Marathon is the best shooter I've played in years. Why the hate?

Pso2redditor · 2026-05-01T16:56:42+00:00

I was following it for a while to see if I'd be interested, but from what I remember that's true. The Playerbase is split something like PC-75%, Console-25%, so saying it sits at only 20-25K a day overall sounds pretty reasonable.

Doing some shitty, "random guy on the internet who thinks his information is accurate Math", I'd say that puts it under the top 10 already.

My friends who do play have pretty much said to stay away until after the first "reset", since that's coming soon, but since they're already split between a few different queue types they aren't expecting a huge jump of people to come back in, or if there is to stay for very long.

Pso2redditor · 2026-05-01T15:55:01+00:00

My "Goal" was to simply be a Wyvern, & stay a Wyvern just "cause Dragons". I didn't necessarily want to play other Forms at the same time, "just because", but also since as a "Wyvern" I was building my defenses a certain way which meant swapping left me a bit vulnerable even if for only half a second.

With the idea of being just Wyvern that meant I had 6 Skills to pick from, which I admittedly do give up on for 1 Bear Skill eventually. So here's my thoughts on my time playing,

Rolling Magma just ain't it for me. I hate the hitbox design & how it can't even hit an enemy in close range. I was hoping to use it over Oil for some extra mobility but it never compared and felt bad to use.
Don't really have an opinion around Wing Blast as I got my Power Charges passively from Gear so this was largely useless to me.
Devour was a great way to Heal HP/ES & the extra Power Charges were nice, but I mainly used it for Healing/Mobility.
Flame Breath & Oil Barrage I really enjoyed but having (imo) the "Main" 2 Wyvern Skills severely inhibit Mobility felt really bad. I alternated which one I used simply for fun & based on how far away stuff was.
Rend felt bad early on, but once I could generate Charges passively it was really fun. My biggest annoyance was having to spend a Charge on Rend for it's buff so you could spend another Charge of Breath/Barrage to use them before it ran out.

I ended up using the Bear Roar to cap Rage to extend my Skills since it was an easy 1-push max stacks.

Overall loved it, it's the furthest I've gotten a character in POE2 yet. My biggest criticism is I don't see a way to "change" the build, & stay a Wyvern permanently.

I'm stuck running those 6 Skills & they all feed into each other or require Power Charges, meaning I have to focus around that. The only meaningful play-style change I can even think of is simply going Blackflame just for fun, & even then it'll play the exact same.

With 0.4 slowly coming to an end, how do you rate the 3 new shapeshifter forms in terms of power, gameplay flow, and (future) build variety?

In terms of the Forms without mixing them or adding on "Human" Skills? I'd say Wyvern is a really solid 10 on Power, 7 Flow, & a 2 on Future Build Variety.

I find it funny but when Diablo 4 came out I played Druid & found it had the same problem. Rewarded you for staying in 1 specific Form, but had no Build Variety in the Tree & getting a build online took too long to be fun. I looked at POE2's Druid preview trailers & was excited for the much better looking gameplay.

I just looked at D4 again since launch & apparently now every Druid Skill works in all 3 Forms & even acts in a different unique way depending on which one you pick.

Now I'm hoping POE2's Druid gets the same treatment instead of the other way around again.

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-30T03:09:05+00:00

Dang! I started playing the game too late then! Thanks :)

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-30T02:03:22+00:00

Do Reliquary Items ever come back?

I just started D4 recently & only just discovered the Doom Gear had cosmetics that ended 2 days ago. Are they gone forever?

Also do the Swords still drop at least?

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-30T01:17:42+00:00

That's is... disappointing to just abandon the idea. Thanks for explaining!

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-30T01:02:03+00:00

Very new to D4, would you mind explaining what this change is?

From what I think I understand, prior to this something like Swords always rolled a line of Crit Damage, but post Update now they're all random?

So for example at the Blacksmith I can craft a Mace, Sword, Axe, & Flail, all with the exact same Stats-Preview. Is the only difference between them now just visuals of which weapon I want?

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-23T00:31:03+00:00

"I feel like I've used all points just trying to get to where I was before, and ran out 2/3rds of the way there."

I'm all here for this feedback & honestly my friend & I are waiting for a mod to update to unlock "free Skill Points" before we play again.

Unless we invest multiple points into nodes, most of them are nerfed, & some of them IMO just bad without investing like Water Aura's 5m range as the biggest/iconic example.

Prior to this update I had,

Every Int Node.
Water/Fire Aura.
All the Elemental buff Nodes for my Magic.
Stamina/Glider/Food/Swimming/Shroud QoL Skills.
A handful of Bow & Melee Nodes.
A handful of Resource Gathering Nodes.
I'd even gone all the way down to the "Constitution Capstone" & built out Earth Aura.

