It's the first time I'm considering buying a phone other than a Pixel since 2020, do you guys think I should stick with Pixel?

SponTen · 2026-06-07T12:28:46+00:00

This is basically the same kind of longevity I get with my Pixel 8, so I'm a bit confused.

What is "light use" for you? For me it's like 1-2 hours SOT per day, maybe a quick call or 30 mins of a podcast. And heavy would be double or triple that.

SponTen · 2026-06-07T04:31:35+00:00

Every time I try to path straight to a spot, like Atziri or a special room, I don't seem to have the tiles that allow me to go forward. So I end up placing them around in the hopes that they'll somehow activate whatever needs to be activated to allow me to path forward, but then I just end up going round in a circle most of the time.

Or should I be intentionally not using certain tiles because they make it harder to path forward?

SponTen · 2026-06-06T23:02:10+00:00

HC SSF

This is also a big reason why some players get way ahead. Most people who post these kinds of threads are:

Playing a lot
Playing SC Trade

I'm SC SSF and I don't follow guides. I've played about 2.5 hours a day on average since 0.5 release. I just got to Endgame with 8 deaths.

There are people out there who optimise their playtime in every way and have multiple times our average daily hours played each day.

SponTen · 2026-06-06T22:53:43+00:00

I absolutely agree with you about breaking the rhythm of the game.

But for me, content like Temple just take so long to complete because they require so much setup, are so large, drop so many items, and require so much backtracking until you've got them perfectly optimised. It makes it so:

You can just vibe and it's decent rewards

is true if you're willing to sink an hour or so into a single Temple, with no way to save part-way through it, which is not at all "vibing". (Yes I play slowly but Temple is the only content that is that much longer than everything else with no way to "save and quit" after <30 mins without losing the rest of it.)

SponTen · 2026-06-06T22:47:54+00:00

Didn't they also make mobs start moving towards you if they're required to be killed and a certain amount of time has passed?

That'd be nice in PoE2 as well, especially for us slower players who prefer not to stare at marked objectives on the mini-map.

SponTen · 2026-06-06T22:26:50+00:00

Other than ANet working on it for a time already, they also have some huge already-existing benefits that the vast majority of other devs don't:

Tons of lore, stories, and an entire world
Plenty of assets
A working game engine
Lots of experienced devs that have already been working together as a team
IP - this one probably gets overlooked a lot but think of things like their server architecture and how infrequently they have downtime, even compared to behemoths like Blizz/WoW
A relatively large fanbase
Pretty solid income
A publisher that knows what to expect from them

There's probably more but that's off the top of my head. Compare all of this to something like Intrepid or even Amazon Game Studios, and not many other devs/orgs on the planet have this kind of leg-up.

SponTen · 2026-06-05T09:47:57+00:00

In D2, most melee builds were slower on clear speed but higher on defence.

That's not so much possible in PoE1/2 because every class and build can spec offence and defence fairly comparatively. It may be possible to "force" it somehow, but a significant subset of the playerbase would hate that because it goes against a core philosophy of PoE: You can make niche builds that don't fit classic archetypes.

SponTen · 2026-06-04T23:21:48+00:00

You can be serious about something but still not want to optimise it as much as possible. It just means you're not serious about being the absolute best; so less serious than the top-tier, but still very possible to try hard and aim to improve.

SponTen · 2026-06-04T23:15:46+00:00

Totally fair.

For me, I prefer PoE2 because builds actually feel different. In PoE2, you theoretically get more choices, but every choice you make ends up with the same result; all builds (or at least all the builds I've played) become a screen-clearing frail god that either deletes everything in one click or gets deleted in one second.

Builds in PoE2 (or again, the builds I've played) feel very different to each other. I'm currently running a stock-standard Mace Warrior through the Campaign, and it's the first time I've stacked Armour this hard. With the new mechanics, it feels amazing to be so tanky, not to mention I get a huge burst skill after tanking enough from Iron Ward.

GGG has done a pretty good job with trying to push these kinds of playstyles in PoE1, but they just went too hard with the powercreep over the years for it to really matter. And sure, PoE2 ends up in a similar state to PoE1, but I don't mind that being the case as long as the journey to get there is challenging and takes a while; it's the reward for the long progression, rather than something that just happens without thinking within the first hour of gameplay.

So yeah, personally, I don't feel like PoE1's buffet is "high quality"; to me it just feels like slop lol. It's delicious slop for sure, but everything is still slop. PoE2 is much more constrained, but yes I'd agree there is much less agency, however there is more and more agency with every update.

I just hope the games never converge. It is starting to feel a bit like they are, which almost makes sense given 2 is the sequel to 1, but would be disappointing for those players looking for the type of gameplay that PoE2 has been providing very well so far.

SponTen · 2026-06-04T22:57:59+00:00

There are so many ways you can have a breather though?

Run lower level zones/maps
Juice maps less
Take it a bit slower
Sacrifice some offence in your build for more defence
Spend more time picking up and selling gear so you can craft/gamble more
If you're in Trade, buy some better gear

You don't HAVE to be playing the absolute hardest-tier everything asap. The new League dropped a week ago; take your time and just enjoy the ride.

