Feedback & Wishlist for PoE2

I am having a lot of fun in the game. I especially like the combat. WASD controls are great and make the game more immersive. I play other ARPGs to (Last Epoch, Diablo 4 and PoE1) but I keep coming back to PoE2 despite it being incomplete. There are however many mechanics that just make the game harder (or feel like a chore) without reason. This kills the fun in the game. Overall, I think the game needs less friction where possible and more determinism in both the endgame and crafting. This game has the potential to be my go-to game for the next 5 years.

The game in general is (for now) missing the sheer number of options that made Path of Exile fun for me. Most of this will most likely get fixed when the rest of the content gets added during the early access.

-- Very important changes --
• Fix the EU servers. High pings, lag and disconnects happen especially at night.
• Not everything needs a downside. I understand the need for downsides in balancing powerful stuff. But now it feels like every power increase has a downside.
• Speed up the player by 20%, this includes move, attack, cast and skill speed. A rather small speedup makes the game feel much better.
• XP penalty feels very bad. At higher levels dying removes an hour or hours of “work”. Limiting the xp penalty to the experience gained during the current map would feel much better. This way you can never end with less xp then at start of the map.
• Crafting bench as a central hub for all things crafting. Including salvaging, combining and disenchanting. The crafting bench should also be a much-needed currency sink. The socketables system should also be integrated into the crafting bench.
• Rebalancing of mitigation. ES is right now the best defence by far. Especially armour is bad now.

-- Other changes --
• More impactful quest rewards in the campaign. Reward rare items tailored to the class being played. Give class specific choices.
• Make magic and (especially) rare monsters stand out more both visually and mechanically. Rare monsters should be a memorable and distinct fight.
• Unlock skills from weapons wherever possible / where it makes sense. Opening more build options.
• When using WASD movement, mouse aiming seems off. When the cursor is directly on the mob you are targeting the aim is correct. When aiming in a direction the spell/attack is going in a slightly different direction.
• Make dodge roll a separate skill with support gems. Adding phasing(?), change the length of the roll, teleport etc.
• More deterministic crafting system (this will most likely get better when more old league content is introduced into EA).
• Movement speed as an implicit on boots.
• Further balancing of the ascendency trials.
• Improvement to backpack. Every item just takes up one slot. Backpack tetris should not be a thing anymore.
• UI elements (strongbox labels, expdition labels etc) are blocking view of mobs and grounds effects. Make those labels fade out when there is still stuff going on in the game.

-- Quality of life –
• Fragment stash tab
• Expedition locker / stash tab
• UI scaling

-- Added features --
• Full-fledged auction house, not just for trading currency. I think trade should be in game feature and not require an external site. Use a gold cost for both the seller and the buyer as the needed friction to trading.
• Design a SSF vs Trade system like the one in Last Epoch. Right now, the game seems balanced for trade, making SSF way harder. Give the player a per character choice to go SSF or trade. SSF characters will have a bonus to items drops, in quantity and quality. Also give SSF characters a system that enables them to target farm certain items. Any item a SSF character find is bound to that character and can’t be traded. A trade character won’t have these bonusses, but it will have access to in game auction house. Items found by a trade character will be tradeable with other trade characters and via the AH. Using the AH will incur a gold cost for both the seller and the buyer. To prevent the economy from being flooded with items, items bought through the AH can’t be traded again.
• An in-game reference guide including the following (nice suggestion by SylverXYZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKj5F1kJoXM&t=50s):
o Information on all skills (basically providing access to the gem cutting UI without needing an uncut gem.
o Information on all encountered mobs and bosses.
o Information on all crafting options, including a list of all pre- and suffixes per item slot.
o List of all legendaries.
o Overview and explanation of all formulas used to calculated damage and defenses
• Scarabs or a scarab like system that gives us a more deterministic approach of influencing our maps on a per map basis. In the current endgame there is too much RNG involved with juicing maps. Resulting in the player not feeling in control.
• More different loading screens in the endgame. The art, not the amount of loading screens.

The following list is more of a wishlist. Most of the suggestions include adding old league mechanics and other systems from PoE1. (Some/most of these might already be planned). I would not mind having all gameplay options from PoE1 adapted for PoE2.
What I like most about the endgame of PoE1 is the variation in options. There is always something else to do. Find some sulphite, go delve. Find a contract, go play some heist etc. I would love to see the same gameplay loop in PoE2. With all the systems mentioned below there is a lot of variety in the endgame. Players can choose from mapping, delve, heist, working on the central hub, running the different trials, building your own map (synthesis, kalandra, incursion), bosh rushing in the coliseum.

-- As separate systems (from PoE1) --
• Heist as a separate end-game system.
• Delve as a separate end-game system. SylverXYZ on youtube has some very well thought and detailed ideas about this in 4 videos. The link to the first video is https://youtu.be/6asY_RcjN5A?si=qaR4IR28-ccLTLeW
• Bestiary, including quests for the Atlas. SylverXYZ also has good ideas about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkHhyKAOt0g
• Trial of the ancestors - 3th ascendancy trial? / auto-battler
• Synthesis & Lake of Kalandra - Build your own map kind of gameplay
• Incursion. Again, a detailed design by SylverXYZ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrImRttvDBc&t=788s
• Crucible. I loved specializing my weapons.
• Return of the masters along with their map missions.
• Divination cards
• Blight - Tower defence gameplay.

-- As separate systems (“new” ideas) --
• Mercenary/henchman system. Having Asala with you in act 2 is great. Could be a league mechanic by itself. Different types of customisable and gearable mercenaries. You could have different roles (tanks, healer, melee damage, ranged damage etc, buffer)
• Settlers of Kalguur-like endgame central hub. Rebuilding a refugee camp after the apocalypse at the end of the campaign.
o Central place for auction house etc.
o Mainly used as an alternative way to earn loot and other resources. Should not be obligatory!
o Using workers (or mercenaries from the mercenary idea mentioned above) to run maps. Not sure how to integrate with new atlas. Maybe just make it separate from the atlas, more just a way to put excess waystones to use.
o Getting resources from campaign and endgame maps (again adding more life to (campaign) maps.
• A coliseum / arena to fight bosses (bosh rush mode), endless waves of monsters. Could be a new league. Can also include blight and bestiary functionality. Different arena map layouts. Arena maps could also include some/all league mechanics normally found in atlas maps, maybe with a deterministic way to influence which mechanics appear.
• Atlas questlines. Not the current quests that help you progress through the atlas, but real questlines with stories. The quests could be given by NPCs from the campaign, your hideout or from quest starting items dropped in maps. Each quest is a mini-storyline and takes you through several maps and end in a fitting conclusion (boss-fight, league mechanic etc.) with fitting rewards. I feel there are so many stories and lore to explore in Wreaclast.
• When starting a new character, you get to pick several league mechanics that will be added to the campaign areas. Making each run through different. Maybe there can be other campaign customisation options as well. I agree on the “no campaign skip”. An addition like a customisable campaign will make each run more unique.

-- As part of maps --
• Abyss
• Legion
• Archnemesis
• Affliction
• Scourge

-- Other systems --
• Transfigured gems
• Vaal gems
• Cluster jewels