i reeaaaally dislike this uncut gem skill system .... tedious af, just do a d3 system with runes u can pick for skills or something ...
its an unnecery item drop, inventory waste . limited by level of the stone , etcetra ...
and the game not dropping decent leveling all res gear is silly, they could have easily boosted quest reward items with a decent weapon n armor after a boss to gimme a yellow class weapon
Gems are easy to get, and you end up tossing them out eventually.
You on your first character? If so that could be why. after that one you have so many gems you throw them away, I got two gems tabs, each holds 500, stuffed with gems. uncut, cut, support, skill, etc.
For yellow gear, you should be making it not waiting on the RNG gods. Take a good base white you like (or blue) throw a few of those different orbs you get fuckloads of at it, make it a yellow you like. Crafting gear to fit your needs, is a part of the gameplay. Any gear you find is mostly used for 'this is good enough' until you make (or buy) one you like. Or "this is the base I need' and turn it into a 6+ prefix/suffix yellow.
If you are running around with a crap blue weapon, and you got orbs in your chest. That's on you it's still blue
Stormwolf - "Who cares about some racial stuff, certainly not the victims."
- Democracy Dies in Dumbness.
- Watching people my age grow from cynical youth who distrusts and dismisses the older generation, into cynical old people who distrusts and dismisses younger generations.
thats just it, it becomes silly ... after a few chars, whats the point of it all . just waste of inventory and time ... just let me pick whatever i want that i can use at my level ...
You can, after a character or two you have enough gems stored to buffet style slap together whatever you want.
What if you don't want max stat skill for some reason? Plenty of reasons not to (proc chance, mana cost, corrupted skill, requirements etc).
its A way to let you do that.
1/2 my skill gems are not 'at my level' they are purely there to proc other skills, or get proc'd more often by lower mana cost of them by other things. It would ruin most my characters if they just let me pick 'a' skill and I had it at my level.
Like on my merc,iIf my Heralds just existed as spells my level. I would eat all my mana up in 3-4 seconds once they started procing from my other spells that trigger them. (and go offl less often because of how I have them triggered).
I need a lowest level possible raging spirits on my necro, they are not for damage, they exist purely to die quickly in mass. and get triggered a LOT and need to be low level to do that, for "Cast on minion death": 1. to die as quick as they can. 2. so it doesn't eat all my mana making them just to die.
Most character builds after like level 60-70 rely on you being able to pick the level, the gem quality set on, and the supports (and their tier) skills have to work how you need them to.
Stormwolf - "Who cares about some racial stuff, certainly not the victims."
- Democracy Dies in Dumbness.
- Watching people my age grow from cynical youth who distrusts and dismisses the older generation, into cynical old people who distrusts and dismisses younger generations.
POE2 in general is just way to complex for no reason.
The skills: who has the time to figure them all out (long story short: people are gonna use a guide)
Same with the passive skill tree. Although it's more straight forward then the skills, in the end: people are gonna use a guide.
Imho less is more. Give players clear choices with "obvious" pros and cons so they can make real choices. Just figuring out the way the systems work isn't skill. Also the more variables, the bigger the chance that there is actually just 1 good solution (meta), and you can't figure that out on your own (long story short: people are gonna use a guide)
Problem is the general consensus if a game is good or bad is made by streamers, people that no life a game.
Still a great game though. Have to completely relearn the game though, but that's ok. I'm not gonna no life this untill endgame so relearning the game keeps it fresh.
It's complex enough for those that want more complexity. If it was simpler we wouldn't play it and would just play one of the diablo clones.
Me and my friends like not using guides (I have never followed a guide in poe or poe 2 over dozens of characters), we like trying combos of skills and supports, respecing to try new trees to see if we can figure out how to get more. Not read how someone shows us how to.
And 'one meta' is FAR From the truth. I have made for example 5 different necro setups that can do endgame fine for me: A poison/corruption one, a raging sprits one, a 'zerg swarm' one, a 'grenade them to death' skeleton one, and a 'freeze them and beat the ice statues to death' one.
