Path of Exile 2 (2024)

Path of Exile 2 arrived with significant hype, largely because Path of Exile has long been praised as a deep alternative to Diablo IV and the broader ARPG genre. I purchased beta access out of curiosity. The promise of more dynamic combat and updated visuals was appealing, especially given its accessible pricing model.

Initially, it works. The presentation is strong, the combat feels weightier, and the build possibilities appear expansive. But playing solo without a strict build guide quickly exposed a structural issue. Around the second act, the difficulty spiked dramatically. My character simply could not progress. The game effectively demands external research, optimized builds, and often trading to remain viable. That level of dependency on meta-knowledge is not something I find enjoyable.

Beyond that, once the first hours pass, the underlying structure becomes clearer. The entire system revolves around loot acquisition cycles. Character progression feels less like meaningful development and more like adjusting variables to increase drop efficiency. The loop resembles a slot machine: repetition, reward spikes, diminishing returns, and escalating effort to recreate the initial rush. Crafting systems compound this by layering additional randomness within randomness.

While the game does not aggressively monetize in the way some other titles do, the core design is built around compulsion loops. For some players, that structure is engaging. For me, it feels hollow. The breadth of systems is undeniable, but the depth often resolves into optimization of probability rather than creative expression.

I understand the appeal. But ultimately, the design philosophy behind it left me disengaged rather than impressed.

This game is just as bad or even worse than Diablo IV. The only ones who might enjoy it more are those who’ve already sunk a ton of hours into POE 1, but it’s absolutely impossible to compete against people who somewhat understand the game — even the experts still don’t fully get it because the game explains NOTHING. It expects you to just understand everything by default. And don’t even get me started on the latest update.

Sure, it could improve, but I played both major patches (launch and 0.2.0), and it feels like they’re only thinking about veteran players. They’re not welcoming to new players at all, nor do they seem to care about bringing in fresh ones.

As for me, unless there’s a DRASTIC change, I’m not touching this game again. I’ve got a character with 80% evasion and 75% resistance to everything, and I’m getting one-shot outside of end-game content. It makes no sense how things work, and even following guides doesn’t help much because no one — in or out of the game — can properly explain how the mechanics really function. It’s all just trial and error.

If you’re planning to play solo or don’t have a friend who really understands the game and can help you, please don’t spend A SINGLE CENT on this game. I’m begging you. You’ll suffer like I did for 150 hours.

Completed Path of Exile 2 - Campaign. Now in end-game content Played Sorceress > Stormweaver Level 70 - Cast in Frost - Comet Build RATING: GAMEPLAY : 9

• Boss fights and gameplay are the best in the genre
• Requires a lot of grinding but rewarding nonetheless
• ARPG with Soulslike Mechanics STORY & THEME : 7.5
• IMO, standard story, forgettable but unique for the genre
• World and atmosphere are incredible
• Music is okay, variety of worlds are great VALUE : 8
• With the cost of early access, and the in-game currency value of it, its worth the cost.
• A solid benchmark for a good ARPG A solid 8.15/10, Being a long time player of ARPG games (since D1 was first released) I can safely say this is the evolution that has been needed for a long time. Slower paced with more gravitas on the boss encounters and decisions you make with your character in game, massive amount of build options and huge diversity in environments and monster groups. For too long the genre has been creeping down a path of no consequence and little brain usage to obliterate everything on the screen. This game takes us back to real crafting of your character, spending the time to problem solve scenarios and learn mechanics (whether it be boss, crafting, skills and synergies). Gonna wait for the completion of the Acts 4-6 and the official launch of the game. Here are gameplay video for all the Path of Exile 2 Boss Fights in cruel difficulty.

It's impressive how refined and good this feels even in early access. I ended up spending almost 100 hours on one character. I went Titan Warrior who could eventually hold 2 handed maces as one handed maces. Which rules.

I played POE 1 for the first time recently during the Necropolis season and had fun with it. That gave me the necessary experience and understanding to have a good start with this playthrough. I avoided builds and guides until I reached the end game and started having some issues with clearing. First playthrough will vary significantly with difficulty. My damage felt pretty low and some boss fights honestly took me 10 minutes to beat. It was thrilling and engaging particularly how each boss has it's own mechanics and movesets. Making each feel like a spectacle. The game is also heavily balanced around dodge rolling which does make boss fights feel more like a dark souls game. On the Cruel difficulty though, I had a big enough power spike that previous bosses that gave me issues on my first playthrough were a cake walk. You don't need to learn mechanics if a boss just dies fast enough!

Once you hit about level 70ish you start losing XP when you die. This may be a turn off for the more casual gamers, which is fair. Especially since you'll firmly be in the end game. Mapping I have mixed feelings about. It sucks how much of a grind it can be to get started, whether that's you needing better gear via trading, or need to completely respec your build to make it viable. Not every class and build is viable in the end game. Even with max resistances, sometimes you'll just get one shot. Which doesn't feel great. But that's something that always happens in these types of games. I reached t14 maps and while trying to clear those maps I got unlucky and one shot multiple times resulting in me losing all t14 map tokens... this sucks because that means I need to grind through lower tiers to find enough tokens to either make t14 or get lucky... I don't really like this mechanic of RNG for end game progression, but ARPGs have always been about grinding.

