In my opinion, the 0.2 patch was a big improvement in terms of mapping, crafting and overall endgame experience. I am mainly writing this because I'm honestly losing my mind reading all the negative reviews and people spam crying about the game. I started the patch trying to make lightning spells work, got to 78 and rerolled to warrior. Right now it's close to 95 with around 130 hours played and the character feels done because upgrades are getting harder to find (which isn't a bad thing).
I don't think the game right now is perfect. I also think there are many areas that need more work to varying degrees. But it's good at what it tries to be, which is not PoE 1.
Campaign
Currently, the campaign, or rather the first three acts, feels good to play through. I don't really understand people's complaints about the loot and lack of currency during leveling because to me it feels fine? Kinda similar to how confused Johnathan was that Ziz wasn't getting enough regals.
I'm also on the fence about the complaint that zones are way too big. Act 3 is pushing it but no zone was actually too big. I'd be happier if they kept the zone size but increased the amount of landmarks which would point you where you needed to go.
The campaign bosses feel too weak atm. My sorc was struggling because my spells didn't do a lot of damage but the bosses themselves felt like sponges and attacking every 8 seconds. Ideally there would be more mechanics the bosses did to make the fight more engaging or the bosses would have less hp.
Mapping
Greatly improved compared to 0.1.
The upcoming nexus change will make it even better. Personally I'd like it if completing the nexus gave you all the atlas points up to the tier you most recently completed, but that might be too fast. Needs more work.
Citadels are seemingly more rare than in 0.1, I'm not sure if this is intended but it doesn't seem like it is.
Unique maps are amazing and I'm looking forward to every one I see. The biggest issue is they are waaay too rare. Well, they are rare when you consider what the end game loop is. You clear a tower, apply tablets, clear maps in tower range and then move to the next tower. Realistically, in the endgame you're only finding new unique maps if you're actively looking for them which probably will never be the case. I'd maybe be ok with there being a tablet that added one unique map in range but not sure what they should do here tbh.
The tower changes are also great, nothing bad to say about them.
League mechanics
Essences are much better than 0.1, especially if you spec into them. I'm finding much more greaters than in 0.1 on a baseline level and most of the atlas passives for essences are good and make sense to take. Adding the option to vaal them was a good addition.
Rogue exiles feel really undercooked. They are ridiculously weak, both in damage and tankiness, and most of the time don't have any uniques equipped. I must admit I haven't tested them too extensively but they definitely need buffs.
Strongboxes changes are similar to the essence ones - overall good. The unique strongboxes, outside of the Valdo's one, don't feel that significant tbh so maybe something here should get buffed. The corrupted unique strongbox is literally worth a vaal orb most of the time and it doesn't really work the way they wanted to I think.
Shrines need nerfs. Like right now. I'm talking about the meteor and lightning storm shrines. Those do too much damage and you can be unlucky enough for both to spawn of one shrine.
Expedition tree is good and was good in 0.1. I'd like it if the big boom had a bigger radius so it was worth it to take but generally expedition is in a good place. Recombinators are an interesting addition (in the sense that I didn't expect them in PoE 2), and currently a strong way to craft. Overall, expedition good.
Ritual has also improved. Omens are more common, good change. Audience is more common, again, good change.
Breach nerfs were justified and it's currently just ok. Which is not bad imo. I've never been a fan of breach and only ever saw it as a leveling to 100 method. The first breachstone feels a bit too hard to get.
Delirium needs a whole rework. Farming delirium with like 12+ rewards feels amazing in PoE 1. PoE 2's delirium is not it. The tree isn't that good imo and simulacrum needs to change. I'm happy they will nerf it because it is in no way comparable to other difficulty 0 bosses but it still feels lacklustre. Honestly, it would be better if they just mashed Kosis and Omniphobia together and made a boss. Xesht was added for breach. Delirium needs a big bad boss too.
Crafting
First off, I think it's hilarious when people say they are ssf and then complain they don't have enough resources to craft. It's like if hardcore players complained they can't play their character after it died.
Crafting is better than 0.1. Crafting is not as strong or as easy as it is in PoE 1 and that is not bad. You definitely have tools to craft your gear and with enough tries you will get there. Recombinators are strong. Greater essences are decent but seemingly prio bad mods which isn't ideal. Most omens are super strong.
There was a Reddit post recently that made me so mad I started writing this. Dude wanted to craft a 650+ pdps bow for 20d. The cheapest 650+ pdps bow is 55d. The cheapest one on a good base is 270d.
It is ok to settle on not perfect mods. It is also ok to keep grinding to make your dream item.
Also I really don't understand the opinion that for any upgrades you should just trade. Like if you're on sc trade then yes, trading will most likely be the best way to spend currency because there's so many items posted.
You can still craft your gear. It's fine. It will also get better as they add more tools.
Loot
Loot feels fine right now. Genuinely. I am not memeing or rage-baiting. The most recent fubgun video radicalised me. I have nothing against him or how he plays the game, nor do I have anything against people with similar opinions to him.
But.
You also have to understand how silly and childish you sound when you make the argument that loot should be buffed because the tink sound effect sounds nice. The basis for most of the arguments seems to be rooted in this. Players want more tinks. There was also a Reddit post a while back saying that divine orbs and perfect jewelers were the only interesting drops. You seriously need to reconsider how you approach this game. Div per hour is not the only metric to judge a game on.
Another thing to consider is that PoE 1 hasn't shut down it's servers. You can still play it. There's a new league coming soon too. You will be fine. There's no need to try so hard to make PoE 2 into PoE 1.2. Let each game have their own flavour.
Greater jewelers need a small buff. I think I got to 92 before seeing my first one. Not ideal.
Casters
Last personal complaint.
Casters feel bad. Just full stop. I'm talking primarily self casting. I had hoped self casting would be in a better place than in PoE 1. Nope. It's actually worse. Nerfing demonform and archmage was kinda silly since it's the only real way to scale spells.
I genuinely want to know how do they envision casters to be played. Triggers? Self cast? Mixing elements? Archmage? Idk.
And until I do, I can't really say what they should change to get there. (I hope it's not mixing elements, that would actually be the worst case scenario.)
There's also the issue of spells not working with eachother at all. For example warrior's have aftershocks, stuns, exerts. Tools to combo spells with. How am I supposed to combo Spark, Arc and Ball lightning? Hopefully this is fixed before 1.0.
Really digging the patch changes overall - mapping feels smoother, bosses have more presence, and the progression just clicks better now. Love how they’re starting to tie mechanics together more instead of everything feeling super siloed. That said, I still think some underused skills need love, and league balance is always gonna be a wild ride. While I was theorycrafting builds the other night, I ended up browsing some other stuff too and found this surprisingly cool site for chill gaming
εδώ slots you can play with just 1 cent - honestly not bad for killing time when you don’t want to dive into a full PoE session. Simple layout, doesn’t hit you with annoying popups, and it’s got a solid list of games. Anyway, back to trying to make this weird minion build work, fingers crossed they don't nerf it mid-league.
