**The Only Hope of Casual Players Is...**
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...to find a Mirror of Kalandra, because the current state of POE 2 is becoming increasingly hostile to anyone who can't dedicate their entire life to the game.
Let me break down the major issues that casual players are facing in Path of Exile 2: 💰 **The Economy is Destroyed by RMT and Bots** The trade system is already brutal for casuals, but add in the plague of bots and RMT (Real Money Trading) players, and the market becomes completely unplayable. These people manipulate prices, hoard resources, and dominate the economy while legitimate players are left struggling to afford even mid-tier gear. If you can't no-life trade sites or spend hours flipping items, good luck keeping up. 🔥 **Endgame is a Massive Wall for Casuals** The difficulty spike in PoE 2's endgame is absurd. If you’re not playing at least 8 hours a day, you’re simply not making meaningful progress. The game seems balanced around no-lifers and streamers, leaving casual players in the dust. GGG has completely ignored the reality that many players have jobs, families, and other commitments. ⚔️ **Meta or Bust – There’s No Build Diversity** Remember when Path of Exile was about creative builds? Those days are over. You either use one of the *few* broken meta builds, or you hit a wall. The worst part? Even if you *want* to play the meta, you’re looking at… 💎 **Hundreds of Divine Orbs for a Single Build** It’s not just about following the meta – it’s about affording it. Endgame viable builds now cost **HUNDREDS of Divine orbs**. If you don’t have a massive currency farm setup, you’re never getting that build running before the league ends. ⏳ **You Have Only 3 Months to Do It All** You’re expected to grind out this ridiculous amount of currency within a **3-month league cycle**. Unless you’re grinding the game like a full-time job, by the time you can afford your build, the league is over, and you’re back to square one. 🤡 **Path of Exile? More Like Path of Trading** Even dedicated players struggle to amass enough Divine orbs to keep up, but for casuals? It's impossible. The game is less about fighting monsters and more about fighting the economy. If you’re not trading 24/7, you’re not progressing. 🪞 **The Only Hope? A Mirror of Kalandra** At this point, the best shot casual players have is to get insanely lucky and **drop a Mirror of Kalandra**. That’s it. The economy is so brutal that your best chance at experiencing endgame without struggling is literally hitting the jackpot. And here’s the kicker: *for example, I’m an IT guy who can spend a couple of hundred dollars per month on the game, but in its current state, I simply won’t.* If even players who could afford to support the game financially are being pushed away, what does that say about PoE 2’s direction? This isn’t about “git gud” anymore. It’s about unlimited time and currency—or sheer dumb luck. Is this what we want PoE 2 to be? A game where casual players are locked out of endgame unless they win the RNG lottery? What do you think? Are you facing the same frustrations? Last bumped on Jan 29, 2025, 11:18:48 PM
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Nope. I went back to playing a fresh character in Necro Settlers till either they release 3.26 or the other arpg I play release their new content. Path of Diablo: Elden Monster Hunter edition will not be ready for reasonable general consumption for a long time.
