The reason why monsters are 'fast' is because of WASD movement

WASD movement is not new to me, I have played with it quite a bit in other games, especially in the bullet-hell survivors like genre.

I played this way for 200 hours in 0.1 before switching back to mouse movement, which is a lot more enjoyable for me because it requires much less button pressing (can click once and hold down to move everywhere).

The game has to be balanced around players being able to easily attack backwards while running away (kiting).

This means that the monsters need to be faster relative to the player, than they were in PoE 1, so they are able to catch the player.

I did a brief write-up on this last month here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3735974 -- in fact if you read this post, you probably don't need to read that one, but it does touch on other reasons why I prefer mouse play.

Yeah, makes sense. Things move faster to have a chance at hitting you while you back-pedal.

What's also interesting is how the monsters tend to stop moving during their attacks. It's not too noticeable if their attack has a large enough AoE, but early game with the Buckler is was extremely noticeable and a bit frustrating. I wanted to back-pedal and block an incoming hit but the hit would frequently miss cause I stepped out of range, meaning I didn't get the parry I wanted.

This is convenient if I'm playing something range cause it means I'm frequently getting missed just by moving a bit, but is a bit problematic with stuff like shields if I want to still be hit to retaliate but also be moving backwards so I don't get surrounded.

So i thought about this a little bit. I think both points have a pros and cons to their approach but john failed to explain it properly in my view. Lets say you move faster than every MOB, that means you get 100% evade vs every melee mob with zero investment by just moving away. Ranged champs will always be better in that environment vs melee mobs compared to melee classes who have to actually spec invade vs melee. Secondly, and this is where john failed to address it properly, there are tons of ways to slow down mobs in the game, from slow, chill, stun, electrocute, pin, freeze, hinder etc. Players are just not investing in those solutions to mob speed.

"

triggerdaddy#5038 wrote:

So i thought about this a little bit. I think both points have a pros and cons to their approach but john failed to explain it properly in my view. *snip*

Not exactly sure what you are talking about, but I assume it has something to do with the recent interview (haven't seen it so can't comment). This post was about the root-cause of increased monster speed.

The monsters are not faster than in poe 1 (apart from maybe a few outliers that I suspect do need tuning in that regard), the player is just much slower on average at the low-mid end, clearly by design.

Moving with the mouse allows you to shoot/cast at the same speed WSAD does - you just need to stutter step - the same way you did in poe1, but other there your character stopped in between casts. You did not notice this, because skill/cast speed was allowed to be increased to obscene amounts.

The reason so many people are not 'enjoying' themselves, or 'feel bad' is because of literal years of being spoon fed trivial content that could be consumed on auto pilot. Having to actually provide inputs to your character therefore feels jarring to those who are not used to playing games, which require a modicum of mechanical aptitude.

At the end of the day it is clear as day that POE2 is designed with the intention to move it a bit closer to the realm of being a game that isn't only about clicking on items. Monsters that deal a lot of physical damage have long windup animations, explosions have much longer detonation time than in POE1 etc.
This is also why maps are designed the way they are, with wells included in the middle of semi-open areas - it isn't only for aesthetic reasons - but to stop your projectiles/spells from exploding the whole pack in one click.

They want you to know what each monster does and how to react to it, instead of clearing it from 2 screens away without ever employing one single brain cell in the process.

This clearly is not everyone's cup of tea and I strongly suggest to them that POE2 might not be a game for them in that case.

"

arandan#3174 wrote:

The monsters are not faster than in poe 1 (apart from maybe a few outliers that I suspect do need tuning in that regard), the player is just much slower on average at the low-mid end, clearly by design.

Hey Arandan, you failed to understand my post. I didn't say monsters were faster than in PoE, I said they were faster relative to the player -- or as the title of my post suggests 'why they are fast.' Notice the title even has fast in single quotes.

This means that the monsters need to be faster relative to the player, than they were in PoE 1, so they are able to catch the player.

"

arandan#3174 wrote:

Moving with the mouse allows you to shoot/cast at the same speed WSAD does - you just need to stutter step - the same way you did in poe1, but other there your character stopped in between casts. You did not notice this, because skill/cast speed was allowed to be increased to obscene amounts.

Your second paragraph is quite false, in fact it couldn't be more wrong. In PoE2 you can literally run in one direction while firing in the other, without missing a beat. Also, if you take a look at my second point, notice the wording.

The game has to be balanced around players being able to easily attack backwards while running away (kiting).

Being able to easily attack backwards while running away is not the same thing as stutterstepping-not the physical action of doing it at your desk, nor what it would look like on screen.