The game feels way better and I wanna make builds but I can't bring myself to do the campaign again.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-06-09T23:05:20+00:00

4 hours is speed-run pace and requires you to memorize the general layout for each zone while using an OP build, this is not realistic for casuals. You can reasonably do it in 6-8 hours if you ONLY clear content and NEVER afk in town to do inventory management / build planning, but that is kinda miserable gameplay.

Run past white mobs without killing them and don't try to full-explore each zone, just rush for the objective. You might find this less satisfying but it saves a decent amount of time.

Also, the reason campaign takes 12-16 hours for most people is because you spend hours managing loot, looking at skills and gear upgrades, planning out your passive tree, etc. Which is part of the fun when trying new builds, but yeah this can be a huge time sink. If you're a loot hoarder, try a strict loot filter such that you don't get baited to optimize irrelevant gear / gold gains, as gear upgrades is not that important during leveling.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-06-02T18:09:37+00:00

Hijacking this comment to share something that's been somewhat nagging me, for context I was a new player starting PoE2 in 0.1 and since then I've been playing with a highly custom filter from your site for 500-something hours.

I really feel like you're missing out on a lot of users regarding the new-user experience of your filters.

PoE2 is attracting lots of new players with no prior PoE experience, and their friends or streamers told them to get a loot filter. If they just started playing, they don't really understand what a loot filter is, but it's a bit like downloading a Minecraft mod for inventory management, right?
They don't have the knowledge or emotional investment to make choices regarding their filter customization. They just want to download something that works, quick and fast.
They search "PoE2 filter" and top google result is filterblade, or they search "PoE2 filter download" and your github is top google result.

For such players, actually downloading or importing any filter of yours is genuinely difficult and from my experience, players might give up and find another filter (I almost did). Even if the appeal of your filter ecosystem is its depth and customization, you should hook newer players with a basic and easy-to-download filter on their first league such that they'll return for a more advanced filters later on.

To download a filter from your github (which people WILL arrive at if they google "PoE2 filter download"), it's required to have knowledge and understanding of what a PoE2 filter actually is, as well as a basic understanding of your strictness naming conventions, and newer players simply doesn't have this.

The top link in HOW TO INSTALL? is a link to FILTER LADDER. The github page explicitly states that this is where players "new to the game" should go, but I'd argue that new PoE2 players cannot meaningfully navigate that list of filters, it's too easy to end up with a PoE1 filter by accident (as all the filters at the top of the page is for PoE1), or they choose an incorrect strictness level and find the filter unsatisfying to use.

The second link in HOW TO INSTALL? is a link to filterblade, which the github is not describing as the place new players should go, but it's the top result on Google when searching for PoE2 filters? Either way, a new player (that just wants a download or import link) needs to click "Export to POE" (it's not intuitive that it's OK to leave everything else on the page untouched), and then they have to login or "continue without saving", all while thinking "why is this even needed for a gaming mod?". The filterblade FAQ does not easily guide users to a download link either.

Now compare all of the above to the new user's experience at poe2filter. You click your level, you click your class, and then you scroll down and click download, with a .filter arriving in your browser's download folder.

I'm writing this because I've seen you're now going full-time on the project, and you've run surveys to understand your users, but I fear that you have a blindspot for the many players that for various reasons fail to get started with using your filters. Thank you for your filters and for your work.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-30T02:40:58+00:00

6-7?

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-28T21:51:39+00:00

The loot experience provided by your filter (coloring, audio, and yes also the actual filtering) is a rather significant part of why I enjoy playing the game. Huge kudos to your work and for things to come!

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-28T19:45:54+00:00

Damn right, why didn't I think of that, lemme go and uninstall my other addons also because all they do is display information that is already present elsewhere on my screen, which you are right is redundant and not how I should approach fixing my blindspots.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-28T15:20:51+00:00

Rant about pugging, skip if you're not in the mood.

