Feedback Review: Path of Exile – Keepers of the Flame League

Grinding Gear Games Team,

First, thank you for the continued effort you put into Path of Exile. I’ve played for many leagues, and I recognize the constant work it takes to evolve systems, address problems, and deliver fresh content. With that said, Keepers of the Flame has presented some fundamental issues that are dramatically affecting my engagement and enjoyment — and I want to highlight them clearly and constructively.

1. League Content Feels Significantly Under-Rewarding

The biggest issue for me this league is simple: the rewards are not there.

Nearly every form of content feels as if drops have been nerfed heavily across the board. Currency, divination cards, raw value, uniques — everything feels watered-down. It’s not isolated to a single mechanic; it’s the entire reward structure.

Last league felt vibrant and exciting because meaningful drops happened regularly. This league feels flat and unrewarding by comparison. When loot dries up, so does motivation.

And more specifically, the league mechanic itself is the least rewarding thing in the game right now. I can run almost any other content and generate more currency with far less effort. A league mechanic should be enticing — not something I actively avoid because it isn’t worth my time.

2. The Nerfs Were Announced — But They Were Done With a Sledgehammer

I fully understand that nerfs were communicated ahead of time — they were not hidden or subtle.
But the execution felt extreme.

These weren’t fine-tuning adjustments; they were massive, sweeping reductions that gutted the excitement loop almost instantly. The size and severity of the nerfs didn’t just rebalance the game — they crushed the core fun factor.

I’m not sure why the team felt global, heavy-handed reductions were necessary, but the end result is a league that feels starved of rewards.

3. A Massive Positive: Async Trading Is a Game-Changer

I want to highlight something that was done exceptionally well:

Asynchronous Trading

This is one of the best quality-of-life improvements in years.
Not having to stop mapping or interrupt momentum just to perform a trade is an incredible relief. It respects my time, it keeps gameplay flowing, and it’s simply a phenomenal feature. Truly: excellent work.

4. What Needs to Happen to Turn This League Around

For this league to feel fun again, one thing matters above all:

Increase the Drops.

Not “adjust slightly.”
Not “incremental tweaks.”

Pump the drops.

Drops are the heartbeat of an ARPG. When nothing exciting is happening from loot, everything starts to feel pointless — especially in a league where the core mechanic isn’t rewarding enough to carry the experience.

Final Thoughts

This game thrives when I feel that excitement from meaningful drops, and I want to see that feeling return.
You have a strong foundation and excellent QoL improvements, but the reward structure is suffocating everything good about the league. Raising drop values — both in the core game and especially in the league mechanic — would go a long way toward restoring the fun.

Thank you for listening, and for all the hard work you continue to put into Path of Exile.

Me and my friends usually start together every league. 5-7 of us every league farming, tossing 80-300 or more divine into 1 build and i usually make 10-15 char a league. League not even out for 1 month, and after tons of map farming with”juicing” there is zero reward zero grohnd loot. Now i am playing alone bcoz everyone left after 2 week. And im still trying to play the game everyday, but there just no reward, i havent got motivation, standing in hideout trying to found out something to do, but i play this game since around 2014, and this is the first time im considerinf quiting in less than a month. While on fhe other hand in the last league i was leveling char in the last week of the league.

based. 3.27 is devastatingly boring. nothing to do in the game, juicing is effectively dead.

hope GGG gonna see this thread and bring us back our poe1 endgame. dont turn poe1 into poe2 where alch and go is a pinnacle content

Havent seen anyone else post this take, so I'll share it here.


GGG knew exactly what they were doing when they nuked the loot/juice.


50% of the player base wants more juice/loot
50% of the player base feels FOMO bc they cant participate in the juice/loot.


No single change can make both parties happy, and compromise just leaves 100% of the player base complaining about something.

Last league we had really good end game juicing. 50% of the player base was happy.

This league we starve to death. 50% of the player base is happy.

Next league they will bring back loot/juice. 50% of the player base will be happy.

"

Piousqd#0073 wrote:

Havent seen anyone else post this take, so I'll share it here.


GGG knew exactly what they were doing when they nuked the loot/juice.


50% of the player base wants more juice/loot
50% of the player base feels FOMO bc they cant participate in the juice/loot.


No single change can make both parties happy, and compromise just leaves 100% of the player base complaining about something.

Last league we had really good end game juicing. 50% of the player base was happy.

This league we starve to death. 50% of the player base is happy.

Next league they will bring back loot/juice. 50% of the player base will be happy.

the only way to make poe great again is to stop listening to FOMOed people. its like i remember how some players hated everything back in affliction, whereas there were like dozens of giga profitable farms and you could even farm league mechanic with mf using caustic arrow/cws/some other builds with a minimum budget. i remember 100% the price of heist loot (especially luckydrops) and blight oils price, beasts price, paws for affliction ascendancies which could be farmed with alch and go, etc... was GIGA HIGH, LIKE ABSURDELY HIGH AND YOU COULD FARM ANY BUILD YOU WANT WITH MOST TILE LOOT STRATS WHICH DID NOT REQUIRE ANY BUILD
and people still complained that some players farmed t16 with multimirror TS and got loot (whereas t3 cemetery was +- as much profitable as t16 maps, the only difference was a lack of blue altars and sextants are unable to drop below t14).

