My Experienc in 0.4 (SC, HC, Trade + SSF)

Hey there

I've played this league a lot and would like to provide some feedback (+ context and potential solution) regarding the things that cause me to have less fun in the game.

About me:
- I've played about 800 hours of PoE1 previously
- I've played about 200 hours of PoE2 previously
- In 0.4 I played both HC (SSF) and SC (Trade)

Feedback from my campaign experience:

1. Missing Wisdom Scrolls: I personally felt like I was missing a way to identify items in the very early levels in act 1.
--> I think it would be nice to have access to the Hooded one earlier.
Stun on hit: It's possible to get stunned by a random white monster. This feels very bad and doesn't make very much sense, especially for new players who don't know about stun threshold.
--> I would prefer it if stun on hit was removed from random white monsters but remained on telegraphed attacks from blue, rare, unique and boss monsters.
2. Quest directions: I couldn't find the entrance to the next zone multiple times. Even though I've already played the campaign once before. One issue is that you can explore 100% of the zone (Quest: "Explore the Isle of Kin") and still not see the entrance simply because you were never close enough to make it appear on the map too. Another issue is the size of the maps. I've had time where I was searching for the next zone for 10+ minutes.
--> It would be nice if the entrances were always shown on the map, as soon as that part of the map is uncovered.
--> It would be great if the player was shown the direction of the entrance after a certain time or after X% of the map has been discovered.
3. Item Rarity: To me it feels like I have to have item rarity on my gear, which causes me to lose power.
--> It would be nice if rarity was removed from gear and potential moved somewhere else.
4. Kabala Relic Quest: I got stuck on this quest for about two hours because I couldn't find the second relic. I had look for a guide to complete the quest. Since then I've ran the campaign again and I had to look up the zones where the relics drop again.
--> Make it more transparent how and where these relics can be found.
--> Increase the droprate of the relics or make sure they drop after the zone has been cleared (I've had times where I didn't get the relic after Full-Clearing a zone)
5. Gear base Values: On your gear it shows the current Armour/Evasion/ES/Damage values. However it doesn't show the original values (of the base item). I've tried to figure out the base value of my items, but I couldn't find a way except finding the same base again (or doing the math).
--> Allow us to show the base values of gear pieces (like in PoE1)
6. Attribute requirements: Attribute requirements both on gear and gems are kind of annoying early on especially. There are tools (such as socketing attributes, respeccing via. "The Hooded One") to change attributes, but you don't have a lot of access to those early on in the campaign.
--> I think it would be nice if attribute requirements were reduced for lower level gear and gems.
--> More tools to change / switch attributes would be appreciated in general.
7. Campaign Map size: Some of the zone in PoE2 are absolutly massive in terms of size. Spending 30 minutes - 1 hour in a single zone to me isn't fun. It causes me to run around a lot without doing anything else.
--> Decrease zone size, at least of some of the larger zones
--> Add more (interesting and potentionally random) things to discover in the larger maps. It makes the large zones less monotonous
8. Ingame Guide: Early on the there is an awesome tutorial, that explains how to use skill gems. However shortly after that the tutorial pretty much stops, even though there are still a lot of new things that are introduced.
--> Expand the tutorial, especially for new players to help them during the campaign. There are so many things that would be useful to know (crafting, Market Panel / trading, Charms / Potions, Tags on Skill-Gems, Atlas Skill Tree, Character Sheet,...) for new players, so the potential for a good tutorial is immense.
9. Inventory size: Inventory size feels very small, especially when picking up large items (such as bows).
--> Expand the inventory
--> Reduce the size of some of the (equipment and quest) items
--> Add inventories specifically for certain things (such as currencies or maps).
--> Add a sort button (like in Last Epoch) that sorts the inventory so that is "more space" again.
10. Optional boss rewards: Some of the optional bosses have rewards that grant power (such as skill points). However it's very easy to miss these bosses without even knowing. This will cause new players to struggle even more.
--> Add some sort of indication on the UI that shows that there is an optional boss that grants power.
--> Add an optional questline that directs players to the optional bosses.
11. Act 3 Gold Quest: In Act 3 there is a quest that grants relics that can be (only) be sold to a specific vendor. These idols are very annoying (in terms of inventory space) and the give almost no reward.
--> Remove hidden this quest.
--> Make the hidden quest more rewarding
--> Make it more appearent that the idols need to be sold to Oswald. I'm aware it's explained on the relic, but not everyone likes reading :)
12. Abyssal Depth attemps: The abyssal depths can't be re-entered after a single death. This happened to me in my first abyssal depth and it made me kinda sad. Also the entrance to the abyssal depth is still shown on the minimap, which made me think I could enter the abyssal depth again.
--> Allow re-entering abyssal depths (even after dying)
13. Monster Rarity UI: I can't really tell which monsters are magic or rare without hovering over them. This makes the gameplay less fun and much more deadly. I can die to a rare mob without even knowing that I'm in a dangerous situation.
--> Highlight Magic and Rare monsters somehow.
14. Gear equipment restrictions: Gear can't be equipped if the character doesn't fulfill the attribute requirements. This is also the case if the item has the required attribute on itself.
--> Allow equiping items that fulfill the attribute requirements if the attributes on the explicit modifiers are enough to fulfill the requirements.
15. Number of skill/support gems: In PoE2 it is a lot of fun to try out different skills and support gems. However unfortunatly this is almost impossible during the campaign due to the scarcity of support and skill gems.
I barely have enough support gems to fill the 2-3 sockets on the skills I'm using. I feel like having more gems (in the campaign) would make the game much more fun to play. At the same time it wouldn't give players (much) more power.
--> Increase the number of random gem drops
--> Add additional 1-time drops
16. Ascendancy Trials: A lot of people (me included) don't enjoy the trials of sekkemas / chaos. However this is something that can't be avoided.
To me the trials of sekkemas is way too long (especially the later ones) and the trial of chaos can be very difficult and rng based. Another issue is that if you fail the trials once, you can't try again right away. This also makes it feel much worse if you fail the trial.
--> Add other ways of ascending (e.g. a cool single boss fight)
--> Allow players multiple (or infinite) attempts (on the first and second trial)
17. Drowning Orbs: Drowning orbs are in my opinion one of the worst things in PoE1 and PoE2. They feel absolutly terrible, especially for melee players.
What makes it even worse is that there isn't that much counterplay during the campaign (when they first appear in act 3 I think). There is no slow immunity and no instant movements skills.
--> Remove drowning orbs
--> Add more instant mobility skills
--> Reduce slows
18. Ascendancy locations: For new players it's not very clear where to find the ascendancy locations (after they have been discovered).
--> Allow us to r-click the trial keys to teleport (or show) to the trial location
19. Drops vs Vendors: During the campaign it is very useful to check the vendors every single level. It seems like buying items is better than finding items.
In my opinion dropping good items is more fun and less tidious than buying items.
--> Improve items drops and reduce the power of vendor items


