Qiushui

First impression: Wow, combat is ridiculously easy. Face-rolling everything on Hard with one hand behind my back and a blind-fold on. New character models are a huge improvement. They look about good enough to withstand the scrutiny of a zoomed in model, as featured in char creation, for example. Still seems to be a memory leak type of thing randomly destroying performance, seems to go away with a reload. New UI elements are starting to really improve combat visibility and transparency. Changes to stats will require much more investigation but char creation point allocation looks infinitely more sensible now with the baseline 10 and the low-stat penalties. new spell descriptions and icons are great.

Pre-order cancelled

Exactly. Consistency is what PoE is in dire lack. Combat is too rudimentary/buggy at this point to offer educated analysis on how easy/hard battles are right now.

I don't see how this (the PC being the ONE checked in all convos) is a problem. So play the game again with a different build and get different options the second time. I guess people hate replay value?

Reactive fish AI. But seriously - Larger, more seamless, more functional, more aesthetically thematic UI, especially item pop-up windows and main screen control buttons (camping etc). It could be almost a straight rip-off of BG/IWD and I would be much happier than I am now.

Wait till you get to Dyrford Ruins...

Save/reload helps but it just builds back up again, and probably faster. I didn't time it but it chugged again after 2-3 fights.

Same here, also experience severe performance degradation after 15-20 mins now. That coupled with the posion, DT, and Deep Wounds overkill, and I'm not even sure if this is more playable than the earlier build. With the combat speed improvements It certainly shows more potential to be enjoyable, if it was playable.

Finally killed the Crystal Spider. Then went to Dyrford Ruins and got summarily destroyed by the archers in there. Poison and Deep Wounds are, if not outright game-breaking, completely fun-breaking right now. Also having massive performance degradation, setting in after 15-20 mins, that I never had in the earlier build. Save/reload fixes it.

Been TPW'ed by the Crystal Spider twice already on hard.

New to me. Very strange bug.

[Description of the issue] When moving around the map and moving from one combat to the next, all sound FX (weapons, footfalls, spells, hits etc.) will stop playing for up to one minute or more and randomly resume playing. Music and ambient sounds still work. [steps to Reproduce] Engage in combat or move around the map. Finish combat, move to another location. [Expected Behaviour] Sound FX should play at all times. [Other Remarks / Comments] This did not happen at all in the previous build and SFX worked perfectly (with the exception of looping sounds while paused). I have not changed any sound settings or drivers on my computer. There seems to be no tell-tale sign of when sound FX stop playing as they sometimes even stop just when moving around the map, without engaging in combat. But combat seems to be what triggers it most of the time.

I agree that secret detection should be removed from scouting mode. It's too gamey the way it is currently. As was said, speed options will likely be removed in the release version.

Yes, I'm noticing a huge amount of 'inconsistencies' in combat. Nothing seems to be predictable from one fight to the next, one character to the next, one new game to the next. Seems even with the latest patch PoE is still far from ready for actual play-testing.

I just killed the beetles on Hard too. The only thing that is actually dangerous is poison, which is so bugged it's not even funny. Wood Beetle 1-shot insta-killed my 18 CON Barb. No chance to even use an ability or heal.