PoE2’s Economy & Resources Locking 90%+ of Players Out of the Coolest Builds and Crafting

The #1 thing that’s been bugging me in PoE2 (aside from the painfully slow movement speed) is how inaccessible build experimentation and crafting feel.

Most players will NEVER get to try the coolest builds or craft the gear they want. Why? Because the economic barrier is just way too high.

If I were a Data Analyst at GGG, my first case study would be:
1. Split the player base by total currency earned per season.
2. I’d bet 90%+ of players never reach 10–20 Divines in total assets.
3. How many have even used a Whittling or other high-end crafting currency? My guess: a tiny fraction.

What does that mean?
1. The items and crafting potential way above that level unlock massive power creep.
2. But most players never see it — effectively locking them out of 95% of the game’s build potential.
3. And if they want to play multiple classes? Forget it. The gap gets even worse.

This isn’t just a player satisfaction issue — it’s retention and engagement. When progression stalls and discovery dies, players drop off.

Now, I know what the classic PoE purist will say:
"But the game is supposed to be hard!"

Sure. It should be hard.
But not economically gated to the point where most of the player base never even gets to interact with half the systems. Difficulty should come from mastering mechanics — not from never having the tools to try new things.

And let’s be honest… making resources more accessible would ALSO make RMT less tempting. We all want that… right? Right? RIGHT?

Look at what Last Epoch nailed:
1. Crafting? Accessible. Materials rare, but not impossible.
2. CoF/SSF? Lets players bring ANY build to life through gameplay, not a market grind.

PoE2 could take a page from this. Imagine a system where experimentation isn’t locked behind a grind most players will never even reach — and that’s just for one class in a single season! Crafting would feel deep but achievable, and build diversity wouldn’t be reserved for the top 5% of the economy.

Even small changes could go a long way, like reintroducing Scouring Orbs to recycle bases, lowering the barrier to experimentation without breaking the economy.

Because here’s the truth: the bigger the build sandbox, the longer players stay, play, and spend.
Lock it behind extreme wealth, and you’re bleeding potential (and players) who could love this game way more — and bring others with them.

I'm not sure I get your point. You know that a) ARPGs in general are quite time consuming and that b) despite that, people have completed all content both in PoE 1 and 2 in SSF with a variety of builds.

It might not be feasible to play just any build in SSF, especially builds that require T0 uniques, but there are plenty of builds that can do all non-uber content on a reasonable budget.

Regarding retention: I think that we would have way less retention and a smaller player base if it weren't for chase items, both unique and crafted. If you know that it would be nearly impossible to upgrade your 6 T3-affix bow, nobody would keep playing. But we know that if we just run another X amount of maps, we will be able to craft or buy a better bow. And then there are players who want to upgrade even further, until they reach mirror tier.

I'm not trying to antagonize you, but your arguments sound a lot like FOMO. It's okay to not have mirror tier items, you can still beat (almost) all content in the game without them.

"

eperon#3129 wrote:

I'm not sure I get your point. You know that a) ARPGs in general are quite time consuming and that b) despite that, people have completed all content both in PoE 1 and 2 in SSF with a variety of builds.

It might not be feasible to play just any build in SSF, especially builds that require T0 uniques, but there are plenty of builds that can do all non-uber content on a reasonable budget.

Regarding retention: I think that we would have way less retention and a smaller player base if it weren't for chase items, both unique and crafted. If you know that it would be nearly impossible to upgrade your 6 T3-affix bow, nobody would keep playing. But we know that if we just run another X amount of maps, we will be able to craft or buy a better bow. And then there are players who want to upgrade even further, until they reach mirror tier.

I'm not trying to antagonize you, but your arguments sound a lot like FOMO. It's okay to not have mirror tier items, you can still beat (almost) all content in the game without them.

I get what you're saying. ARPGs, especially PoE, are time-consuming, and yes, people can complete most content in SSF with a variety of builds, even on a budget. I’m not saying every build needs to hit mirror-tier, but there’s a big difference between being able to play a build and feeling like you can truly experiment with it, especially when the crafting system is so locked behind economic barriers.

I also agree that chase items and upgrades are part of what drives retention. The desire to get that next big upgrade, whether it’s crafting a better bow or finding a top-tier unique, is what keeps a lot of players invested. But when the gap between “reasonable” upgrades and the top-tier stuff is too wide, it locks a huge portion of players out of those systems entirely. If crafting could be made more accessible to everyone, we’d still have those exciting chase items for the hardcore players, but more of us would feel like we can participate without having to grind like crazy for something that might never even drop.

