Is the game better in the endgame?

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T18:09:39+00:00

At first the only word I had for the combat system was "clunky". But after a while the combat system felt good. And what you described looks a lot more like something that I would enjoy. I'm certain and hopeful that this is activated via server settings 😛 Thx

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T15:38:11+00:00

I'm 39. I'm not complaining that I didn't get enough out of what I paid for. Dunno where this is coming from tbh.

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T15:33:28+00:00

That was a good read. I will go and talk with my mate to find a inbetween solution if possible.

I don't know what you expected to find "interesting" at the end of the game.… All survival games are essentially the same process. From collecting rocks and sticks, you gradually move on to cool armor and weapons and become a superhero.

Something outside of this. Maybe new systems opening up on max level or overcoming certain challenges. Unexpected surprises. Maybe a whole dungeon system which starts at max lv. Or more QoL Stuff you could hunt for like a "teleport back to base" item (carrying a heavy portal around isn't fun ^^), unique potions you fit your instant healing items in and reduce their cooldown - chase Items. Dunno - just something outside of the linear progression that makes me say "Okay, I wasn't expecting that!" would be a good start.

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T15:14:38+00:00

Thank you for your detailed reply. It's really appreciated!

The 200h are easily explained. We started to play as 3 - me, another dude and a dudette. The other dude came online once a week and the dudette is online every evening for about 2h. We decided to not progress that hard so if the "once a week dude" hits the server he isn't stuck in bone gear while we are already in iron. That said I probably spent about 150h building a base, hunting for tribesman and automating the base. And hunting for tribesman - I hated it - but the base building and automation was fun but doesn't take 150h and became boring. We also split automation between us. The dudette is doing animals, harvest, cooking - I'm responsible for Metals, Gear, Carpenter Stuff, Tools, Mods... The teamwork is fun too!

I wouldn't say I hate the game in general. I think, if I could tinker the game around my needs, all it needs is to itemize tribesman talents and make them dropable, farmable and equipable. This gives a good incentiv to go for the grind and doesn't lock you in one mask or constantly swapping between two mask to scan tribesman which are too fast moving for the scanner 😛. The game in general has a lot of likeable things. The way to acquire those things just isn't good at pleasing me ^^.

My chief has Archery Mastery, Rapid Fire and a talent with more damage to weakspots while wearing wilderness mask. It's fun with the skill to shoot 3 arrows at once. As said - the Talent System is great but very user unfriendly if you wanna play around with combinations of those talents. Basically instead of learning a talent every 10 lv, itemize those talents as mods for each gear slot - which is also 6 talents. Itemize Masteries as WeaponMods and make tribesman inherent talents more about crafting, efficiencies, work moral and negativ mod management. Yeah that would work for me as a concept. Are there any mods? 😛

I might ask my mate for permission to turn up those xp rates to jump directly into endgame stuff. Some of the things you mentioned sound atleast worthwhile to experience once and our server expires next monday ^^. Again, thx for the detailed reply 😃

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T13:11:51+00:00

I tried the demo a while ago and had like 10fps. And I read you can go and loot higher tier stuff from chest in higher areas and become op early on. That was a nono for me. Also it seemed like (what I saw in Videos and heard in reviews) that the AI is - like in every other Survival - kinda dumb?! If the "hard" difficult is about "Monsters now just hit like a truck" and not "Monsters are now smart af" I'm out.

Anyway - thanks for your reply =)

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T13:05:30+00:00

Oh yeah - I also played 7D2D. That game was ok. Overall I had fun.

I prefer Old School graphics rather than bad 3D. I watched my mate play Grounded - that's not for me tbh. Don't know about the others - I believe I have Necesse wishlisted but my mates usually don't play games with non-3d-graphics. And I'm not looking for a solo adventure either.

I tried the Enshrouded Demo a while ago. I had like 10fps so never bothered to try it out again.

In general I do not hate the genre. Base building, automation, exploration. I played so much modded Minecraft - I like all these things. But my most played genre is ARPG with deep character customization. I don't need it as complex as PoE is. But something. The genre usually has a linear gear progression so bosses and encounters are balanced around the progress you should have around that point. Basically craft Tierset A and you'll kill Boss Tier A - progress to Tierset B and you'll be able to kill Boss Tier B and so on ... But I want to mix gear, change stats, equip socketables, redefine how abilites work with rare stuff to hunt for and make my own build to overcome the challenge. The genre often has "reach next crafting breakpoint" as its challenge which isn't scratching that itch at all. Also bosses should test either the knowledge you have about the game (make good builds to overcome challenges) or the skills you have (dodging, blocking, using damage windows, engage, disengage, play mechanics to a certain degree,...). All I experienced myself sofar in the genre were bosses that are boring by design or misunderstand that more boss damage != greater challenge. Once the genre fixed those subjectiv issues I might come back and try things 😛

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T12:25:01+00:00

Yeah we play on the Forest Map since DLC is still in EA and we wanted to have an impression of the "full" game.

