I cannot stress enough how much i hate end game in POE2

[u/MidjitThud]

The engaging gameplay ends when the campaign does that's for sure. You either one shot EVERYTHING or you will get ded. I was really hoping for something a little better paced than POE1 endgame. We already have zoom zoom screen go boom boom loot go clinkity clink.

Normal maps are not to bad for the most part, but the second you interact with a league mechanic OMFG does any sort of slow gameplay go out the window as you are instantly surrounded by enemies who body block and cc you. If you have not one shot the screen it is probably already to late for you.

League mechanics should now force a player to zoom zoom.

There are plenty of league mechanics that currently force you into meta builds if you want to have any chance.

Delerium wants you to go as fast as possible and instantly kill everything before the fog catches up.

Breach wants you to go as fast as possible and instantly kill everything before the portal expanse goes away.

Ritual wants you to survive in a tiny little space as monsters that haven't even appeared on your screen yet start pushing you around and body blocking you.

Strongboxes want to waste your time and make it harder to see anything.

Expediction (this one is actually really good, do it at your own pace, choose your own difficulty)

Everything about endgame just screams play META or get more frustrated than a game your trying to play for fun should ever make you.

And you win. i will play meta for the rest of my vacation. I am on my 5th character now, I have a pretty good time in the campaign, spend all my currency when i get to maps on the characters getting them capped res ,defenses, life etc... Then i play maps for an hour or two and want to punch a hole in ... something... over... and over... and over.. again.

[u/derfw]

calm down brother, play some balatro in the meantime

[u/xxtrrsexx → u/derfw]

Lmao for real tho. Goated game

[u/EvilKnievel38 → u/derfw]

Bought balatro just a few days ago and it has been my go-to game if something made me quit PoE 2 for a bit or simply didn't feel like continuing and wanting to play something else. I generally like PoE 2 but it currently has a few too many of these moments for me unfortunately, which I never have in PoE 1 on league starts. Balatro is so much fun to play on the side though. Tons of variety, interesting combinations, different decks/stakes/challenges so every game plays differently. And it plays surprisingly smooth (like animations, dragging cards, etc), even on mobile (bought on both pc and mobile).

[u/Bigboysama]

The way I see it is more like we have a sample of endgame and a sample of campaign. That's it.

[u/Maleficent-Meet-265 → u/Bigboysama]

The campaign sample is delicious

End game needs work but I trust ggg to get it right over multiple interactions

[u/Bigboysama → u/Maleficent-Meet-265]

I trust Jonathan saying endgame in Poe 2 will be almost similar in quantity as Poe 1

[u/RaN96]

I'm having fun but my biggest issue I have is the RNG involved with the new endgame map system. Either you get maps with good layouts around a few Lookout Towers so you can use precursor tablets or you spend an hour clearing bad maps so you can finally run a decent layout with mechanics you actually want to play. It feels like a huge waste of time.

[u/MostlyPoorDecisions]

You're right. In a game that they stressed would be slower and have more meaningful combat all the mechanics still demand zoom and boom. The endgame was rushed in the last months to give people something to do, but the campaign is probably more indicative of what they want the mapping to be like.

[u/AsumptionsWeird → u/MostlyPoorDecisions]

I hope so….

[u/dowens90]

Almost like they said endgame is rough and going to change and is literally a placeholder in its current state

[u/grogo-]

You are kinda wrong about deli.

If you are too fast you need to wait for the fog.

[u/According_Ad_5554]

what endgame? xd

[u/madmossy]

Considering Jonathan even said they made a pivot barely 3 months ago to focus on end game, it is certainly an early iteration that will go through dozens of changes before launch. You'll just need the patience to wait until after the holidays!

[u/Just_A_Random_Random → u/madmossy]

7* months, even tho that's still relatively short they had time to cook and not do the same mistakes they did in poe 1

[u/madmossy → u/Just_A_Random_Random]

OK, 7 months with little or no extensive testing, which I am sure they have bucket loads of feedback for now.

[u/_FlexClown_]

Yeah not playing until further patches to fix some of these things

[u/Glass_Programmer2515]

We're like a month into early access and are probably many months away from release.

Give it some time.

[u/Pandafight16 → u/Glass_Programmer2515]

Yea, I was playing 6 hours a day, before and after work and now down to 30 mins because how punishing it can be. I know from a year from now the game will be amazing. Just have to wait for them to take in feedback and make changes. Really just waiting for poe1 next league. Let's see which week of Jan is a patch which address some issues. For the love of God the first thing they change is 1 portal lol.

[u/surface33]

What a mentality.

[u/Slow___Learner]

If you don't like it then don't play it and wait for big patches

[u/Additional-Leg-8032 → u/Slow___Learner]

Fat man challenge

[u/Jovcka]

I found breach the least engaging exactly because of the "go as fast as possible" while swarming everything - I always liked breach when it was like that, but in poe 2 I played a really slow character my first time now and doing breaches feels so... sloggy I guess would be the term for it.

I was kind of hoping that they'd remove "timer" mechanics (not only hard timers, but also anything that just encourages the "go fast go fast go faster" playstyle) since going fast and doing more content in less time should be a reward by itself for faster builds.

Why literally gatekeep rewards from slower builds it just encourages the meta to shrink to exclusively fast and high DPS characters.

Boo-hoo if you wanted to play a slower tank character in our "slower" game - less rewards for you objectively.

