Right now, the main topics at the Path of Exile subreddit are complaining about Path of Exile 2 - about how it’s slower than the original Path of Exile, how items drop less often, how the enemies are harder, and so on.
It feels like Path of Exile 2 is aiming at a different playerbase than the original Path of Exile. I wonder if it will find it, or if we will end in a scenario in which the older game is more popular than the new one.
What do you think?
I like that PoE2 is different enough from PoE that it isn’t a clone with better graphics. It is the different game, lol. Believe it or not, at the time, we all didn’t like Diablo 2 more than Diablo 1, lol. Playing armchair general and reviewing the historical facts, D2 was obviously the better game, but I went into MMO games because there were much better game choices then than there are today.
For the record, first impression, I like PoE2 more than 1 
I don’t think you’ll end up in a “PoE1 won” or “PoE1 lost” scenario. You’ll end up with 2 games with 2 different playerbases, with a not insignificant number of players enjoying both.
And let’s not forget: we’re at day 3 of the early access. Many things will still change, including balance issues. If they reduce HP across the board for mobs that are currently sponges, the game will become faster. If they increase loot drops, people will be happier.
Personally, I think the combat is too slow as well and that there aren’t many drops. PoE2 is a game that is trying to make you craft all the time so you get better gear, rather than having it drop, and I don’t like crafting, so that’s a negative for me.
But the worst part for me is that movement itself (just walking from point A to point B) is very slow and maps are very very big. In the end it’s just boring to clear a map because there’s no diversity.
Other than that, I have to say I like PoE2 as well. I will likely finish the campaign and delve into at least early endgame. Though I don’t know if I’ll be able to play through the campaign again with new characters.
I can only speak for myself…
I ain’t never logging in PoE 1 ever again. No matter what… Even if I end up hating PoE2 when I try it in the future, I’ll just find another game… PoE1 is as good as dead for me.
PoE1 feels exact the same as Diablo 2 for me… Sure they’re huge games which set things up to be the way they are right now in the gaming industry… But that’s it… they were only “the best” at their peak because there was nothing else.
So basically paint themselves back into the corner that they did with PoE 1. It was never even slightly as fast back in the day as it is now. I think that “everyone knew” that they would make PoE2 much slower paced than PoE1.
They don’t have to make it as fast to please a lot more people. There’s a balance in there that will make it a bit faster but still not zoom zoom.
I don’t think they wil though. They don’t want PoE2 to be PoE1 but with better graphics and slightly changed mechanics. They want both games to be distinct and appeal to different audiences.
PoE1 players that don’t like PoE2 will still have PoE1 running leagues as normal.
So far, the things I’ve hated the most in the game are:
-Slow start for some classes that have a really hard time in early act 1, especially minions.
-Bad targetting system. I was using ED+Contagion to assist the minions. Contagion requires that you target the leading monster and then hit it with ED so it can spread, but even though my mouse was clearly on top of the leading monster, it would cast it on some mob in the back which I then can’t hit with ED. I constantly have to cast multiple contagions.
-The first ascension trial. I hate Sanctum mechanics with a passion. I hate it even more than I hate delve. The whole “not getting hit” mechanic is way too annoying for me. Failed it 3 times in a row and gave up for now. I’ll try it when I’m overleveled to see if it’s easier. It seems they haven’t learned their lesson and still lock vital character progression behind terrible mechanics.
As for the difficulty, I don’t really mind it so much. Sure, I die a lot more than in PoE1. But I also die a lot less than in Souls games. I’m not cut out for those games and bosses for me are a matter of just dying a bunch of times until I get lucky and kill them.
But in PoE2 I sometimes die a few times on a boss, but eventually I manage to kill it without getting too frustrated.
Give it six months. I think they’re leaving head room for all the insane bonuses that will eventually pile up on the items for things like cooldown and move speed. The power creep in games like this is so bad that they quickly become borderline frantic click-fests.
Probably the reason they’re avoiding that becoming the case for the time being is because that frantic clicky-ness intimidates and scares off a lot of new players who aren’t acclimated to the ARPG genre. This is probably especially true of the new generation of PC and console gamers that were just created by games like Elden Ring. The color palette and inclusion of a dodge roll lend to that theory also.
As a younger gamer, PoE was my Diablo 2 I started around the time Atziri was introduced and got good at the game(first lvl 90) by Forsaken masters. I skipped the game from Abyss league to Metamorph league due to IRL stuff. I quit PoE in Ultimatum due to many accumulating issues.
Another thing is despite the large variety I never felt the itch to experiment or create my own build in PoE. I have done a lot of that in Grim Dawn and Last Epoch but not in PoE. Partly maybe due to the cost of experimenting being much higher in PoE and also maybe because the sheer variety makes me feel a bit lost.
