PoE2 with other Titles

[giftedfox]

I've been playing a lot of PoE2 and trying out each character. I understand that not everything is out which is what it is. At first it was fun, but as I kept playing it was less so. With each character I gave a try I had this boring unwanted dread that I am going to have to grind more hours away, gamble for the right stat on the proper loot, and get ready for each hurdle the character has against them. Honestly, I feel my drive to play slowly deteriorating away. Which isn't what normally happens with other games with different builds to try.

Elden Ring gets brought up a lot in the forums because PoE2 has a dodge function. Elden Ring has different builds and I do love the game and trying out each different weapon. The biggest hurdle for me as well with others is the two hour prep time to get that build ready. After that it is all fun and stress testing the build against the bosses. PoE2 isn't like that. It takes way more time to get your build ready and most of the time you won't see it to its most until end game. This is great if you are a one kind of character person, but this isn't wonderful if you're into different builds and challenging yourself with each of them.

Diablo 3 has a function that if the player beats the story line then when they make a new character they can bypass the story and go into Adventure Mode. With all the negative factors with Diablo 3, I do believe that bypass was a very good option for those that already seen the story and just want to get into the game play on a new character. Where the game developers basically said "Yeah you already seen the story, we don't want to waste your time with that so here is the full world." I am not sure if PoE2 when it gets released will have this option, but I think it will help with the dread when starting a new character.

I've also been playing another game, Last Epoch. It does have its faults and isn't a perfect game. However, playing it after doing my runs with PoE2 made me closer to that title because of what it offers over PoE2. Leveling is fast on lower levels and gets harder to level the higher you go. Loot is plentiful though not always for your class you picked. Grinding is easier as normal enemies are pretty much everywhere with a good mix of elite and rare enemies. Also helps that the map refreshes with enemies when you go back to it if you want to kick more butt (Though some players didn't like that and is a more each of your own kind of feature). But most important, while playing that game I didn't feel like it was a grind. The story play through don't need to be a grind throughout until end game.

As of current, PoE2 just feels way more grindy than it needs to be. That is with only less than half of the content being available! Imagine everything being out and the rare item drop being something your current character doesn't need at all. Do you sell it, disenchant it for a shard, or store it for your other character? Heck I even hear advice from the forums to use the shops because that is more reliable than going out into the map killing monsters for loot.

Just how I feel now with the game after playing a different title for a few hours.

[Orb]

only read first sentence, try monk

edit: read 2nd paragraph, interesting since I love this game and didnt like Elden Ring at all

[giftedfox]

Originally posted by Orb:

only read first sentence, try monk

edit: read 2nd paragraph, interesting since I love this game and didnt like Elden Ring at all

Funny enough monk was the first character I picked lol.

Edit: Should have cleared it up on the first paragraph, but I made each character you can pick from and played them into act 3.

[Tony]

I am just the opposite. I play these games more so for the campaign than I do the end game.

[Orb]

Originally posted by giftedfox:

Originally posted by Orb:

only read first sentence, try monk

edit: read 2nd paragraph, interesting since I love this game and didnt like Elden Ring at all

Funny enough monk was the first character I picked lol.

Edit: Should have cleared it up on the first paragraph, but I made each character you can pick from and played them into act 3.

I feel like you have to dedicate to a character. It takes a while to see big power changes and it happens after act III

[Critical]

Alright cool, come back in 6-12 months once EA is over then. Other arpgs have had a long time to reiterate and improve so it's not very surprising that some of them are better at doing certain things than POE 2 right now

[giftedfox]

Originally posted by Orb:

Originally posted by giftedfox:

Funny enough monk was the first character I picked lol.

Edit: Should have cleared it up on the first paragraph, but I made each character you can pick from and played them into act 3.

I feel like you have to dedicate to a character. It takes a while to see big power changes and it happens after act III

Here is a quote from Josh Strife. If the game starts to get better after 100 hours, why not not have that start at the first hour?
I know it doesn't take that long to get to the end game, but how long does it on average for a player to reach end game?

[Orb]

Originally posted by giftedfox:

Originally posted by Orb:

I feel like you have to dedicate to a character. It takes a while to see big power changes and it happens after act III

Here is a quote from Josh Strife. If the game starts to get better after 100 hours, why not not have that start at the first hour?
I know it doesn't take that long to get to the end game, but how long does it on average for a player to reach end game?

Well I disagree with that quote, if the only fun he's looking for is in endgame and holding X to win then yes it might take 100 hours until you have fun. I think the power progression of characters and levelling and combat is fun in itself so far.

Why play a game if you don't even enjoy the first 100 hours?

And honestly you've played the campaign on every character, I have only done in on my monk and went into endgame. i'd feel grindy to me too after 5 times. It's only half of the campaign and you haven't entered endgame yet which comes after Act III cruel.

[Octopuses]

I only played PoE1 for like 2 hours. I played Diablo 2, 3 and 4, and like 5 hours of Lost Ark, and I also watched my wife play Grim Dawn.

