I see a lot of people preserving XP by just exiting to character selection. Logging out is just a mechanic in PoE to preserve XP and potentially the content you are running.

Also, if you are playing with a friend and they die while mapping together, they kind of just have to wait. Why can’t you respawn your friends in the map?

Overall the portal changes feel lackluster and poorly thought out. Enjoying the game a lot, have a level 95 and a level 90 character but damn near every time I die to an on death effect or just get killed fairly, it still ends up feeling bad because now the content I was excited to run is gone as well.

I don’t see the difference between logging out or having six portals. Logging out is just six portals with extra steps. Losing a shit ton of XP is fairly punishing already at higher levels in PoE 2.

Gave me +25% increased character size, 50 to accuracy rating, and 10% increased light radius - brb gonna vendor myself

The crossbow suffers from several issues that could be solved with a "quiver", a bandolier. The stats and damage of the crossbow is on par with a bow but has the clunkiness of the reload and without the added benefits of quiver stats . On top of the that the reload significantly slows down his dps and move speed. Just these two factors, I believe, is why the crossbow is considered lower tier.

The lack of addition stats from a "quiver" suggests it is a glass cannon, a risk reward style game play. It is about proper timing, maneuvering, and pacing. Failing any of these could result in death. It is a fun play style, but without the "canon" part of the glass canon, it falls short. Getting more stats and benefits from a bandolier could bring crossbow more on par with other ranged weapons and make it feel more like the shooter style the it supposed to be.

The bandolier could also provide more variety in the game play. As it is now, the type of crossbow is irrelevant. The only one that matters is the bombard if you are running grenades. A bandolier could provide variety to builds with bonuses such as, quicker reloads, more grenades, larger blast radius, more bolts, and armor pen, are possible examples.

Of course these would be in addition to regular stat increase that quivers currently give.

A separate thought about adding variety to the crossbow would be adjusting the crossbow base types. Instead of the minor bolt changes the current base types have, they could work more like the barrel of a gun. For example for shotgun builds, they could have a "choke" type, narrowing or expanding the shotgun blasts. Other base types could add pierce or shattering bolts. These would give the crossbow a greater distinction from the bow.

These are just some thoughts I had while putting many hours into the mercenary that could really define and distinguish the new addition of the crossbow play style. What do we think? What else could really put the crossbow and the map?

There isn't some ulterior motive here it just seems more interesting.

Like, if I want to make a huntress themed around like being some divine protector of a forest or whatever, I might want to mix some druid and huntress stuff right? It seems kinda reasonable doesn't it? But you absolutely cannot do that with the current passive tree.

It doesn't seem like it'd be OP, and if it really is, why not just change the cost of the travel node until it isn't OP? Like imagine all the interesting melee builds if warriors could hop over to monk area for defenses, or if a witch could grab some grenade nodes and mix it up a bit?

It really feels to me like the tree is designed for this, but it was either never added, or removed.

Came across this today.

https://preview.redd.it/zxmbfxcrzsbe1.png?width=785&format=png&auto=webp&s=bceef136447ec6244dcae6add6f3036531a311df

After 300hrs in Poe2 i ragequit and booted up poe1.

I havnt realised how i missed poe1. After blasting some endgame in Poe2 with pretty solid build, another setup day started. After couple hours of setting up towers, i died to some oogabooga hasted racing car rare, while avoiding approx. 69 on death effects that were not visible due to terrain height difference. i decided thats a bit too much hustle for whole 2-5ex and around 1 and a half of simulacrum sprinter.

That being said, tuning on poe1 after 300hrs of 2nd full time, (most of the time) unpaid job felt incredible. If any returning/new player would need help with any content feel free to reach out. Im playing settlers league. Can do pretty much all content, wont risk voided and some other valdo maps tho.