Path of Exile 2 is in beta right now and only people who are willing to pay money for early access are able to see what this game is like before it goes FTP at some point next year. There are a lot of problems with this game, many have been fixed but others remain. There is one aspect of the game that I fear will never disappear though and that is the need to constantly grind for gear and xp.
There are tons of guides out there that are going to tell you how to be good at this game and I am nowhere near as dedicated as the kind of person that actually figures this sort of thing out. So I am going to tell you how to suck at this game and still get by.
For one thing, if you are a filthy casual like I am, you have to face the fact that you are never going to be good at this the same way that you were likely never actually "good" at any of the Diablo games. ARPG's are a fickle bitch, and the repetition of the same levels over and over again praying for a unique drop is something you are just going to have to get accustomed to because that is what a game like this is all about.
I had previously stated that I do not like the fact that boss encounters are normally many many times more difficult than the areas that are leading up to them and at no point in the game did I feel this was more evident than with the final boss of Act 2. This guy is fucking tough and has a ton of ways to OSK (one shot kill) you in his arsenal. Twice I stopped playing the game for a day or so because I was disgusted about how no matter how I adjusted my play if he hit you with one of his many OSK attacks that was it, it was game over no matter what. The toxic fan-base that exists for this game are beyond non-helpful as the answer to ANY situation in this game is always "Git gud".
As someone that doesn't like Souls games or any game that requires pinpoint dodging and what not, I'm not gonna get good because I don't want to get good. I want something that seems to be elusive to the "modern audience" in that I want a game to be fun, even if you are not good at it.
Now allow me to introduce you to Jamanra, the final boss of Act 2. If you are like basically everyone that has played this game in early access, you probably had a tough time with one or two of the bosses leading up to this point. Maybe you would try it a couple times and eventually get close and then it would break your heart because that boss has a 2nd or 3rd phase that all of a sudden gives them much more damage output than they would have previously. Well fear not dear disgruntled traveler because Jamanra has this bullshit in spades.
The first part of this guy's attacks will probably give you a false sense of security thinking that hey, I might actually be able to take this guy down. Then you will have all of that nonsense squashed basically immediately as he transitions to a particular phase after you whittle down his enormous health pool after a good 5 minutes or so of dancing around looking for an opportunity to actually strike.
He has another phase that is not at all evident where if you are not standing in just the right spot you will definitely die. They do not do a good job of explaining this to you at all but once you watch a YT video explaining it, you will be like "well of course that is where you are supposed to stand." The vitriol that comes from the people out in internet-land pretending as though they figured this out on their own will come fast and furiously as these basement dwellers lash out at everyone in the world as if they were idiots who can't figure out anything without being lead although chances are that they were lead to that same position by a YT video as well.
Stand anywhere except behind this "wind shield" of sorts and you will definitely die. Pay no attention to the fact that it is barely visible and things are attacking you at the same time. It's easy!
if you can't tell that I am being sarcastic in my comments here let me spell it out for you that I am being sarcastic. This boss is incredibly difficult and not representative of how the rest of the game has been up to this point. The level of the enemies in this area leading up to it are around levels 16-30 and one would assume as they likely have up to this point that this range of level would indicate that if you yourself are within that range or even better at the top end of it that this should be challenging but not impossible. Well I went in there at level 30 I think, the first time and as expected, the boss completely wiped the floor with me. To quote some movie pitch channel it was "super easy, barely and inconvenience" for him to kick my ass.
I tried a few more times and then just grew frustrated with the fact that IMO, this guy is seriously overpowered.
I looked through a couple forums and let me tell you how much I absolutely HATE "researching" a boss in order to get past it. This is not FUN to me, this seems like work... but yet there is something about the way that this game is set up that keeps drawing me back in for an hour or so at a time. It is the dream of something wonderful dropping on the ground that has me believing that one time one of these drops are going to be something I can actually use. I've been playing the game on and off for 20 hours or so (not sure about that) and I have only ever gotten one good drop that actually suits my character. The rest, well that is just a game of chance and honestly I have no idea if my gear is good or not.
So let me tell you how you can easily defeat Jamanra, or for that matter, any other boss that exists in the campaign that I have seen thus far. It's really simple.
Just grind like a mother-fucker for ages, playing an hour here and hour there without any regard being paid to strategy or having any sort of actual cycle until you outlevel the area you are in by something like 6 or 7 levels.
When I went back to face Jamanra again, I was at level 37 and without really even trying that much, I defeated him on my first try. That's how it is done in ARPG's across the board and that is how it works here.
There are people out there that will cry "he is weak to ice and you need a lot of lightning resistance to make him squishy!" Well that is all fine and dandy for people out there that have the patience, time, and keyboard access to figure that gear acquisition out but for those of us that have jobs and other things they want to do in life dedicating so much time and energy to an equipment loadout that is completely contrarian to everything I have done up to this point I gotta say, I don't want to do that and I never will want to do it. I think it is ridiculous that anyone out there would suggest that this is a logical and fair step to expect the players to have to actually make. The fanbois will relentlessly attack anyone that suggests that having a boss that is FAR MORE POWERFUL than you or anything you have encountered on your way to him is unreasonable and unfun. They will defend this sort of game-making and I don't really understand why they would do that. What is fun about having a boss that needs a very specific type of equipment in order to dispatch them at a reasonable level?
Maybe I am just older and prefer that there be a bit of a learning curve but not something really hidden that you have to figure out in order to get along in a game.
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photo taken from a fun Reddit post entitled "just let me die"
So for all the casual noob players out there like myself that want to PLAY this game and not RESEARCH it, here is how you get past every single boss in the game: Just grind the level prior to that boss until you are half a dozen levels higher than the boss is. Once that happens he will no longer one-shot-kill you, he will have to take 2, maybe 3 hits before you die and well, that's a lot of time to use a health potion now, isn't it?
POE 2 remains a game that I pop into every now and then for 30 minutes or so just to remind myself how much I really enjoy killing the same things on the same map over and over again just to have a fragment of a chance at tickling the boss of that level down to 75% health. Then I die and do it all over again the next day. I think I am using it at this point to remind me that I don't like MMO's and that's what this is... they just disguise it as an ARPG.