into a character. And to me, that feels very contradictory to the essence of the hack-and-slash genre.
That said, I can agree that LS probably lets you reach that power level too quickly.

"

TrunktenUK#3407 wrote:

I think this is a cool game but I feel people want an easy complete and move onto their next character? Not too sure.

I’m usually the type of player who sticks to just one or two builds per league (a league starter and then a “main” character), but I like to min-max as much as I can within my limits.
I don’t mind progressing slowly, as long as I know that in the end I’ll be able to destroy everything in my path.
That being said, I do get your point.

Still, is rerolling necessarily a bad thing?
It’s one way to keep players engaged and to help sustain the economy.
Rerolled characters often look to buy gear to speed through the campaign again, and then continue buying upgrades along the way.
On the other hand, endgame characters tend to make fewer purchases — just an occasional upgrade here and there, but at some point, progress inevitably slows down.

Of course, that whole “supporting the economy” aspect doesn’t apply to SSF players.

In the end, I feel like the game is caught in between two directions:
Trying to be accessible for new players, while also keeping a certain level of complexity and depth for veterans from PoE1.

I’m not really sure where the game is trying to go.
And I’m also unsure whether GGG wants to merge the “new” PoE2 players with the original PoE1 community (which I’m a part of, and which seems to be complaining quite a bit about the second game), or if they’re aiming to build an entirely new playerbase.

I really just want a tanky melee char with some options to clear screen.
Not very gear dependent.

I don't want to chase for 3-4 months to get my build full....
I want to clear content in one month and spend the rest 2-3 improving min-max my build or making another build in one month that can do all content.

I've been stuck on poe1 doing a starter first and switching to a endgame new char to get trying to do all content (Uber bosses)

In poe2 I hoped to stick with one build from start to end but still being able to try new options on the same league. It suck to try our luck choosing the right top build and failing to find the right one.

This movement is even worst because of market manipulation. At start good gear is cheap. At 2 weeks later of league start prices skyrocket and is almost impossible to keep up.

Ah, so you’re part of the melee gang. Brave soul ! :p
I have to admit I’ve never dared step into that territory — it just seems so painful and unrewarding compared to most meta builds. That said — in my defense — I’ve always been drawn to ranged builds anyway. I used to play only Rangers in Titan Quest (Hunting + Nature, for those who played that gem). The closest I’ve ever come to melee in PoE was Lightning Strike… which says a lot, haha.

About this point:

"

GatoPreto1718#7829 wrote:

This movement is even worst because of market manipulation. At start good gear is cheap. At 2 weeks later of league start prices skyrocket and is almost impossible to keep up.

PoE and its economy are a whole topic in themselves. I totally get the frustration of seeing prices skyrocket when you’ve started the league a bit "late" or simply don’t have several hours a day to sink into the game.

That said, it’s still usually possible to get decent — and eventually even excellent — gear, with a few rare exceptions (looking at you, Temporalis). But yeah, it takes time. Maybe too much time for some, and that’s completely understandable — people have families, personal projects, other priorities…

PoE has always had a reputation for being incredibly time-consuming. And while PoE 2 seems to be aiming for a broader audience, we have to be honest: part of the community just can’t realistically engage with all of the game’s content — even if recent patches have made the endgame more and more accessible.

Anyway, I’ll probably stick to pew-pew builds... unless PoE2 somehow manages to make melee fun and rewarding. Guess we'll see !