Slow and methodical questions.

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As far as Im concerened "meaningful combat" is just as much a marketing buzzword as "meaningful loot" is. Its just not going to happen given how PoE is structered. The only way any of this could work would be releasing the game and never touching it again in any way, shape or form.

I would have to agree with this. A complete, finalized game with no live service and no additions. Like early console games. With very limited items and minimal wiggle room. In those borders one can enjoy "Meaningful Combat".

Another example would be "War" vs "Boxing match"

In "War" you "grind"

In "Boxing match" you display you skill with "Meaningful combat"

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How would you address the End Game then? The same as campaign? Where would the feeling of Progression and Power come from? What about loot drops? Loot would have to be changed completely.

Yes, everything must be balanced in a different way. But this is not something undoable, it just requires actual efforts in balancing.

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I don't think the game was ever meant to be slow and methodical.

It was, at least in advertisements. You can't sell a game with oneshot-screens-shtshow videos. But if GGG doesn't really want to put efforts into balancing and devs are generally okay with how it looks now - they will just lose 50% of those new people who could come back and play leagues. And basically POE 2 will be POE 1 ver 2.0 for old POE 1 players (and POE 1 will be completely abandoned eventually - like it happened with D3/D4). Seems like we are going this route, but will be confirmed in 10 days when GGG will speak about 2.0 patch.