I love it, finally we have purposeful slower skill based gameplay in a modern ARPG.

The bosses are well telegraphed, well thought out. The dodge roll mechanics it all comes together and makes for a very rewarding process of learning boss mechanics its very like a souls game in this aspect.. you then kill a tough one and it's peak adrenaline for an ARPG. No longer is it purely about stats.. yes stats are still a major aspect for killing the bosses faster or surviving easier. But its not quite as much of a pure stat check as before.

The quality of life changes are excellent. The skill gems no longer requiring gear slotting them in gear and colour gambling and link gambling.. it just makes gearing and building way more fun. You get a piece of gear with better stats.. you can actually equip it there and then.. we have the same skill complexity without the trivial annoying mechanics surrounding it it's just simply better...

The passive tree is excellent same complexity as before overall.. all the main stuff you'd want for your class is near your starter position. Moving to other classes parts is even easier.. and you can respec for gold if you find something isn't working, which is way more conducive to a fun gameplay loop..it brings easy experimentation without having to replay through again..

The gameplay is smooth, responsive.. you can cast and move.. use roll to move cancel.. the graphics are great. With HDR.. likely without aswell, the spells and effects just pop with colour. Its an absolute spectacle and addictive to look at.

The campaign, I have only reached the start of ACT 3 so far, has been way more enjoyable than the first game for me. Honestly just prefer the levels themselves, the style.. and as before the bosses just really make this great. I also prefer the concept of the new ascendancy trials.. over the terrible labyrinth in the previous game. The trials of the sekhema could for a much more fun and varied bit of gameplay and challenge with a more structured overall tactical mini game with it. However, the honour system ruins it.

You don't lose XP on death. Given the harder, slower and more skill based gameplay this is nice.

I'm really really looking forward to the endgame after playing what I've played so far and I don't see myself playing any of the other existing ARPG's again at this point.

EDIT 1: Trial of chaos needs to be tweaked. The RNG can make it entirely unwinnable. The only solution aside from getting lucky with RNG seems to be over leveling it a good bit.

EDIT 2: Trial of the sekhema needs to have the honour mechanic removed, especially when gating ascendancy with it. Remove honour and make the trials themselves slightly harder and it's problem solved. You do lose XP on death in the endgame and mapping. I don't mind this it feels like a fair challenge and grind however, they need to tweak the damage numbers on certain things, you'll be having no problem most of the way and often out of nowhere get one shot by something which with losing the stuff on your maps and the XP loss this can be a bit irritating.. I would say perfection in the endgame would be to remove the losing the cool map content on death and just tweaking some of the damage numbers.

EDIT 3: I've done a good bit of endgame now. I am having fun especially since the latest patch nerfing some of the one shots in the endgame. I love the mapping system, I love have to work around the map selecting the content I want to play. I like juicing the waystones up and also buffing the maps around the tower with precursers. I'm getting gear upgrades quite a bit (nice ones at that), However, there are some pain points currently. I would like a boss in every map it would just be more fun. Maybe special bosses on the current boss indicated maps. Finally whilst the endgame is way better balanced in terms of one shots since the last patch, I think certain other things still need to be fine tuned, like the yellow laser beam guys. They eat through 4k energy shield and 1k life within seconds. I think like with breach which is now great, in terms of ritual they might want to tone down the enemy numbers, its too easy to get stun locked against a wall with no room to even cast. There are cases where you can spawn on a map in the middle of a group of enemies resulting in you again getting stunlocked with no ability to cast or move. Sometimes in delerium, a load of enemies spawn on all sides of you. You just get instantly trapped, stunlocked and killed. I like the endgame it is really fun however, there is just some minor balancing things that are just holding it back from being perfect also.. why do we have to lose maps on death.. we should have a few portals like in POE1 where you have 6 doesn't have to be quite that much maybe 3 its a no brainer change.

Trial of the sekhema is easier since the latest patch. But it still isn't fun I still believe the honour system just needs to go.