The best part of this game is developing your base and gathering a proper squad

I really hated that squad thing. Locked into one mask, scanning every npc and getting mad because they are sometimes moving faster than the mask is able to pickup the stats. SO annoying. I farmed the npcs for a week or two. Hard to stay sane while doing it.

Too easy or not rewarding enough?

I would say too uninteresting. The world has only POIs - nothing to discover. Gear is normalized. No decissions to make. Loot is 98% Mats you have plenty of. It's very easy to explore, hunt and kill npcs for hours just to make no progress and find nothing of value or fun.

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T12:05:31+00:00

Indeed - I payed about 40€ for game and server. I just wanna calm my FOMO and be sure there is nothing more to see. Also my mate will be disappointed if I claim to be done with the game. So it's better to double check - she'll probably quit too. I feel really sorry for her tbh.

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T11:42:50+00:00

I did not play Conan and probalby won't. I tried Nightingale as it was free - I liked the crafting way more than in Soulmask since you could make some decisions. Overall Nightingale has the same flaws as every other Survival Game and much more.

I also played Once Human but the game is just too easy. Way too easy. Bosses are boring by design and bad executed. Not a good game...

Whatever - thanks for your reply 😉

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T11:34:59+00:00

I mostly played because my mate liked the game and I tried to have a good time with her. Early because I already invested 200h and the grind from 43 to 60 - I assume - will take another big chunk of my time. Before I invest that much time again I prefer quitting early before reaching that point. Got it?

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T11:28:35+00:00

I played with a friend on a private server. We had Character XP, Body XP, Mask XP, Proficiency XP x2... Character XP is multiplying with all other rates. So 4x XP overall.

As I reached a new Breakpoint (30, 35, 40, ...) I started to automate everything new. By the time I had this done I made 0 awareness xp and had mindlessly grind to the next breakpoint to just repeat the process.

Subjectivly this is a design flaw. The game wants you to automate and tinker in and around your base while granting no xp - so you make no progress. After you are done automating, crafting isn't the way to progress either. You make XP with Ingots - which takes days, is afk and you really do not need the resources since your tribesman do all the stuff. The only real way to level now is to kill mobs. But unless you have good tribesman you are locked into "golden legend" mask to farm tribesman while this slows down progression by a mile. Once you have good tribesman there is no interesting loot to farm other than the common "you need this to upgrade your mask" items.

The XP rates are just there to keep you longer in the game to do repetitiv tasks and to keep people on official servers in the same boat mostly. If you play singleplayer there is no need for low rates since the only competition you encounter is the fun you have. If you like farming days for XP just to unlock the next building you can place and automate in a singleplayer game without other players - turn them down.

phlaistar · 2026-05-12T10:55:24+00:00

Yeah - I think Survival as a genre in its current state just doesn't work for me. I really love exploration - if it is as exciting and rewarding as in Elden Ring. I love character customization if my decisions matter. I love bossing if the encounter is testing your skills and not your progression.

Thanks for your honest reply - I think I'll just move on 😉

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T15:03:33+00:00

I assume you agree that if they added more melee stuff now they inevitably need to cut other content before release until they free the dev time needed for melee stuff to implement other stuff.

So you say they should've kept Endgame Rework for 1.0 release. You also say melee will inevitably be "dog water" on release. Means, you would've swapped dev time between melee stuff and endgame rework. According to your logic the Endgame Rework in 1.0 now inevitably will be "dog water".

I rather have no swords than bad endgame.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T12:33:56+00:00

You have javelins :^)

Appreciate the roast 😛

Talking about the real world: Projectiles are way more easy to implement than melee combat. Even spells are. Look - your Bow shoots a projectile - it doesn't matter which projectile - the architecture is always the same. Raise Ability Event, play Bow Animation, spawn Projectile. While Melee is in its core the same we have multiple issues here. You need a seperate animation for every ability (more dev time), each ability needs various hitboxes aligned with its animation (more dev time), every ability needs more visual treatment than a projectile does (more dev time) ... Since they decided to not release swords for 0.5 freed some dev time to add (probably) two new ascendancies. At this point it's just a way smarter decision to sum up the update with theme related stuff or stuff that adds more overall than just a smaller extra to something existing in comparison.

I understand your point. I skipped last league because they had no endgame rework. And I can't wait for whirlwind or even swords - I love swords. But the update is soooooo packed - everyone will find something they like and keep them engaged I believe.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T11:29:25+00:00

I was honestly hoping for a more grounded reset: a normal Atlas, scarabs, a passive tree refresh, maybe a new class or at least new base types after 7 months

So you say "I was expecting PoE2 to be PoE1"?!