I am moderately hyped for PoE 2 and have occasionally been checking in on the changes in PoE 1 on the reddit/streamers briefly.
Watching some of the gameplay of PoE 2, while I do think PoE 2 looks a lot better visually and is less cluttered and clear speed oriented which makes me pretty excited for the game. But I think some of my core disagreements still exist. PoE 2 crafting just boils down to gambling with ridiculously shitty chances. The “Ruthless” and item scarcity looks really silly to me as it heavily disincentivizes minmaxing and finetuning a build (a copied one or something you made on your own). Enemy damage still seems heavily overtuned and on death effects are a plenty. Sanctum looks like something I will never agree with being in an ARPG. I’m still probably gonna play it on release (its free lol) but seeing this stuff I’m not too hyped.
There was a lot of talk about PoE 2 early access overshadowing LE but I think looking at their early access it is more of even(ing) the odds. PoE 2 EA has a lot of things to iron out and fine tune as well as a lot of classes and ascendancies to be added. Like one of the feedbacks I saw was on backtracking in zones and maps (this isn’t a problem LE has). They have their own set of issues to fix and PoE 2 should be a more fair competitor for LE than PoE 1 so I think that this release is actually better for LE in that front as it also brings a lot of attention to the ARPG genre.
It’s good-looking and dark. I like that.
But it’s sooo slow. You ru… walk slow. You are constantly walking backwards, away from mobs (my first impression, which is important).
You hit slow, when you are not dodging. The mobs die slow.
The bosses is dodge, dodge, dodge, attack, dodge, die.
Almost no regenerating potions. Die to a boss and it’s a restart.
Almost no good/interesting loot.
As it is now I feel only… bored playing it. I don’t feel the potential of “power fantasy” as I feel in LE or even D4, and that’s a huge no go for me.
Granted, it’s still EA, so much can change, and hopefully will change.
I’ll stick with LE for now, and so very much hope the development speeds up in this game.
Having played PoE1 since 2014, i can say 1.0 poe is going to be far better then 1.0 poe2.
poe1 was never this awful terrible slow game people make it out to be imo outside of like literal closed beta. PoE1 had ignite prolif on the whole screen in 1.0.
And honestly poe2 isnt that slow in terms of how fast you can kill etc. Mathils monk can blow up screens.
The issue is the ruthless design in terms of loot and progression. There are builds auto exploding the screen pretty much in poe2 already with pop srs etc. So its not exactly an issue of “game 2 fast” its that progression needs be actual progression.
instead of “i ran around for 10 hours and got 1 alch and 2 rares not for my class”
I played about 20 hours of poe2, the ruthless shit sucks, the gems not getting exp but being items sucks. The passive tree sucks… The early game is exceptionally fucked up power curve wise. etc.
The pros are, it looks sick and runs really well. And it has some interesting ideas in keystones/ascendancy points. But I couldnt stick to the game long enough to attempt to get there. Because every level felt like a slog, and every act drug on for far too long with huge winding maps.
I think maybe if they retool early game so the pacing is better then they might have a game. But the golden rule is “Games should be fun from the start” if it takes me 50 hours to slog to my build “working” then its just not fun.
Tried it, not too fond of it in its current state.
I’m fine with it being slower, actually quite like it.
And it looks great.
I also like the skill gem system.
However…
It’s not a game for me, not now at least.
Dodge mechanics
You spend most of a boss fight rolling around avoiding stuff. This gets annoying when the boss are bullet sponges making the fights last forever.
Another thing is bodyblocking. I have died so many times getting blocked in and mobbed to death because I can’t kill fast enough to survive.
Loot
Finding upgrades takes way too long. Both gear and currency for crafting is too rare.
Mobs respawn when you die
Yep, the map fills up again.
Ascendancies
The first chance you have to unlock your Ascendancy is gated behind Sanctum league mechanics. If you are unfamiliar with that it’s basically a mode where you fail if you get hit too many times during your attempt. And there is a looot of things that can hit you.
I haven’t reached the second one yet, but it seems to be gated behind my second least favourite league mechanic, so I assume I will fail that as well.
That is way too punishing just to get your build online.
Minions
Minions are useless. Skeletons respawn automatically on a timer, but they are so weak they spend more time reviving than they do fighting. That’s WITH life upgrades from talents.
Granted, I haven’t reached beyond act 2 on any of my chars. I can’t speak for endgame, but starting with minions is painful to say the least.
So for me, its just a Path of Frustration.
Endgame should be harder, but making it painful to get through the campaign is just a big no for me.
My first char is an Arc build, and cast speed is something I don’t have lot of yet.
Final straw was a boss in act 2 with a tiny arena, summoning plenty of adds which are body blocking me constantly while my Arc barely tickled them.
