0.3 Casual Player Feedback, yet another

Hi guys,

If you find this thread by an AI filtering in the googol of other feedbacks, here you are...

I am 40-ish daddy with limited time. Instead of reading books I play games, I write my own stories like others here. I played all Diablo games, not much of other clones. Even the Immortal, lol. Where it makes sense, I drop some money. Good things are not for free. And if they are, they deserve support, like you.

I backed POE 1 and played very early stage. I never returned back.
I bought POE 2 in advance, played v0.1, the first 3 acts. I stopped around lvl 50, the second round of Acts I ignored, my build was not really good. But the gameplay was great.
I came back for patch 0.3. I played alone, sometimes with friends on PC or PS5. And I really enjoyed the time. I ended up as lvl 91, with only 3 ascendancies, easily going through T15 maps, but playing mostly T15 1-2 revives, 2 Tablets and 150% IIR on gear. It was challenging and fun for some time. I did not want to repeat my mistake from patch 0.1, so I chose Deadeye.

Act 1-3, is good. Challenging but fair.
Act 4 is really great. And market is important break-point. It's quite sad new players have to find the market options by googling.
Interlude - ok.
Atlas endgame - This could be better.

Once I reached market I spent one of 3 divines I got from early game. I think you could guarantee 1-2 divines for all characters before entering the market in Act 4. You know, girls shop in malls, boys shop in POE. Sure, I don't know how to protect this against bots, just saying entering the market with a high value currency felt really good. My friends were unlucky, so I shared my portion of luck with them. The "offline" market is really great, miles away from Diablo 3 Auction House, or Diablo 4 trade channel. I used it often to boost my gear, I changed it completely probably 7-times.

- 3-4 months long season is just fine for casuals to get to the endgame with good build enjoying the game.
- After nearly a month in Atlas, with a dozens of screens explored, I did not find a single Citadel to get the keys to Burning Monolith. I don't get this kind of grind.
- I bought the keys on market instead when I lost my patience. It took me just 1 juicy map to get some gold, trade currency, profit and buy the keys.
- After I killed [Regular] Arbiter of Ash, an NPC told me we have to find out more. Game over. No congratulation, no skill points, no ovations and cheers like in Act 1 town, every NPC wanted to "press F to pay respect".
Now,
Absolutely
Nothing.
Just another grey day in the endless grind. This was the most disappointing milestone I reached in POE 2. Arbiter also did not feel any stronger than other regular boss, he has few annoying mechanics.

- I felt a bit lost also with the lesser keys (Splinters). For example I tried to farm Breach Splinters using the tablets. I got some Splinters each run. If I hit a corridor style map, I got even less, obviously. I just did not want to look which map is which type. I used market instead. One map again provided enough gold to trade currency, profit, and just buy the 2000 Splinters. Why I can't get enough of them and fast enough playing the game when I can do the same through the market trade, i.e. not playing the game? I don't understand this. I started to feel more currency merchant than ARPG player, but this only came around lvl 85-90. The only event which felt good were Rituals. Fast, I pick from RNG what I want, defer hi-value objects.

- After some time the maps on Atlas felt like a useless filling while searching for the Citadels, Towers, Unique maps and Nexuses. Rushing maps with strict loot filter felt more optimal on the way from A to B.
- Soon after I did not feel connection between what I do with my goal. I tried all content, reached the milestones, the only unfinished quest was clearing the Corrupted Nexuses streak. I did not bother anymore. I just gave up.

Ascendancy. This is ridiculously long and annoying session compared to anything else in the game. Using relics to solve honor / resists is fine. Losing all invested time to a boss 1-shot is just not fun. It's probably better than being a medieval peasant, but worse than playing Flappy Bird. I never had time slot long enough for 4th ascendancy. And not a single time I wanted return to Trials and risk my time. How melee classes pass this content is a mystery I do not need to know. I ignored this for the rest of the game.

Sprinting. Bugged on ultra-wide (5120x1440). Felt clunky, I did not use it at all. Boots without movement speed... no go. Why it even drops without this stat I have no idea.

Stability. The graphics layer crashes at least once during few hours game session (RTX3080, DX12), usually at some boss encounter, but it recovers quite well and I can pause the game while UI loads. Multiplayer... bad luck, can't play casual-HC this way :) Diablo, other games, no problems.

Patch 0.4. I'll skip it most probably. Druid isn't class I am interested in, I look forward endgame changes.
The armour stat and resulting damage reduction feels bad in endgame. Armour should scale linearly with the physical damage reduction. Even half-split Armour with ES or Evasion is just a waste, I see no added value. Therefore I'll prefer classes independent on armour stat, ideally ranged.


Despite the critics, I want to thank you GGG for developing this game.
This game already feels great until the end-game. Even following online guides feels good. I accept I do not have enough time to experiment with builds and gear so I follow a build, a variant. Still, discovering and unlocking it in the game felt good. Ok, was OP Deadeye. For me it was great experience.