Not saying everyone does. But saying its too complex for its own good for you, does not translate to why others like it over other ARPG hack and slashes. its my favorite for its complexity. If it didn't have it, I wouldn't play it. I got D4 and the other mash of 'Blizzard ARPG clones' out there for 'pick skills, equip looted gear, faceroll mobs'.
Stormwolf - "Who cares about some racial stuff, certainly not the victims."
- Democracy Dies in Dumbness.
- Watching people my age grow from cynical youth who distrusts and dismisses the older generation, into cynical old people who distrusts and dismisses younger generations.
I don't have the time (and patience) tbh to do that trial and error stuff.
Also what's discouraging: your plan for a build can be 100% correct-the game can still screw you over when the balance isn't right or unfavourable for your build. You simpely can not know what works in the game going for it blind.
Perhaps the current state of the game is more foregiving for non meta builds, but in general all aRPG's have this problem.
The more options, the harder it is to balance, the more likely it's some meta builds are comming on top. And the game is scaled for those harder builds otherwise people are gonna complain that the stuff is to easy.
The balancing is weird though now: had a realy hard time beating the act 1 boss and my time to kill was way to slow for most of act 1 cause the game just didn't give the items to do something about it. Even had to craft a little for the act 1 boss just to get it down faster.
And then act 2 the items drop that fix the DPS problem in no time. All one shots. Actually liked the challenge in act 1 (that's what I want from a aRPG, a slightly challenging leveling experience, not bothered by endgame or the power fantasy getting stronger while progressing), but it's all or nothing. Either you're struggling or you zap everything without effort.
Then don't play it? Not a bad game because its complex.
Would be like saying "I just want to build stuff, factorio sucks because it's too damn complicated to enjoy building stuff, you constantly have to adjust belts, and layouts. I just want to build".
Did you upgrade your gear with the orb drops you got before fighting the act 1 boss? Act 2 you should have at least all yellow gear by then. And 30+ resistance from just checking vendors when you level up and getting gear for what you lack.
[Vendors refresh every time you level up]
For gear and defenses: Int based? Energy shield, Dex? Evasion, Str? Armor. Ignore the other two (Like if INT based get energy shield gear, ignore all eva and armor gear).
For pretty much any class up until around level 30 its simple stat, gear, and tree wise: Use orbs to get 4-5 stat yellows, pick "+ damage" in tree, nothing else, and slap support gems that either give more damage, or more DPS (faster actions, more of that action, action last longer..whatever).
Like necro with pets. Simplest of them all. Literally pick anything in skill tree with the word 'minion' in it. That's it. I got to level 56 by only picking the next 'minion' node.
Not until like level 50+ do you really need to worry about honing out anything in pinpointing what you exactly want to be. You can, just no requirement to before then.
Edit: also fill all support slots. Find something if you have an empty slot on a gem, you are just giving up boosts on it.
Stormwolf - "Who cares about some racial stuff, certainly not the victims."
- Democracy Dies in Dumbness.
- Watching people my age grow from cynical youth who distrusts and dismisses the older generation, into cynical old people who distrusts and dismisses younger generations.
I'm not saying it's bad. I just don't like complex rpg systems, personal preference.
I like more intuitive systems.
You don't need a complex ruleset for a complex game. Also I believe that most people just look up a build and not gonna bother for it.
And the plus side of a stream lined system is that it allow for better balance. The more variables, the more exploits.
The overwhelming majority of players are just gonna look up the meta build. Even most streamers do, why else are they "accidentally" all playing top tier builds? It's not that they tried everything and all stumbled on the same build eventualy.
For that act one boss I just had bad gear, although I did had a very slow clear time all way long (something I didn't remembered from my earlier playthrough 6 months ago), the boss came as a surprise. Also was tired and had some alcohol, didn't help . Adding some life regen and damage buffs fixed it.
I'm also aware that the kind of aRPG i want to play doesn't exist, it is what it is.
I want a game with a solid, challenging 30-50 hour campaign. Not a grind the game for ever with quick clear times for loot type of game where the campaign is filler. But the latter is what most people want, it is what it is.
POE2 is fine for the occasional aRPG fix though. Diablo's campaign truly feels like just clearing content and doing time, POE2 has some though bosses at least.