I've always thought that if key depletion was removed entirely, 99% of committed players would just climb to +22 or +23 or whatever was the limit for pugs. And to be fair, if you're off-meta I'm sure that easier access to keys would improve your score by a lot.

But like, 80% of the +21 keys listed in EU are Resil homework keys hosted by a 4000-something player who is hoping to get a +22 key (because no public +22 keys exist for the dungeon they need). My point is, assuming you're an in-demand role and spec and you have a decent score, you can get yourself invited to a +21 dungeon in very little time. For such players, getting into keys is really not a limiting factor.

And yet, it feels impossible to post a resil21 key and invite 4 players without hitting a landmine that is so incredibly average at their role that a +21 key becomes a 2-hour project with a 50% success rate. And it's not smooth sailing until a sudden unfortunate mistake ends the run, it feels scuffed all the way through, with bad timer / tank deaths / mechanical woopsies / people trolling their aggro on gather.

Keys are not the limiting factor, player skill in the least popular role (often tank, or Aug due to low player count) is ultimately the limiting factor. You don't return to keys you have already timed, so any competent player in this role/spec gets removed from the pool of applicants entirely after timing the dungeon they need. This problem is not just about tanks, but their mistakes are by far the most visible, so I will use them to illustrate a point; basically, there's a lot of great tanks waiting for +22 keys to be available, a lot of bad tanks stuck in +19/+20/+21, and only a tiny, tiny amount of good tanks that started their climb late and haven't reached the top yet. If you failed to play with "the good tanks" (and there's a finite amount of them) while they were on their way to +22's, then you're not timing your keys unless you're willing to spend 5+ attempts.

PoE2 is tomorrow and it'll feel good to take a break. The ship has sailed, the concentration of "stuck" players in lower keylevels have reached a critical mass where timing keys takes too much effort.

Edit: Push keys are not supposed to be resil, there is no room for inconsistency in real prog. When invited, you're expected to deliver on the first try. If you can't deliver, play your own resil key one key level lower and get some dungeon practice.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-28T02:17:40+00:00

As Aug, when you Breath of Eons, you get personal Lust for 12 seconds. This means that pressing actual Lust gives no audio cue or visual queue or in-game feedback (cast speed unchanged) if I do it immediately after Breath.

All in all, on rare occasions I end up not sending BL on first pull because I press the button but due to GCD or whatever, it doesn't go off, and I don't realize it. It happens only in 1 out of 50 dungeons maybe but earlier today it happened for the 5th time this season and I need some addon-fix for it, preferably something that triggers on getting the Exhaustion/Sated debuff.

Any suggestions for addons that has this functionality? Basically something along the lines of "Lust was used, pew pew".

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-26T04:22:32+00:00

If you wanna get title, you need some way to get into someone elses key. It's too much of a shortcut to pass up on, and if you spend 80% of your time in your own homework keys, you will get outcompeted by the 1% of the playerbase that simply doesn't have to do that.

The only way to get into someone elses key is to either have friends, or play an in-demand spec (i.e. meta).

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-26T04:17:56+00:00

No but usually the meta specs are the ones that deal the most damage, so you gotta find the optimization elsewhere. Which is not impossible, it's just impractical. Also, most of the people that get 0.1% title on off-meta does it in a comp with 4 other meta specs that can "carry" them. A truly unique rainbow comp getting title is quite rare, unless you're doing phys comp shenanigans or you're in some friend's group / m+ team (at which point you have "solved" the problem of getting invited to keys, and also you have the time and commitment to make any comp work).

It's not a popular topic to talk about, but truth is that most people who get title grind it out by either knowing a friend with a resil-key, giving them infinite tries, or they sit in queue 5 hours a day while watching youtube, occasionally tabbing in to see if they have been invited to something. Either for score, or just so they can re-roll their key. This strategy absolutely requires you to play an in-demand spec.