Feedback from my mapping experience:
20. Portal limit: In maps there is a limited number of attempts (max. 6). This limit is reduced depending on the tier and rarity/modifiers of the waystone.
I've ran a T3 map which only had 3 portals, which seemed a little harsh to me. In general I feel like only having 1 attempt is extremly punishing and very frustrating. It almost feels like semi-hardcore.
--> I would like to see a minimum of 2 portals per map, so that at least one death is acceptable.
--> At low map tiers I would like to have more than just 3 portals. Imagine how a new player feels when he tries a T3 (rare) map with only 3 portals.
--> Personally I would like to always have 6 portals, but I'm fine with having 2 portals.
21. Ascendancy respec: I completed the trial of chaos (for my 4rth ascendancy) and didn't get a new ascendancy point even though it was stated so on the trial key. This was probably because I also respecced 2 points after the trial.
This got me very frustrated, especially because I failed my 2nd attempt.
--> Make sure the trial always allows players to allocate their new ascendancy points.
22. Map doesn't support this table: This message showed up on a couple of maps. But it didn't tell me why the tablets couldn't be used.
--> Make sure error messages in general, explain why something isn't possible
23. Map inventory: A map inventory like in PoE1 would be very much appreciated.
24. Item drops: Unfortunatly item (equipment) drops in PoE2 aren't super exciting. I almost never get uprades from drops. they pretty much always come from crafting (in SSF) or from trading.
--> I don't have any suggestions for that, but I would love to have some more exciting drops
25. Crafting system: In PoE2 we pretty much need hundreds of item bases for crafting. This to me is very tidious. I understand that the idea is to make drops more exciting, but dropping white items (unless exceptional) and looting a ton of them isn't very fun.
I understand that this was changed so that augmentation spamming wouldn't become I thing, but I feel like this can't be the solution. I didn't like augmentation spamming, but I like this system much less.
--> Make a system that allows players to do multiple attempts to restart on the same white item. If the number of white items is the reduced, this would probably feel better.
--> I'm open to other ideas. The main thing for me is that I don't want to pick up 100s of white items, just to craft on them directly and then throw 99.9% away right away.