[u/Dekugaming]

Some builds work... Some builds do not.

your build seems to either not be working or needs improvement. i know I was struggling as a Chayula Monk when i got to maps but after I upgraded my gear and weapon (all ele and chaos capped(which could only happen bc double chaos res) at least 3K EHP and around 60-70% Evasion, and upgrading my weapon from a 100-200 weapon to a 200-380 weapon) I began to do fine. there was still some stun locks that were annoying but no one shots at all; only the obvious one shots like a hulk or golaith doing their slam attack.

the stunning also got solved when i removed ghostwrithe as stun threshold is tied to your life but yea you may just need to avoid stuff that u cant do until you can do it. when i first touched a deli mirror or a breach i was overwhelmed but i found that when i panic'd in those situations I did die bc i would just keep rolling and eventualy just get killed when i needed to just get my bell down and begin wailing on it to sustain the hoard's damage.

I can tell you right now that playing meta isnt the issue as i got a buddy playing a Chronomancer using shield bash and no weapon and he is unstoppable. he hasnt even invested a divine into his build yet and im sure when he does he will be able to tank some obsurd shit

[u/Samesneaky]

I don't mind Zoom Zoom, but characters in POE don't zoom Zoom. They either go boom boom or splat.

[u/Temporary_Bass9554]

Differently paced, not better.

[u/KarmaCommieLion]

[u/Endofdays-]

Tldr, I just want loot bro

My main issue is loot being basically trade hourse or nothing, I was using the same level 8 staff from act 1/early act 2 to cruel 3 because literally nothing dropped for me. Felt like a souls game alot of the time, which I don't mind. Then get to maps and hit a brick wall because my damage wasn't good enough. Gambling loot got me nothing. I got one unique drop the entire playthrough. Then because my build isn't a meta build I'm having a tough time optimising, using a guide for my character defeats the exploration for games like this for me, so my only guides focused on ensuring I am interacting with mechanics correctly. The campaign was fun but always stressful and hitting a wall due to one hit mechanics on bosses in the campaign is not fun.

Comparing this game to D4 launch (I'm not a big ARPG player) I did have more fun in D4 but POE2 has much more potential purely due to the devs being better. I have 80 hours in POE2 and since it was marketed as beginner friendly I was hoping my playtime would be mindless slaying during the campaign and then honing my build for end game but there is simply no loot. I don't mind the trade house but since it's seemingly that or nothing because the game doesn't give me any meaningful loot I think I'll take a break until they put loot in a game that's genre is based on it.

Of course it's EA so end game isn't balanced around what items we currently have but it took me 70 hours of playtime to get to end game, I did play alot with random players because I got stuck, had I gone it alone I would of taken a lot longer, maybe it gets easier in subsequent playthroughs, I did breeze through act 1 on a new character but it still seems too long. I'm proud I got to end game in POE2. POE1 felt too aged for me to enjoy but if end game is akin to POE1 and campaign mechanics are left at the door, I'm not sure how much I can play of this game as a new player in it's current condition.

[u/encah]

Go back d4 and enjoy endgame there then. GL

[u/Kosai102]

I think they mentioned that current endgame is temporary and just something they slapped together for EA. The real atlas endgame will probably be close to what we currently have in PoE1 and that's months away, potentially a year. Just relax and enjoy what we have. If you don't, come back later.

[u/FeelsB4dMan]

Why are you playing it then?

[u/MandogsXL]

Biggest problems in end game are;

1. Magic find affecting currency items. - this pretty much forces you to value that stat over dmg increasing stats

2. After death effects. - never feels good to be paranoid after defeating rates, ect.

3. Monster speed. - they say they wanted to slow the game play down but monster still zoom at 500% move speed

4. Requirements for clearing maps. - no one likes to play hide & seek every map. Ether have a boss at the end of every map or show the rares on the map at the start

[u/safo2100]

Exactly my thoughts, I am playing arc and not meta build, I consider my build quite good but still cant clear breach and ritual. I am doing delirium after I clear map. So only good league mechanic is expedition. The game now basically forces you to play meta or some clear speed build, which I dont like.

[u/Dubious_Titan]

It's temporary and Early Access.

[u/xBladesong]

Lol someone ripped their map and went straight to reddit.

[u/DreamingOfAries]

PoE2 is hot dog water

[u/maxspeed301 → u/[deleted]]

I do think it being EA is valid, it seems they copied the 2019 PoE codebase and started working with that. Understandably adding in all mechanical changes PoE 1 had during development is difficult.

I do however agree it does make it confusing to gather whether it’s a design choice or just something they haven’t gotten to. Which makes the overall experience frustrating at times, unless you are focused on trying to explore and understand every mechanic instead of just playing the game.

[u/baertgang]

So you thought the second installment of a franchise is a different Game? Interesting!

[u/rlk_gm]

If you don’t like poe2 endgame you probably don’t like arpgs im general, so I guess just move on.

There are things that needs to be balanced in the endgame, but the things you listed as problematic in fact made poe the best arpg ever.

[u/maxspeed301]

I think they should make it that the encounters have some diminishing rewards the more you clear. Same way that rarity in PoE 1 works. Investing in it when possible should still be the best option, but just surviving the onslaught and getting through it should give a substantial rewards as well.

Also not being able to drop breach splinters below T11 maps is just silly. I was genuinely thinking I was doing something wrong until I reached them. I simply went from 0 splinters per breach to 10-20 per breach, seemingly out of nowhere.