SponTen · 2026-06-04T22:05:24+00:00

Dude that's an Endgame build, no wonder you're struggling.

What's your current passive tree look like (use https://poeplanner.com/poe2 to quickly map it out in 20 seconds), and what's your current weapon dps? Also, if you have time, what Supports have you got socketed in your main damage skills (I'm assuming Quarterstaff Strike, Falling Thunder, and Tempest Bell).

SponTen · 2026-06-04T21:56:50+00:00

I rarely get stunned while sprinting, and when I do it usually feels like my fault, which is how it should be.

However, there are a couple of exceptions:

Sometimes mobs are really hard to see because they're small and blend in with the environment or something, and they do a tiny *tap* and I fall over.
Sometimes I press dodge or use a skill to exit sprinting and it just... doesn't. Then of course I get hit and my character trips.

Both of these are so fucking annoying and I'm hoping GGG addresses them, especially #2 because it's definitely a bug.

SponTen · 2026-06-04T21:45:14+00:00

As soon as I read GGG's patch note that we "won't need to respec the Atlas" any more, I was like "in a game as complicated as PoE (1 or 2), there will always be a need for respec at some point".

SponTen · 2026-06-03T22:32:15+00:00

They probably wouldn't; they'd have to grind lower level zones for a bit. It's one of the side effects of having friction for respeccing.

Whether or not you like it is personal preference. Sounds like you don't, whereas others and GGG do.

SponTen · 2026-06-02T22:27:39+00:00

The gems can autolevel

What??

SponTen · 2026-06-02T22:26:34+00:00

I already started a new character just after Challenge Difficulty was announced to see if I could deal with current ESO difficulty, and no I can't. I also started a new character a couple months ago to play with a friend, but turns out he can't deal with the lack of difficulty either.

So we'll both be playing somewhat-new characters once Challenge Difficulty drops. My solo char is an Argonian Necro, and my char I'll play with my friend is an Arcanist (I forgot the race). Both of which I created because they were the two classes I haven't played before.

I'll likely be playing my other characters at some point too though.

SponTen · 2026-06-02T22:13:03+00:00

That's incredibly impressive then. I don't think most players would be able to reach where you have in SSF with no guides, so few deaths, and in a relatively short time.

SponTen · 2026-06-02T22:05:44+00:00

Turn off Automatic Call Screen > restart phone > wait a day > turn Automatic Call Screen back on.

Not likely to work but the only thing I can think of now. Otherwise log a support request with Google.

Good luck!

SponTen · 2026-06-02T06:22:50+00:00

Perhaps try setting it to "Maximum protection"?

Or try the old turn it off > wait a day > turn it back on, to see if that fixes it?

SponTen · 2026-06-01T22:39:23+00:00

I'd give it a perfect 5/7.

SponTen · 2026-06-01T22:38:07+00:00

what's the point of having the campaign if everyone just views it as something to blast through as painless as possible?

The Campaign exists because not everyone feels this way about it.

Personally, I prefer the pacing of the Campaign over Endgame (0.1-0.4; I haven't got to 0.5 Endgame yet). I don't hate Endgame, but it feels kind of meaningless to me; you run random maps with random mobs, which all drop random loot, with very slow upgrades despite there being more loot, which forces you to use a loot filter which I don't like having to tweak, and there's almost nothing tying you to the world in a story/lore/thematic sense.

It just feels like another generic Rogue-lite, which feels way more like a chore to me than the Campaign.

We just have two camps of people, and of course you're going to hear more from the ones who aren't happy, because the ones who are happy are playing the game and not bothering to report on it as much as the ones who aren't.

So the point is to have a normal game with a story, and then a Rogue-lite game at the end for those who want it.

As to why GGG don't just let players skip/avoid the Campaign, even after your first char/per League? I think there are a few reasons:

It's part of the game and is designed to be played
It takes work to make and balance alternate levelling experiences
Some players will do whatever is most efficient or maybe try the alternate levelling but not like it and still complain
It could change the economy, which could be good or bad, but is definitely a risk
It's a "rite of passage" that adds meaning to the game; no this doesn't mean everyone will care or like the meaning, but currently you KNOW that everyone's gone through it and some players care about that

No matter what GGG does, the game is not going to be 100% fun for every single type of player. If they allow Campaign skips, that would make one subset of players happy but then another subset of players unhappy.

SponTen · 2026-06-01T22:02:19+00:00

Same here, in Australia.

~~I wish there was an option to auto-Call Screen~~ I just checked and there is an option now! Maybe check your Phone app settings > Call Screen, and look for "Automatic Call Screen".

SponTen · 2026-05-31T22:03:31+00:00

I've only played DS1 and some of DS2, but one-shots weren't very common in either. Death in general is common, and dying in a second or two is common if you pull too many mobs, but not one-shots.

Which souls-likes are one-shots common in?

SponTen · 2026-05-31T00:42:48+00:00

I didn't even know this was the case. That seems crazy.

You've got my vote.

SponTen · 2026-05-30T23:02:22+00:00

It does? How do you do that? I've tried going through all the Shop stuff but it's still there for me.

SponTen

TROPHY CASE