I wasn't playing way back when POE was in EA/Beta, but did playing it in the unfinished state ruin the fun on release? Honestly considering just waiting but with all of the EA delays I'd bet the full release will be pushed back some as well, and I probably won't be able to hold off, lol.
So it's had a few "this is real release" times, kind of. The first was when they finished act 4 and their were 4 different difficulties (yes, 4.) And then the next, which is the REAL launch was I believe 1.0 which released act 5-10 all at once. We were told they were adding act 5, but they added the entire second half of the campaign. It was an amazing surprise considering how companies give you barely enough nowadays and they literally doubled their already free game as a surprise.
The game itself was good, but early on mapping was incredibly, incredibly limited. I remember there being 3 tiers of maps, 68, 69, and 70. And basically gear was so rare you were picking up white ilvl 72 armors for people to try and craft on. It felt good though. Uniques back then were powerful but had downsides, but the amount of power they gave was huge. Most uniques now are nearly all upside at the cost of maybe health and resists. The core game was basically farming the highest tier zones (docks and fellshrine ruins) hoping to get good drops. People would sometimes use public party boards to group farm kind of like old D2. It was a slower, but still enjoyable experience but the content was very basic.
The weirdest thing, which PoE2 may herald the return of, was everyone played Hardcore. Like, the population was probably >50% played hardcore because you weren't crafting god items, you were running around with a rare with 45 life and two resists. So losing it hurt, but the rare item hunt was the only thing that existed so dying to some BS, and it was nearly always BS, would give you a reason to keep playing. We'll see if PoE2 brings that back with their active defense systems.
There was also, BRIEFLY, a system that modern POE players would absolutely cream over. It was called "The Maelstrom". It was a short duration race event that was basically the same layout of The Ledge, but it was INFINITE. You just keep zoning into Maelstrom after Maelstrom as much as you wanted. The mobs scaled difficulty, but I don't quite remember if there was a cap. It was basically delve without the juice. You just started it up and went until you didn't. I don't remember if you got reset to 1 if you portal'd out or died, but I think that's how it worked.
The Endless Ledge is a race type based on the Act 1 zone The Ledge. Players progress through narrow and linear levels that become increasingly difficult. Like the Descent and Descent: Champions race types, there is no access to towns or vendors. Instead, players start next to a provisions chest...
pathofexile.fandom.com
If they added this into PoE2 as a stop gap for early endgame I think it could be pretty cool.
