Skill tree - review

Hello there!

I'd like to share some thoughts about skill tree, in all complexity and new mechanics putted into 2nd Poe, game in my perspective gives you an illusion of choice. Here is why.

I segmented the topic into 3 major areas: defence, offence and utility. I noticed 3 minor areas: layouts, skips, customisation.

Defences - most important stats in game, without it you cannot progress. We have mechanics which could provide us multi level protection.

RED SIDE

Armour - what I like is how compact it is in the tree, you can swiftly and easily have a good portion of increased armour in your build, but to juice it completely is need to grant some protection against armour break. (Like blind works for the accuracy enemies against evasion). I see armour as biggest looser to stat stackers, because there is no big reward as it is for Dex and Int.

Health Points - it's a huge issue - you have no access to it instead of raining divines into your build to get decent value from it. Problem is, skill tree need to be filled with at least 6 clusters with it around centre and edges. In build you need to have at least 50% increased HP to have proportional survivability like it works for Mana / ES. That's why there is a lot of ES builds. It's cheap, easy and rewarding.

Resistances and Max Resistances - main defence against ele-dmg. It's good to have a dedicated tree for +3 to all max resistances. I can only hope that Red side will have 1 more resistance clusters without max res., but compensated with conversions? For me it could be bonkers.

Block - I like how attack and spell block was merged. It won't clutter my mind anymore, which one I should take. Downside is that block is only for warstaff and shields. It locks diversity, but I understand the decision. What I don't like is block chance, I feel it's low, maybe I'm wrong, but 1 keynode with it in range Red/Blue is needed.

Life Regeneration - 1% means almost nothing, to have good regen you need to stack it. There is a big hole to fill.

Life Recovery - well, you need to have good portion of flat life regen to build it on top of that.

Life Leech - it's unrewarding take back to Poe 1 there are good proven solutions and make comparison, then please add some changes.

Stun threshold - I simply don't understand this choice - avoidance was 100% better. Stun id one of the most irritating stat easily making your progress worse.

GREEN SIDE

Evasion - in my perspective it works well with Acrobatics I really like it in current state. To provide more diversity I propose to add something which contributed to form HP & Evasion viable like it works for ES & Evasion.

Flask Charges - finally in POE 2 I used potions, in POE 1 I avoided it. I like how it actually works and I feel they are good.

Charms - except anti-freeze charm - unplayable and unrewarding, better would be to have purity of elements, as a concept of defence it could passively provide effects otherwise it's a useless attachment which could be an additional effect of aura on top of main effect. Hope it get fixed.

Ailment Threshold - I don't like it at all, avoidance was way better. When I understood it will surely land after some hits, then I just skipped this stat and overheal it's dmg with potions. For me Charms or Ailment Threshold - that's too much - clutters the skill tree, both are bad.

Mana Leech - when you have high mana costs - it hurts better to have mana regen.

My suggestion - maybe adding Reservation Efficiency on is better than Ailment Threshold?
Suppress was merger to Evasion then Evasion on it's own is really powerful, but it lacks multilayer depth like a Blue/Red sides?

Maybe pushing Recoup from Blue side to Green side makes more sense? Blue side has almost everything in defences.

Blue Side

Energy Shield - best designed stat so far, nothing to change.

Mana- second best stat in a game, no need for changes.

Life and Mana Recoup- huge nerf is to have 8 second of recoup effect and you cannot balance loss of life. It should provide passive regeneration and protection to oneshots, but it doesn't. It needs at least 3 more clusters dedicated to it changed, and dedicated Keystone or Unique.

Mana regen - works really good in current state.

Life taken as Mana - good addition to balance your Life pool, Hope it stays that way it works fine.

Global Defences - it's a surprise to have it in a tree - but a pleasure one. It's really powerful - and to have it in limited version is wise choice.

Aura Effect - for me one of the overall most broken stat is only in one place. In Poe 1 it was a thing in whole tree - I understand why it's on the edge of Red/Blue Side. But it should be mirrored in the direct opposite edge Green/Blue Side.

*Guard - I don't have suggestions here - haven't tried it yet. Make me try it.



OFFENCE

When I saw Poe2 skill tree I saw only damage, damage and damage, then I noticed challenging to know - how does it really affect my damage, because system doesn't give you detailed answer how your damage is going to rise - under met conditions. It makes building a character really confusing, I am bound to pob2, when the game should answer that questions before outsourcing program do so. Then...


Physical Damage - for me overall there is a few clusters with it. There is lot of places to build elemental damage and the only one Physical is butchered - for sure lack of multiplying this kind of dmg unless you want to convert - hard to scale on its own. For sure it needs an improvement.

Fire damage - it's good, in my perspective nothing to change.

Cold damage - I feel there is a way to play Cold when you play lightning damage? Could be added a cluster or two.

Lighting Damage - I feel there is a good amount of lightning clusters, each individual and well-rounded.

Chaos damage - I like it's interesting to have with some balancing nodes - best designed as a category from types of damage.

Spell Damage - good and constant. 1 cluster is needed near Blue-centre. And 1 near Blue/Red Side.

Thorns - I like the idea and it's interesting addition!

Attack Damage - When I saw it - I loved it, simple balanced and easily accesable.

Two Handed Damage - I really appreciate adding reduced attack speed - in comparison to all y-tubers, needs I would see it more rewarding in process of stacking some of less and reduced attack speed.

One handed Damage - Nothing to add - it's good.
Damage per weapon type - needs a bit of work - for now locks you in specific place, because it's accessible in one spot in a tree.