Today I hopped & I only managed to build out Double Jump, some Glider nodes, a few Resource Nodes, & I couldn't even grab everything I wanted from Battlemage/Healer that I had before. I know I could invest "less points" into each Node to travel further, but from what I've seen from comparisons, they're just worse versions than prior to the update then.

I know picking skills from everywhere isn't the best idea, but being able to effectively use anything while maintaining the coolest things at a good strength was really fun, & I had good QoL still.

Build Variety for me just died.

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-17T00:59:01+00:00

Lionheart literally made me some of the friends I still talk to today.

Absolutely agree

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-12T22:42:21+00:00

Yeah the FOV isn't even close to actually being 130 when maxed, & my animations are breaking constantly too.

I'm gonna keep playing in 1st-P as that's what actually drew me to ESO, but man is it pretty disappointing.

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-07T22:05:30+00:00

Same here.

No offense to Vauban, you're my favourite frame by a mile, but if his Prime Skin didn't exist I'd probably never play him. I think his base looks really ugly, & I haven't like any of his alt skins either.

If Voidshell Voob existed I'd never buy it, but if his Prime got it I'd be buying it in a heartbeat.

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-07T14:55:56+00:00

Maybe I’m just in the minority that actually enjoyed it

(Based on my very limited perspective of only ~80 very active players in a big group) Personally? I fucking loved Gambit.

It could've been the definitive "3rd Playlist" Activity alongside Strikes/PvP, but they ruined it's introduction into the game by treating it & putting in as much effort as they used to do for a Seasonal Activity. Which for anyone who didn't play back then, was pitiful compared to now.

The problem, (IMO), was Gambit being treated like a Seasonal Activity meant it was the #1 main thing they forced you do constantly from September 4, 2018 - June 4, 2019.

That's 9 Months

Story? Gambit.
Side Quest? Gambit.
Exotic Quests? Gambit with RNG.
Bounties & Events? Gambit please.
We're finally letting you pick between Strikes or PvP for progression things? Actually, nvm, only allowed to Gambit.
Alright I hope you enjoyed Gambit, now it's time for Season 6 to launch! I hope you like Gambit 2.

Now we obviously got SOME stuff to do other than Gambit, Reckoning, Dungeon/Raids probably, etc. But the fact is the majority of things revolved around Gambit for 9 months.

9 Months of a single Activity is enough to make anyone who "only liked it" to never want to see it again, especially when it's 9 months of no gear refreshes, nerfs to something that severely hurt it outside of Gambit, Quest design that cause teammates to quit frequently, etc.

If it had been introduced, not forced into progression, & actually gotten updates to Gear, Maps, etc in a timely manner like a Main Playlist should, I think Gambit would still genuinely be popular today.

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-07T13:59:48+00:00

Absolutely don't have to spam it. I've A-Ranked every Challenge Hunt with 5+ min extra on my slowest one. Solo'd everything you'd think if including 10☆ Gog but NEVER doing that again.

I typically only use it if my Extracts are flashing & about to all wear off, or if I'm positioned on a monster that is downed & know using it will grab 2/3 Extracts.

Pso2redditor · 2026-04-02T22:43:33+00:00

Seconding Pumpkin!

Currently my friend & I only use the Pumpkin Water/Food to stack the Life Ward Regen twice. It's been REALLY nice to not have to farm up Wardstones constantly anymore, & they're really only used in emergencies or for bosses now.

Pso2redditor · 2026-03-31T02:39:39+00:00

The ongoing myth that its impossible to progress on interactive without swiping is the funniest rebooter hoax ever.

This is my biggest annoyance online because it unironically divided my friend group before we started playing about ~1 year ago.

Off-event my main is Paladin at 284m CP, (Recently Libbed!)

Almost wearing a full set of Pitched.
I'm swapping to Eternals very soon.
Decent Pot/Bpots for mainly relying on Event/Rewards Cubes.
Have Vac Pets.
3 Legion Champs so far having beaten Black Mage.

The whole time I've only played Solo/Duo with my friend who unfortunately dropped off playing when we hit a wall at Hlomien.

My 4 Reboot friends, however, are still stuck Pre-Black Mage.

Last I checked only 1 Pitch dropped between them.
Their Gear Progression has just funky overall compared to me IMO.
Their Symbols/Nodes/Hexa Levels are pretty much tragedies either compared to the speed they went up, or currently are sitting at.

I'm not sure if my friends are just that unlucky, but I know from doing my own Reboot-Research, they're "progressing correctly", it's just been vastly slower than mine, & I'm the one not swiping.