No, I like a loot based game and some stats are fine.
POE2 is just pushing it. For most the skill system, the passive system isn't all that hard. But just looking at the skills and support gems. It's to much. And the interface doesn't help either. And sure I can try to fiddle with it for hours going in the game blind: you'll end up with a sup-par build anyway. Such a waste of time. And when things wrong it's always the question: is my general idea not working or does the game not allow for this idea or do I just suck in what i'm doing. When you don't know the game that well, you're always left in the dark. So picking a meta build it is.
There is still a lot of depth in the game just playing a meta build with a guide. But I'd rather see a game with a more streamlined system. Imho diablo 3 had a great system. Just pick your skills, finding the right combo took some effort but could be done by everyone. And the depth comes from loot. But hardcore players didn't like it. Perhaps diablo 3's system is a little to basic (the launch version, never bothered with it later on), but POE2 is the other end of the spectrum. Streamlining things will still allow for a complex game imho but makes it more accesible for the type of player that doesn't play aRPG's every day.
Last edited by friketje on Fri, 5th Sep 2025 08:59; edited 1 time in total
And if you end up with a subpar build what's the problem? What's the problem if you play something you like that's made by you, but it's not competitive?
No, I like a loot based game and some stats are fine.
POE2 is just pushing it. For most the skill system, the passive system isn't all that hard. But just looking at the skills and support gems. It's to much. And the interface doesn't help either. And sure I can try to fiddle with it for hours going in the game blind: you'll end up with a sup-par build anyway. Such a waste of time. And when things wrong it's always the question: is my general idea not working or does the game not allow for this idea or do I just suck in what i'm doing. When you don't know the game that well, you're always left in the dark. So picking a meta build it is.
There is still a lot of depth in the game just playing a meta build with a guide. But I'd rather see a game with a more streamlined system. Imho diablo 3 had a great system. Just pick your skills, finding the right combo took some effort but could be done by everyone. And the depth comes from loot. But hardcore players didn't like it. Perhaps diablo 3's system is a little to basic (the launch version, never bothered with it later on), but POE2 is the other end of the spectrum. Streamlining things will still allow for a complex game imho but makes it more accesible for the type of player that doesn't play aRPG's every day.
Why do you want to ruin the game for everyone else, just so you can "have fun" easier? You do want an action game with loot, not an arpg, basically you want the equivalent of a looter-shooter.
You can still just play with a guide and let everyone else have fun. I have never in my life used a guide for either PoE, or PoE2, I think that kind of defeats the purpose of playing the game, but I don't really care if people do. I play SSF anyway, so it doesn't matter for me. I just try to make builds and have fun. And sure, sometimes a build will fall short. Usually it's late in the game though and whatever, I can likely respec to fix it to a certain degree, or I've already had my fun with it and it's fine. If anything, PoE2 is lacking too much still for my taste.
If anything there should be less balance. For me, I want to see what op shit I can make and have fun with it. I kind of hate how so far they've been so fucking set on forcing players to play a certain way, different from PoE for whatever reason. And they've kind of given in on things, since there was too much backlash, but still...
Friketje have you completed the whole campaign? You asked for challenging stuff, there is no other arpg that is this hard. There is some insane bosses in the new acts, never seen such cool fights, but they are unbelievable unforgiving.
I did the old campaign until endgame and it just got easier the longer I played. The second run the difficulty became trivial. Some of those challenges with fixed health over multiple maps (forget what they are called) were chalenging though.
All this with a meta build off course .
But this is my whole point about overly complex systems. No doubt the game will give you a hard time if you figure the stuff out on your own. But it makes RPG mechanics kinda pointless and it just fucks up the balance cause the avarage person is never gonna find the right build by themselves and have a hard time even finishing the campaign. And the hardcore games are gonna complain the game is to easy with their meta builds.
I agree that the game is too complex, it is also tuned that you can't finish it with just some random "ill play whatever I want" own build. Anyway, you should try the new ACT 4 and interludes ACT´s, insane stuff.
@Breezer_
I'd disagree about your own build statement.
Sure you won't be MetaUberRace build that is known as the best meta facemelter. But you can get to endgame without much struggle.