Accuracy - for me it works in this state, no changes needed.

Attack Speed - tbh powerful, but individual modes provide a little boost only, it needs to be buffed.

Cast Speed - when you pick it as alone stat you have no variety - it's pushed on top of Skill tree, with no easy access.

Skill Speed - I really like this alternative. It's good overall.

Crit - really hurting downsides (in a red side) - need to be more compensated. Overall additional Keystone needed. Feels really expensive to max, unless certain classes.

Damage over time - for me ok, I would love to see better data performance, how it affects damage output (from newcomer perspective it could be difficult to see difference between average hit and dot DPS making it less attractive choice)

%Dmg per Strength - punishing, really cuts you out of choices, in term of synergy in equipment and nodes, hard to balance these downsides.
% Dmg per lowest stat - nothing to add, good on it's own.

%Dmg per lowest stat - nothing to change good on it's own - maybe can be added similar on the there side of skill tree.

%x when surrounded - it's really good tree - but 2.5% flat life reg. is too low to be considered as essential.

Area Damage - in my perspective it's ok in current state.

Distance Dmg - for me it's only a bow option, gems do better than skill tree, for now it's better to skip it, especially if everything is almost on your face every time.

Herald Dmg - works fine, additional reduced reservation is a good addition.

Dmg to affected by (condition) - good and really like this idea.

Damage to unique bosses - well it could be higher? For me it's not rewarding enough.

Damage to low/full life - hell powerful nodes - and I love it. Big rewards to burst.

%Dmg per block chance - really good to have compact and balanced build. For me best designed trees in Red Side.

Specific weapon type damage - for me not flexible enough - because there is a 1 tree for 1 weapon type. It's needed to be expanded.


UTILITY

Stats - possibility to choose which stat do you want is brilliant, but cutting amount of gained stat and high attribute requirements for gems pushes lots of build to stacking stats and it should be fixed to provide more diversity into builds. From my perspective stats simply locks away some build paths, because constantly you need to worry about lacking Dex, Str or Int, unless you sacrifice some defences for it.

Elemental ailments - simple, easily accessible, in my perspective there is nothing to change, in comparison to Poe1 there is a lot of them each individual for every build.

Stun - feel like it's not rewarding enough due to short stun duration?

Daze - didn't used it for me it's weaker version of stun without a stun.

Pin - Really good to cover your defences - but to make it shine there need to be some adjustments. There is a 1 place to get it in a tree and it should be expanded. There is a few interactions to build on this. Like it works for shock and electrocution.

Charges - would like to see more generation methods of them.

Movement Speed - surprisingly there is a few of these nodes I like it, makes Green Side more unique, but in reality - with such big maps and zooming moobs swarming you instantly you feel like a turtle (for example mapping is irritating for me, especially with movement speed mod in map). To make movement speed work (I mean casual play not no-life run) you need to put literally divines into build

Slowing potency debuffs - really strong for some boss fights, ailments etc.

Slow Magnitude - good addition to juice some builds, nothing to change.

AOE - fine as it is inputted to a skill tree. Maybe a Keystone for fun?

Spirit - I understand the choice to not include it in tree, and totally agree.

Chain, Pierce, Fork - what is in the tree is good - adding some twist could do magic.

Unleash / Cascade - well I like it that way - maybe 1 cluster more?

Knock back - haven't tried it yet, in skills it feels good. Maybe some additional interactions with knock back could make me try this. Like an additional damage against enemies pushed in last 2 seconds? Or interaction with walls - additional stun buildup against enemies hitting a wall with knock back, knock backed enemies shatter frozen enemies or % to critical strike chance against knocked enemy.

Skill effect duration - well balanced I like it.



LAYOUTS

At first what I expected - single starting point for all classes it would be best choice, but it was served worst - without centre accessible.

This one choice make me class bound to certain weapon and skills, but I usually have different ideas. And lack of ascendancy reset hurts.

From my experience with a Poe2 skill tree there are some spaces which are really good, and spots when nothing really fits.

It touches jewels affecting specific ranges and From Nothing. It favours builds to stretch itself to look for expected amount of stat, rather than take what is in cluster around, because number of stats are usually out of range or buff is too weak to make a difference - in comparison to single jewel in which you have 4 fixes with stats. I really don't like the idea to move away original Timeless jewels - you could overwrite whole tree to your liking - and it simply made my choices matter more. According to jewel sockets they're in bad spots to be picked up. Always away from a tree - you cannot have it's boost near changing sectors red->red/green->green and so on.

Unused seems to be spaces around Red and Blue/Red sides, hope it will be filled in time.

Skill tree in this state provides more visual usability rather than real synergy and it needs deep changes to provide better outcomes.

Skips
Pathways are most important in skill tree - short or long one - it needs to have real reflexion in a build, and when you have a long path then you expect higher Node Value. It isn't a case with Poe 2, then it's important to have ways to skip effectively not important skill point cost. It refers to attribute layout paths - they are cluttered when you're near starto od a tree and loosens when it reaches farther. I don't like it a lot - because it locks centre of tree unless you want to waste a lot of skill points. Jewel sockets layouts also aren't helpful - only solidifies locks within certain ranges.

CUSTOMISATION

As previously stated - customisation methods with jewels are limited and cluster jewels are nonexistent in Poe2 - I don't like that - because I could simply always add large cluster with expected outcome. Due to limitations - now choices are much harder and it needs to have a losses onto your champion.

Well, that covers much of my perspective. Hope to hear your thoughts 😁