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+1
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+1
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" Economy isn't purely destroyed by RMT/Bots, prices change depending on patches. For example this patch they upped the amount of rares and mobs on maps meaning exalts drop a lot more often especially for those who have high MF. Meaning exalts drop in value, meaning trading exalts is no longer as valuable as well as exchanging them into divines costs more. This is a natural change given their changes to the game. Another reason for exalts not being so valuable is because they aren't used that much anymore, mostly used on your maps at endgame. Another change I expect to happen because of this is that chaos orbs will be something people trade with over exalts. Which I think has already started. As for good gear being costly, well yes I don't know what else you expect? The best gear should of course be harder to obtain. But low-mid tier gear is still obtainable easily from what I've experienced, not only through trading but also through drops and crafting. Most of my gear are from drops that I upgraded into something good, sure it's RNG but it took me a couple items until I got that luck. " Not entirely true. I am a casual player myself and I am able to play 3-4 hours everyday and sometimes only 1-2 hours. Weekends I can play more, not every weekend though. I have reached a point where I do citadels and pinnacle bosses as well as the trials regularly. Plenty of my friends and my guild who are also casual are at the same point. I even rerolled several characters getting them all to lvl 80 and some lvl 90+ with my main being lvl 93 atm but still I reached this point. It didn't take me a week to get here, it took me 1 month and a couple weeks but in an RPG I don't have expectations to reach endgame or "finish" the game in just a week, it is suppose to be a slow ride to get there that is also what makes the progress fun. " There is plenty of build diversity with some of the builds being bugged/broken that clearly are not working as intended and will get fixed/balanced. But there are plenty builds that aren't broken that can still do all content it just takes some more building into them and I think those builds are more what GGG intended for the game, a slow rise to the top. But of course most builds should be able to one-shot and go easy through the game at some point when you have all the best gear on your char, you're suppose to become a god at some point. You can choose to go into those OP builds or you can choose not to, nothing says you have to play those builds. It's not a competition, best suggestion is to stop comparing yourself to others because that will brick your fun, do whatever you think is fun. But that can be said for real life as well. " Nobody says you have to pay to get that build, there are plenty of SSF players who have those types of builds. You can get it on your own, yes it rquires luck but that is how the game is right now and they will obviously change that as leagues come adding new crafting mechanics. But again, of course the best gear should be hard to achieve? " Yes that is how these games work, again it's not a competition so play for fun and try to reach as far as you can in that time, experiment with different builds, learn something new about the game etc. If you're not having fun with this then this might not be the game for you because i don't think they will change this concept. I enjoy it because every league brings different ways to play the game and it's fun that everyone starts over and economy is reset. " It's not impossible, I have so far achieved 100 divines in my gametime and I could have gotten more if I put more effort into it but I'm just chilling and doing what I think is fun. Reminder again that I am also a casual player. I don't fight the economy 24/7 since I have a full time job and while I play I check trade occassionally for an upgrade but not to flip items. Other days I ignore trade and try to get stuff on my own. The thing I get from you is you are stuck comparing yourself to others rather than focusing on having fun and doing things at your own pace. It's a mindset thing. As for some of the issues you have, GGG is cooking they will fix/balance a lot of stuff and I expect release to be completely different from what we have now. |
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Easy solution: Delete trade or stop balancing the game around trade and make it into the meme mode that it is. Trade is a gimmick, the playstyle is a gimmick, the outcome is a gimmick, everything about trade is a gimmick and so far from the real experience of PoE.
The more seriously they take trade league, the more of a joke this game becomes. Playing trade is like the equivalent of playing minecraft on creative mode, it's very lame. |
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Casual or hardcore what does it matter? No one can play the game more than 2 hours without going to bed.
Casuals actually have it easier you never hit the loot throttle you at least keep getting loot. Pretty bad when you not in loot throttle you can do trash 79 maps with almost no buffs and get 5-10 exalts a run. And your daily 3 divine. But once you play too much and fully in the throttle you can do 200 rarity 100 quantity breach/boss maps fully stacked 82s and get 3 exalts per map and 0 divine all day. |
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Sounds like it's time for a break.
I have a rule: If a game can give me 1 hour of entertainment per $1 I spend in total (microtransactions and everything) then everything beyond that mark is gravy. I've logged 150+ hours, which is roughly 3 times what I've spent. I'm taking a break, I'm not upset, I got my value. More people need to step back and realize these are games, not reality. Your personal value is not tied to your gear score and spending full time hours grinding in games is unhealthy in a lot of ways. |
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No offense to OP but this kind of crying was common to POE as well.
And the common denominator is no one is forcing you to copy somebody else. I've been playing t16s with a titan and didn't spend any divine orbs. Maybe 120 ex. Crafted my main weapon. Now you have a point that the atlas is focused on high end difficult to obtain stuff like breach stones, audiences, log books, etc. It's like you can't do any of those atlas trees without spending at least a divine. But as far as playing the actual game and sleep walking thru maps, you can't tell me you need more than 1 divine or two. I'm not talking about Pinnacle bossing which will always be the Hardest most annoying gear check. |
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Play POE 1? Just because you're not good enough,mean GGG should nerf the game to a toddler's level? Can you stop crying? No one is forcing you to play POE 2, and many people actually enjoy the challenging experience of POE 2
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