Path of Exile 2’s latest major update, “Dawn of the Hunt,” was eagerly anticipated as it marked the first significant change since the game’s early access debut last year. However, what was expected to be an exciting development turned out to be quite a blunder. When players jumped in last Friday to explore the new features, they were met with an unexpectedly grueling experience. The difficulty level had skyrocketed, leaving gamers to spend an unreasonable amount of time just to defeat the weakest of foes in the initial stages. The introduction of the Huntress class, instead of breathing fresh life into the gameplay, seemed underwhelming. Naturally, Reddit lit up with posts expressing sheer frustration, with titles like “This game feels like a massive waste of time” and “Game feels miserable,” and even popular streamers were quitting in sheer exasperation.
In an effort to salvage the situation, Grinding Gear Games, the developers, rolled out several minor patches aimed at giving players a better fighting chance. They made the monsters a tad less daunting and enhanced a few lackluster skills, like those associated with skeletal minions. Despite these attempts, a chunk of the gaming community remains unsatisfied, feeling the game still doesn’t offer the rewarding experience they crave.
Acknowledging the widespread dissatisfaction, Grinding Gear Games published a message addressing the concerns related to the update and outlining plans to iron out the issues over the coming weeks. One of their primary focuses is on improving the sluggish pace at which players have to work through the campaign, a task they must repeat with each new season. Although some adjustments have already been implemented, players still struggle to muster the perseverance needed to reach the coveted endgame dungeons.
In a candid conversation with streamer Zizaran on Tuesday, game director Jonathan Rogers shared, “I can absolutely tell you that our goal here was to nerf the things that were trivializing the endgame before you’ve even managed to get your items and stuff like that.” His fellow director, Mark Roberts, didn’t hold back either, admitting to some notable blunders, particularly with the underpowered skills that were hurriedly patched. He explained the trial-and-error approach, saying, “We’re firing from the hip a lot here and stuff like that we’re like, ‘Let’s just get it in there, let’s try it out, and see how people think and if it’s bad we’ll just undo it.’”
Rogers further elaborated, noting, “I think a running theme with PoE 2 in general is that the target to hit is smaller [compared to PoE 1] because if we want the combat to be more engaging then that means there’s a smaller target; it puts more pressure on the balance to be right.” He highlighted the contrast between the two installations, where PoE 1 rewarded players who invested thousands of hours mastering its complexities, whereas PoE 2 was crafted to circumvent that issue, albeit with great difficulty in execution. The aim is for the game to have challenging, skill-based combat reminiscent of games like Dark Souls, which naturally carries a high difficulty level.
Both Rogers and Roberts assure players that the team is meticulously examining various avenues to ease the troubles without swinging to the extreme of making dungeon runs a cakewalk that takes mere hours. Rogers concluded with a note of caution, explaining, “If we get to the point where a good player never has to face a single challenge ever then I don’t think that’s going to be a game that will be ultimately fun in the long term.”
