The Problem Isn’t Difficulty, It’s Engagement.

[Mog]

Hey everyone,

There’s been a lot of discussion about Path of Exile 2 lately, and while the community has raised some good points, I feel like the conversation keeps veering off-course. The problem isn’t that the game is "too hard" — it’s that the difficulty is poorly implemented in a way that makes the game boring. Here’s my breakdown of where I think the game falters:

1. Boring Combat, Not Challenging Combat
Slow, deliberate attacks could work if they felt impactful — like one-shotting small enemies. But having to hit even the weakest mobs 4–5 times? That’s not engaging. Players need to feel vulnerable, sure, but we also need to feel powerful. Right now, I feel like I’m swinging a wiffle bat at enemies. All while getting hit by the same small enemies for a 3rd of my HP in act 3, like what?

2. Not Enough Loot Drops
Even the defenders of POE2 seem to agree on this one: loot drops are underwhelming. Loot is the lifeblood of any ARPG. When there’s so little loot, it doesn’t just kill the fun of gear upgrades — it guts crafting and the entire power fantasy of building a character.

3. Inconsistent Boss Scaling
Bosses are a mixed bag. Some fights feel fine, but others are disproportionately punishing depending on your build. If specific movesets hard-counter certain playstyles, it undermines the idea of diverse character building. Boss difficulty should scale in a way that feels fair and rewarding, not like you accidentally picked the "wrong" build.

4. Dodge Roll Lacks Phasing
This might sound like a nitpick, but the lack of phasing on the dodge roll heavily restricts playstyle. If you get surrounded, it’s almost a guaranteed death because you can’t dodge through enemies. This forces players to play ultra-cautiously or full-clear everything, which is slow and dull.

5. Uninspired Character Power
I played a warrior with a massive two-handed hammer, and I never felt strong. None of my skills felt impactful beyond building up stuns. Dealing a fraction of an enemy’s health with each hit doesn’t feel like I’m wielding a mighty weapon — it feels like I’m chipping away with a toothpick.

6. Zone Design is a Chore
Every zone takes 20–40 minutes to clear, which feels like a slog. The lack of clear progression paths makes backtracking painful. If I miss something and decide to come back later, it’s an absolute nightmare to navigate and find that one sliver of the map I overlooked.

In Summary: The core problem with POE2 isn’t the difficulty. It’s the lack of engagement in combat, loot, and progression. There are moments where the game shows promise, but they’re buried under layers of tedium and frustration.

[Casul Gamer]

Personally, I'm not enjoying some of the design decisions and left a negative review. There are things I also like about the game which is why I've continued to play. If Steam had a neutral review option, maybe I'd change it to that idk.

That said, I think GGG made the right decision for the most part. With the popularity of Elden Ring, complaints about difficulty are a selling point. It will probably draw more people in to try it.

It will still alienate some people, but I suspect many of those people will just end up looking up build guides like people did with PoE 1 and Elden Ring. I hope the game improves, but I expect most things OP listed will stay the same or only be tweaked in a minor way.

[Schizm]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Mog:

2. Not Enough Loot Drops
Even the defenders of POE2 seem to agree on this one: loot drops are underwhelming. Loot is the lifeblood of any ARPG. When there’s so little loot, it doesn’t just kill the fun of gear upgrades — it guts crafting and the entire power fantasy of building a character.

God... Please no. Loot needs to stay rarer and more impact when it does drop.

I'm tired of loot pinata games where you have to dig through .001% stat increases every 5 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ minutes. Its what killed D4, less loot but more impactful loot.

[Sol4rSky]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von SBTim:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Sol4rSky:

Hitting weak mobs 4-5 times before they die sounds like a skill issue, lmfao

waow you're so edgy, cool, and good at video games dood

thx, i can teach you.

[Ginebro]

I disagree, combat is great, not oneshoting trash mobs is a build or gear problem, still this isn't supposed to be PoE1 that's why it's you know... a different game.

Regarding speed i wouldn't touch it for now, most of us veterans remember how PoE1 was on launch (not much different except animation locks and mob collision block) and look at it today, nobody has even reached max lv and most of the comments didn't finish a build.

