My Thoughts on the Current State of the Game

First of all, I have never played PoE1, and this is my first time experiencing this series.

I really enjoyed the early stages of the game, especially during Acts 1, 2, and 3. The reasonable difficulty and challenging encounters made me deeply fascinated by the game.

However, after entering the Atlas, the gameplay started to feel repetitive. My daily motivation was simply to run maps, farm better gear, and collect currency. Of course, this is an inevitable issue for games of this genre.

That being said, I want to point out that the gameplay experience after entering the Atlas is not ideal.

1. Sudden and Unavoidable Deaths
In T15 maps after applying oils (using crafting materials), I sometimes die inexplicably. The mechanics that cause my death are often not clearly visible.

I believe increasing difficulty is a good thing, but players should be given ways to counter these challenges. For example, after clearing a group of mobs, I often see white circles stacking on the ground and exploding, killing me instantly. While Blink skills can help avoid this, some maps make it very difficult to detect these mechanics.

This creates situations where I die suddenly while picking up loot after clearing enemies. And this is just one type of sudden death.

In one instance, I entered a map and was immediately killed by a group of ranged or caster monsters right at the spawn point. It felt very frustrating and unfair.

I think monster damage is still too high. While the damage of a single monster is manageable, the Atlas maps often throw clusters of ranged monsters at you. Even after trying to optimize my survivability, I still die frequently.

For reference, I’m playing a Monk build with around 4500 Energy Shield and no life, relying on the Chaos Inoculation keystone to make me immune to Chaos damage. With the Disciple of the Forbidden passive, my Energy Shield usually stays above 9000+.

Despite this setup, I still die very easily.

Once again, I’m okay with increased difficulty, but there needs to be counterplay options for the players. Raising difficulty without such options only worsens the gameplay experience.

2. Performance Optimization Issues
I can see that the developers have put effort into optimizing the game. I’m using a 3060 Ti graphics card, and everything was smooth before entering the Atlas.

However, after entering the Atlas, the number of monsters and visual effects from my skills often cause FPS drops, especially in Breach encounters. My FPS can drop to single digits when I cast my skills.

Would it be possible to add an option to disable skill effects?

Also, going back to the previous issue, the lack of visibility for enemy mechanics could be improved as well.

I have a friend who also plays this game. He uses a 1660 Super, and he often crashes during Breach encounters, forcing him to avoid that content entirely.

This is an extremely frustrating issue that needs to be addressed.

3. Item Rarity and Economic Impact
The bonus to currency drops from increased item rarity forces players to wear gear with rarity stats for farming maps.

This creates a contradiction—the game encourages diverse playstyles, yet players are forced to sacrifice power for rarity stats unless they have a lot of Divine Orbs to modify their gear.

Additionally, the impact of rarity on currency drops has disrupted the in-game economy.

For example, Exalted Orbs are dropping more frequently now, which has caused medium-tier gear to cost 1 Divine or more.

While high drop rates will eventually lead to currency devaluation over time, the current pace seems too fast. This also makes players view Exalted Orbs purely as currency rather than crafting materials.

This rapid economic shift has made it difficult for players who haven’t stacked rarity stats or are still in the early stages of farming to participate in trading.

Because of this, I’m more inclined to play Solo Self-Found (SSF) leagues rather than the public trade leagues.

In Conclusion
These are my thoughts on the current state of the game.

Of course, since this is still a beta or testing phase, these issues are understandable, and I’m willing to be patient. After all, the game is genuinely enjoyable, and even as a single-player experience, it offers a lot of fun.

I think I might have posted in the wrong section, and I don't know how to delete it.