We welcome First Impression posts! Please be nice to those posts.

Putting your biggest and most exciting new feature, the ascendancy classes, behind a horribly long and overtuned(one room is basically a whole map) dungeon you need to run through over and over again was a horrible idea. Having to level up my first character to merciless and trading for items just to be able to complete the normal labyrinth saps all of my enthusiasm and any form of hype I might have had previously.

Simply put I am disappointed. It is even worse because I thought you learned your lessons about releasing overtuned content when act 4 happened.

Oh well, playing normally for now without a chance to experience the new classes and waiting for nerfs.

First of all: I love POE! Thx a lot to you guys for such a great game.

But about my first impressions of Ascendancy:

I got the feeling the labyrinth underlines the games weaknesses more than it's strengths. The trials are just needless... reminds me of Diablo 3 Trials. Something just taking a lot of time while having no fun at all, because getting entrance to something is just not feeling rewarding at all.

The labyrinth itself reminds me of my first days at poe last summer. You don't really know what to do, but just keep going it on and somehow manage to finish it without having a clue how you have done it.

I always continued, but a lot of buddys i wanted to start poe as well have just been frustrated at some point and came never back. People really, really miss the feeling of being guided in some way, - may it be because of the story or just some technical, or logical help.

The labyrinth is pretty much the same all over again. You are not guided at all, which is of course to a certain degree the nature of a labyrinth, but it's a thin line between feeling challenged and just being frustrated.

Long term the grinding for enchantments may probably be a motivation for me, but i am not too sure about it.

i watched a friend trying the lab after almost 3 hours and 2 deaths he ragequit.

and for me the new league is over at lvl 16, because i dont waste my time with that boring lab.

thank god that i dont buy a supporter pack

I fucking quit! After countless tries of the normal trial I just can't take it anymore. Every single run either I get disconnected/ thrown out or the game crashes. I over levelled 20lvl+ just to be safe, well atleast I haven't gotten killed in there once... Fix your shit!!

Barely playable. The new chests, or rather their mobs, tank fps about as badly as using ice crash in Dominus on weaker machines. I tried the labyrinth once before I got a disconnect. It's easily the longest, prettiest, and most-detailed area in the game, so I don't know why it'd be the one area in the game that you have to do in one go.
Can't there be at least some kind of grace for the labyrinth dcs?

Patch sucks because of Labyrinth and annoying way Crit Multi was done (I would love to Divine my Abyssus 20 times to get the same rolls back but I'll pass).

Labyrinth is frustrating, boring, and doesn't fit the game. Restarting on death takes it from being a nuisance to being truly terrible and ragequit worthy.

Going back to Heroes of the Storm 'til this shit is fixed. That's my first, second and third impression. You guys dropped the ball so hard the ball is stuck in the earth. Gonna go play games that are fun and not a tedious shitfest. Peace.

del

Play style: I play maybe an hour at a time. Take my time. I like feeling powerful and killing things. Prefer periodic spikes of difficulty (e.g. rare pack encounters) than a constant slog.

I'm loving the expansion so far - the size of packs, Perandus chests, the new Marauder AOE skills, the first trial - but I've only reached Act 2 Normal so long way to go.

The grind of Act 4 put me off playing before. I'd been so hyped for that Act before it arrived. Each part of Act 4 was beautifully executed but there was too much repetition - and too many high-damage spikes - for my taste. I'm not looking forward to reaching it with my current character in case it kills my enthusiasm again. Will find out soon enough.

"

Labyrinth is frustrating, boring, and doesn't fit the game. Restarting on death takes it from being a nuisance to being truly terrible and ragequit worthy.

I am exactly the same, I stop this game after 35 hours because of this (I don't enjoy the retry at all because there is simply nothing exciting or fun to experience there).

Edit: I'll just skip it for now actually... The game still is fun without it (too bad it is mandatory to get the sub class but let's hope for some balancing)

Edit again : Finally managed to get through it in all difficulties, I don't find it fun but still doable which is nice and maybe it suits some players so I don't have anything to say about it anymore

Started two weeks ago after I saw Kripp play in Alpha. Pretty much everything I love in my games all wrapped up in one package.

- Amazing degree of technical depth. First game in awhile I did some serious research on before playing.
- The whole skill gem concept and the dimensions it adds to loot acquisition is impressive.
- The barter system with vendors is very creative. I like how you designed the recipes to make sense from a survival standpoint while being tuned to the economic value of different items.
- The dark atmosphere and artistic talent is great. Wraeclast is unqiue in it's own way and I love dark games.
- Impressive amount of lore for an APRG and I like how you wove it in as a treasure hunt similar to dark souls.
- Flash mechanic is also impressive. Rotating flasks scales to your kill speed and doesn't limit it like a static cooldown.

Constructive criticism?

- No clue about the backstory of the Vaal Oversoul or why Dominus was up in that tower. It's bugging me.
- You had some amazing moments as far as atmosphere. The siren's singing as I moved from stage to stage in her cavern made my hair stand on end. The horrors of the bottom of the Lunar Temple were haunting. I just wish there was more of these moments.
- I wish the trading system was more integrated into the game instead of being part of the extended community experience.