The aspect that spoils the impression of the game the most.

Hello everyone.

It's been a week of league play. I've already tried three builds. And a realization has dawned on me.
The core aspect of the game is ruined. I don't really see anyone talking about it. People complain about all sorts of little things, while one of the most important aspects of the game has deteriorated. I used to be somewhat neutral about this and thought it wasn't necessary to be a metaslave. After all, you can really take almost any skill and assignment and play through the main part of the game with it. Overcoming difficulties is fun. Creating new builds through new interactions is fun. BUT. Realizing that all these builds will never be able to compare to broken interactions without any balance is no fun. Not even half.

The game has been getting more difficult for several years now, to provide at least some challenge for ultra-optimized "golden boy" builds. So where should we put the ability to play ARPGs? Create your own build? Where is that? And it's cursed. Because without offscreen clearing, you'll be killed by offscreen. Being a glass-cannon is beneficial 99% of the time, because it allows you to progress through content much faster, farm, and use the resources you gain to start building your defense. In the early game, there's no chance of adequate development; all the juice is in T16. And of course, there's a development ceiling, where a standard build, trying to balance between offense and defense, can't become stronger in min-max than the mid-range version of meta builds.

And nothing is being done about it. And I'm not even talking about nerfs. Let there be builds for casuals, a.k.a "I upload a build to PoB, it will complete all the content for me." So be it. It's fun for some players, let them have fun. But please. Let the players who fell in love with PoE 7+ years ago for its build-making possibilities and freedom of play have fun? Can we finally see adequate buffs/reworks for dead/old archetypes that can't compete with the modern endgame? Can we see more tools for improving builds? If you've allowed such strong builds to exist for so many years, it means you're happy with the current level of player power. So let other builds be played at the same level.

This is a disaster. Why can only stackers afford to play the same build the entire league, upgrading items to better ones? Why are so many properties and stats ridiculously weak if you don't stack them? And why are there no alternatives that don't require stacking?

I find the current situation very sad, where build development revolves not around using interesting mechanics, but exclusively around "getting more AoE, more damage, and more XP." And in this race for efficiency, diversity is lost. The main thing is that the numbers are good, because the player's numbers trump the monsters' numbers, and then you can play the game. After all, playing any other way is a punishment and a constant reminder, "You could have played 10 times more efficiently and dont die every 3 min." And it's not even about the economy; playing SSF is even worse if you don't use a ready-made, ultra-optimized build for resource farming.

Where's the soul? Perhaps nostalgia is embellishing the memories, but I miss the days when I stood in High Gate, listening to that beautiful music, and thinking about what build I'd build next, knowing I'd be able to play it and enjoy it, because I wouldn't be punished by an Overtune Rare monster, or an Ultrajuice inaccessible farm, or complicated, outdated crafting (when was the last time anyone used influence items for anything other than pseudo-links and explosions?)

Please define your final vision for the game. Do you want it to be challenging and demanding, or is it a casual stroll on a build that's already three years old and, even after nerfs, still stronger than others?
I had high hopes for PoE 2, thinking that with the new balance, you could pick any build and be happy. But no, the game has dead drops on RoA and Comet cooks that completely ignore the entire game design of slowness and tacticality. And Glass Cannons are still win-win, because dead enemies don't deal damage and don't need to be dodged.

Please decide. In the current state of the game, it would be easier to buff the entire off-meta and add buffs to unpopular mechanics. Slowing down the entire game would be a waste of time (unless it's PoE 2, where it seems normal, especially when more content is added that doesn't rely on clear speed).

It's not just the numbers in skill. Everything needs to be improved. AoE, speed. Let the power in Acts remain the same, but let there be accessible endgame progression. More leveling bonuses, more AoE sources. The strong will remain strong, the weak will become good.