Boeroer

Yes, now grazing has become another tactical element you can add (and which is important). I'm still not sure but I think I like that despite my initial feeling about it. Those early gauntlets are golden! Hope they also put them into the early finished game. About PoE's grazing being too powerful with CC effects: right. If you grazed with a paralyze or petrifiy it's still a very powerful debuff - only shorter. I once suggested that afflictions should come in stages so that a graze would not only shorten the duration but would also apply a weaker form of affliction. Let's say Sickened is the weaker form of Weakened for example.

The thing is that monks with Torment's Reach are much better when dual wielding (because the Cone damage is not based on your weapon damage and you get twice the AoE damage from the Full Attack then). But in general Firebrand is a great tool for monks (and other classes) until you get durgan steel.

Yes, casting times are generally too long. I understand why they expanded casting times - but you have to boost the effect then else it's not worth to cast a spell. I also like the new grimoire "system". Way more exiting to find grimoires now.

Yes, it is different: read my post above. Single classes will suck unless you invent a whole lot of additional specific abilites (which is hard to do and not necessary). It would be so easy to add a few general abilities which everybody can take and it would cost so little. It doesn't mess up your multiclasses. Multiclassing can be used to mix really specific abilites that are core to the classes that you mix. But why on earth should you multicalss just for getting Two Handed Style and nothing else for example? It's easy to learn how to swing with both hands - nothing that cries out "look, i have to be tied to the fighter because this is fighter business".

And this is the source of most problems in gaming nowadays: taking the player by the hand as if he's a five-year old - preventing that he makes his own experiences. I don't mean that things don't have to be explained. THey should be. PoE did a poor job explaining how things worked. But game designers turning into helicopter parents when it comes to level-ups can't be the solution. You prevent gimpy builds but at the same time you prevent choice, creativity and thinking out-of-th-box. And in the long run you also prevent fun and gimp replay value (like a lot). Where's the problem when a caster has to give up a spell in order to use a shield better? It's like trading a passive bonus for an active ability. If I wanted to build a tanky single class wizard I could use weapon & shield together with the defensive buffs and make myself sturdy while I sling some spells. Sure, not as many spells as a wizard who put all points into spells - but at least I stay alive. Why not? What's unfair about that? Why do I have to be forced to multiclass with a fighter just in order to use a shield better? I pay for that with later spells and not getting the most pwoerful ones. Now that is unfair I'd say.

Activating the modal for maces seems to be a no brainer. Especially when using Carnage.

Don't want to sound rude, but that's nonsense. Some general or "generic" abilities like gunner, weapon & shield, Two Handed Style and whatnot (those things that everybody can learn without doing a whole apprenticeship) could be made accessible to all classes easily without harming multiclassing at all. At the same time specific abilities should be really unique, interesting and tied to the core of the class. Like rangers getting stuff like Predator's Sense, Paladins getting Flames of Devotion, Fighters getting Armored Grace and so on. Can't see how a general Weapon & Shield ability would break multiclassing. It only adds options for single classes (important) and also multiclassing char (maybe less important, but still nice).

I agree. At the moment it feels a bit like the Benny Hill Show. Also enemies are disengaging and repositioning all the time like somebody put some really itching powder into their underpants.

No.

I don't like several of the new design decisions. Biggest problems for me are the removal of the universal talents which makes leveling up/building up single class chars pretty railroady and boring - and the new penetration system which forces you to concentrate on penetration and nothing else. You can hit like a flying truck on steroids, but if you have 7 penetration and your opponent has 8 armor your truck turns into a very soft and wet noodle made out of 1-layered, recycled toilet paper.

You can look them up in the objects folder... or not (seriously asking )?

I bought Windows 10 just for this beta and set up a dual boot system (think about that ). But if you could make it happen so that the beta also runs on Linux I would appreciate it a lot. I don't like to use Windows because I'm not used to it. And having to reboot every time I don't want to play but to do some work (all my development tools are on my Linux system) is annoying as well.

Hm, I'm having zero problems with that atm. Supersmooth performance so far.

The main drawback of PoE's DR system was how it worked with lashes. This was obscure and hard to grasp. Also that DR penetration didn't do anything for lashes and that lashes had no MIN damage made it very weird. For example: a paladin with a burning lash, FoD, Intense Flames and Scion of Flame has lashes of 30%/60%/30% worth. He also has a blunderbuss and can shoot with it utilizing 16 DR bypass for his pellets. When he attacks a high armored foe with 20 DR it may happen that he deals great pierce damage (at least only 4 damage points get substracted per pellet) but VERY little burn damage (most of the time coming from FoD while Intense Flames and burnung lash couln't make it through DR at all). So he can decide to only shoot low DR enemies (for what does he need all that DR bypass then?) or to use an arquebus like everybody else (boring). Things like that were not perfect.