In the end, it’s not about everyone having mirror-tier gear, but giving more players the chance to experiment and feel like they have room to grow, without the constant barrier of excessive grind or paying the economy. That’s the sweet spot—where you can still chase the top stuff, but everyone feels like they’re progressing meaningfully.

Realistically what happens today, is people barely make it to maybe 20% of the build as they barely have any currency on average. That's the whole point I'm making - Players should be able to experience full, powerful builds with reasonable time investment. That doesn't happen, it's factual... And we're talking about one build in one character, in one class. Imagine if you wanted to try multiple.

If I had the data tables from GGG I'd show you. It's just obvious looking at the game and progression vs the playerbase.

Thank Atziri, you're not a data analyst over at GGG. That would be the kind of DA suitable for a blizzard project, though. (no hate for actual data analysts, y'all are awesome :3)

What are "the coolest builds"? Why wouldn't we be able to try them out? Does a build have to be optimized to be a build in the first place (thus requiring "high end" gear, whatever that means)?

"

craft the gear they want

This is really funny. Most of us don't get to craft what we want most of the time and it's fine. Are you actually referring to compilations of cherry picked 100 crafting wins out of hundreds of thousands of fails (that we don't see)? I agree that crafting is difficult, we'll have to wait and see how triple G develops crafting in future patches.

Data analysts have very good basic understanding of statistics and probability theory - you might brush up on those :(

Is it known what every single player wants? Which players' wants are relevant? The 90th percentile?

But I really don't understand how trying out different builds is difficult or inaccessible. We drop uncuts and jewelers like candy by maps. All sockets are white. Rerolling/respeccing is an option. Path of building allows you to try out anything in the game numerically.

An argument that I can see is that there is a lot of variation in the game. Maybe too much for a large part of the playerbase such that they don't know how or what to focus on. In other words, the game has depth.

"

And let’s be honest… making resources more accessible would ALSO make RMT less tempting. We all want that… right? Right? RIGHT?

What if I don't care? rmt exists regardless, demand is met with supply and your solution would generate more supply hence also encouraging rmt. So we could have more drops, but I don't see how this alleviates rmt.

"

PoE2 could take a page from this. Imagine a system where experimentation isn’t locked behind a grind most players will never even reach — and that’s just for one class in a single season! Crafting would feel deep but achievable, and build diversity wouldn’t be reserved for the top 5% of the economy.

From the sound of it LE already contains the kind of gameplay systems you want. Why should another game copy what already exists?

"

Because here’s the truth: the bigger the build sandbox, the longer players stay, play, and spend.

Your post could be taken more seriously if you didn't pretend to know the truth or the optimal solution every step of the way. (very not data-analysty of you)

The only common ground I have with this take is about scouring orbs. But like I said, they already exist in poe, why should poe2 copy that?

Thanks for elaborating, I agree with most of it. At the end of the day, I think it all depends on balance.
If the game were much more accessible and if it were much easier to experiment with crafting (i.e. higher drop rates of currency or higher chances for good mods when rolling items) and classes, experienced players and high end blasters would be finished with any given league much earlier.

But honestly, in PoE 1 I think that most semi-experienced players can get their atlas + voidstones done with basic crafting (essences/alt spam + regal/exalt + bench). I do miss alts in PoE 2, though.

"

eperon#3129 wrote:

Thanks for elaborating, I agree with most of it. At the end of the day, I think it all depends on balance.
If the game were much more accessible and if it were much easier to experiment with crafting (i.e. higher drop rates of currency or higher chances for good mods when rolling items) and classes, experienced players and high end blasters would be finished with any given league much earlier.

But honestly, in PoE 1 I think that most semi-experienced players can get their atlas + voidstones done with basic crafting (essences/alt spam + regal/exalt + bench). I do miss alts in PoE 2, though.

Yeah agree, I think there's a balance between making it too easy vs accessible. As in making the bosses/higher content mechanically hard and gear demanding, yet letting people play around with builds.

Let players make it to 75% or three quarters of the way on their own before having to mandatorily interact with trade to maximize builds. Right now, you can't even make it to 20%, hence the hardcore inflation.

Like, the simplest example I can think of in PoE2 which is so basic, is why don't we have an NPC with lvl1 support and skill gems for 1coin at the act1 town? Just for people to experiment different skills and supports. Even at that most basic point of the game you're stretched for basic resources and it just keeps going all the way into endgame.