POE2 Endgame after a while of playing it

So some more feedback now that I played the endgame for a bit

First, I still like the way stones system a lot better than the map system, I like that we can get a very good way stone and save it for a specific map, I like that I'm not suddenly with a bunch of maps of the tier I'm progressing and they are the same map layout that I don't like.

Now in this system, you are forced to do a layout you don't like some times, usually you can go around those, but sometimes the alternate path might have the same layout or have another crappy one, but for me, I like this option better than the previous one.

I like the exploration and how it plays out, you see a new hideout or citadel in the edges or on the other side of a mountain or lake, you then try to get to it, figuring out which routes are more likely to get there, etc, I like that you can continue exploration with other characters and it doesn't feel like you have to waste a bunch of time to level up that character in low tier maps.

On the 1 death lose map mechanics, I feel like if its going to be like this, then the 6 portal limits make no sense, make it so we open 1 portal and we can go in and out of the map however many times we want, until we either, die, open another map, or the instance dies because of timeout, this would help with crashes or connection lost that takes us out of the map and we have to consume another portal to continue, though ideally we shouldn't crash so fixing that makes this a non issue.

Or keep the 6 portals and let the maps keep the mechanics until we lose the last portal, so we can actually retry non pinnacle bosses or don't lose everything because we got a bad rares pairing during ritual or breach

One issue with the current system though, is I think maps are too big for endgame, and their complete condition is a lot of work, which makes exploring the endgame world a bit exhausting, I spent half a day doing like 8 maps, I have a decent build that doesn't die often, but I'm not zooming through the maps, and I can do tier 15 citadels very comfortably

Now, I like the massive maps in the campaign, but one key difference there, is that you don't have to explore the full map, you just need to find the specific points of interest in there and move on, which you can't on endgame, so my suggestion would be to simplify and/or improve the complete condition

- Let towers have endgame mechanics, but keep the complete condition to be just finding the actual tower and activating it
- If a map has a boss, killing the boss is the complete condition, you can ignore all rares if you don't have a lot of time or you don't like the layout
- Reduce the map size significantly so that killing the rares doesn't take the enormous amount of time it takes right now (there are a couple of maps that have a good size right now, but not the more common ones or the majority)
- Alternatively, have a single rare appointed as the map "boss" maybe give it extra life and just make the complete condition to kill this rare, when the map doesn't have a boss, put this rare in the boss arena so people can learn the maps layouts

I think having ways of quickly completing maps would help a lot with the current endgame burnout, specially with the new exploration feeling and goals, some times you just want to reach a specific point, using low level way stones doesn't help because you still need to scour the entire massive maps and makes it boring instead


on more specifics on the mechanics, I would prefer POE2 endgame style to keep pivoting away from POE1 endgame style, please don't do the same mistake blizzard did with Diablo4 that now its Diablo3.5 and getting more similar every update

Breach I think its the more POE1 style endgame mechanic right now, I would prefer it being adjusted to instead summoning smaller packs that are harder to deal with, make the endgame mechanics less about killing as fast as you can, and a bit more involved and about learning enemy patterns, or surviving

Delirium has a little better balance I think, since you can control it a little bit better, though still rewards more the faster you kill (which is fine), but Breach just instantly swarms you with a big amount of enemies and you either kill them very fast or get no rewards, I think its too much right now, Ritual is a bit similar but since it doesn't have a time component, it lets more builds being able to deal with it successfully as long as you survive

I know current endgame didn't have a lot of time to get done, but I am writing this feedback with the hope that it goes in another direction, rather than mimicking POE1

Also a final note, I didn't delve a lot into the specific map layouts since those can be adjusted, and I don't have a problem with any specific layout right now, other than some of them being massive in size

And that's it for now, really excited to see which new classes/weapons we get on the next update (REALLY hoping for swords, as sword/shield is my usual go to in ARPGs, and I already have a max block template that worked really well, hehe)

and Please GGG, have some cold themed sword skills, I fear for frost blades now that cold is INT aligned