[Many-Named]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von TimeSpiralNemesis:

I don't have cancer so I guess it's not a problem at all.

[Jesus Christ]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Jonas:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von LemonRush7777:

The game isn't "Soulslike", that's kinda ridiculous.

It's just that the bar is so incredibly low in this genre that anything required from the player that isn't on a spreadsheet is suddenly the most difficult thing in the world.

I played Sekiro, Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring, Lies of P, little bit of Dark Souls 2 and in my opinion its totally clar that this game is a soulslike without a doubt and not even a little bit rediculous. Obviously it has a different perspective, but souls/like does not depend on that imo. Its more about the challange itself and the difficulty, timing, dodging, learning boss patterns and timings and depth of the game itself. People did not expect this kind of gameplay. I like this game and I understand why some people feel like they payed for something they did not want.

You don't know what a soulslike is then, despite having played those games. Where's the corpse runs? Where's the loss of resources on death? Where's the checkpoint hubs? Where's the interconnected levels with shortcuts?

It has a dodge roll and telegraphed bosses so its automatically a soulslike. I guess Legend of Zelda is a soulslike too then.

[Tasnaps]

I completely agree with your points. I just finished Act 3 yesterday, and will probably shelf this game until there comes a major content update. I couldn't bring myself to slug through the Acts 1-3 on ruthless again. This mainly comes from the fact that as a frost sorcerer, I use same skills in same sequence for foreseeable future on both mobs and bosses. I just got depressed thinking about doing the same thing for another 30 hours. (Frost wall -> Frost Bomb -> Frostbolt -> Comet -> Coldsnap) rinse and repeat.

[RedFaster]

You want to talk about feelings?

Alternating between a meandering stroll and rolling on the floor feels like being a paraplegic with an invisible wheelchair. Better than League Of Legends but not by much.

[I Denizen I]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ginebro:

I disagree, combat is great, not oneshoting trash mobs is a build or gear problem, still this isn't supposed to be PoE1 that's why it's you know... a different game.

Regarding speed i wouldn't touch it for now, most of us veterans remember how PoE1 was on launch (not much different except animation locks and mob collision block) and look at it today, nobody has even reached max lv and most of the comments didn't finish a build.

Anyone who played POE, knows a new character starting the acts for the first time, was one shotting nothing, it's spam a skill to kill trash, blow your mana or spendable in 2-4 casts of your actual skill and hope you have enough pots to refill before the fight ends or its kite city time.

There is no Skill in POE, its all gear and skill gems and the skill tree, until you get them working right the game is a pita chore to grind through, once your starter build is up and running, its grind low level farm time till you get lucky with drops to start putting your mid or end game build together depending on how lucky you got with drops.

I have over 5000 hours in POE, I regularly had builds ranging from a few hundred Exalts, to several thousand exalts each league, and then Divs when it switched, I was well known for boss service carries, for lab helm runs and for crafting end game and mirror tier gear.

Ruthless was a steaming pile of dog**** when they introduced it and virtually everyone I knew personally and from reading and looking at the player numbers most people felt the same way.

POE 2 is simply ruthless mode, if they persist with it the game will be a flash in the pan compared to POE and that is the sad truth.

[I Denizen I]

I'll also point out that POE/POE2 is a free to play business model.

FTP works by getting as many people as possible to install your game, as many as possible, with the usual metrics being 80% of them will never ever spend a dime/penny on it, the remaining 20% of players will spend, 10% will be minimal bit spenders, the remaining 10% break down to the few hundred to several thousand whales.

If they are designing POE2 to be so difficult it alienates the vast majority of casual players, they will kill their own game, because it will never ever accrue enough players to warrant the time investment every 3 months for a new league.

They want a game with less creep because it's easier to balance, we all understand that, but going against what your established customer base wants, is not great, and then alienating a huge swathe of potential new customers is also not great.

Unless all you, "please don't change a thing" crowd are all going to start dropping $/£ 50-100 every 3 months on POE2, expect a big climb down within the first year, when they realise POE2 is making a fraction of the money POE one did.