Feedback regarding the temple:
26. Temple introduction: I felt like the temple was very difficult to understand.
--> Allow us to change room placement before starting the temple run. This would make the learning experience more smooth.
--> Provide more information in the ui.
--> Make it easier to understand in general (probably not the best feedback, but I'm sure GGG will find something).
27. Quest directions: Once a room is placed it can't be changed. This is bad if you misclick and for new players in general. I personally wasn't expecting my placement to be final at the start. I thought I could change it, because that would've been way more user-friendly.
28. Leaving / Re-entering the temple: Oftens times I had a full inventory when entering the temple or after a couple of rooms. However because I couldn't leave the temple (or at least it seems that way because of the warning, when attempting to leave via. portal), I had to throw away items to loot other items multiple times.
On the contrary sometimes my inventory was empty and I had nothing to use my regal / exalted orbs on. This felt very bad, at least until the point where it was possible to "take" the currency instead of using it.
--> Allow us to re-enter the temple while running it, or give us access to our storage.
--> Change the messaging so that it is clear. [/i]
29. Temple difficulty: During the campaign the temple was much more difficult than the campaign itself. This felt very bad and mad the temple extremly slow in my case.

Some very positiv things about PoE2 I would like to highlight:
- Bosses, make the campaign much more enjoyable compared to PoE1.
- The voiced videos for skill gems are an absolute game changer and make the game much more approachable. I would love to have videos for support gems too.
- The visuals of this game are awesome. It's just unfortunate, that sometimes visual clarity takes a hit because of that.
- The skills feel good / fun to use.

I'm looking forward to seeing the game evolve until 1.0 and beyond. I'd love to see changes, that make the game (even) more accessable for new players, because I hope a lot more people get to enjoy this game in the future.
I'm also looking forward to more endgame changes and things to chase.

@GGG If you read this, I would love it if you could react to this post in any shape or form, so that I know my feedback has been read.

EDIT: Added numbers for easier referencing

+ 1 all this need the game

-1

I like IIR on gear, it gives me a choice to go rarity, or go damage/defenses.
summon classes can't get any meaningful power from prefixes, so going rarity here just makes sense, otherwise all the prefixes are just straight up useless.

"

tdonov5#2743 a écrit :

-1

I like IIR on gear, it gives me a choice to go rarity, or go damage/defenses.
summon classes can't get any meaningful power from prefixes, so going rarity here just makes sense, otherwise all the prefixes are just straight up useless.

I understand your concern. However surely this issue can be solved / improved aswell. Even with rarity (as it is right now) you might still have useless prefixes on some builds. In PoE1 there are ways to make all stats on items valuable. I'm sure it will eventually be possible in PoE2 aswell.