Either way I was thoroughly entertained and challenged for nearly 100 hours. There's so much in this game already and they plan to add so much more. Including 3 more acts and more playable classes. It has issues, such as how poor armor is as a stat or how you rely on RNG to level up your skill gems (I do like how skill gems aren't tied to gear like in POE 1, but it does suck you can't just level the skill gems like you could in POE 1). The way to get Ascendancy points also feels poorly balanced. Some classes will have no issues with it because they are both ranged and deal heavy damage. Me being a big dumb mace wielding barbarian had issues. The main issue is with the mechanic of "honor" wherein you have a bar that drains each time you get hit. Given I'm melee, it's near impossible to kill enemies and not get hit... they have released some balancing which has helped, but in general my DPS doesn't feel high enough to be successful with it. I've unlocked 6/8 points and the last 2 felt attainable but I need to grind and get lucky with more tokens to even try it. I'm fine with challenge, I don't like how punishing failure is though. Having limited tries and losing experience only to have to grind for awhile to even give it another shot feels a bit harsh.

Still this feels like a real evolution from the original and beloved Diablo 2. The devs clearly love that game and have refined their own formula since the creation of POE1. What they offer now is a highly polished and varied experience that is deep and challenging.

Putting this down for now. I had a great time playing it! It's definitely got a lot of room to improve.

Things I really liked:

1. The combat feels great in this one, the addition of dodge rolls gives a bit more agency as opposed to other ARPGs that do not contain a dodge.
2. The game is a lot more approachable. With the lack of a lot of league mechanics keeping you from having to think about how to approach builds, you have a lot less to keep track of on top of the game being a lot slower.
3. The boss fights are all spectacles and phenomenal. Some still require a couple of small tweaks here and there I think, but thats stuff that can be fixed in Early Access.
4. Party play feels a lot more fleshed out in PoE2 where you can build around your party members. I am sure an Aura bot of some sort will still exist, but being able to combo moves together with your team is fun to do!

Things I dislike:

1. The accessibility point is a double edged sword. With the lack of leagues that PoE1 had the benefit of, the use of currency feels exclusively for purchasing rather than crafting. This will definitely be fixed as the seasons progress, I have no doubt.
2. Body blocking. This doesn't feel good at all either from monsters or from team mates.
3. Ascendancy trials need some shoring up. The lack of instruction on how the third and fourth ascendencies work in game, as well as having to have specific trials/oaths drop to be able to even do them is frustrating to new and old players. I did not like Labyrinth in PoE1, but this system actively made me ask for it to come back.

These are just a few of my thoughts and I really enjoyed what I played, but there are some things that could be better, and I am sure can be fixed/adjusted through the EA period. For now I am putting this down to focus on other games!

My goal was to reach maps of the early access using no outside help or builds. I created my own build to start with using Firewall and Ember Fussillade throughout the campaign with Solar Orb to help debuff enemies and ignite them.

This worked until about act 3, but gear was starting to become a huge issue. I spent some currency to upgrade my damage and it helped get me through that wall.

Once I hit cruel difficulty, it started to become a bit easier to manage again til I hit Act 3 of cruel where I then had the same issue. I managed to barely squeak out a win against the Act 3 Cruel boss to get into maps.

Now that I am in maps, I took a look at builds and realized how absolutely dreadful mine was. I was hardly killing anything in maps and was dying to tier 1 waystones.

I decided to grind out gold needed to fully respec my tree, and used excess skill gems to move over to CaptainLances' build. I am pushing Waystone 4/5s now, however I have a lot of gripes on how this game (and its community) treat new players.

Will report back some more once I push a bit longer.

Path of Exile 2 (Early Access) is pretty damn good. There is a lot to like. The old school aesthetic of it and the core gameplay, and how it isn’t an open world and has fixed levels/areas like older Diablo games, are all positives.

I’m having trouble grasping the boss fights. I’ve beaten all of them so far on first try and I get it in principle but the two-stick controls are tricky and the dodge rolling is throwing me for a loop. If I spend more time with it, I’ll probably get the hang of it. I bet by muscle memory of dodging a la FromSoft games is working against me. All in all, PoE 2 is off to a great start.

I don't know about anyone else here, but watching popular streamers get upset that their builds are already broken and how stuck they are early in the game makes me kind of laugh and grateful that I do not really care to play a game where you can create so many horrible builds that the game becomes virtually impossible.

This game will probably not be for me. I've already been seeing people compare it to "souls-like" experience. I'll stick to Diablo 4 for a more casual experience where I don't require the use of a friggin build guide to succeed. Yuck.

Made it through act one.

Woosh that was a challenge.

I need to look at my build and really think about my skills. I have basically Zero damage.

The people I am playing with took maybe 2 mins to get the HP of the boss down

10 mins into by boss (not getting hit) i was at 50% of his HP down. ~Really enjoying it so far