Path of Exile 2
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TheBeagle
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Act 4 final boss is fucking bullshit. start off with 2 minutes of dialogue that you have to repeat every time. three fucking phases. Literally spent 1 hour learning the fight, get him down to 10% on final phase, die. Yay, start all over again. No thanks. I'm done. It's like a god damn Sirus fight in the middle of the campaign at level 53. It's just not my idea of fun. Having tough bosses in the end game is great for the people that want to play that way, but this fucking campaign is ridiculous. Zero chill. I know, I know, I suck, get gud.
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Chimney
Trakanon Raider
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Yeah bow is basically the best way to do anything atm for safety. I ran hollowed palm for early/mid, but it just gets outpaced hard by a moderately good rolled qstaff. I'm sure with some sort of ev/es stacker it is probably solid, but again still out classed by qstaff so why even bother.
TheBeagle
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Yes, a lot of people that enjoy ARPGs aren't enjoying their new ARPG. Bold strategy.
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Daidraco
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May be too late, and I've never played your build. But I know the bombardier crossbow was the "bees knees" on steam release merc with gas grenades. But now that its being played as an actual rounds build, I would look to see if either of those skills uses that extra grenade synergy. If not - then I would have to sway towards "bigger number" better.
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Goonsquad Officer
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it seems like the changes to the merc skills this go really punch you in the ammo nuts. I had a +1 ammo load (diad) bow for a while and i really liked that.
I've leaned less on the grenades this go. my current setup uses the volt grenade to apply electrocute. using second wind, multishot, and short fuse (so it actually hits what i want). I tried to use the seige ballista and the mortor ballista and both of them c ould not HIT shit due to creatures moving around.
its possible i should use short fuse on the mortor ballista but shit. that would be me wasting 2 of the slots (one on the grenade one on short fuse) to aproach normal hitting that the lower level artillary ballista does already.
I've leaned less on the grenades this go. my current setup uses the volt grenade to apply electrocute. using second wind, multishot, and short fuse (so it actually hits what i want). I tried to use the seige ballista and the mortor ballista and both of them c ould not HIT shit due to creatures moving around.
its possible i should use short fuse on the mortor ballista but shit. that would be me wasting 2 of the slots (one on the grenade one on short fuse) to aproach normal hitting that the lower level artillary ballista does already.
Daidraco
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I would have to play the class again to see the changes - but with 6 shots of gas grenade going out, you could fill up the whole map with gas and finish it up with a short fuse explosive, toss another gas grenade out afterwards and have a good chance for another set of explosions. But yea, you're right.. pretty much an end game build with the Jeweler's you have to spend.
Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
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Everyone I know is enjoying it other than the 2 or 3 that want it to be POE 1. Still has a long way to go, I'm sure it'll get better.
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Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
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Also...
sucks you're not enjoying it but saying "no one is enjoying it" is a bit of a stretch.
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TheBeagle
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Where did I say no one is enjoying it? You literally just quoted me twice and that's not what i said. Will be interested what that graph looks like next weekend. Look, I was pissed earlier but I really don't care that much. I'll play and enjoy the next POE 1 league and will check back in on POE 2 in a year once it has had more time to cook.
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Imo a game is doing at least something right if people rage after dying to something. I will agree there is no reason for tediousness just for tediousness, aka if you have to go through 2 minutes of dialogue every time, not just the initial. Dying at 5% and having to start over is just part of the game. If i wanted easy I would play a kids game or something I can mod to make easy. Part of the fun of ARPG is the slow starts to eventually you just become so powerful you breeze through everything without stopping. At that point you are just farming to gain incremental increases and I quit, never play these things for longer than 2-3 weeks myself.
The guy's guide I am following, I watched him play for a bit. Dude just doesn't stop except to pick up loot. Its constantly moving at fast speeds, spamming his lightning arrow that kills everything instantly, or maybe 2-3 seconds for a boss/yellow, pick up loot, use some currency on it if he deems it worthy, and puts it on the market to sell. I couldn't do that day after day, Soon as I became that powerful , spend a day clearing maps that fast and I would of quit.
I treated diablo the same way, get to the point I can breeze through say GR60-80s and quit. Not gonna sit there to grind out paragon or my gems to obscene levels.
The guy's guide I am following, I watched him play for a bit. Dude just doesn't stop except to pick up loot. Its constantly moving at fast speeds, spamming his lightning arrow that kills everything instantly, or maybe 2-3 seconds for a boss/yellow, pick up loot, use some currency on it if he deems it worthy, and puts it on the market to sell. I couldn't do that day after day, Soon as I became that powerful , spend a day clearing maps that fast and I would of quit.
I treated diablo the same way, get to the point I can breeze through say GR60-80s and quit. Not gonna sit there to grind out paragon or my gems to obscene levels.
Kirun
Buzzfeed Editor
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I understand why a segment of the player base that loves PoE 1 would prefer for PoE 2 to essentially feel like a remastered or modernized version of the first game. While I personally think that perspective is a bit misguided, I can see where it comes from. PoE 1 has been around for a long time, and people are understandably attached to its systems and pacing.