The path [of the exile] matters.
Thanks.

0.4.0 is not druid only.
Endgame changes that you are looking for are coming.

This became clear when they announced 0.3.1.

Also, you are borderline lucky. Absolutely insanely lucky...

To see a divine is not only rare, but to have 3 by act 4 is unrealistic amount of luck.

Thanks Skellymancer#5263
I'll check the news again once 0.4 is out.

Yes, looks I was lucky in early game, then very unlucky with Citadels. Did not find a one. I also crafted Bow which carried me over all 3 acts, and then sold it for 1 DIV, so I got actually 4 at the beginning of Act 4.

I think the luck is somehow dependent on the number of players. My friend worn some +IIR, but I got lucky instead. Maybe wrong perception. Don't know.

Citadels are easy, just walk straight line from center, and when you get at some distance they start to spawn.

Before that 6-7-8 screens radius, there are none. Maybe you circled too much around the starting point.

You are right. More-less circle around start.
I found the answer I should go straight line one direction, but not how far. Thanks.

Anyway, I will try it next time on fresh start.

As a long-time PoE 1 player, and now more so PoE 2, what skelly said is absolutely correct. You should never expect to find even a single divine in the campaign, the luck you had was immense.

Considering the citadels, I have personally never had a single problem with finding them, matter of fact I found them without it even being my goal, I just stumbled upon them as I cleared the atlas. You have to branch out more than just the starting area, a straight line maybe isnt the best idea. My advice is follow the corruption nexuses at the start, check for towers in the fog of the atlas(zoom in on them) if a tower has red vines protruding from it, a corruption area is there. Following the corruption leads you to a citadel eventually regardless of what you do.

Splinter drops depend on your IIR/quantity as well as the layout of the map itself, if it's a closed corridor map, the amount you get will always be lesser, as you keep playing you will simply remember the map names and what layout they posses. Shouldn't be a deal breaker if you are willing to pay a tiny bit of attention.

I've seen this take on Trials quite a few times by now, I have never had a single issue with any trial at all, I can see how people would struggle, but if that was ever the case, simply purchase a few honour resistance relics from the market, and every run you do will be a piece of cake, your honour will barely move. As for the one shot mechanics, they removed it from Zarokh, not collecting the hourglasses in time isn't as punishing anymore, the fight simply continues without you dying, it just becomes a bit more difficult.

Ritual was completely and utterly bugged since 0.3.1, I would argue it is the worst mechanic in the game at this given moment, considering the fact tablets are no where to be found since they changed the drops to only be from the rituals themselves. It's really good for SSF, omens provide a lot of value, but currently, it is not worth your time, even tablets are a few divines each

Stability is the main issue in this game, everything else is meaningless until they really optimize it properly and make it playable for the majority of the player base, with a RTX 4070, my game still freezes very often, it kills the will to play.

If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer, and if you come back to 0.4, I hope you'll enjoy it!!

Thank you nenodox also for your view.

I remember my 1st divine dropped in Act 3, Drowned City, so the other two were later in Act 3. I had no IIR on me, just 2 uniques, but my mate had some. We made few jokes about it because I got some Uniques dropped before and his drop sucked. For some reason I think that luck was part of the group. Because other day the luck flipped x-D

With citadels, seems I must be on the "edge", around 7 screens. I just explored in all directions :-P I watched some YT video showing patterns where these citadels spawn, but the guy didn't tell anything about distance from the start. Even his search was zig-zag. It wasn't the best advice obv. On top, I was 'juicing' every map on my way, including abyss, my progress was quite slow but millions were around :D If I were at GGG, I would make citadels completely random, put T15 waystone prerequisite and leave it on the player if and when he wants to return to that content. Next time I just rush straight line ;) Thanks guys.

Splinters. I had engouh tablets so I didn't care about map layouts. It just felt disappointing to open map where some type of event was weaker. The map was best choice on my way, so I did it anyway. But later I found I don't even need to try, market solved it. I agree if I pay attention I can be optimal. But I am optimal at work. Sometimes I just turn off in game, leave optimal decisions behind.

Trial 1 was challenging in duo but we did it. First Trial 2 was a failure. Not because of relics, but because of boss one-shot. I had full honour, I died somehow stunned, don't ask how. Second time I played safe. Trial 3 I prepared cola, sh1tbucket, locked the door, watched instructions on YT and passed it flawlessly. Trial 4... :P I am sure I can pass. It's not something I want to play. I am not hating it, it has own fans. It's just not for me.

Very interesting view on Rituals. For some reason I like that event. Yes they are bugged, that I clearly see. I checked tablet prices now X-D Lol. There is definitely more work required :DD

Stability, completely agree. It is annoying especially in boss fights. In party play it's death sentence. One time I switched to Vulkan, then back to DX, the game session was stable the whole time. Maybe coincidence.

0.4, I'll wait for Rax, DM, etc. what they say. If I invest time again I really want to see updated endgame.

Many thanks nenodox, was a nice reading.