Lack of clarity about extra content.

SSF

I've messed around with extra content a fair bit, but I don't really understand the purpose of the different specific extra content.

ALTERS
Reward currency stuff, that one is the most clear I think? But the alters are so much more difficult than the regular content that, imo, they aren't worth the possibility of the one exalt or the modifiers(forget their name). Vs losing experience by dying- which is pretty much the only thing I find myself tracking in endgame.

Gear becomes really rare to replace at some point, and then exp is my only reward?

Alters do provide the whatevers... and some are ok, but some don't make sense. For instance the exalt one, use it and two mods are added to an item. Well, I'm using two items to add two modifiers... so uh- whats the bonus? I'll just get two exalts.

Then the other items, just suffixes or just prefixes... I suppose its useful to try to not waste exalts when you want a specific mod... but thats it, right?


EXPEDITION
You can get gear from vendors, which seems to cap below the endgame right? Even then, this functionality is gated by the currency that rotates the items. So if you don't have... uh exotic coinage, you can't even ATTEMPT to use the extra content. By far I've simply not been able to re-roll and even try to use the items. So I usually just skip expeditions.


LOGBOOKS
Its just a bigger expedition. The boss stuff is cool, but I'm not sure how you're supposed to know it exists without just tripping over it. Its also a lot of annoying setup, generally don't get anything out of it.


BOSSES
Some are super cool, some are just straight up really frustrating. Very risky to attempt some of them, some are super easy. Never have really noticed anything from drops, exp can sometimes be good. However if you die, they aren't worth at all in the endgame. Sometimes you can die multiple times in a row, which is super frustrating, then you lose exp... which is again mainly the only thing I'm getting.

Bosses also are required to complete a map, so if you fail the map, you lose the map and may have to do the node again. Doing nodes without bonuses on them is troll. The maps are kinda meh as it is- the monsters are fun, the gameplay is fun, the bonuses are meh. So I REALLY don't want to do a map WITHOUT bonuses.


DELIRIUM
Kinda dangerous, mostly unrewarding. I don't really know what its about? I know the splinters, I don't know what the simulcrum thing is- I have one built too. I just don't want to go into it and die and waste it. Keep in mind I am SSF, so I'm not an ultra trade build.

There is another rabbit trail to get into here, about building things to attempt to do something... however you may be afraid to do it because you don't know if you're ready to do it. Going in and dying instantly, wasting it- which is what I assume happens, would be incredibly stupid. SO I won't even try until I'm confident in the build. I feel like it inhibits exploration and breaks excitement about things in the game. I feel like I'm going to be trolled.

Its like the vaal mobs. They are like 50% harder than all other mobs in the game, nothing really compares to them. Faster, attack faster, faster faster. They are only scary cause they're the fastest fookers in the game. Which is just stupid. Except for the tripod things that laydown fields of lightning and do incredible damage. Heavy balance issues.

Oh yeah, delirium. I played for quite some time before I knew I could imbue amulets with passive nodes.


OVERALL
That brings this novel to the main point. It is fun to discover things, and I do like that you have to figure it out. However some of it is quite outlandish. How many hours am I supposed to have into the game to find this stuff out? Most of it I've only found out because someone mentioned it in SSF chat... WHAT you can imbue amulets, holy shit. OH you have to right-click on the emotions?!

I was wondering when I was going to find out wtf those were for...


This game needs an owners manual like a car. No one reads those though, hmmm wonder why... maybe because they read like this post. People only look at them when they need something.

Yeah, I could watch some videos to learn this shit; but that is outside of the game. The game should introduce me to cool stuff in the game. I shouldn't have to say that. I also think that everyone expects that.

Ok, the end.

Looks for me like Tencent thinking how or what microtransactions to improve....to leech more money. That`s the reality.
When game was in GGG hands it`s remain ok but Asian market is different.

xp past 90-95 isnt worth tracking. Yes items are hard to find upgrades for at a certain threshold, so farm currency, or sell items your build doesnt use until you can afford an upgrade. The game isnt balanced around SSF or hardcore. Those are challenges added to the base game you opt into by choice. I also play a lot of SSF, but i dont expect them to balance the game around it. Its still do able, but if yo want SSF its going to come with all the downsides that come with not participating in the market.

As for the rewards, they will grow exponentially as more crafting methods and content is added to the game giving you many different avenues to chase different goals.

poe 1 didnt start with fragments, fossils, crafting benchs, recipes, beast crafting, socket methods, harvest crafting, lab enchants, quality upgrades, etc. They were added to the game over a long period of time. I dont expect any different from this game, its still EA.

I like the fact that i can continually discover something new about a game despite the fact that I have X amount of hours into it...Its the reason I fell in love with poe 1. Every time I think I had it all figured out, Id discover something new and rekindle my joy for the game.

Every single side activity currently in game is a poor man's version of it ripped straight from poe1.

Ritual is the only actually useful one (because base crafting doesn't exist), but gated behind ridiculously low weight on good omens.