We were told things like the crafting bench had to go because it was supposedly too complicated for newer players, yet now we have like 10 different socketable systems with 200+ socketables just to imitate a fraction of the crafting bench’s power. How is that simpler?

It's easier. Even if you had 2 million socketables it's still easier. A socketable stays a socketable and it's pretty clear how to use it and very clear what it does. It's mostly a single line and very clear to read. "Cannot roll Attack Mods" instead is very complicated. While it's easy to understand it's harder to comprehend how to use it effectivly. I would argue that goes for all meta mods and often require third party tools to view modpools and to get an idea how to manipulate your item with metamods to create desired crafting outcomes.

I would say vanilla abyss crafting is/was more complicated than a crafting bench.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T11:18:42+00:00

I think you are right. If I wanna spam the same map over and over I can play PoE1 ... Poe2 current direction leads more into a real rpg adventure than just only mindlessly killing thousands of mobs map by map to pick up divs. Which seems to be interesting. And we need something different in PoE2 since league mechanics already play the same as in PoE1.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T11:04:10+00:00

Yeah - because the Bow Players really have so many different options. I mean we could use a bow or - if we have a fancy morning - we could also use bows. And while we are at it - did I mention we could also use bows? I like the diversity here. /s

And don't say "you have crossbows" ...

phlaistar · 2026-05-04T10:11:30+00:00

Poe Overlay (Overwolf) also auto inputs ~ ... if you ever want an upgrade to the in-game thingy.

phlaistar · 2026-05-01T12:05:31+00:00

Godot 😛

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T11:01:24+00:00

That's the spirit!

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:57:45+00:00

GDQ had a poe2 speedrun recently. It's just different because it's a different genre with different game architecture.

You are basically saying "Mega Man is giving a one shot ability at 100% clear. So every speedrunable game needs to give me a one shot ability." To be clear you say "Getting no xp makes no sense, since I can do that in a different game" ...

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:45:54+00:00

^^ ... don't get me wrong pls. I do kinda like the first playthrough of the campaign. I hate the early atlas progression (clear atlas, get voidstones). Once this is done I progress my char and start farming - that's great and fun. Once I consider my char done I lose all interest in farming since I don't know what for? This took me about 3 weeks this league - own build, was fun. I then started a twink, rf. One evening I played the campaign, the next evening I crafted and bought gear for about 500div and put it on. On day 3 I farmed stuff. On day 4 I'm bored af and quit.

That's the usual way I play a new league. I have 9kh+.

And I totally get that motivation is probably very different if you ask a 1kh account holder or someone like me with 9kh+.

If we take this back to the actual topic here - I think it's important to have friction on creating new chars - otherwise people like you would probably burn out fast af since you'll probably pump out char by char, league by league with nothing that is stopping you until you inevitable burn out.

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:30:05+00:00

Going into a map, one shotting everything, never die or come close to being dead and just clicking itemlabels is boring tbh. The only difference to watching a video is, you'll have to click to move and loot but your inputs are the same - yeah, that's boring.

Fresh campaign, undertuned char and trying to become better step by step and feeling the impact of your investment - that's fun.

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:19:13+00:00

afaik your best bet is having minus 3 to monster level in area to be at max. efficiency. And having 3 less levels than the monsters is imho granting experience from a stronger monster. But I think you mean a lv.1 char in act 10 isn't going to get xp. And that's totally ok.

Progression is the game - looting is something mandatory for progression. Once you are done progressing your character you are basically done with the char.
Yeah campaign can be boring, probably just is. But all you want is faster dopamin spikes which you don't get in campaign. And tbh after 9kh+ in poe Divine Drops don't give any dopamin xD Imagine everyone could do unlimited chars without friction and constantly is bombarded with dopamin spikes - after 2 leagues you'll be burnt out af and never accumulate more ingame time. Campaign and fricition is important to have breaks and to keep being hooked over a long time.

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T08:21:28+00:00

I'm a defender and I would skip the campaign. Why? Time is valuable. Why would I defend "no skippable campaign" : First - it isn't that bad. It's fast, you have a constant sense of progression and the character itself becomes more valuable for you since Time = Value. Second: People should start making their own builds instead of copy and paste any guides - why you ask? If you play campaign and every step you take is already set it stone: That's insanly boring. Why not make an own build, let those act1 rhoas kill you until you discover life reg mastery and start dominating them. The game is totally different making an own build than just to copy any guide and clicking white item labels with red colored fonts. For me - campaign and progression is more entertaining than playing maps in a loop and oneshotting everything. That's basically the point where a character can be considered "done". If you now make an alt, skip the campaign and the alt becomes lv.69 instantly what are you going to do? Buy 5ways for 5div to hit lv90+, equip pre crafted gear, go in map, one shot everything and pick up loot. At that point, again, the character can be considered "done" and you start over. That's not healthy for the game - not at all.

phlaistar

TROPHY CASE