In POE2 i had to prepare for the combat randomness so you actually needed a strategy in that game. Specially with enemy upscaled playthroughs on the hardest difficulty. You couldn't beat it just by exploding a barrel, backstabbing enemies or throwing bombs from a hill every encounter. You had to know how to draw agro away from your squishies and where to place your characters and the gear was also super important. You had to know buff order and which disable to use. Most fun came from using a bloodmage multiclass for infinite spells with full regeneration gear. The boat battles were still a complete clusterfuck but i always cracked up at my overleveled caster crew members raining death like crazy.
