Final thoughts on POE 2 Early Accesss

[moon]

So, here are my brief final thoughts on the game after finishing the acts and starting maps. And most importantly you have to remember, I'm just some gamer. Some random gamer.

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Art: Great graphics, great effects, good audio and music. Distinct landscapes and coherent themes across different parts of the story.

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Performance: Generally okay, but if you play with someone that has minions and uses fire, your frame rate is like instantly -40%. Granted I only have a 3060 12GB, and a 7800 X3D, but the dip in FPS is severe.

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Gameplay: Definitely better than POE 1 overall. I am unsure how I feel about the new gem system, but I don't mind it. The bosses in the acts are definitely a lot more engaging and fun in my opinion. And like promised, the story is more interesting than in POE 1, easily.

• I initially picked lighting arrow Ranger, but I just could not work with it. I swear, it feels so unsatisfying and I dropped it before I got to the end of game. I did follow a guide and got the proper passives and gem setups but I don't like it. That sucks because I like archer characters thematically and this one did not hit. It just feels lame.
  
  
• Then I went with tempest fury and bell lightning Monk and it was miles better. I don't really play melee in games but this was way better of an experience. I felt more powerful, safe, and engaged when playing Monk than Ranger. I think this guy might get nerfed because GGG will detect people having fun, so I'm glad I got to take him out for a spin.

Overall the acts themselves made the $30 entry fee worth it. At worst, it's like an indie game with a cool story you finish once and never again. At best, it's the beginning of a years-long game journey with many more stories to be added, for free.

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Loot: Okay this is where it goes wrong.

GGG had said they want people crafting early and often. Literally not possible. I have like 3 total alchemy orb drops in the ENTIRE 1 and a half characters played through the acts. I'd say I had maybe like 15 exalts total from drops. About 20 regals maybe. You cannot call that building. Rightfully it is RARE to craft a great set of gear, obviously. Not every regal slam will get you good gear, duh. But there's barely any currency you get that lets you TRULY, FREELY slam gear to make it yourself. People say to go trade for gear. Okay genius, with what currency? The one I tried to use to make my own gear? Or the 3 exalts I've left over after realizing GGG was trolling with "please build your own gear it's great!"

Then I learned about magic find. I unknowingly had been running about 40% total increase item rarity with the rest of my "good" gear. I did not craft or trade for it. It literally was just there. I see on Reddit people getting absurd drops from having hundreds of magic find % and I'm just like, that's great but I want to make a sick staff with lots of lightning damage, and a chest piece with good health and resists so I can fight bosses and beat their ass. I DON'T want to craft a gear piece that gives me more currency drops... like... why? I want to fight enemies, not the economy. The best rewards should come from the best bosses, unaffected by what shoes you're wearing, like come on. I simply don't want to engage with this trade system until there are changes. I cannot imagine how much it would take to get a good set of gear for, say, a level 80 character. More than I've ever earned in the game, no doubt.

So I've stopped my run here. At the start of the maps. I've realized my gear has definitely become outdated and it becomes dangerous to run the maps. And I realize it will take significant currency and farming to upgrade my gear to a comfortable point, and I don't want to do it at this time.

TL;DR loot: don't like it. Stingy game. Messed up economy. Increase Item Rarity needs rework and probably to be moved into a different part of the game. I want combat stats on gear, not casino optimization.

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Balance: Certainly there are some BS mechanics going around. For example, not a single sane person wants on-death mechanics, but we are to suffer them through. Some of the ascendency stuff should be changed. I don't like the honor stuff. That's not what I want to do to pass the ascendency test. I want a different test system for ascendency. It is just fundamentally not attractive to me. Some of the bosses at temple of chaos can use a bit of de-bullshittification. That bird thing that keeps flying after you hit it 1 time, and then you need to go hunt it down, over and over and over... gah just come down you useless sack of poultry. Some classes are underperforming like the titan I think. I think people have done a good job of finding the imbalances and I think GGG will eventually address these.

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Damn, I kinda went longer with it than I expected.

Overall, $30 well spent, looking forward to new classes, new acts, and new changes. Will revisit in future months to check progress before full release. Recommended.

PS. Act 1 boss is the most thematic, aesthetically well done, and overall coolest boss in the entire game.

[RD]

I also use RTX 3060 12 GB, playing with minions , and I get like 35-40 FPS. Not sure, is it okay, but gameplay feels okay, I guess. Can you please tell, how many FPS do you have exactly, so I can compare?

[CriTical]

here is my Final thoughts.

2000 hp - 3k mana shield - 300hp shield- 70% evasion - resist 75% Chaos 64 = ONE SHOT SIMULATOR

perm the same bad drops, while streamers get everything.

[Summer_0_Breeze]

Playing through the 3 acts 2 times was pretty fun.
But the endgame content gets old fast.

I dont even mind that you lose xp on death, but getting one shot nonstop if you havent put literally half of your xp into armor/energy shield kind of sucks.

And what is the success rate for upgrading gear with Orb of Chance ?
I wasted 3 orbs so far and everytime it destroyed the gear I tried to upgrade.

The droprate in general is kind of lame.
Its ok until you reach the Atlas, but then you get to a point where you have to grind literally for 100th of hours the same maps over and over to upgrade your gear further.

