GGG: Please get rid of (pause) trade for at least one season. You can thank me later.

Almost all problems if Patch 0.2, from "difficulty" to "poor loot drops" can be traced to the design choice to balance the game around trade. While trade may have had its justification back then, say in PoE1, an issue exists whether it is worth it today, with all of its negative side effects, especially in PoE2. As they say, don't let the tail wag the dog and here we have Trade wag PoE2.

The best way to test this hypothesis is during the early access period. I'd make a full length (3 months) season in which there is no trade whatsoever. If anyone wants to play the game, they have to rely on drops and farming. Doing this for even a short period of time will expose all problems with the game for which trade has been a band aid (smoke screen) that may have overstayed its usefulness.

"But what if I want to give to a friend a good item that I have no use for?" when translated reads "loot drops are not properly implemented." If you have to argue for giving or trading loot pieces, then this implies that there is a problem that you are trying to solve with trade, rather then game play.

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As a bonus topic I want to address the talk about making the game "slower" and combat "more impactful." This has been on the market for years, as implemented in Grim Dawn. Later on, even they added a movement "skill." You can look at their early access plus the first couple of years after release. You can borrow their ideas for slow and meaningful progression without turning the game into a trading simulator.

for me, DELETE trade from the game.
win.