That said, I'm genuinely glad that GGG is committing to making PoE 2 a distinct experience rather than just a refinement of what already exists. Each patch does seem to pull the game a little closer toward the identity of PoE 1, and while that has certain benefits, it also comes with drawbacks. What excites me most is the slower pace and more deliberate combat that PoE 2 is leaning into. Enemies feel more relevant. They're not just speed bumps to be ignored, but actual threats that need to be dealt with. For me, that's refreshing. I love PoE 1 for what it is, but I've always disliked the extreme “zoom zoom” playstyle it eventually evolved into. ARPGs lose something important when the entire experience is reduced to twitchy screen-clearing as fast as humanly possible. I find PoE 2's more methodical and thoughtful approach to be far more engaging.
That said, the game clearly needs "more" across the board. More classes, more ascendancies, more skills, and simply more variety to flesh things out. I'm also still on the fence about the design choice of tying abilities so closely to weapon types. While I think I can eventually come around on it, at the moment it feels restrictive. Too many builds end up feeling similar to one another, which I hope is just a temporary byproduct of limited options at this stage of development. With time, expansion, and refinement, that system could still win me over.
One other area where I think the game could improve is boss design. Not necessarily in terms of difficulty, but in terms of presentation. I don't mind tough bosses; in fact, I think punishing and demanding encounters are part of what makes games like Elden Ring so memorable. But what works there is the ability to jump back in quickly after failure. In PoE 2, the issue isn't so much the bosses themselves as the drawn-out, overly theatrical "LARPing" sequences that precede the real fight. If the game is going to hit players with punishing encounters (which I'm fully on board with), then it should also respect their time by letting them retry without sitting through an extended LARP session every attempt.
That said, I'm genuinely glad that GGG is committing to making PoE 2 a distinct experience rather than just a refinement of what already exists. Each patch does seem to pull the game a little closer toward the identity of PoE 1, and while that has certain benefits, it also comes with drawbacks. What excites me most is the slower pace and more deliberate combat that PoE 2 is leaning into. Enemies feel more relevant. They're not just speed bumps to be ignored, but actual threats that need to be dealt with. For me, that's refreshing. I love PoE 1 for what it is, but I've always disliked the extreme “zoom zoom” playstyle it eventually evolved into. ARPGs lose something important when the entire experience is reduced to twitchy screen-clearing as fast as humanly possible. I find PoE 2's more methodical and thoughtful approach to be far more engaging.
That said, the game clearly needs "more" across the board. More classes, more ascendancies, more skills, and simply more variety to flesh things out. I'm also still on the fence about the design choice of tying abilities so closely to weapon types. While I think I can eventually come around on it, at the moment it feels restrictive. Too many builds end up feeling similar to one another, which I hope is just a temporary byproduct of limited options at this stage of development. With time, expansion, and refinement, that system could still win me over.
One other area where I think the game could improve is boss design. Not necessarily in terms of difficulty, but in terms of presentation. I don't mind tough bosses; in fact, I think punishing and demanding encounters are part of what makes games like Elden Ring so memorable. But what works there is the ability to jump back in quickly after failure. In PoE 2, the issue isn't so much the bosses themselves as the drawn-out, overly theatrical "LARPing" sequences that precede the real fight. If the game is going to hit players with punishing encounters (which I'm fully on board with), then it should also respect their time by letting them retry without sitting through an extended LARP session every attempt.
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Arbitrary
Tranny Chaser
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If I enjoyed doing the meta things this league there wouldn't be any issues. On the macro level the game got better. The story advanced. There are powerful things to do in it. I'm just completely over shooting any more Lightning Arrows. Unlike it's predecessor when you get off the reservation in this game it makes you ride the struggle bus as punishment. That I can't watch the content reveal, read the patch notes and have a good time going off on my own kills the whole thing for me.
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Pasteton
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Im having a blast playing witch using acrossbow with poison stacking and trying to scale it with chaos damage/wither. So far it’s crushing act 1 lol. I know it won’t work later but it makes me feel like im playing poe1 when I can try and make weird shit happen.
Daidraco
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Granted its still early in the league - but man does it feel like they just gutted a bunch of builds since release and didnt add but a handful back.
Ill second the complaint behind the big maps, too. The maps dont necessarily need to be smaller, though it wouldnt hurt to shave off 15% or so in size. Especially on maps like Titan's Cave or wherever, where 90% of the real estate is just a long path stretching out into the nothingness, only to dead end you 5 miles away from the nearest check point. BUT - what I think would help a LOT more is if they just add metric fuck load more of points of interest. Going down some valley in a map and being presented with a dead end and no check point would be made a lot better if there was some funky statue fitting the theme of the area handing you two chests at the end of the valley instead. Micro rewards and gambling - dopamine.
A lot of the new shit is really cool though and I think that once they feel comfortable enough to slap the "Retail Release" on it - then it'll be an incredibly good game. Though, Im having a good time playing it right now, too.
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