What path will Path of Exile 2 take?

[Rebe]

The latest gameplay footage of the endgame content looks great, but I do have my doubts.

I'm curious, Diablo 4 has been, initially, presented as the 'down to earth' and 'back to the roots' game that'll focus on proper pacing and proper combat both in situation, awareness or focus, all in regard to the player itself of course.

The early footage of D4 has shown exactly that. Quartlery Updates have always!! stressed these points. A ton of depth has been promised, but D4 lacks it in too many ways still and the combat itself, mechanically, will never be what they have shown early on. The slower paced combat is now nowhere to be seen and the game is at the point where it is, again, as it happened with D3, back to the 'nuke the screen' gameplay with a gazillion damage. Despite the continuous statements of D4 not making the same mistakes as D3 did, such as Multipliers in the 10000% not going to happen, we are back to damage numbers that most don't even know how to read.

I wanted to stress all this because PoE2's state now looks similar to what Diablo 4 was during its developement.

D3 was/is a nuke fest, and D4 promised to do it differently.
PoE1 was/is a nuke fest, and PoE2 now promises to do it differently.

I really hope what we have seen with the latest footage, and the design philosophy, is what'll remain a constant throughout PoE2's lifetime.

I'm one of those that does not like the super-fast paced endgame, neither of D4 nor of PoE1. So I might be a minority and the game will change over time to suit the masses as things usually do.

I'll still purchase the EA to support GGG as it seems like it's one of the few genuine developers with passion for their craft.

[侍Kage]

People behind PoE are just smart as hell. They know what their players want, they know what means ARPG. These guys delaying last 3 acts to focus on end game for EA is just shows how smart they are. They were also so confident that they literally revealed the whole game from A to Z. In the meantime, D4 reveals were so minimal, literally almost nothing. They show the first area only with some mechanics and people got hyped due to that because first area and early game was great. But then when we played it, we realized mid to end game is not existed. PoE2 currently giving us 10 times more end game content than current version of d4 (+dlc +6 seasons) enough to support them and buy packs.

These guys literally won't do garbage updates ever, future is so bright for this game.

[ɃƵ Crazy Cat Lady]

I think POE2 will actually deliver these things, have you seen some of the gameplay, and dev interviews?

[Rebe]

Originally posted by ɃƵ I got your back brother:

I think POE2 will actually deliver these things, have you seen some of the gameplay, and dev interviews?

I've seen a lot of them. I know where PoE went and it I played PoE once till I was done with the campaign. Which was alright, felt archaic. Endgame just isn't for me. I'm not a fan of "braindead" skill-spam gameplay. I can understand that building the class is the greatest fun, but it isn't for me. Which is why I dislike D4 at each of its steps.
Not sure if I get my point across here.

[Rogue]

There will be some amount of whining about lack of content early since there are only 3 acts (which you run twice). There is no league until the actual f2p launch which is at least 6 months away, then we'll have 6 acts....

But unlike poe 1 during its early launch years, the skill system of poe 2 is more robust and expanded so you can experiment with builds for longer. Also arpg like this is always a nuke fest due to the need to clear huge number of mobs, however boss fights in poe is more strategic as compared to diablo 4 where you mainly stand still and spam kill "end game" boss in seconds or suffer annoying immune phases.

[Rebe]

Maybe I should add that D2(R) ist my favorite ARPG by a long shot. Titan Quest is nice (and Titan Quest 2 looks very good so far), Torchlight as well.
If the "nuke fest" extends to what D2 does at its end game then it'd be fine with me.

I think my biggest issue with D3/4 are the core mechanics, such as level scaling, all Damage is bound to Weapon Damage, all modifiers ultimately ending in being % to Damage or Toughness

[Hosenbund]

I understand your concerns and i actually share them.

The thing for me is that blizzard is incompetent, diablo 4 at launch was just a really bad game.. now its at least somewhat playable, even though its not true to its original vision anymore

I think that Path of exile 2 will deliver this slower paced, more hardcore gameplay more properly and they wont instantly give up on it if there are problems.

But at the end of the day i think it rises or falls with how the players perceive it.
They need to create a game which is as big or bigger than PoE1... otherwise its considered a failure.
So i am worried that PoE2 will end up being more niche than poe1 because too many people simply want to rush through all the maps at light speed while one shotting everything with the click of 1 button.

But who knows how it will turn out, we have to wait and see. and i think its also hard to judge it until we leave the EA phase and actually become f2p and/or a good new league.

It cant be predicted how the player numbers change once it hits f2p and 1.0.
just look at other games.. one of the most extreme examples i can think of is baldurs gate 3.
sitting at 2-10k players in EA and suddenly exploding to almost 1 million on steam alone on release.

