My Thoughts about PoE2 after returning to PoE1 after a long time

1) Playing PoE1 feels like playing an ARPG where your skill is determined by your ability to make the best build possible from the passive skill tree and finding/crafting gear (I play SSF)... playing PoE2 feels like being whipped on the back by being forced to very VERY specific builds, being whipped on the back by being forced to buy ALL my gear from other players, being whipped by not being allowed to play SSF unless I hate my life for some reason, being whipped by taking sooooooo long to down the massively overblown HP bars and finally being told that what I need to know to play an ARPG isn't build crafting... nope... I need to know how to press space at the right moment about 150 thousand times in a row (because that's how long it takes to take down the boss)...

2) PoE1 used to be one of those games everyone said "It's a huge time sink"... and it is, don't get me wrong... but after playing PoE2 I feel like PoE1 "respects my time", which it doesn't, but PoE2 is way way waaaaaaaaaay worse... the campaign is soooooo long and if you're on your first character it's even slower... you are forced to waste time looking for leveling gear online because otherwise you're on Act 5 (Act 2 cruel) with the same shitty gear from Act 2, the fights are long and tedious, you end up backpedaling even against white monsters because your gear sucks and you can't one shot them because you're trying to use whatever you find or "craft" (yeah, craft... good one... I crack myself up)... going through PoE2 once feels like I've gone through 5 characters in PoE1... not literally, the time spent is about 2-3 times the time you invest in PoE1 but it feels even more because it's sooooo goddamn tedious and it feels endless...

3) There is NOTHING deterministic in PoE2... at least in PoE1 if I want something I can "kinda" get it... want a six-link? I can craft it... you have a piece of gear with almost perfect stats missing one specific one? I can craft it... need to work around my resistances on my gear? I can kinda make it work through crafting (depending on what stats I've crafted on my gear beforehand)... I have options... in PoE2 I have NOTHING... all I can do is farm currency to buy everything... well, I work for a living and when I want to buy something new I go to work, make money and buy it... for some reason GGG has decided I need a second job... Dear GGG, in video games there's a HUGE difference between EARNING something by playing (finding it, loot dropping for you) and just doing your chores to buy it... just think about what's the absolutely worst thing about MMORPGs... it's dailies... NOBODY likes dailies... we all do them because we know we have to to get some kind of currency or items we need to make our gear or buy our gear, but it's a CHORE!!! Well, playing PoE2 is like the ONLY thing in the game is doing an endless daily mission...


So, after spending a week in PoE1 I can safely say that PoE1, while it has it's flaws, is CERTAINLY more rewarding, it's more of a video game and it's an ARPG... PoE2 doesn't know what kind of game it is, is trying to re-invent the wheel and has ended up with square wheels that don't roll and it's a HUGE waste of time because it offers nothing better than PoE1 other than better graphics... and no, dodge rolling is NOT an upgrade... dodge rolling being called an upgrade in video games is a joke... it's just a tumble towards some direction... get over it, it's nothing fancy... and the whole "skill combo focus" of PoE2 is all bullshit... what skill combos? The ones that I don't have the time to use against the boss or mobs anyway? Or the ones that do less damage than the latest one-button meta build?

Anyway, this is what I got out of it... PoE1 is actually a decent ARPG... PoE2 isn't even close to being an ARPG at all...

bump.

also i wanna add: i started all available melees, dies 10x in a row during animations, melee combat 2ability setback" is a joke in an arpg. after 3k hours in poe1 i must say: this is not my game and probably will never be.

as you said the builds are heavily narrowed, it feels like d4 just that all skill-twigs are in one big circle of skill twigs.

also with all the weapon linked skills and skill linked support gems, you can just get rid of that whole system alltogether. just give us ability slots and we use abilities. done. its adding complexity for no reason.

in poe1 actually other classes could make use of other skills. but now? is there a javelin monk? a bow marauder? no. so. whats the point then?

Yep, completely agree... and the biggest jokes are the passive tree that gives next to nothing (90% of your power is your gear in a game that ACTIVELY refuses to give you usable loot) and the ascendancies... you do your first ascendancy and you're borderline weaker than you were before it... because you got 2% stronger because every ascendancy node has debuffs for some f-ed up reason and the monsters keep getting stronger while you stay still (because god forbid you find gear without buying it online)...


I mean 90% of the game in PoE1 is understanding the passive tree and picking the right nodes... in PoE2 even if you pick the right nodes they give you so little stats that you're just constantly behind the power-curve... and by the way they think that's "challenging"... a challenge is something that you throw at me to OVERCOME... not something that you put in my way that I cannot change no matter what I do...

It's both true and sad that the "hardcore" PoE1 has better enjoyment per minute spent playing, and i end every play session with some minor or major goal accomplished, while PoE2 is a big spin-the-wheel with pretty graphics and amazing animations, but subpar game progression.