I had fun, until I reached the Endgame

According to Steam I have played 430 hours of POE2 now. 300h when it released and 130h in Dawn of the hunt. And I had a lot of fun. But when the endgame starts, I quickly lose motivation to continue to playing the game.

But the problem is not the endgame - the problem is the loot system! The league mechanics are interested to me. As a casual player I even do every strongbox or whatever the map has to offer. Even the wisps I did for a bit - though I have to say these are horrible becaus you have to either run across an empty map or they go too fast into too many monsters.

But the real problem is the loot system. It is just not motivating. After the campaign, or rather after like 60, I haven't been able to find any upgrade for my character at all. Well that is not true, in these countless hours I have found a single item that was a worthwhile upgrade.

Every item you pick up, is completely trash. In fact I think it was designed like this, that you can't get a good item without crafting. However the crafting material is way too scarce. Even exalted orbs which drop maybe like 1 per map, is way too rare to be used for me on items which I am not 100% sure are an upgrade for me. Crafting is impossible for average player because there are no materials.

If the devs want us to craft all items instead of giving us good loot, then they should supply us with crafting materials. Or give us meaningful loot. I pick up every yellow item on the ground only to find out that it is total garbage.

The league mechanics themselves are good and all the changes compared to the release version feel much better for me. Especially that we are able to revive now. I had zero random deaths and the on death effects are much less compared to the release version. But citadels are still too scarce. I have played at least 100 maps and moved around a lot but haven't found single citadel. Also corruption is way too scarce too. I am unable to get my Atlas points although I am only running T15 maps. I wish the whole world would be corrupted and had to be cleansed by me.

But right now the game looks out normal casual players like me from all endgame content. I will never be able to fight Arbiter, Xesht, King in the Mist or the Delerium boss. Farming the mats just for one try would take me weeks. This would be ok if at least there would be some character progression. But since I don't get any meaningful upgrades, there is really no incentive to play.

The loot system has to change considerably. Diablo 4 was much more fun because I was getting good loot and didn't had to rely on a trade website to get anything. Simulacrium Splitters need to be increased by 10x, same for breach splinters. Normal breach gives 1-3 Splinters for an average player, Simulacrium same. Even running delerius maps gives only 1-2. It takes just too long to farm for one try at the boss. Any normal player will never see this content. I don't know if this is the vision.

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falc410#3740 wrote:

Even the wisps I did for a bit - though I have to say these are horrible becaus you have to either run across an empty map or they go too fast into too many monsters.

"Too fast and too many monsters" sounds an awful lot like Breach and Delirium. Almost as if forcing you to move quickly through higher density monster groups is how they introduce challenge.

I hope you're aware the "too many monsters" bit is the whole point -- the more the wisp touches on its way to its final target, the greater the bonus to the drops (seems like both quantity and rarity). If you're careful about when you activate them, you will absolutely notice the difference and I promise you will not think of them as quite so horrible after all.

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If the devs want us to craft all items instead of giving us good loot

You guys always leave out trade and I'll never understand.

Are you overlapping 3 towers with irradiated/rarity/quality/boss tablets and then using rarity/quantity/rare monsters maps in the juiced area? Do you have 120% magic find on your character? If not, you're not engaging the endgame mechanics correctly and thus see no loot.

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falc410#3740 wrote:

The loot system has to change considerably. Diablo 4 was much more fun because I was getting good loot and didn't had to rely on a trade website to get anything.

I ran away from Diablo 4 because it was a loot pinata. I prefer 0.2 over 0.1 and I think lowering the overall quantity of loot was a step in the right direction. Also I'm getting loot because I'm juicing the atlas optimally. The drops are coming in at a pace that feels meaningful. In Diablo 4 drops never feel meaningful because anything that drops is a minor upgrade for a content you were already stomping anyway, your character is done by the time you're level 30.

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Kerchunk#7797 wrote:

You guys always leave out trade and I'll never understand.

Because I don't want to play the stock market. When someone wants to do that, that's ok, but I play a game to find my own stuff if possible. It just feels better than to buy some gear.

And @Summoner#7705: Meaningful pace I can agree but if 99,99999% is only crap and you only get one meaningful drop roughly every 24 hours of playtime, that is just not fun for the casual player. I can understand that other people spend more time in the game and streamers play like 24x7 but for normal people which play maybe 2-3 hours a day, this is just boring. It feels like you wasted your time when you make 0 progression after playing for a day.

And yes of course I am always using towers but I think the system is still bad in that regard. Towers should give me buffs. MF shouldn't be tied to gear or towers but to the difficulty of the content you are doing. Many builds just can't fit MF on their gear, that was already a problem in 0.1. So the devs force you to only play specific builds, which completely counteracts the freedom you have in the game. Yes the loot should be RNG and even the crafting can be RNG, but it should be the same chance for everyone. And more mats to play to the crafting lottery.

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falc410#3740 wrote:

Because I don't want to play the stock market.

I can't imagine why you would need to; you don't need to "play the market" in order to trade.

You want to know what I do when I want an upgrade? I open Path of Building, type in how much currency I want to spend, and click a button:



3 seconds later I have a list of items available for that amount of currency; I filter for recent posts to increase response rates, sort by weight so the best items are at the top, and whisper.

The entire process including teleporting to get the item itself takes less than 1 minute on average.

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It just feels better than to buy some gear.

You just got done making a post about how you're not enjoying the game, so I guess I just think you might consider the idea that it doesn't actually feel better.

GGG balances loot and currency drop rates with the assumption that people will trade; they have always made this clear. The game is never going to feel "right" if you aren't trading, because they're not trying to give you enough currency to let you craft all of your items without ever trading.

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Yes the loot should be RNG and even the crafting can be RNG, but it should be the same chance for everyone.

It is? Nobody gets preferential treatment for drops or crafting outcomes.

I rather quit the game then use a ebay simulator.

There is solo self-found league so they should balance loot around being able to sustain your own upgrades and gear.

I have zero interest having to check a outside website for upgrades.

I agree loot is one of the main reason I stop playing mostly as soon as I hit 15 keystones.
That and that every build converges to a 1 button build and almost no build variety.

SSF only forever.

Until they create trading system WITHIN the game.
Current one is SCAMMY.

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falc410#3740 wrote:

It feels like you wasted your time when you make 0 progression after playing for a day.

Why? Did you not have fun playing the game? The journey is set up to last for 3 months. You don't need to get an upgrade every day.