Feedback ~ xbox series S / general

So, a few notes that i hope the devs see and think on.

#1 ~ Controller gameplay

1.a ~ My R3 and L3 are wasted. I do not need or want a dedicated button to show map mods and hidden items.

1.b ~ the hidden items you have a dedicated button for, are on the stick needed to move around and select said hidden items. Because for some reason the regular selection with the other stick is disabled. It is also a 'hold' L3 instead of a toggle, making it even worse.

1.c ~ 'twin stick' aiming. Is terrible. Question, with the fast paced gameplay, how does one aim and press X/Y/A/B? Or move and press D-pad anything?

1.c.2 ~ roll-dodge, Hp-pot, Mp-pot, primary damage skill. All really important to an average build. And you need to move\aim while doing them. So thats your R1, R2, L1, L2. Anything else and you either loose mobility or are hoping auto-aim doesn't pick stupidly.

1.c.3 ~ Auto-aim picks stupidly. Both modes often prioritize trash mobs, or random ones, or just looses softlock and tosses your ground target wherever.

1.d ~ i find holding a bumper\trigger to access the second bar, highly unpleasant. Additionally, you sacrifice that key button doing so. It is a tradeoff, you get access to 3 top bar and 3 back bar buttons you can use while 'twin sticking'. Except really its just 2/4. Hard to hold a trigger and simultaneously hit the bumper on that side, no? And if i dont waste a trigger on bar swap ... I still get 4 useable buttons and dont need to 'hold' one constantly.

1.d.2 ~ If the bar swap was a toggle, and i could slap that on R3/L3 or even Rb/Lb, it would be more useful.

1.Solutions ~ R3 and L3 need to be reassignable. From hp/mp pots, to just having extra skills accessible while moving, its a no-brainer. Auto-aim needs work. Bar swap needs a toggle option.



#2 ~ Spirit, Meta Gems, and Energy.

2.a ~ In poe1, my solution to needing to fire off extra spells/skills while not having enough buttons was a normal part of most builds. It was dependable, it was decently easy to build for. Cast on Hit, cast on crit, etc. You hit, it cast. You crit, it cast.

Now? You have to dedicate gear rolls to spirit, dedicate passives to meta nodes, and the end result? Skills that rarely cast, at random moments, at random targets. Skills that either do trash damage because you slotted 'meta' support, or take ages to fire off at a random target as you slotted actual dps supports.

2.b ~ The spirit costs for casters specifically, are currently unreasonable. Compare the herald skills, to the cast on X. You go from a Kill Mob while X, get #X hits. To a, Do X Formula (Z * #X / 'power'), and get 1x Spell cast at random. Its a complete gamble and its overly expense for what little dps it gives.

2.c ~ With the meta gamble, i can no longer have dependable skills on mages that aren't assigned to buttons i press myself. The whole draw was its dependability. I could do endgame content in poe1 with my controller, because i could assign 2 or 3 skills to CoC/CoH/etc. And know they would add to my dps, consistently. I could then have my pots, dodge, and main attack on my triggers and bumpers. Energy Meta Roulette is Not Enjoyable / Playable. Rip my poe2 Sorc.

2. Solution scrap Cast on and give sorc heralds? Rebalance the Russian Roulette that is Energy? Scrap the horrid energy and give us reliable Cast on metas that are comparable to heralds? IDK but its unusable for me in its current state.

#3 ~ Graphics

3.a ~ General Visibility ~ Poe1 had the same issues, you get further into the game, and omg f.your ability to see the ground, the mobs, everything. There are so many Fx cooking off so quickly, the ground is covered, lightning raining constantly, explosions of fire and poison. The screen becomes a rainbow strobe disco ball. I'm not sure this is fixable, hopefully you find a way to cull fx a bit more? Idk.

3.b ~ i have caused the xbox series s to hard crash multiple times with my x-bow build. To be fair, i am running 3 heralds with fire, lightning, blood, and poison explosions. And oil that covers more than the screen. Its set to 'ultra performance' on the graphics. Still kills the console regularly.

3.c ~ occasionally the game trips out, and pieces de render, flicker in and out, or turn a light brown. If i stop moving, it sometimes fixes itself. Cant stop mid combat though, so it often cascades, and the whole screen turns a matte light brown. Fixes with a restart of game, or a change of the graphic settings if the menu layer of the ui is still visible. Happens no matter which scaling / mode / ect. I use. Happens most often in act 3 swamp.

3.d. Can i please get a graphics option to move the item drop ui tags to the layer under actors? Seriously, if a big fight happens where or as a big/fantastic drop happens, you cant see the enemies, or yourself. Its just a screen full of rainbow rectangles and text with your character getting ganked under the blanket of text.



#4 ~ Trading ~

4.a ~ Inflation was always an issue in poe1, looks to be just as bad in poe2.

4.b ~ Trading ~ from a pure time to $ standpoint, why would i stop clearing a map to do 1x trade that would earn less then i would get from the map in that time? Thus trades for less than 1 Ex are a joke, and even trading for 1 Ex is a questionable time sink.

4.b.2 ~ so let say i stopped to do a trade, i open the web browser, search for a uh.. Platinum Kitten Claw of Unreasonable Sharpness .. And i find several. But the players who are online want 20xDivine, The afk players are afk and never respond, and the offline players have ok prices. But that doesn't matter, cause we can only buy from someone online.

So, we wisp PriceGougerMcMuffinPants#8760. And we are in luck. We get an inv to his party. And immediately met with demands of having a Mic. No Mic, kicked from party.

Next we wisp F3N$##\;½<<~^>><Burger. Luck once again. We join their party. Then fuss over where to meet. Then fuss over the price, because 'market prices are going up'.

Finally, 45 min from the start of this adventure, i have my kitten claws. And several new grey hairs. And need a break from poe.

Next, we try to sell something... Do i need to type that out too? Or is my point made?


4. Solutions ~ CoD &/or AH, with fees. Convenience for buyers / sellers. And a scaling money sink that can help fight inflation.



I do hope i kept my rantyness in the constructive category. I enjoyed my on again off again poe1 time, and i am hoping poe2 will improve that experience. To GGG, thank you for the hard work.