I meant that they don't look crowded and there's much space where some shared abilites could fit. Then don't. Martial single classes are railroaded pretty much because you get one ability per level-up, but you can't choose freely because they all come in tiers which limits your choice. That means that in most cases you choose two out of three abilites in one tier. That's... boring? Only partial because they only work with weapons. It's all about weapons. Casters who want to mainly cast don't profrit from those at all and can't be pushed outside of their conventional path. I'm not complaining about the skills. Those are nice but have little impact on combat (and that's all the abilites are about). I'm complaining about the level-ups of single classes being extremely boring atm. Exactly! No problem, all good.

At the moment I'm quite pissed with the beta and the direction PoE2 is going and have low motivation to put efford into builds. If the game stays like this I may not even play it...

Thanks a lot! Actually Wellspring of Life rose from "meh" to "hooray".

Potions of Infuse with Vital Esssence work with healing bonuses. So does Wound Binding. If you don't want to do that: If you use several "offtanks" you don't need a supertough main tank (if you want to name it like that). A chanter as only tank is not working very well in the early game. But in a formation of three he's good enough.

The rate of fire with a crossbow (esp. Wendgär) is actually not too bad if you combine high DEX, Swift Aim, Gunner and Gauntlets of Swift Action and put Durgan Steel on Wendgär. Sure, the reload is the bottleneck, but if you reduce recovery to almost zero while having 20 DEX you end up at 88 frames per attack cycle which is only twice the time of a melee attack with a geat sword with the same talents/abilites (44 frames). The base damage of crossbows is +5 compared to two handers. So, with enough dmg bonuses and decent crit rate (crossbows don't have reduced crit damage - and the damage on crit with Merciless Hand + Durgan Steel is nice) it's not bad. Twin Sting would have 118 frames per reload cycle - but since you can fire two shots before reloading the average attack cycle is 92 frames (one reload phase removed). Also not bad - and you spare some durgan steel. Of course the raw damage and the Plage-of-Insect thing beats most other enchantments. The biggest problem for crossbow users is that the uniques come so late - in my opinion.

Sure we had. The Long Pain is the best ranged weapon in PoE. I really miss my Turning Wheel. Where did it go? And WHY?

All this talks about Weapon Proficiencies being the new universal talents (which is nonsense in my opinion - those are only weapon related and can't substitute stuff that alters you char and has nothing to do with the weapon you're using*) doesn't change that the development/progression of single classes feels bland and railroaded now. If you want to build an interesting out-of-the-box character tou have to use multiclassing now. And that's because there are not enough options to pick from. Now instead of inventing a lot of additional class specific abilities, which would mean a ton of work, it would be much easier to put universal abilities back in. Of course more options means more ways to possibly break balance with an overpowered combo or to build a crappy character. But honestly: what do you want? A casual game where you can't make mistakes because you're taken by the hand? OR a rpg with a complex (but we'll explained) set of choices to pick from so that you can come up with unusual yet working build ideas? I get that this is not so important for the one time player who likes immersion and stuff, but I'm complaining from my point of view, what I miss. It's feedback from a player who has no problems with bad level up choices - there is always the tool of retraining - but who likes to fiddle around with builds. And multiclassing aside: this beta feels like a huge step backwards in that regard. Also because it's not needed and was totally uncalled for. The ability trees already look a bit empty. No problem UI-wise to add a few abilities that all or most classes share. * Think of Battle Forged + Scion of Flame for example.

This is exactly what the beta is for: to find out if the new mechanics work/get accepted or not. Currently I also think that penetration dictates combat. It's a lot easier if you have means to lower DR or to raise penetration. For example I did an Ogre Corpse Eater (Transmuter/Corpse Eater) and despite his absurdly high MIG when frenzied and his huge dmg per hit he couldn't kill stuff because his penetration was too low and he can't switch weapons (fixed Ogre clubs) and also clubs' proficiency don't grant extra penetration. Then I did a Skald/Berserker with dual maces (lowers DR) and Hel Hyraf-inviocation (also lowers DR) and suddenly it all was a breeze. All my party members could wipe the floor with the enemies all of a sudden because they all had enough penetration. This is too strong. As others have said: this needs tweaking.

This is not about multiclassing. I think this just works fine atm. The problem are the very streamlined single classes. Not enough choice of abilities basically. This could easily be solved with some more abilities that everybody can have. This also doesn't mess up the balance of multiclassing. You just make sure that you can't take the same ability twice (like you can atm with Bear's Fort on monk/druid for example). I just don't get it why my paladin can't take Weapon & Shield Style anymore.

I wouldn't say that. Too much info around mechanics to process - too much looking at the combat log. However PoE 1 feels more "desktopish". Maybe it's the looks, maybe the limited/merged talents+abilities, don't know.

Yes. Grazing is part of abilites now (like Disciplined Barrage). I miss all the time - it's really frustrating. I don't get why they changed SO MUCH of the original mechanics. I liked most of PoE's mechanics - they were just not made clear enough. Now it feels like a different game. I have to say the more I play the more I dislike the new penetration mechanic.