The Economy

Personally, I would much prefer it if GGG would do away with trading and instead, give us a descent crafting system. Crafting dice just don't cut it. Improve the loot, not the quantity but the quality so there is a better chance it will be usable. Basically, give us a way to upgrade our gear without relying on trading.
It boils down to the fact that I really want to play Path of Exile, not Path of Economics!!!!

What exactly does that look like? I think you'll have a much better time engaging with the economy if RMT is controlled better in the future.

How about we put the economy... IN THE GAME, rather than a glorified Craig's list with no accountability for bad actors?
I feel like that would make the economy better. I don't know.

I just wanted to add that ever since my friends stopped playing PoE and have no interest in EA PoE2, I only play SSf. So why do I care about the economy? If there was no 'economy' the devs wouldn't have to balance loot for sake of the 'economy'. Then I see no problem with greatly increasing the drop rate of crafting die/currency without worrying about inflation or whatever giving us plenty of resources to roll our gear.

I'm not unrealistic. I know they won't do away with trading. I just wish I had a more reliable way to upgrade my gear because at least 90% of the times I've hit a wall, it's been because of gear.

I agree the trading system is the only way to upgrade gear. There is no progression at all. Rue and Fub brought this up already. The crafting system needs a huge update. They need to make it simple not like poe 1 where you need to go another web site to look at the weights ect. Make something like Last Epoch. (just straight foward).

POE1 was craft of economics and poe 2 is going the same way. Fix it!

I once tried to buy a charm for 1 exalt. I messaged the top 25 cheapest ones, only to realize they were all either afk, price gouging or trolling. The price was actually 3 exalt.

People that buys low and sells high are those responsible for all the wars in the Path of Exile universe.

I don't see how GGG isn't indirectly promoting RMT at this point (***I'm not promoting RMT GGG... just making a truthful and passive aggressive sarcastic comment about how 'tarded its become... #IYKYK)... assuming you want to actually build and progress an character past the campaign, you get to lvl 90 decently enough with so so gear, but anything good is just BS

I wanted to price my prisim of Belief Diamond today.
So you'd think since they are all just the same skill +3 they would be all around the same price right?
Nope, range of listed prices 14 Div to 100 Div.
Everyone listed by accounts with numbers and letters.
An account had the same one listed for 14 and one listing for 80?

I listed it for 20 Div and was instantly msged to buy it.
Guess who it was, it was the guy who has one listed for 14 and 80.

We know why nothing is on the market for a reasonable price, who know who's manipulating it.
Get rid of them.

Yeah trade is absolutely horrible and is the reason why the loot situation is so bad. Individually you find nothing worth of use almost all the time. the few good things you find but can't use you put on trade. With tens of thousands of players this creates a collective repository of items, leading to a situation where you'll find items for 1 div or so on trade which you can only dream of finding in game. Items prized at 10 or more div are for all intents and purposes not achievable through playing the game regularly.

It's a tail wagging the dog situation.
Trade should be complementary to the game (like it was in D2) and not front and center to every balancing choice and even to game design decisions (crafting). The design and balancing should be about optimizing the gameplay experience, not a "healthy economy".