[kekplexis]

Originally posted by Hosenbund:

So i am worried that PoE2 will end up being more niche than poe1 because too many people simply want to rush through all the maps at light speed while one shotting everything with the click of 1 button.

The thing is, there's not too many such people. It's just the vocal minority plus youtubers and streamers. The majority are just casual players who prefer slower and more grounded approach.

[Hosenbund]

Originally posted by kekplexis:

Originally posted by Hosenbund:

So i am worried that PoE2 will end up being more niche than poe1 because too many people simply want to rush through all the maps at light speed while one shotting everything with the click of 1 button.

The thing is, there's not too many such people. It's just the vocal minority plus youtubers and streamers. The majority are just casual players who prefer slower and more grounded approach.

and how do you know its a vocal minority? are you just assuming that?
I know PLENTY of casual players which are not into difficult games but they love playing games like diablo, PoE or warframe in which you just run through and one shot everything

Not sure how you think a more souls-like approach is more casual

Games like monster hunter or elden ring/dark souls show that slower combat doesnt mean easier

most hardcore shooters are also very slow paced.. escape from tarkov and others.. most really popular games are pretty fast, like call of duty and fortnite, apex and whatever.. exception is counter strike, but thats still inbetween those other games and actual hardcore shooters

league of legends is another example.. league is way faster than dota 2 but more popular

[kekplexis]

Originally posted by Hosenbund:

Originally posted by kekplexis:

The thing is, there's not too many such people. It's just the vocal minority plus youtubers and streamers. The majority are just casual players who prefer slower and more grounded approach.

and how do you know its a vocal minority? are you just assuming that?
I know PLENTY of casual players which are not into difficult games but they love playing games like diablo, PoE or warframe in which you just run through and one shot everything

Not sure how you think a more souls-like approach is more casual

Games like monster hunter or elden ring/dark souls show that slower combat doesnt mean easier

most hardcore shooters are also very slow paced.. escape from tarkov and others.. most really popular games are pretty fast, like call of duty and fortnite, apex and whatever.. exception is counter strike, but thats still inbetween those other games and actual hardcore shooters

More casual doesn't mean easier. It's apparent that they want to nail "easy to learn, hard to master" approach this time, instead of "minmax or get wrecked" poe1 style. Because majority of gamers is not into that minmaxing, and they want that casual audience from d4 as well.

[Hosenbund]

Originally posted by kekplexis:

Originally posted by Hosenbund:

and how do you know its a vocal minority? are you just assuming that?
I know PLENTY of casual players which are not into difficult games but they love playing games like diablo, PoE or warframe in which you just run through and one shot everything

Not sure how you think a more souls-like approach is more casual

Games like monster hunter or elden ring/dark souls show that slower combat doesnt mean easier

most hardcore shooters are also very slow paced.. escape from tarkov and others.. most really popular games are pretty fast, like call of duty and fortnite, apex and whatever.. exception is counter strike, but thats still inbetween those other games and actual hardcore shooters

More casual doesn't mean easier. It's apparent that they want to nail "easy to learn, hard to master" approach this time, instead of "minmax or get wrecked" poe1 style. Because majority of gamers is not into that minmaxing, and they want that casual audience from d4 as well.

its not min-maxing by definition if you get wrecked if you dont do it...
min-maxing implies you are trying to squeeze every little bit of power out of something to get a few % more out of it
thats not how the endgame and power scaling of PoE works.. you literally become 100 times stronger or more compared to a bad build in that game

I mean we want the same thing though, i just disagree with the reasonings

[Navhkrin]

Same for me—I really disliked PoE 1's end-game gameplay, where you used one skill to clear the entire map. However, it’s apparent that they’ve made significant changes to address this. They’ve made using multiple active abilities viable (instead of relying entirely on one) and put a lot of effort into creating interesting boss mechanics. All their showcased active abilities feel grounded. It’s clear they’re trying, and given this, I’m hopeful that the meta won’t devolve into one-ability spam builds.

[TonnieKrain]

it will take the Path, of Exile.

[Nips]

run through area, hold 1 button, repeat

[loves frogjs]

Originally posted by Hosenbund:

because too many people simply want to rush through all the maps at light speed while one shotting everything with the click of 1 button.

I feel like part of it is just that gameplay-wise combat in isometric ARPG is usually really not that engaging. Dodgin, attacking and moving in point-n-click style get kinda boring if fights stretch out for long. I feel like wasd/controller would greatly increase the dynamics of combat encounters. With shooting/casting while moving the game becomes much closer to twin-stick shooters then classic "click enemy 10 times before it dies" formula, so I feel like they are moving towards longer but more dynamic fights, especially considering how many bosses there will be.

[Kao]

Put it this way: if GGG fails, the genre is dead.
If these ultra nerds can’t deliver a proper ARPG, nobody will