"The worst leveling experience through any ARPG": Path of Exile 2 players find the post-0.2.0 campaign to be a slog

Modified Apr 05, 2025 16:42 IST

Path of Exile 2 0.2.0 — Path of Exile 2's 0.2.0 leveling experience isn't hitting for everyone, with many players expressing frustrating at how much of a slog it is (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Patch 0.2.0 just dropped for Path of Exile 2 on April 4, 2025, and players already are expressing frustration at how things are going. Whether on Reddit, Twitter, or Twitch, players have found the leveling experience to be a significant slog, compared to what they had just a few days ago. One Twitch streamer, Basegg, even went as far as to say it’s the worst experience ever in an ARPG:

“This is genuinely the worst leveling experience throughout any ARPG I have ever had. This is f**king insane, dude.”

Basegg’s experience isn’t unique, either. Players are clearly frustrated by the want of “slow, meaningful combat” by the developers. Redditor FreshmeatOW stated they took vacation time to play, but the experience was so bad that they removed vacation and went back to work.

Jonathan/Mark, This Aint It. byu/FreshmeatOW inPathOfExile2

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Redditor AdEnvironmental5066, who claims to have 10,000+ hours in the previous game, are miserable in Path of Exile 2 0.2.0, calling it slow, a slog, and the skills appear to do no damage.

This should have never been released in this state. byu/AdEnvironmental5066 inPathOfExile2

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One of the most common complaints is that monster speed and damage remain the same, whereas players were nerfed. It feels unfair to many players that one would be nerfed, but the enemies stay just as strong. It’s one of the things worrying players, when it comes to the Curse nerfs.

Fans have taken to Reddit to express their displeasure on how this season/update has been so far (Image via Reddit)

What has the Path of Exile 2 community so frustrated about the 0.2.0 campaign experience?

As someone who has been actively playing since the 0.2.0 update for Path of Exile 2 launched, I can certainly see and agree with many of the complaints. Enemies had a ton of health and skills felt like they did no damage. The health of monsters was addressed earlier this morning, for lower-level characters in a Hotfix, but that’s just not enough.

Combat went to feeling incredibly fun, to feeling like more of a chore. I have no problem with “meaningful combat,” a phrase that’s been bandied about for some time now. However, when it just feels slow and miserable, that’s another story entirely.

Many of the cooldowns, nerfs, and delays added to skills just don’t feel fun. It will be interesting to see if Grinding Gear Games addresses the changes, because it’s pretty clear to see that some players aren't happy with what they’ve received. The game built up a great deal of goodwill from players with Path of Exile 1, but the most recent update (0.2.0) of Path of Exile 2 really has players up in arms.

Check out our other Path of Exile 2 guides and features

About the author

Jason is an Esports and Gaming journalist at Sportskeeda holding an amazing 11 years of experience under his belt. Having put out 4000-plus articles and amassing over 12 million reads for Sportskeeda, he is among the company’s most experienced writers. Jason holds a Bachelor's degree in English from UNC Pembroke and was inspired to become a gaming journalist very early on in life after reading Nintendo Power.

Jason is a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming journalism. He’s a key writer in Sportskeeda's MMO department, but he also likes to help out in other categories, like streamers, RPG, card games, and whatever else is needed. A solo gamer at heart, Jason's favorite titles include Earthbound and Dragon Warrior.

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Edited by Angad Sharma