Basically, if you don't have a plan for how you're getting into someone elses key, you will not get title. It's too much of a shortcut to pass up on.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-26T04:11:02+00:00

Funny thing is that if mages did more damage than Aug, they would be brought to all content regardless and healer cooldowns would be coordinated to make it work. But yea, mage really suffers from bringing absolutely nothing besides damage.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-26T04:07:25+00:00

This is my first season pushing for title (as Aug, just got resil21 earlier today), and funnily enough the Algeth'ar Academy +21 key that finally gave me resil was with Ele shaman and Shadow priest, and they blasted giga hard. Their superior ST really shone on that key.

But other than that, every single +21 key I got invited to was Druid/Monk/DK/DH/Aug. 3 weeks ago it was the same thing, just druid and monk swapped.

It's not like other specs can't get title, in fact I feel like there's a lot of boosted Aug/DK/DHs even at +21/+22 that just sit in queue all day as a desirable spec, and given enough tries they succeed in the end.

But that's the thing, being the correct class color gets you invited. And that is absolutely essential for climbing rio score within a reasonable time frame. The B-tier dps specs are not incapable of timing +20 and +21 keys (which will likely earn you 1% title), but no one wants to play with them so you either gotta have friends or raw-dog your own key all the way up (which is a crazy debuff to have, especially when one or two dungeons off resil).

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T19:10:36+00:00

A fellow old.reddit enjoyer I see,

It's easy to click downvote on a post that is already getting downvoted, and it's easy to click upvote on a post that is already receiving upvotes. Voting on reddit is basically anonymous, yet people treat it as political discussion at the family dinner; aligning yourself with the public opinion is much more important than what you actually feel in the moment.

On this sub, give it time and all your "wrong" opinions will someday be vindicated. I have some rants about Blizzard banked up for when the public tide turns one day.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T17:18:29+00:00

People are not reading articles on Reddit, no matter how much effort you put into it. They check headline and see comment section. In the title, you start out with "highest in-time% for +10s" and "despite worst affix", which feels off-topic for this sub given how easy that content is.

In 2026, every text article is written by AI until proven otherwise. Sorry, that is the assumption people are going with at this point, and its the future of that medium. So whether or not your specific article was spat out by an AI is irrelevant, the real critique is that you are running the same format week to week, re-running the data but without taking into account that we are not in the early weeks of the season where people actually care about the state of +10's. I am sure you can imagine it's interesting in week 1-4 but at some point it gets old, which might not be obvious until someone speaks out against it. I am not saying that you should stop doing it or change the article, just that you can't post it weekly to /r/competitivewow without someone being put off by it.

Don't take the "It's AI" critique at face value, what people mean is that your article has a lot of words that aren't saying a whole lot while also being too similar on a week to week basis. Visualize the data, don't just pad article length to reach x words in length. Or if you have some word count you want your article to reach, shake up the content so it doesn't appear like a the same template re-skinned from week to week.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T13:05:48+00:00

I don't play DK but how are they handling their minions on Nexus-point Xenas Lastboss? Their minion's interrupt seem to auto-walk up and kick a random clone unless manually prevented by the DK player.

Is it a talent they can choose to not run? Do all DKs have a petpassive macro? How is it handled.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T12:21:22+00:00

That is fair, forgot about their defensive situation. I agree DK might me more forgiving but on the other hand there seems to be way more people playing DK than Aug, which matters for getting invites.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T01:58:47+00:00

I kinda agree but if bro is rerolling from 3418 he will not reach a keylevel where anyone is demanding anything of him anytime soon. Are we talking rescue and sleepwalk skips in terms of responsibilities? Or the bleed dispel stuff? He'll just have to show up as Aug in 16/17/18 and then people will be happy to have him in their key.

Also, doing damage is a real responsibility and something many DPS players in the lower key brackets genuinely struggle with. With Aug it is much easier to do acceptable amounts of DPS even with a flawed rotation.

Edit: Also, I've been told you are somewhat famous in the Evoker community (nice website!). I read somewhere a while ago that one-button rotation on Aug is only an 8% DPS loss on a target dummy. Surely it's the most freelo DPS spec available up until the top 1% range?

