Can i defeat pinnacle bosses and have good gear without making this game my second job?

About me: I played for about 250 hours now. I leveled Titan to 90th level and have 4 ascendancies (got carried on 4th). I use AOE Mace attack build for farm and it feels extremely boring. I kill all mobs with 1-2 hits in a huge range but its the only option that works for me to do t15-t18 maps. I had aftershock build i did myself and it feels great but any burst just ends me. I also use weapon swap to burst bosses, and most bosses on maps get melted.

Main Stats: 24k armor (basically useless most of the time), maxed elemental resists, bad chaos resist. 4k hp. Around 200% magic find.


So, i want to set my expectations and try to understand if i should play endgame at all. I understand that this is Early Access but i do wonder if fundamental principles will change at all.


I can play a lot, but i do not want to spend my time on boring farming 24/7 with one button build. But i see that i can't do shit without this approach. Here are my problems, maybe you can tell me how to solve this or what to do?

-Prices are too damn high. I can't afford anything above 1-2 divines price. I use filters on trade, but if i want items that have just what i need a lot of currency.
-Crafting feels like a casino and not craft. There is some level of control with different orbs but mostly it's just luck. Get the item, check stats, throw away or use exalt/chaos, hope for good rolls, repeat. I haven't got a single item for myself using craft.
-Drops feel very underwhelming. If i go solo farm i barely get anything. Maybe several exalts, completely useless uniques, mostly useless rares etc. I think i got good unique armor once and i wear it now, sometimes i get 1 divine orb. Then i go check trade, see price tags for 100+ exalts for mediocre items or 100+ divines for good ones. And i just understand that there is no way i can buy anything.

Recently i tried group farming. It went A LOT better. We got several divines, about 60 exalts and plenty of trash uniques. Today we had it a lot worse but at least something. This is the only thing right now that gives me hope for having things in this game.

-Class that i play feels horrible. It is fun when i use fun build but it is so shit when it comes to farming. I get that early access is an issue, and armor is bad, hp is bad. So am i screwed if i don't play some good and most effective class?

But maybe the problem is myself. SO my main question is in the title. Do i have to make this thing my job? I see all the things i need to do and it feels insane. To get to one pinnacle boss i need to clear dozens or probably hundreds of maps and i get one try and do it again. And to kill those bosses i need to do even more farming and get good gear. I need passive atlas points for better farm but i need to kill boss for them to open and for the boss i need that loot again. Can i expect it to change over time as more patches come through? What is developer's vision here? Cuz right now it feels like i need to throw away my life for all of this.

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Playing an armor based melee class in POE2 right now is asking for misery. It will hopefully be fixed. In the meantime roll a witch or and archer for more zoom zoom fun. The farming will go much faster with an Energy Shield Build

ultimately the game is playing the game, if you dont enjoy playing it then dont.

what re you farming gear and bosses for? just to get a more powerful character to keep farming more gear and bosses? if you dont enjoy farming gear and bosses thats all there is, theres no other thing at the end of it all.

good gear is whatever you decide it is, you might have good gear now. if you play for 10,000 hours you still probably wont have the best gear, where do you draw the line? if you base your idea of what good is on something you cant get then you wont have whatever good is?



it just feels like asking the wrong questions. if you dont enjoy ur character try another. if you dont enjoy any characters then stop playing.

I think you bring up some valid criticisms that can be addressed and improved.
The current state of how rare pinnacle bosses are seems to be a shared sentiment among most players i talk to in endgame.
I cant speak for GGG's vision, but i'd say with experience most people can at least get to kill a pinnacle boss within a league without committing full time to the game like a job.

I think a big part of the time investment currently has been growing pains from the lack of good information on strategies and hidden mechanics. In general we've all been wandering around trying to figure things out, instead of efficiently pushing towards a goal.

Although even with the above in mind, i personally believe boss invitations are currently too rare/tedious/expensive, and rng is far too big of a factor in what content we're allowed to interact with.
I cant speak for GGG's vision, but i think "killing" a boss is fine aspirational content. Simply finding the boss to be allowed interaction with it shouldnt be the hard part.

I have fond memories of failing to kill sirus multiple leagues in poe1 and coming back the next season starting fresh wanting to switch it up and tell him to "die" instead.
But, i also have very negative memories of aimlessly rushing maps hoping rng would bless me with a conqueror so i could even remember what the fight looks like.

In poe1 GGG eventually fixed the issue and made accessing bosses significantly less frustrating, so here's hoping they remember that sentiment and make it so a single boss invitation doesnt cost an casual players seasonal savings.

Short answer: NO

It's a design choice

Thank you guys for responses.
I decided that im gonna forget all guides, do my own fun smashy-smash build and have fun. Maybe on lower maps, maybe not so much loot, but whatever. If i get to pinnacle bosses - great. If i don't - i had fun.

You shouldn't be playing the endgame if you respect yourself.

"

MadSheo#0280 wrote:

Thank you guys for responses.
I decided that im gonna forget all guides, do my own fun smashy-smash build and have fun. Maybe on lower maps, maybe not so much loot, but whatever. If i get to pinnacle bosses - great. If i don't - i had fun.

You can always make some friends or get someone on trade with your mats, to boost you.