endgame seems totally disconnect from what poe2 was announced to be.

I have been playing a lot and as I logged in today and was going to try and see a path to traverse into a hidden area on my atlas, I couldn't even look the nodes to decide the better pathing, cuz its not fun for me anymore. I like mapping, I like the gameplay, some maps needs adjusting but I can't stand progressing thru the atlas as it is right now.

I understand the concept as a delve like system generating more and more areas as you go thru the maps and thats fine. I don't particularly love it, but yeah, I get the hustle of it. you have to grind it duh... but man, it sucks to path blinding into the fog to discover its disconected to where you wanna go.

particular feelings aside, I wanna focus on two main concerns, the atlas itself and game core concept.

atlas UI really needs work:

Searching, path markers, and pathing in general.

The atlas gets way too big, in too many directions... Differently from delve, where u go down, it gets hard or you go sideways, its a linear experience, you cant overanalise things, poe2 atlas, allowing you to delve pointlessly and blind looking for citadels in all directions on an isometric interface its too much. Delve is a simpler mechanic in a simpler interface that allows it for a more dynamic and fluid experience.

I would hope this atlas would be just a placeholder for the actual finished product but I wont fool myself, so I think a few things could improve this experience greatly.

- Searching was already brought up on the podcast with gazzy and DM, but I want to reiterate cuz why not.

- markers would be amazing to simply highlight a desired path you want for traversal.

- connect areas and nodes better. the game generates too many deadends and now they show a citadel hidden on some area and when you try to go there, you cant and need to reroute completely... thats just bad.

- chain maps, as you are planning to path somewhere, let me preload the map to a node and let me run the map without having to open the atlas every single time I need to run a map.

there are simply too many options and thats overwhelming.

And overwhelming is a good word to touch the other point, core concept.

POE 1 is amazing but it is overwhelming to a new or returning player, POE 2 should make it whats too much, less much, cuz thats the barrier for a lot of people and also remember that this community plays this game for a decade+ now(12,5 years in my case), so don't try to reinvent the wheel, what works on poe1, either make it better or leave it as is on the next game. Reforgin bench is a clear example of overcomplicating things just because. DON'T TRY TO REINVENT THE WHEEL! Its a balancing act not only when it comes to actual number in the game but juggling audiences.

Actually, the reforgin bench shows to me that something is off, cuz it works fine, during campaing or a slow game play, less management, fewer items but its totally inadequate for zoom farming and managing tabs and more tabs of maps, precursors and etc... like trying to fit one game insine another one, causing problems where there wasn't any.

In the end, I don't really know what the future holds nor if what I suggested have any merits, but I root for GGG to make poe2 even better than poe1.

They need to work on the atlas endgame.

Having infinite one will cause a lot of players to peace out.

Wish the atlas had a huge boss you unlock after certain amount of maps have been cleared and citadels or whatever.

Then you get a fresh one from the NPC.