GGG, gg

Not someone who posts often (I vented a bit tonight, usually I avoid forums), but I hope GGG reads this and takes something away from it.

As the title says: GGG, gg—you win, I lose. For my own sanity, I need to step away from PoE2. I never played PoE1 (mentioning this because I know “go back to PoE1” replies are coming). Patch 0.3 finally got the game into a state where I could enjoy it somewhat, but this patch feels like a major step backward.

My main issue is build diversity vs. difficulty—they’re essentially the same problem. Maybe players will eventually figure out enough viable builds like in 0.3, but right now the game feels stale and overly restrictive.

Some rhetorical questions:

Why completely gut life-stacking builds? They were strong in 0.3, sure—but they were also fun. Why not tone them down instead of deleting them? Why destroy the Rathpit / Tecrod / Atalui interaction entirely? Same with Indigon + Incinerate: a slow mapper (couldn’t even use sprint), slightly overtuned single-target DPS, and yet the build got nuked from orbit. Why do energy loop builds keep getting deleted (Lightning Warp this league, for example—great mapping, mediocre single target)? Why does every interesting player-discovered interaction get removed; because we are “not using this as intended”?

Do we really need to read skill gems and infer the exact combo GGG wants us to play, then stick to that? It increasingly feels like the game is being heavily curated—like an overbearing boss standing behind us, making sure we’re having their version of fun.

Meanwhile, bows get to hold one button and delete the game for the fourth league in a row.

I’m trying to enjoy a Demonform run—an archetype that keeps getting hit repeatedly. I dragged this character through what I genuinely think is an awful campaign experience (four leagues of this now—please make it shorter, maps more compact, enemies less annoying; density somehow feels HIGHER this league). I reached level 88 and T15 maps, but I’m done. I can’t even consider leveling another character.

The endgame doesn’t incentivize continued play. That’s made worse by dying three maps in a row to Shade Walker Abyss (unlucky, sure—but why does a mod like that exist at all?). On a recoup build, I literally have no chance—no escape, no counterplay. On that note - why was recoup nerfed via socketable limits and % increased effect? Were recoup builds dominating? Overtuned? I read the patch notes and honestly thought, “What is even happening?”. Movement speed and % reduced penalty have the same problem, only one part of the passive tree is allowed to move fast(er).

At this point, I don’t understand what GGG is trying to accomplish. I’m stepping away at least until 1.0—maybe I’ll try again then, maybe not. I’m exhausted. I have zero interest in incremental gear upgrades when crafting nerfs have removed one of the main ways weaker skills could even be made viable - not sure they realise how hard they hit people who like to go off-meta by removing the Omens.

Anyways, that's all I have to say, can't wait to wake up tomorrow and read how my tourist a$$ should take the 2100 hours of gameplay and go...somewhere nice.:)

Trying to make a build feels like putting together a really cool sand castle, and every patch feels like the devs coming and kicking it over because it doesn't align with their dArK aNd EdGy disempowerment fantasy that's apparently their vision.

Almost 900 hours in leagues 1-3. About 9 hours in this one before uninstalling; not remotely interested in playing according to the devs "vision". I had thought this game was about coming up with our own builds but it's apparently actually about playing whatever flavor of the day they decided for us in advance.