The combat just needs a UI overhaul and possibly a little bit of slower pace to be perfect, IMHO.
- When I pause and tell a character to move somewhere I need immediate feedback as to what path and what issues to get to the path I need to keep in mind. Right now you click and pray that the charcter actually makes it there because there's no feedback to the player. You hit unpause and find that there's a bottleneck or the character stops because of a retaliation attack.
We need a path drawn, a la Xcom, and icons showing things like retaliaiton attacks. We also need better pathfinding and the engine should allow (and preferably add cool animations for) characters passing through each other's space. Characters shimmy past each other, duck, dance around each other, what have you. I shouldn't see two characters just bump into each other and sit there stupidly looking at each other.
- Special actions, abilities and effects should also be more accessible, quicker to deploy. A favorites little bar on top would be nice too.
I also think there should be LESS options, but more meaningful ones. There was a lot of filler in POE1 in terms of abilities and spells. I'd rather there were les sof them, but they were all really interesting and powerful weapons to have.
- Finally the speed, well, the defualt speed of combat was way too damn quick. I played with auto slow combat on, which was a lot more enjoyable and maneagable. I think default speed should only be slightly faster than that with the ability to go even slower, makign the combat a more chill affair for those who prefer that.