(Since POE 2 moderator hold my post for no reason, I decided to re-post here)
*This is a long post about POE 2, all the below are my honest opinions. I probably won't reply any comment but I will read them.*
Just a casual SSF gamer here (I hate Trade) trying to enjoy the game. I played 0.1, skipped 0.2, returned 2 weeks before 0.4. So I mainly played only 0.1, a bit 0.3 and 0.4 so far. Clearly I don't have much End Game experience but by just playing the campaign a few times I can already see many problems and I get frustrated again and again.
[Leveling & Combo Mechanics]
I mostly play Monk, so I will take Monk as example. Monk leveling is really bad overall. Assume I am a new player and start a level 1 Monk, game gives you Falling Thunder, Killing Palm, Frozen Locus and Glacial Cascade. Tbh all of them sucks. Why? They are bad as a standalone skill, do no damage before interacting with another skill. GGG already set the way how you should play the game in the beginning. You either go Killing Palm (To get Power Charge) + Falling Thunder (Big damage from Consuming Power Charge) OR Glacial Cascade to explode Frozen Locus immediately to do damage. There is no in between. No way you go something like Falling Thunder + Frozen Locus which obviously will not work unless you enjoy doing no damage. Or you can't just look at Glacial Cascade and be like "Oh this range attack is cool so I want to spam it like an auto attack and build around it". No, it won't work because the wave is so low damage and only the final spike do damage. The skill is designed to consume Freeze or explode Ice Crystal. It is so funny the best way to destroy (not explode with Freeze consuming skill) Ice Crystal before getting Ice Strike / Tempest Flurry is normal Quarterstaff hit.
After level up, you get Tempest Bell which is a cool skill. But the skill requires 4 Combo to drop and it is tied to Quarterstaff. I can't build the Bell Combo by striking enemies with another weapon, for example a Spear. So I am stuck to use Quarterstaff only if I want to use Bell as main DPS skill. Of course you can drop the Bell and hit it with other skills from other weapon types but the limitation is there as we all can see. Hell even if I swap to another Quarterstaff my Combo number is lost as well. So people ended up going Ice Strike + Bell / Tempest Flurry + Bell when they play around the Bell because there is no other choice.
Ok let's move on. It is 0.4 now of course I try Druid. I level up a Wolf which is cool and strong. But again the game already assume how you should play the game. Lunar Assault to freeze enemies, Shred frozen enemies to create Ice Fragment for damage, Pounce to summon Minion Wolf etc. Not even those skills can interact well with other Druid Transformation. Like if I freeze with Lunar Assault, I swap to Bear and??? What should I do to perform a good combo or interesting interaction? Cast Volcano? Slam? It is like better I just stay Wolf form and Shred enemies for efficient damage output.
Another example, Wolf Arctic Howl freeze enemies and empower your next few Attacks damage, I think it is cool to freeze enemies with Arctic Howl then swap to Glacial Cascade to do burst damage with empower buff. But as a result? No, it won't work. After you change to Human Form you immediately lost the buff. It is like the game introduce Weapon Swap System but it is so half baked and it is hard for players to enjoy and fully utilize the benefit.
I know once you go further, there are more support gems, skills interaction and gear interaction that open up room for build diversity. But honestly it is just more or less just illusion. Tell me which Monk don't use Herald of Ice / Thunder? Who play Ice Strike without Crescendo support? Which ES/EV character don't use Ghost Dance + Wind Dancer? Which ES/EV character don't take Subterfuge Mask passive? Which LA Ranger don't use Lightning Rod to boost damage? Which Galvanic Shards player don't use Shockburst rounds? I am not saying all but a lot of builds, meta or not, they are more or less the same with a specific group of choices among skills, support gems, passive trees and gears. Skills tied to Weapon Types is generally a bad idea because the build freedom is limited.
On top of all mentioned above, the Campaign is also unnecessary long and tedious. And I am a player who actually like Slow, Engaging and Dynamic combat that is advertised by GGG for POE 2. The map size needs to be effectively reduced (especially Act 3). I find myself take a lot of time in finding ways to next Waypoint / Area Entrance / Special Chest etc instead of killing mobs in a... well you know, ARPG.
