PoE2 + 0.3 Feedback (Mutiplayer, Gems, Sockets, Abilities, Sprint)

This is kind of a dump of my thoughts on 0.3 and PoE2 in general having now played three seasons (though less of 0.2 than 0.1 or 0.3). Hopefully this is useful to someone, but maybe it'll just be me shouting to the void.

- Multiplayer experience is pretty bad
This applies to both PoE2 and PoE1, but the multiplayer experience is wonky at best. Colliding with other players has to be removed, and is easily the single worst part about playing multiplayer. PoE2's maps having lots of tight corridors puts a spotlight on how annoying this is, but it still comes up from time to time in PoE1 as well. But then you have some quest progress being shared, some not. Sometimes quest items are consumed from both players, sometimes not. Map/league progress sometimes is shared, and sometimes not. It feels like the multiplayer experience is very low on the list of priorities with how inconsistent things are. Also, again, REMOVE PLAYER TO PLAYER COLLISION IN PARTIES.

- PoE2 combat foundation is objectively better than PoE1
I will not entertain opinions to the contrary. PoE1 is all about instaclear screen nuking and going so fast you don't even register what you're fighting; and bosses without invul phases don't even get to complete their voice lines. It leads to some really long invul phases, shitty mechanics like reflect/mortars, etc.. PoE2's foundation has much more intentional and meaningful combat, even if you can eventually get to the same level of absurdity at endgame with some builds, and with that comes far less bullshit. Some of this is just the evolution in boss/enemy design over the years, as the newer PoE1 bosses also feel MUCH better than the earlier PoE1 bosses, and some of this is due to PoE2 having far fewer options and mechanics. However...

- PoE2 feels *slow*
Everything has been slowed down perhaps a bit too much. This really clicked for me when I watched some gameplay on youtube at 1.25x and it felt *right*. It feels to me if you just sped the entire engine up by 15-25%, a lot of the "slow" and "slog" type of feedback would relent.

- PoE2's gem socket pressure is missing
In PoE1, you had very limited sockets, with an absolute max of 24, 27 with rings and amulets (2x 6s, 3x 4s, 3x 1s). This lead to your skill choices being made around your guaranteed six link (6L), your supporting skills generally went in the 4L, and then the weapon slots were either misc util, mobility, or a second 6L skill if you went two-hander. With everything being a 6L now, that choice doesn't really exist; everything will eventually be as versatile as every other skill in your build. This is doubly the case now that the support limit was lifted universally.

- Gem leveling feels bad in PoE2
I never expected myself to miss gem experience and leveling, but having your gem level be tied to RNG or trade just feels hollow. IMO I'd like to see a hybrid of PoE1 and 2's systems. If you cut a skill gem from a lvl 10 uncut, it starts at level 10 and then gains experience and grows with use as it did in PoE1. Or, if you drop a lvl 20, it starts at level 20. Doing it this way also opens the doors to level 20 being the baseline for end game, while still allowing for ultra-rare drops of overleveled gems similar to the exceptional drops which can exceed the "normal" quality limitations.

- Still too few skills in general, very few crossover skills
In PoE1, a number of gems did have weapon limits, but those limits were often across a handful of weapons, not just a single weapon type. With PoE2's skills being so heavily tied to a single weapon, and the aforementioned lack of socket pressure, plus there not being many skills for each weapon (yet); it feels like everyone gravitates toward the same end-game builds even if by accident. There's just not enough variety or ability to do weird out-of-class stuff quite yet like PoE1 has at this point.

- Max gem count derived from stats is a massive improvement over socket colors
Trying to get three or four blue sockets on a war staff suuuuuucked. I do not and will not ever miss that.

- Sprint feels great on the surface, but perhaps a bit clunky being tied to dodge?
Sprint is interesting. I enjoy the risk you get from it while it also being usable in combat to evade some of the more annoying tracking abilities. But the way it controls... something is weird about it. I can't quite put my finger on it. It also suffers from the same kind of problem some movement skills in PoE1 had where they catch on every little jaggy and map detail and stop early.

- Alt+F4 or "Respawn at checkpoint" as a defensive layer is still dumb and shallow
I know the HC players are going to hate this (sorry... kind of), but one of the few things D4 got right was making it so you can't just quit to save yourself from a bad situation. Logging out and/or warping to town is an interruptible action to prevent players who will just log at the first sign of danger. Being able to quit/"retry" for free means the game will have to have more and more damage spikes or instakill mechanics to try to catch these players. It makes everyone else suffer so degenerate gameplay can be retained. At least Alt+F4 forces players to wait for the instance to reset as a kind of cost, but "respawn at checkpoint" does not IIRC.

What could be the possible reason for player collision to be on?!
This is massive pain in the a$$ for party play. I stopped counting for how many times I got stuck in textures or simply died because I couldn't move because of this.