[Sparky mark phillips]

everyone is jumping on the souls like band wagon because noone can come up with any fresh ideas for the whole arpg genre

[Desync]

All u poors so mad u can't blink around the entire area 1 shotting everything. Game is super easy. And if it wasn't easy then nobody would already be in maps. Next

[Radagast the Brown]

Been a fan of D1 and D2 for so many years. Huge fan of even hard mods on those games. Finally we have a proper sequel after so many years. And its not only super beautiful but also highly engaging.

I did play poe1 before for just one league, I did like it despite the fact I jumped late on the train, but it did burn me out, the fact that i had to spend so much time on gathering knowledge while following a build, ultimately did me in. Still a great overall experience, with many mind-blowing moments, but one that I thought suffered from having too much content accumulated over the years, which only added complexity that went way further than I would have ever guessed a game could go. Still, you ended up with a great build in the end, that simply single-clicked-aoe killed everything to victory. Not exactly the most engaging endgame combat in some sense. Easy-to-use, but far from perfect. So all in all, the combat did lack something. That extra layer of engagement. Which I understand not everyone wants.

Fact is that having an easy or even mid-difficulty game, is ultimately super boring and completely forgettable. This is not the case here in poe2 and I am thankful for that.

Yes it can be challenging, even more so for some of us that never expected souls/elden ring dodge rolls and boss fights with that many patterns, but it has a lot of systems in place that more people should engage with, if they want to have an easier time. I died a good number of times even in act 1 as a sorceress but do I enjoy it? Absolutely yes. Do I feel the boss design is amazing and rewarding? Heck yes. When you feel weak enough it just means you need to engage more with the game mechanics, its as simple as that.

There is trading, there is crafting and there are shops that actually "can" sell good loot. There is a skill tree and also different support gem options which can also completely alter a player's experience depending on what is chosen. Play around with all of these enough, and you soon realize that its in your hands to actually get stronger and be better in this game. Nobody else's just yours. Its all a skill issue, no matter what people may think. Its just the kind of arpg that demands more from the player. And that's absolutely fine. Since its "by design".

Is the game solved this early in EA? Absolutely not. And this is normal. Its still the first week. People are still experimenting. There are no insanely good guides out yet, because more experimentation is needed. If you are having too much trouble you can always wait a month or two for some good guides to make it easier on yourself. Or better yet accept that you don't like EA and it might be better to give it a chance on full release. Or just accept that some games are tough, and you either have the appetite to learn them and earn your rewards, or simply skip them.

Are there any problems with the game right now? Well yes, but they are mostly about balancing stuff. And its 100% normal since its just EA. GGG is open to feedback and change stuff all the time if the changes are indeed needed for a better experience.

From what I have seen so far, the core gameplay, the core choices, the core mechanics, the fundamental parts of the game are all absolutely solid and worth a minimum of 9/10. Its all in a good place. But do I expect improvements on balancing? Of course. Balancing different skill gems and combos, balancing different classes, balancing some enemies, and in some cases loot too. Trading must also become easier from an ingame auction house, instead of having to resort to the trade poe 2 site to find the gear you need.

This is not an idle walking "kill everyone" simulator. It just isn't. Stop treating it like it is, is all I have to say. Its not diablo 2, its not diablo 4 and its not poe1 either. Its just a new game. Its not supposed to be the same as its predecessors. And its a damn good game is all that matters in the end.

[thegreatzambinimorsu]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Sparky mark phillips:

everyone is jumping on the souls like band wagon because noone can come up with any fresh ideas for the whole arpg genre

Nobody is coming up with anything new anymore. Remakes of movies, remakes of games.

"Let's just make PoE..... but remove the movement skills and tie it to some crude somersault and make the movement for the characters equal to a diabetic fatmans so they have to spend the time that they aren't dodge rolling walking across bland terrain. They will have to buy our streamer sponsored energy drinks to stay awake during it all!"

[Book of James 5:1]

One of the worst takes I've ever seen on a video game. Well done friend.