Natalia_GGG must ignore fomoed people who are literal cancer of poe community (no wonder most of them came from poe2 <- diablo) lol. give us the juice

"

SoColdO_O#1989 wrote:

the only way to make poe great again is to stop listening to FOMOed people. its like i remember how some players hated everything back in affliction, whereas there were like dozens of giga profitable farms and you could even farm league mechanic with mf using caustic arrow/cws/some other builds with a minimum budget. i remember 100% the price of heist loot (especially luckydrops) and blight oils price, beasts price, paws for affliction ascendancies which could be farmed with alch and go, etc... was GIGA HIGH, LIKE ABSURDELY HIGH AND YOU COULD FARM ANY BUILD YOU WANT WITH MOST TILE LOOT STRATS WHICH DID NOT REQUIRE ANY BUILD
and people still complained that some players farmed t16 with multimirror TS and got loot (whereas t3 cemetery was +- as much profitable as t16 maps, the only difference was a lack of blue altars and sextants are unable to drop below t14).

God fu lord... I still have in head pictures from printing Winged scarabs on the screen. good times

"

Dxt44#4050 wrote:

God fu lord... I still have in head pictures from printing Winged scarabs on the screen. good times

yup, it was giga fun. and retention rate was absurdly high. also, valdos were added back in affliction, and OG pre-nerf valdos were fun too and required strong gear.

i just dont get why FOMOed ppl want everything deleted from the game. risk scarabs and t17 modifiers cause community outrage mostly because of "the vision" like "deal no damage" or elder circles/volatiles. and t17 layouts are also bad because a portion of strats cannot be run on them.

but affliction...it was great. and they left 8% chance to encounter it and "4000 wisps" scarabs. its like a spit in a face. not mentioning 3.27 map modifiers nerf. catastrophe.

"

Piousqd#0073 wrote:

Havent seen anyone else post this take, so I'll share it here.

50% of the player base wants more juice/loot
50% of the player base feels FOMO bc they cant participate in the juice/loot.


No single change can make both parties happy, and compromise just leaves 100% of the player base complaining about something.

Last league we had really good end game juicing. 50% of the player base was happy.

This league we starve to death. 50% of the player base is happy.

Next league they will bring back loot/juice. 50% of the player base will be happy.

Where did you take these numbers from?

Judging by the retention and comments here (subreddit bans and shadowbans, so most critique there is silenced) show a different picture (more than 50% hates the changes).

It is obvious that it is impossible to keep everyone happy, but that is WHY there is RUTHLESS, HARDCORE, SSF, and lo and behold, POE2.

All the should to is leave SC POE1 in affliction-level drop, and blasters gonna be happy, anyone else have plenty to choose from.

"

SoColdO_O#1989 wrote:

"

Piousqd#0073 wrote:

Havent seen anyone else post this take, so I'll share it here.


GGG knew exactly what they were doing when they nuked the loot/juice.


50% of the player base wants more juice/loot
50% of the player base feels FOMO bc they cant participate in the juice/loot.


No single change can make both parties happy, and compromise just leaves 100% of the player base complaining about something.

Last league we had really good end game juicing. 50% of the player base was happy.

This league we starve to death. 50% of the player base is happy.

Next league they will bring back loot/juice. 50% of the player base will be happy.

the only way to make poe great again is to stop listening to FOMOed people. its like i remember how some players hated everything back in affliction, whereas there were like dozens of giga profitable farms and you could even farm league mechanic with mf using caustic arrow/cws/some other builds with a minimum budget. i remember 100% the price of heist loot (especially luckydrops) and blight oils price, beasts price, paws for affliction ascendancies which could be farmed with alch and go, etc... was GIGA HIGH, LIKE ABSURDELY HIGH AND YOU COULD FARM ANY BUILD YOU WANT WITH MOST TILE LOOT STRATS WHICH DID NOT REQUIRE ANY BUILD
and people still complained that some players farmed t16 with multimirror TS and got loot (whereas t3 cemetery was +- as much profitable as t16 maps, the only difference was a lack of blue altars and sextants are unable to drop below t14).

Natalia_GGG must ignore fomoed people who are literal cancer of poe community (no wonder most of them came from poe2 <- diablo) lol. give us the juice

100% this, but to be honest, many complaints came from the fact that anything profitable, was quickly patched out by GGG, so if you didn't hop right away and instead needed to improve the build to be able to farm the strat, you were likely not going to get a chance

But yeah, too many players complaints that streamers make mirrors farming peak content while they get peanuts doing alch and go

this patch is an effect of that

I'm totally on your side.
Although personally, I don't care where my loot comes from. Even if there were ground loot and even if the new league mechanics brought in more income, I wouldn't farm it because it's just crap. The damn Hive occupies the damn maps so you can't farm at all.
It gets in the way of my farming strategy, what the hell is that about?