In Path of Exile 2, the opinions of players and developers collide. The point of contention could not be greater.
What are players discussing? With the major season update “Dawn of the Hunt,” the developers have reinforced their philosophy regarding the direction of their ARPG. They continue to believe that battles in their ARPG should feel meaningful.
Instead of 1- or 2-click builds that annihilate everything on the screen in a flash, players should perform combo attacks, where they first apply a debuff to their enemies and then strike them with powerful attacks. Game Director Jonathan Rogers explains in an interview (via YouTube) with streamer Zizaran:
I can definitely tell you that our goal was to tone down things that trivialize endgame before you even get your items, and so on […]
If we reach a point where a good player never has to face a single challenge, then I don’t think this game will be fun in the long run.
With these statements, the Game Director has sparked a lot of criticism among fans. There were also hate comments. Now the community wants to explain once more why they, as players, don’t think much of the developers’ ideas.
Here you can watch the trailer for the current season “Dawn of the Hunt”:
“No one will ever use combos”
What is the criticism from fans? Players explain on Reddit why they are currently not engaging with the desired combo gameplay. Thread creator dreamonto finds it difficult to even try combos in boss fights:
Setting up combos and delayed attacks takes time. But when bosses jump/teleport away from you every two seconds, it’s better to just build instant damage skills rather than suffer through those miserable skill delays.
You can’t expect people to use combos while keeping the same boss mechanics as in PoE 1. You can’t have both. Is it any wonder that players cling to the gameplay style of PoE 1?
Make some compromises, and maybe players will start adopting your design philosophy for PoE 2.
Players report in the thread that boss fights have felt frustrating or even impossible for them. User Zesystem recounts on Reddit how he fought against one of the new Rogue Exiles (AI-controlled enemies that behave like real characters). The fight with his warrior took 15 minutes because the Huntress just consistently kept her distance, and he could hardly get close.
Rouflette explains on Reddit, why he believes the developers’ ideas will never be implemented:
No one will ever use combos in a hack & slash ARPG. It will never happen, and PoE2 is proof of that: because it’s a bad idea. To enable combos, the entire game would have to be designed around combos, every monster, every boss, every mechanic, and of course every skill, because if you slow down the pace of the game to allow for combos, you would make 1-button builds even easier and stronger, so you would have to remove all 1-button skills from the game and only allow combos. Bad idea from the start, they need to let it go.
Jafar_420 goes even further, saying on Reddit: Honestly, I don’t even want to use a combo while mapping, I just want to blow [enemies] up.”
After the developers have moved further towards combo-based gameplay with their new season “Dawn of the Hunt,” they later backtracked with updates and hotfixes. That players prefer to play with just one button press is also demonstrated by the current OP build: In Path of Exile 2, an OP build currently dominates everything, taking down dozens of enemies with a single click.