And the "crafting" system is almost 100 % luck based, with very low succes rates.

[Nerdkartoffl]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Summer_0_Breeze:

And the "crafting" system is almost 100 % luck based, with very low succes rates.

There is no crafting. The word crafting comes from craftmanship and this implies it has something to do with skill. This system is, as you said, 100% luck based and therefore gambling.

I and all my friends (except one) only played the campaign with different characters and stopped as soon as they hit maps.
The gearing is worse than PoE1 and the gambling for gear too.

It's way more efficient to just trade and the trading system is also on the level of a 2008 game.

At least thats the reasons why i stopped playing. It sure was fun for the campaign and the animation/graphics are awesome, but this is "not casual" enough for me to invest my time. I get more frustation than fun in playing (the endgame).

[dynatierchen]

god stop hating on mf

you can have as many "combat stats" on your gear as you want

if you want to trade some of your dps/defense stats for better chances on drops thats also up to you

so stop acting as if the game literally forces you to run mf

mf always have been a decision making players are offered. its optional and something you urself have to decide how u wanna balance killspeed and increased drop chances

if u have insane amounts of mf but u take 3 times longer to clear an area it doesnt mean ur drops gonna be better
cuz u throw less dices in the end and altho u have a better chance for a 6, you still gonna see less 6s in the end, bcuz math bro

so stop hating on things you are not open for to understand

[Casul Gamer]

Maybe try crossbow if you're interested in a ranged character. I have no idea if it's good end game, but it feels really good to play. TBF it feels more like you're firing a gun so maybe it won't fit your archer fantasy, but it's worth a try.

[Vizer]

pretty cool thoughts i like em

[Pikafumo]

I said that in other post, but will say it here again. My biggest issue with the game is that it becomes POE 1 again in the end, it is all about grabbing that broken class build and zooming the map with super high clear speed, and that is where the balancing has been problematic with the first game, and it is with the second again.

The end game just ditches everything the campaign brings to become the old game again, and like before, only a couple of classes are true meta, because in the end, to get that sweet gear for your class, you need a lot of currency, and the only viable way to deal with the inflantion is to get it as quickly as possible.

[ministrog]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Pikafumo:

I said that in other post, but will say it here again. My biggest issue with the game is that it becomes POE 1 again in the end, it is all about grabbing that broken class build and zooming the map with super high clear speed, and that is where the balancing has been problematic with the first game, and it is with the second again.

The end game just ditches everything the campaign brings to become the old game again, and like before, only a couple of classes are true meta, because in the end, to get that sweet gear for your class, you need a lot of currency, and the only viable way to deal with the inflantion is to get it as quickly as possible.

it takes away any integrity GGG stands for when you think about. the ladders are suppose to be legacy for true gaming, but how many of those top rankers are just teams of currency farmers? dare i say it, even bot farmers too.

thank god they had the sense for implementing ssf. trade, mf and player progression is so out of wack it takes poe 2 for them to be confronted this hard.

[Flushing]

I thought your post was great and well written. I only disagree with your point below because I have great experiences with early game crafting:

Ursprungligen skrivet av moon:

GGG had said they want people crafting early and often. Literally not possible.

My warrior is just level 39, and I have used the crafting system on every item that I have used so far.

Typically starting with Blue items that have the one or two most important Affinities I need and crafting up from there. Those are usually not cost prohibitive because transmutes are plentiful and vendors frequently have high stat blues for gold that match most builds. They are always worth checking.

I am sure the difficulty scales up later, but we're just talking about the viability of early game crafting, and I think it's very viable.

You just get a Blue with 2 solid affixes, add 2 slots, and improve item quality to 20% for fixed flat bonuses.

You don't have to engage in rare crafting (regals and exalts) early game to craft solid items that will dramatically improve you performance.

That being said, I have and have gotten exceptional results.

[IKerensky]

Isn't it a tiny bit early to post a "Final Tought" on an early access that is less than 2 weeks old and will last for 50+ more ? Especially before the first patch ?

[AFC_HIGHBURY]

Would say it's well written out tbh and I agree with most. For EA it's ina good place though, played so many and this one actually feels like it has good bones.

[Nirh]

Short thoughts from a casual player who likes a moderate challenge: it’s good.

30$ for a half completed game that’s fun and already offers 50+ hours of quality content.

I’m not looking for a Forever Game to take over my life until my last breath, so am pretty satisfied.

[DerMunk]

Well written thoughts, i agree with most of them.
Cursed Trading, broken Magic Find Ratio and Currency Rarity are the main reasons i stopped playing at Maps Tier4 (for now).

[moon]

Ursprungligen skrivet av IKerensky:

Isn't it a tiny bit early to post a "Final Tought" on an early access that is less than 2 weeks old and will last for 50+ more ? Especially before the first patch ?

No, because I have completed what was the main attraction. I do not think the maps are the main attraction. It is clear they are more in work. I consider going through the acts twice as good enough.

If you can’t make a judges of the game based off the pretty good quality campaign, that’s just not right. You spend a significant amount of time struggling with challenges and finding solutions to them in the acts. It absolutely gives you a good idea of the game.