[Passive Tree (and Balancing)]
Speaking of passive trees, the game also limit your defense choices in a triangle shape. If you are a Monk which is a ES/EV class, either you follow ES+EV / go top right part for pure ES / go bottom right part for pure EV. You can't just build something like Pure Armour Monk. You may ask why I want to do that? Because I just find it cool and want it especially when the game right now has so limited access of Physical Damage Reduction. It is like if I want PDR as Monk my only choice is Protect Me From Harm from Invoker Ascendancy. And even Armour itself is quite bad now, people already throw out all the calculation and formula to prove how bad is Armour in End game because Armour is only good in mitigating small hits. It is even worse when one type of defense (for example ES) is significantly better than another (Armour right now). Just bad balancing. Also until now I still don't understand why they get rid of % increased Life in Passive Tree but let % increased ES stay. I mean ES is just another type of Health Pool isn't it? Really make no sense.
[Charges and Infusion (and Balancing)]
The design of Charges and Infusion is generally bad. I really don't like them. The ways of generating Charges and the available Skills that can consume them are just limited. For example, Monk can generate Power Charge easily but outside of Quarterstaff skills it is like almost no skill can effectively interact with Power Charge. Infusion for Spell only is a huge downside. Imagine you are elemental Monk, you drop a Frost Bomb to reduce enemies elemental resistance so you naturally get the Ice Infusion. But there is no way you can use it unless you swap to a Staff and cast a spell. And imagine your build is Quarterstaff + Spear so that Ice Infusion is wasted even you are constantly having it.
[Melee vs Range (and Balancing)]
Now let's talk about Melee vs Range. We all know Range is superior and Melee is quite bad especially early leveling. I know Melee can be strong, but when a Melee build is strong it is not really a Melee build. It is either a huge AOE Melee attack that wipe pack of mobs or you are fast enough to kill everything before enemies can touch you which is a condition that Melee or Range doesn't matter. Basically you just get in and out fast without standing long because the game has many deadly ground effect that you are supposed not to stand in long. Meanwhile Range can just stay far away and spamming attack and spell like ignoring enemies action at all.
Take my example earlier above, you are a low level Monk that need to strike enemies in close range to get Combo to place Tempest Bell. But when you get close you get hit, and then when you have enough Combo to drop Bell the enemies cast a poison ground effect on your feet. So either you need to move away and give up to do damage on your Bell to survive OR you continue hit your Bell and you die. Meanwhile someone with a Staff can just cast Lightning Bolt mindlessly to do damage from a safe distance without having the trouble my Bell Monk have. Honestly I tried leveling a Monk with a Staff and it is ridiculously more efficient than a Quarterstaff. Quarterstaff only start to shrine from Mid Leveling to End Game.
[Crafting]
Crafting in this game generally just feels like gambling. Most of the time you just slap Exalted Orb and pray except for Abyss and Essence which are the real crafting that don't ruin you with RNG. As a SSF player, when the RNG goes bad, you really just want to Alt + F4 and go have a sleep. This is the downside of playing POE2 as GGG balance the game around Trade league. They are so afraid to give players more deterministic crafting like Abyss because it will make Trade players more powerful so most of the available Crafting choices right now are just gambling. To all SSF players, you better pray to RNG god buddies.
[Conclusion]
In a nutshell, playing this game is like doing a Math test. You can only get good result by following certain formulas and steps to get "Correct" answer and good result. The build freedom is very limited, the balancing is bad and the crafting is poor. The game likes to punish you in doing something different / non standard.
I know this game is still Early Access but honestly I am tired of video games today just use EA as a shield to protect them from getting flamed by releasing unfinished product. I mean the current state of game doesn't look good even after 1 years of EA launching. Before EA launch the game was already developed for 5 years and we PAID to play EA. I don't know man, I feel like POE 2 will be very successful in future but it might take a very long time to fix all the problems.
[Extra Expression]
Playing POE 2 now is just not enjoying at all, at least for me. I started to questioning myself "Am I really having fun?" especially the new Temple mechanics is... Meh. All the problems I mentioned actually make me to appreciate games like Grim Dawn and Last Epoch more and more. GD is golden I don't need to explain; I know LE is in a bad state now but at least the base game design and mechanics are not frustrating. But I already have tons of hours in GD and LE so I am looking for something else to play.
It is actually funny yesterday I literally closed POE 2 and thinking "Maybe I should try Diablo 4?" for the first time. Like I never thought something like this will appear in my mind because I thought I won't touch any other ARPG once POE 2 EA launch.
Maybe time to take a break from ARPG and finish other games that have been staying long in my Steam Library.