This is annoying. But even worse, for me, is that if some loot drops and then you die, it’s gone as well. I can accept that in LE because zones aren’t persistent for now (and I know they want to change that eventually), but in PoE2 this is just annoying and there’s no reason for it to happen.
Even worse, sometimes you respawn at a checkpoint and there are a bunch of mobs surrounding it, so it’s possible that you’ll respawn only to die again. This happened to me when I was trying to kill the act2 boss.
Yeah, this is an even worse choice than using labs. I loathe Sanctum even more than delve (which is already a lot).
I tried it a bunch of times and gave up on it. I eventually got it after overleveling a lot and probably being lucky with the RNG and the rooms that showed up (got 3 rooms to regain honor).
I can’t even imagine how ragequit-inducing this must be for melee.
The only melee ones I use are the ones from the sceptre. With meat shield they seem to last decently while exploring. Early act 1 is terrible for using minions. Once you can get a few snipers and use flame wall, it becomes better (and even better with arsonists and with raging spirits).
But so far the only formula I found that works for minions is indeed flame wall+SRS along with a bunch of arsonists/snipers shooting through the flame. All others don’t work.
And for bosses it’s worse because they get constantly wiped by AoEs.
I have no interest in trying POE2 given how I did not enjoy my time with PoE1, but I wanted to say that I was too young to board the hype train for D2 when it first came out (being 7 years old whose parents hated video games, with my mom telling me that buying me video games was her biggest regret with raising me when I was in my 20s) so while I tried some of the private servers in my teens it never grabbed me until I played D2R on Switch and honestly I thought it was really good… For a single campaign playthrough. I tried making more characters but it just was not fun. There was nothing to use the gear you were grinding for except PvP and I had no interest. Ubers were a thing, but once you could farm them then better gear was useless except to make farming easier? This is the only thing I think D3 did better was having an endless endgame that made better gear useful. D3 is still fun for mindless ARPG slaughter, but I’ll probably never play D2/D2R again
I like PoE2 more than PoE1. It’s so nice not having to even use a loot filter, lol.
The issues I have with POE2 are:
Pinning: This is when the monsters surround you and you cannot move. What fun.
Focus on movement mechanics in boss fights: I don’t find moving around the screen in a choreographed manner like dancing to be a fun way to pass my time. Roll here, roll there, stab stab, roll, jump, slide, stab stab, repeat. Tedious and boring.
Loot drops: They want players to craft their own gear and buy from the vendors. That completely removes the purpose of going out and killing things for me. I kill things to see if they drop something interesting to use.
They refuse to give out refunds if you played more than 2 hours, so I am having a great time downvoting and complaining about their shitty design choices everywhere, its more enjoyable than playing the game.
Now why on earth did you pay for a free game?
I have to say, this is commercial genius. Back in the day, beta-testers would get the game for free, in exchange for their feedback. Non-testers had to buy the game. Nowadays, testers are the only ones paying to be allowed to help the developers, it is free for everyone else.
Crazy. This is complete nonsense, but… it works!
Man, you need a hobby… Go play a game or something.
Although I suppose if you are “having a great time”, it’s all that matters.
To be fair, you pay 30 bucks and you get 30 bucks worth of points for the store. So it’s not so much paying to be a tester, since you’re not actually buying the game, as simply buying a points pack to play earlier. Not to mention that anyone that had spent 480$ on PoE1 (most of the top players, at least) played for free.
Personally, even though there are things I don’t enjoy that much in PoE2, so far I’m enjoying it enough to justify the money I spent.
And let’s not forget that it’s early access. They’re still tweaking a lot of stuff, having already addressed the issues with getting mobbed a bit and also the loot drops.
A lot more will still change in the year it will stay in EA. It’s quite likely the game will be quite different by the time 1.0 launches.
So far I’m really not liking PoE 2, it’s meant for the people who like incredibly challenging games. It might change but as it stands I will continue playing Last Epoch and PoE1.
I’m only on act 1 cruel (equivakent to act 4), still far from the endgame , but so far despite knowing that i’ll probably play it , i think it will be my fourth game , behind PoE 1 , D4 and LE. I’m now more excited for the GD expansion or TQ2 than PoE2.
My main problem is that i play this games for the loot and the feeling of slaughtering lots of mobs , I kind of plan my builds and think about what loot i want and then i just have fun in autopilot , and i feel like i progress and go from weak to strong.
I have no problem on finding little loot , i like a non cluttered screen , but either give me lots of stuff to craft (like LE) or give me less RNG on drops and some decent loot, evben if its scarce.
I don’t like the design of spongy bosses everywhere , its ok having some , specially as pinnacle or endgame , but there are too many at the beginning.
So far I hope they improve the game , because its nice to have more ARPG options .
you do? I never got mine on steam