PoE2 definitely has much more to offer than Diablo 3 and 4. Diablo 3 pretty much has Greater RIfts as the only fun activity. Diablo 4 is just a bad game(I played most of the seasons). Fun the first time around but you really quickly see how bad the end game is, as well as the grind to get there. Also, impossible to create your own build in D4.

Grim Dawn is a pretty good game but you play it once and you are done. Could get solid 100 hours out of it though so worth the money. Lost Ark is good but requires too much time investment, and is more of a MMO.

PoE2 starts slow and I actually enjoyed having to do boss mechanics. At around level 40-45 you will usually become much stronger and the game will play much more like standard ARPG. While I would never create a second character in a single season in PoE2, there is still a lot of endgame content to enjoy, and unlike D4 it's actually fun.

For me PoE2 was fun pretty much the whole way, throughout the campaign and the end game. By campaign I mean actual gameplay, not the story obviously. Story is as bad as in every other ARPG.

[giftedfox]

Originally posted by Orb:

Originally posted by giftedfox:

Here is a quote from Josh Strife. If the game starts to get better after 100 hours, why not not have that start at the first hour?
I know it doesn't take that long to get to the end game, but how long does it on average for a player to reach end game?

Well I disagree with that quote, if the only fun he's looking for is in endgame and holding X to win then yes it might take 100 hours until you have fun. I think the power progression of characters and levelling and combat is fun in itself so far.

Why play a game if you don't even enjoy the first 100 hours?

The quote means the first 100 hours is a slog and boring, where the fun of the game is the end content at the 100 hour mark.

[Orb]

Originally posted by giftedfox:

Originally posted by Orb:

Well I disagree with that quote, if the only fun he's looking for is in endgame and holding X to win then yes it might take 100 hours until you have fun. I think the power progression of characters and levelling and combat is fun in itself so far.

Why play a game if you don't even enjoy the first 100 hours?

The quote means the first 100 hours is a slog and boring, where the fun of the game is the end content at the 100 hour mark.

Yeah that's just preference I guess. I really enjoy the endgame so far but levelling a new char in hardcore or ssf for example seems like a whole different game and also fun. I've really enjoyed my 92 hours so far.

[WallaceTheSane]

Aside from what others are saying, it just sounds like this isn't the game for you. There's no shame in this. If you don't like it, just stop playing it and play something else. There's no point in forcing yourself to play something you aren't enjoying.

[giftedfox]

Originally posted by WallaceTheSane:

Aside from what others are saying, it just sounds like this isn't the game for you. There's no shame in this. If you don't like it, just stop playing it and play something else. There's no point in forcing yourself to play something you aren't enjoying.

It is true that currently the game isn't for me. It is in early access and will be fully released next year. I do have other games that I enjoy that I can go to but I do like to give a game the good old try to see if it has anything worth wild to offer. I do plan on giving it another go when it does get released but currently with it is I just cannot recommend it. It only dawn on me when I went to play Last Epoch and found myself more engrossed with that game play.

[Shajirr]

I think some sort of quick campaign bypass is absolutely required.
Or, some serious cuts to campaign maps might be needed.
Act 3 is ENORMOUS, its basically 2 acts worth of maps atm, with gigantic maps.
Getting through it on every single character would be a MASSIVE slog....

Apparently I have 80 hours played, and still haven't finished Cruel...
and this is with skipping all dialogue on Cruel already.
Act 3 normal took an absolutely insane amount of time to complete...

[giftedfox]

Originally posted by Shajirr:

I think some sort of quick campaign bypass is absolutely required.
Or, some serious cuts to campaign maps might be needed.
Act 3 is ENORMOUS, its basically 2 acts worth of maps atm, with gigantic maps.
Getting through it on every single character would be a MASSIVE slog....

Apparently I have 80 hours played, and still haven't finished Cruel...
and this is with skipping all dialogue on Cruel already.
Act 3 normal took an absolutely insane amount of time to complete...

I agree. Which is why I think adding a way to skip the required story will be a good idea after you already finished the story with at least one character already. Where you still have the choice to do the regular story or if you just want to have fun you can skip it.

[[:-:]]

Originally posted by Orb:

Originally posted by giftedfox:

The quote means the first 100 hours is a slog and boring, where the fun of the game is the end content at the 100 hour mark.

Yeah that's just preference I guess. I really enjoy the endgame so far but levelling a new char in hardcore or ssf for example seems like a whole different game and also fun. I've really enjoyed my 92 hours so far.

I didn't hit engame cause got bored, but I'm kinda curious, what's the point of limiting all the crafting in early game? (at least to me it feels like you get much more stuff after you get to "cruel" or whatever they call it).

After you learn that you have to check vendors and do some limited crafting with blue items (and it happened to me close to the end of Act 1), there's almost nothing interesting, the opportunity to upgrade to Rare is very limited, so you just roll around some 2 affix blues and swap them occasionally. I wouldn't say the difficulty actually requires you to hunt for rares except your weapon.

As it happened to me with PoE1 the biggest problem is to find the exit from location and I don't feel like I want to bother learning all the maps.