Question: Would you prefer game design changes or new content?

I was listening to some POE 2 podcasts on 0.4 since I wasn't able to play much during launch, and multiple of them said they would've preferred an update to the end game than a new league.

After playing a little bit in the last day or so, I think I agree. I would've preferred an update to end game and some more robust balance changes... please make life builds more viable in HC or at least close the gap to ES, and not by nerfing ES.

Would you all have preferred 4.0 to end game and balance changes or new league and new class?

Neither.

I just want consistent updates on classes, equipment, and skill gems.

From the beginning GGG should have ignored all the complaining and focused getting the fundamentals out of the way.

Now instead they're juggling leagues for two games while everything else is relegated to the backburner.

First off, I REALLY like the Vaal Temple and think its an absolutely wonderful addition to the game, it appears to already have its unlock built into the story in act 3, and does have longevity built into the end game already. I'd like to see a preview of its atlas tree or the atlas nodes that are going to be going in for it in 0.5 but I'm certain they'll get that some time before april.

Second off, they added an entirely new spell caster school but did not add any caster weapons that cater to that school. This is at best a missed opportunity and at worst an immense disservice to the players that are enjoying the primal casting. I would like to see some primal spell staves/wands.

Third off, of the new bases that were added only 4 of them received uniques. I understand the goal for the 1.0 launch was to have one unique for every base, and I feel like setting that expectation that every base would have an associated unique was explicit for the remainder of early access so that just gave me a bit of whiplash and I like some communication regarding the philosophy for uniques for the remaining weapon types (daggers, swords, axes, flails any other ones). I'm not saying launching a new weapon type with only a few uniques is bad, mostly that it did not live up to the expectation that was set by the game designers/producers and that it is a (I swear I'm not intending a pun here) double-edged sword, it gives them a long tail end for adding new content for a weapon type like talismans.


Finally, the scoping does feel conservative. I don't know if that is just a feeling, as we did get 3 new ascendencies, one new class, a new spell school that includes plants and shapeshifting, and 12 new uniques. The cultivated unique system is nice, uses the same tech as the foulborn unique system from path of exile, but there are only 3 uniques worth using that on and most uniques are, at least insofar as I understand the power scaling in both games, extremely underpowered and the system does nothing to make uniques viable at endgame. So its possible the scoping feels more conservative than it actually is.

Game Design 100% of the time.

I want consistent updates on classes, equipment, and skill gems.

I don't care for End Game because it's something that will never make sense for players until we get the full roster of classes, equipment, and skill gems.

Design without question.
A recurring issue with POE2 is GGG's going for sheer bulk of content over quality.
"Instead of making meaningful improvements to the ARPG campaign formula or its replayability, let's just make POE2's campaign really really massive."
"Instead of committing to the original 'build a skill' premise of the POE gem system, let's just give POE2 a ridiculously large number of support gems. Most of them low impact and niche and amounting to esoteric game knowledge checks with no actual impact on gameplay, but more is more!"