So at first I thought this was just a limitation for consoles because unlike a keyboard they don't have an unlimited number of skill slots but as it turns out PC users are limited to 6 active skills as well and I think perhaps this was done on purpose by Blizzard to level the playing field and perhaps encourage co-op across platforms. I haven't tried that yet but the internet is awash with PC players complaining that they can't have 57 active skills at a time.
For me, a filthy casual, having 6 active skills is more than enough but I can understand why some more hardcore people would have a problem with that.
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I don't really pay a lot of attention to people complaining about things like button binds on the internet because no matter what something is or how much people like it, there is always going to be someone that complains about it and if they gain any sort of traction among users or any certain number of likes, they are going to continue to complain and perhaps other people will as well.
For many, including and perhaps especially Path of Exile 2 players, this limitation on the skill tree is likely to piss them off with its limitations.
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This is the "skill bar" for POE2 on the PS5. As you can see there are 12 active skills in the bottom center there. But that's not where it ends, if you hold down L2 it activates a second skill bar making your total amount of active skills a whopping 22 (L2 is not used for anything other than switching to 2nd bar, although I am sure this is probably customizable). Now compare this to the Diablo 4 skill bar, which is so small that I don't often even so much as look at it.
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There is a bunch of information going on there at any given point in time, but the point I am trying to make here is that this is a very streamlined system involving a "filthy casual" amount of skills to remember and for people like me, this is much more manageable as far as remembering what the hell is going on there. I can't remember 22 buttons, especially if I am constantly changing them out. Also, if my MMO days have taught me anything, I feel compelled to use ALL THE SKILLS regardless of whether or not they are effective at all.
The fact that everyone is limited to just 6 skills means that this game can only become but so complicated.
This would piss off a lot of hardcore players, but I am not a hardcore player nor do I aspire to become one.
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Also, the skill tree in D4 is streamlined, so to speak. The POE2 people are going to say that they prefer their massive skill tree with I think something like a quadrillion possible choices but for me dude, that is way too many. I'm not trying to get a masters degree in gaming, I just want to enjoy a game.
Now before people start thinking I am POE2 bashing just know that I am not. I recognize that I am not a very gifted gamer nor do I want to do a high level of research as far as my attributes and passive skills are concerned. With D4, you can change your skills anytime you feel like it for the most part and the fact that you only have 6 active skills at any particular point in time means that you don't have to completely abandon a particular skill type in order to just have a go at trying out the other ones.
For example with my Necromancer: I started out using my main skill of Bone Splinters because it has a "spread shot" that fired out into the masses and damaged all of them.
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But later on this was doing too little damage to enemies especially Elites and this resulted in me needing to go back to the drawing board. I tried the very first one whose explanation appealed to me, which was Decompoose that locks on to a single target and does damage over time while also causing small AOE explosions in the process.
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This is POE2. I asked AI how many possible combinations there are and it wouldn't give me an answer... it just said "astronomically huge."
Now here is another point that I will make in favor of D4. It was as simple as me going into my skill tree and refunding my skill for bone spinters and immediately putting them into Decompose. I closed my options screen and tried it out.
Attempting to make some sort of radical overhaul of your base skill in most games, including and especially POE2, would take visits to several vendors and a complete overhaul of your equipment. This would also cost you money and a great deal of time as you squint looking at the screen trying to understand that stats on various gear.
This complication might appeal to some people and I do not fault you for this but for me, I don't want to spend several hours researching on my computer just to have a crack at a new kind of basic attack.
Maybe I am a lazy gamer but this isn't supposed to be a project in my mind, it is just meant to be something I do for fun.
So for me, D4 is a "dumbed down" version of POE2 or you could say that POE2 is an extremely complicated version of D4... however you choose to look at it I guess.
For me, I enjoy the simplicity and will stand by D4. But just like the title of this writeup states, the max active skills for any player, regardless of console or PC in question, is 6. This is fine by me but I completely understand why people would have a problem with it.