Does anyone else feel PoE 2 is way too sweaty?

I made a post about this a few months ago. Something about a constant state of reactionary gameplay. I don't think that's really changed. This games identity in this sense is the polar opposite of PoE 1 imo, and in a very bad way. There are still bosses and content in PoE 1 I still don't really do because it's not very casual friendly.... but I can still play most of the game and feel that sense of progression over the end game.

PoE 2 doesn't feel like this at all and I'm not even sure I can explain why. I've played ranked league of legends for many years.. and I would say PoE 2 is easily sweatier than that.. I feel that any content in the end game is so stressful I often just sit in my hideout avoiding actually playing the game and just staring at my hideout.

Obviously the game is much more than this and why I still love it.. However I fear this is a problem that's not going away for me if things do not change and I really doubt I'm the only one.

It is a challenging game that you need to pay attention to, however, I personally find that the "sweatiness" is very very build dependent, as well as content dependent.

Being an AR/ES Zealot's Oath bear right now in hcssf and I can play it at a very comfortable pace. That is, until the "can not recover above 50%" rare hasted Abyss monster pops up with his "allies are invincible" aura buddy - then it's kind of a situational scramble. Likely mostly a skill issue lol.

Maps are about 95% super-relaxing bear-swiping loot-picking mega-slam fire-walking gameplay and 5% "sweaty" gameplay when the deadly mods converge in the wrong ways.

For all the other builds I've tried, I find that the "sweatiness" is usually just becoming accustomed to the build and it's unique set of skills after which they become very satisfying to play, even in difficult content.

I do agree that the the combat demands an element of mechanical proficiency and in this way, it I can see how every new zone with it's new monsters and bosses comes packaged along with a new set of reactive demands as you progress through the campaign. And unless you've got high enough dps to circumvent engagement, it can feel quite mentally-attritional until you're familiar and proficient enough with the monsters and their mechanics to make the "reactive" parts of the gameplay feel more like strategic and calculated engagement rather than panicked dodging.

It's the panicked dodging that makes you feel exhausted and anxious to continue, whereas the calculated engagement comes with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction - it really is a case of "get good".

I don't think I'm good at everything, but I am good at some things - it feels good to improve, figure things out, and overcome the challenges. It can sometimes feels sweaty at first but usually the sweatier it feels the better it also feels to master it.

So I don't mind - I enjoy a challenge :)

It isn't that it is sweaty or challenging. It's that it is punishing. Far too punishing. Losing juice, keys, XP, etc amounts to a *lot* of time. Whether it is a mistake or the game's lack of visual clarity or poorly design mechanics/one-shots. At some point you become fatigued with this fact looming over your should the entire endgame.

I dont find it sweaty at all. If you die...you die. Nothing stressful about it at all. The game is really easy and should be harder.

+1
Sweaty is wrong word, I'd say its TOO PUNISHING, AND TOO MUCH RNG, majority of people feel that way, new players get scared off, people dont want to return from previous seasons, its truly sad

After 1700 hours, I dont find trial of sekhemas too hard, dying is normal im use to it, working on gear and resistances to not die, its just very slow at times

When I first played game? I thought trial was so hard and ridiculously impossible, then I found out you had to do 3 floors for 3rd ascend and 4 for final ascend, that scared me away, I finally decided to come back last season and rework build, attempt the 4 floors, reached final boss at 4th floor zarok or whatever and died to his final phase because I legit had no idea what I was suppost to do, no clear indication just bubbles on ground, doesnt make it clear and with the little time window.... its just too punishing

Tried it again and knew what to do, got my 4th ascend for the first time ever after playing for 3 seasons.... but that was still 2 hours down the drain just for final 2 points.
I never even attempted final ascend in previous seasons because it genuinely was not worth the time for the final 2 points for how difficult and punishing it was

Then I discovered trial of chaos getting all the boss items and found it much easier, ya you gotta run it 4 times, possibly more for boss items, but its far easier, and in my opinion less punishing, difficult, but compared to trial of sekhemas its a walk in the park

Its far too punishing and unrewarding

I think the problem is the game has severe pacing issues depending on your build and having a good weapon impacts the difficulty way too much.

By like the crowbell area at level 9 with all the thorns in the campaign you're already getting swarmed with monsters and you probably don't even have movespeed on your boots yet. Either you're one of 3 builds that can deal with it or you're not.

The rest of the game follows this path on league start too. You'll sweat through a boss then either trade for, craft, or find a good weapon and suddenly you're doing 4x damage and the game no longer challenges you.

It kind of has all these hills and valleys of difficulty all over depending on your gear and build and it's not going to be the same for everyone. By end game with good gear I feel like most things level off and most random weird builds can work but getting there can be very unfriendly.

I also agree with others about punishment for losing. IMO the game is actually fun when you're right on the edge of that danger of dying but, especially in maps, the game punishes you so much for dying that you default to just running content you're like 99% sure you can do without dying - except this makes the content boring but the other alternative is losing IRL time which is awful.

I would say like Karsey, depend of the build i'm playing. If i got a good weapon/armour or not.

On my very good builds i can get a bit bored sometimes because it get too easy. It's fun too tough =)

On my build where i struggle it can, on the other hand, be very overwhelming and i need pauses. (Sometimes it get to the point that my hand hurt but i have injured nerves also.)

The "crafting" RNG is very depressing as a SSF player. That's what often make me take longer pauses.
Still have no interest in participating to online economy so that wont change.

In Poe1 you have 6 portals and if you die at the boss you have 5 more attempts to "CONTINUE" the fight.

NOT RESET IT

In that manner it was easier to learn the boss mechanics while doing them. Especially on Maven fight.

But in Poe2 you not only have only 1 portal but even if you sacrifice important tablets for more portals, when you die you can't continue the fight, it's reset, no continue where you left off.

You also lose the tablets if you die, the waystone, 10% exp, you are also punished to redo the map without any bonus encounters, and if it's a citadel or secret boss, that's it, that map is forever failed.

Might as well display an icon "Your build sucks, delete it".

poe2 is much easier than poe1 in endgame; it is actually close to diablo 4 level of trivial at the moment.

You have to accept that some games will simply not be for you, period. If you have to force yourself to play, then use common sense and spend your free time doing something else.

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PayneK#3102 a écrit :

In Poe1 you have 6 portals and if you die at the boss you have 5 more attempts to "CONTINUE" the fight.

NOT RESET IT

In that manner it was easier to learn the boss mechanics while doing them. Especially on Maven fight.

But in Poe2 you not only have only 1 portal but even if you sacrifice important tablets for more portals, when you die you can't continue the fight, it's reset, no continue where you left off.

You also lose the tablets if you die, the waystone, 10% exp, you are also punished to redo the map without any bonus encounters, and if it's a citadel or secret boss, that's it, that map is forever failed.

Might as well display an icon "Your build sucks, delete it".

This was my biggest complaint when they changed mapping, it use to be just clear the rares and move on, then they fucking forced bosses on every damn fucking map