Some tips: Don't over complicate things because you have options to complicate it.
- Just have to have a theme, and not go with the mindset: I want this, oh and this, and that sounds cool. So you end up say a merc with lighting shotgun with ice herard, and wall of fire while grenading them with poison.
Want ice? Stack ice, want fire stack fire. Whatever. Get gear with +(levels in your thing), or add that type of damage, or if you skill is: converts X physical to your damage, get physical boosts on gear. [Or both, but thats later]
Add support skills that support that thing, and skill tree that gives you procs or bonuses to that thing.
- Pick a secondary thing as your other skill.
(I've only ever needed right click/left click for attack skills). Support it with damage gems from your theme You picked ice as how you want to kill things? and like lighting heralds look? Slap does extra ice and gains ice damage from other skills on it..your gear and tree will go wild with it.
At least that all I ever do: Two combat skills left click/right click. for the other 4 slots hotbar, they are random things for boss fights if I need them. Pick a theme (rapid fire ice, AoE fire, Fire and forget DoT, whatever) and get gear and tree that does that.
- Got things that compliment as your two choices?
Like wall of fire adds damage to spark? Focus on lighting damage still in tree and gear, let supports for firewall handle it's damage. it's a bonus, not a focus. (Stick to your theme for tree and gear).
- Gear is simple.
What ES/Evasion/Armor choice is my main stat, and when I find one of that, what things do I need: damage type I am, resistances, +regen (always look for this), + mana/whatever you use. so on.
Get/make gear yellow with as many prefix/suffix/modifiers as you can for your theme. Do NOT pack on uniques, this isn't diablo. Uniques in this are purely if they compliment what you want to do with a unique twist you can't support gem. Think of them as a unique support gems you wear and give up a gear slot to have. Not Uber gear stats.
Edit:
Do NOT waste points on 'attack/cast/whatever' speed until later when you can sustain your pool that casts it. Until you can run around holding your attack and never run out (or at least able to kill a yellow mob without running out), why add that you run out of it faster?
You will get shat on by bosses as you run around out of attack juice.
Main issue I see people doing using logic of: I don't run out on mobs, they don't live long enough. No but bosses exist and last longer than mobs, and its where they die waiting for refill and spamming mana potion.
Go for more damage tree nodes. Later when you can sustain your pool, add speed. 2 attacks for 5 damage is the same as 1 attack for 10 damage. Why pay 2x as much for that damage and run out and stop doing any damage for a few seconds because you cannot sustain that faster attack more than a handful of seconds?
Stormwolf - "Who cares about some racial stuff, certainly not the victims."
- Democracy Dies in Dumbness.
- Watching people my age grow from cynical youth who distrusts and dismisses the older generation, into cynical old people who distrusts and dismisses younger generations.
@Breezer_
I'd disagree about your own build statement.
Sure you won't be MetaUberRace build that is known as the best meta facemelter. But you can get to endgame without much struggle.
Sure you can finish the game, but you'll won't get far into endgame. Also plenty of people complaining the campaign is to hard allready.
Playing the ranger deadeye for the first time. This is just getting silly.
Who ever thought that tame beast was a good idea . You'll get that telsell feeling with but wait...there is more.
Not only do you get a pet for no downside, you'll get nodes that give straight extra damage and, but wait, there is more...get all the aura's of the pet.
It's stupid, no wonder the ranger is so OP, the game is so unbalanced favouring certain builds (and then endgame is buffed towards these OP builds to meet the demands of the hardcore aRPG crowd to keep the game challenging). And this stuff is so easy to miss if you don't look at the skill tree and skills for hours. Even the whole tame beast thing is kinda hard to grasp just reading the text of the skill. Using a guide is almost mandatory.
Still having fun though, but one shotting alsmost everything is just a waste of this game, it has so much potential as a dark soulish aRPG. Realy loved act 1 were I struggled (a tiny bit, but still), but the game becomes so much easier the more you progress.
The game as it is now is missing half the Ascendencies, almost half the "Classes" and half the Weapons and Skills as well as a third of the Campaign.
I doubt it will be anything close to balanced til all that is in and even then we will see a load of changes between seasons.
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