I love it, finally we have purposeful slower skill based gameplay in a modern ARPG. The bosses are well telegraphed, well thought out. The dodge roll mechanics it all comes together and makes for a very rewarding process of learning boss mechanics its very like a souls game in this aspect.. you then kill a tough one and it's peak adrenaline for an ARPG. No longer is it purely about stats.. yes stats are still a major aspect for killing the bosses faster or surviving easier. But its not quite as much of a pure stat check as before. The quality of life changes are excellent. The skill gems no longer requiring gear slotting them in gear and colour gambling and link gambling.. it just makes gearing and building way more fun. You get a piece of gear with better stats.. you can actually equip it there and then.. we have the same skill complexity without the trivial annoying mechanics surrounding it it's just simply better... The passive tree is excellent same complexity as before overall.. all the main stuff you'd want for your class is near your starter position. Moving to other classes parts is even easier.. and you can respec for gold if you find something isn't working, which is way more conducive to a fun gameplay loop..it brings easy experimentation without having to replay through again.. The gameplay is smooth, responsive.. you can cast and move.. use roll to move cancel.. the graphics are great. With HDR.. likely without aswell, the spells and effects just pop with colour. Its an absolute spectacle and addictive to look at. The campaign, I have only reached the start of ACT 3 so far, has been way more enjoyable than the first game for me. Honestly just prefer the levels themselves, the style.. and as before the bosses just really make this great. I also prefer the concept of the new ascendancy trials.. over the terrible labyrinth in the previous game. The trials of the sekhema could for a much more fun and varied bit of gameplay and challenge with a more structured overall tactical mini game with it. However, the honour system ruins it. You don't lose XP on death. Given the harder, slower and more skill based gameplay this is nice. I'm really really looking forward to the endgame after playing what I've played so far and I don't see myself playing any of the other existing ARPG's again at this point. EDIT 1: Trial of chaos needs to be tweaked. The RNG can make it entirely unwinnable. The only solution aside from getting lucky with RNG seems to be over leveling it a good bit. EDIT 2: Trial of the sekhema needs to have the honour mechanic removed, especially when gating ascendancy with it. Remove honour and make the trials themselves slightly harder and it's problem solved. You do lose XP on death in the endgame and mapping. I don't mind this it feels like a fair challenge and grind however, they need to tweak the damage numbers on certain things, you'll be having no problem most of the way and often out of nowhere get one shot by something which with losing the stuff on your maps and the XP loss this can be a bit irritating.. I would say perfection in the endgame would be to remove the losing the cool map content on death and just tweaking some of the damage numbers. EDIT 3: I've done a good bit of endgame now. I am having fun especially since the latest patch nerfing some of the one shots in the endgame. I love the mapping system, I love have to work around the map selecting the content I want to play. I like juicing the waystones up and also buffing the maps around the tower with precursers. I'm getting gear upgrades quite a bit (nice ones at that), However, there are some pain points currently. I would like a boss in every map it would just be more fun. Maybe special bosses on the current boss indicated maps. Finally whilst the endgame is way better balanced in terms of one shots since the last patch, I think certain other things still need to be fine tuned, like the yellow laser beam guys. They eat through 4k energy shield and 1k life within seconds. I think like with breach which is now great, in terms of ritual they might want to tone down the enemy numbers, its too easy to get stun locked against a wall with no room to even cast. There are cases where you can spawn on a map in the middle of a group of enemies resulting in you again getting stunlocked with no ability to cast or move. Sometimes in delerium, a load of enemies spawn on all sides of you. You just get instantly trapped, stunlocked and killed. I like the endgame it is really fun however, there is just some minor balancing things that are just holding it back from being perfect also.. why do we have to lose maps on death.. we should have a few portals like in POE1 where you have 6 doesn't have to be quite that much maybe 3 its a no brainer change. Trial of the sekhema is easier since the latest patch. But it still isn't fun I still believe the honour system just needs to go.