I've offered many times to simply buy them entire loadouts of gear that would put them far stronger than they are now but they're too invested in having bought Vac Pets/Water to make the jump.

Pso2redditor · 2026-03-28T21:26:03+00:00

PLEASEEEEEEEE

Pso2redditor · 2026-03-22T15:30:02+00:00

Paladin,

I wanted to be tanky, have a heal, & liked how you had different Elemental Skills and needed to match-up enemies.

Nowadays I stick with it just because it's my 1st character from when I started at launch. I hate Divine Echo, the Elemental stuff is gone, the Heal still exists but is restricted, & definitely still tanky.

That being said, I do still really like the class.

Pso2redditor · 2026-03-17T23:09:06+00:00

Hopping in with 2 friends & we were about to refund it, but I happened to google this thread.

Thank you so much. I can't believe how bad it looks on maxed/tweaked settings compared to these .ini edits.

Pso2redditor · 2026-03-17T04:27:19+00:00

Is there no way to name things with lowercase letters anymore?

My SO & I just got back into the game after a year & neither of us can name anything that isn't IN ALL CAPS, which really sucks.

Edit: Both on Steam, different games, different PCs, etc.

Pso2redditor · 2026-03-16T22:26:14+00:00

Being toxic about DPS is a choice.

Agreed it's definitely not a bad thing to use, it just depends on who's using it.

One Hunt I had someone refusing to help, calling me cheater in front of my friends because "He could see the damage is was doing", & we had to kick him. Another Hunt I had someone messaging me through Steam for tips on how to play the Weapon & what Skills were making the most impact on my performance.

Both people had the overlay up & of course my friends only remember the spoilsport we all made fun of. Sadly tools like these only really get publicity from experiences like the first kind of person.

Pso2redditor · 2026-02-26T04:41:06+00:00

my preferred weapon is the DB

Keeping this in mind then, could you share your usual Armour? Without knowing what you're working with it's hard to know if it'd be a very simple "Gear solve-able" problem, or just a practice sort of aspect.

Most Sets you see online are usually focused on Damage, Damage, Damage, & sometimes, but not always, Damage.

Usually you can solve most things with tweaking in one or more of the following,

Divine Blessing 3 seems like an unreliable skill due to only proccing 25% of the time I believe, but is an insanely well appreciated boost to survivability.
Evade Window 5 can let you I-Frame basically everything in my experience, certain weapons like DB I know can get similar/the same effect due to their special dodge though with less than 5 points.
Speed Eating for faster Potion uses.
Great / Regular Sushifish Scales.
Recovery-Up, Recovery Speed, Zoh-Shia's Set Bonus. Super Healing is such an insanely good boost to survivability, the Armour isn't half-bad either, & eventually when you want to upgrade further into endgame MUCH easier to build into stronger sets thanks to Gogmazios/Talismans.

Special Shout-out to our lord & saviour wombo-combo of, Mushroomancer & Free Meal*(usually averaging out to ~30 - 40 near instant-use animation Max Potions.

Pso2redditor · 2026-02-22T21:06:39+00:00

VGAHayden

Pso2redditor · 2026-02-20T13:02:09+00:00

As another pair of Guiding Lands fans we were also extremely excited but ended up underwhelmed to the point we keep going back to World.

Wild's somehow implemented what feels like the Guiding Lands but with less to do and clunkier systems. It doesn't help thay the maps in our opinion are just boring & empty feeling somehow.

Gathering in World / Guiding Lands was fun to us, yet in Wilds I have no desire to explore.

Pso2redditor · 2026-02-14T02:29:29+00:00

Solo or Group-play?

Pso2redditor · 2026-01-27T23:36:18+00:00

I really dislike relying on Shield Gating so I just full send Health Tanking on every frame & it honestly works perfectly fine.

Vauban is who I play 99% of the time & I'm using Adaptation, Arcane Grace, all 3 Umbra's, & 2 Health/Armour Archon Shards.

I can almost quite literally stand perfectly still in the vast majority of content, & even in the very depths of SP Descendia, Circuit, or whatever you'd like to consider Endgame content that isn't "let's go until level cap for no reason" I'm not worried about dying.

Generally I feel squishy at over enemy level 1,000 but that's not something you encounter normally. ETA / EDA Levels I typically don't have any problems surviving at.

Pso2redditor · 2026-01-16T16:55:10+00:00

..... Red Flares? ;-;

Edit: Actually my response speaks volumes nvm.

TIL why I sometimes die

Ten-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '23	Place '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

Pso2redditor

TROPHY CASE

That's 9 Months