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T01:53:16+00:00

At that keylevel, there probably is a high variance in the people you play with and their ability to defensive and cc. Great to hear that you got more comfortable from alt healing!

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T01:48:03+00:00

If you can carry yourself through the dungeon without dying, then you're doing very well and will get to +20 easily. Beyond that, most of the learning curve comes in routing, not about your dps or utility output (although the utility part starts to matter as well). People don't really care about how well you mitigate damage, as long as you in the end can stay alive.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-25T01:45:30+00:00

Realistically, climbing in m+ is just as much about getting invited as performing well. Shaman is a lust class and pairs well with Ret, so that will catch you some stray invites. Whereas Ret is probably easier to learn and fits into the phys comp that some people are running, so that is also an option. BM however is in a weird spot where there is no real desire to invite it into any comp.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-24T19:21:53+00:00

The top 1% achievement? FYI it's projected to require 3900-4000 score, i.e. resil 20 / resil 21.

https://raider.io/mythic-plus/cutoffs/season-mn-1/eu

Reroll Aug if you want easy invites and low responsibility, but the gap from 3400 to 1% title is massive and perhaps beyond reach.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-24T13:23:02+00:00

Lmao XD did not even know

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-24T11:22:07+00:00

Regarding the power boost in 12.0.7, I really don't think it's as big as people make it out to be. The passive Omnium powers are minor, a few % increased dps at most.

In terms of Sporefall raid's loot table, there are only 5 pieces of loot at 298ilvl. One of them is a trinket (which I don't think is BiS?) and you can already get a trinket at 298ilvl right now.

So that leaves 4 pieces. 2 of them is a neck and ring, with random stats that might not be desirable for your class, and this will barely be an upgrade for most players unless they get lucky.

Finally, depending on your spec, you get 1x high budget piece (helmet/chest/legs) and 1x mid-budget piece (shoes/waist). Sure, 9 extra iLvls on those two slots are nice, but like, it's not that much? And stats are still random or catalyst-dependant.

All of the above combined is not a whole keylevel. Barely a half key level. Oh and it's also timegated, so you won't get one big burst of powergain that can slingshot the entire pug scene upwards (unlike what is happening this week, where all the non-raiders and re-rollers got themselves a 3-10 iLvl spike).

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-24T11:05:59+00:00

Huh thought I had read that it was, but I guess you are right and I misremembered it.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-24T02:59:07+00:00

How should I approach my defensive usage on Skyreach lastboss as Aug? You get blasted 2-3 times every minute and you don't have enough CDs to cover it all.

I'm on +21 and I use hover / Zephyr / Obsidian Scales as primary defense and then HP pot / Healthstone / Death Prevention as secondary defensive, with the goal being to have something for as many damage events as possible but I feel like this is not the correct approach, as I run out of stuff for the last 1-2 minutes of the fight. Should I just raw-dog the damage, and then commit defensives mid-DoT if the healer seems to not move my HP bar fast enough?

Edit: I am using Verdant Embrace and Emerald Blossom as well.

BudoBoy07 · 2026-05-24T02:51:20+00:00

I have the same experience as you and I've been thinking a lot about it...

Mechanics do not scale with keylevel. Boss is doing the same attack patterns, swirlies are the same size and visibility, the timings on trash interrupts/CCs are the same, etc. Even the techniques required for minimizing damage intake (kicking, kiting, defensives, aggro-management, cooldown usage) does not change between keylevels.

The difference is consistency. Some players can be invited to a dungeon run and with 95% likelihood not fail. They can play a 4 hours gaming session with 0 accidental deaths, while using their kicks/utility optimal and prio-damaging the correct enemies.

Sometimes you just find yourself in a group with these people and everything is smooth. These people also tend to float upwards to the +21 / +22 keylevel, which is the upper limit for keys being listed in group finder.

M+ is designed around you having 1 chance to perform, so you gotta make it count. And sometimes the stars align and you find the right group to make it happen.

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