0.3 Campaign + Maps -- SSF SC Ice Strike Chayula Monk

I have played POE2 every league so far and 0.3 has by far been my favorite so far. The game still has a lot of things that need more consideration and development, but GGG has made a lot of steps in the right direction with 0.3.
The feedback provided below comes predominantly from my SSF experience (not technically SSF, I am playing casually with friends but not trading) on Chayula Monk.

Biggest wins in 0.3:
- No more Cruel (we knew this was just a placeholder, but YAY for this being gone)
- Act4 (and Interludes) were fun content, looking forward to Acts 5 and 6
- Support Gem rework helps alleviate some of the issues leading towards lack of viable skills and skill diversity end game
- Crafting improvements (on the whole) make the gear progression more fun
- I have mapped more this league than previous leagues combined
- Abyss is actually a VERY fun league mechanic, a drastic improvement from POE1 Abyss. The monsters are dangerous and challenging but the mechanic itself is fun and the risk vs reward is great!
- Chayula Monk ascendancy is so much better than it was before :D

Biggest losses in 0.3:
- Visual clarity does not seem to be improving, in fact it seems to be getting worse. PLEASE give us some kind of option or slider to increase transparency for non-essential effects. I'd personally rather not see most of my skill/spell animations if it let me better see dangerous/damaging ground and monster effects
- Performance also seems to be in a bad if not worsening state; a lot of people have commented on this and I'm sure your team is aware but this is something that needs to be aggressively addressed sooner than later
- End game and mapping still feels kind of unsatisfying. I really dislike towers, they create a sort of meta-game that I really have no interest in participating in but i feel like I'm massively losing out if I don't optimize my map progression/route around them.
- End game combat/pacing feels very similar to POE1. I much prefer the slower and more methodical combat pacing we feel for most of the early parts in the campaign. By the time we get into maps the game rapidly turns into one shot screen clears with lots of pseudo movement. As a reminder I'm playing Ice Strike monk, I use Shattering Palm like a movement skill that also happens to prime the entire screen to be one tapped. I've seen other players riding around on rhoas and one tapping the screen nonstop with Lightning Arrow so I know this isn't just an issue with my build. I'm also playing SSF and have trash gear so if I'm able to teleport around the map one tapping the screen I'm sure other people are having more success in trade with more optimal gear and builds.
- End game crafting is too deterministic with some of the new omens. I think it is reasonable for people to be able to deterministically craft 4-5 affixes on an item for 'reasonable investment' but people are doing this for 6 affix items at budget prices.
- Lack of availability of bases (especially in SSF) is really frustrating and makes gear progression annoying and unfun late game. Suggestion is to bring back Scouring Orbs (maybe make them wipe quality on items as well so players are forced to use Annuls on Exceptional bases). If GGG is very much opposed to bringing back scours, figure out some other way to make bases a lot more accessible.
- Chilled ground and temporal bubble feel awful and many builds don't have much opportunity to 'outplay' these mechanics. Suggestion is to make these effects begin at a severely reduced capacity (lets say start at 0-25% of effect upon entering the zone), and then ramp to full effect over a duration (for instance 20% effect upon entering zone increasing 20% effect every second and reaching 100% effect after 4 seconds).

Below are some less important observations/suggestions based on my play experience this league:
- Give us a transparency slider for other player's effects and remove unit collision with other players and minions.
- Today I noticed there is a Fire Penetration II gem but no Cold Penetration II gem (only Cold Penetration I). Not sure if this is the case for Lightning Penetration II/I as well, but this seems like oversight.
- Severe lack of runes especially during campaign and leveling up; I always felt starved for useful runes. Suggestion: remove attribute runes and rebalance rune drop rate so we have much higher chances of dropping the useful runes, or keep the attribute runes in but buff all rune drop rates. We took out benchcraft and replaced them with runes but I almost never had enough runes so I had to skip out on many potential upgrades through the entire league.
- A number of ascendancies seem very boring or very bad. Need some attention and love, especially: Chronomancer, Ritualist, Pathfinder, Gemling Legionnaire.
- Some maps like Sinkhole and the Mansion that have tons of tiny corridors are rooms feel awful to play, especially when there are so many ground effects. Even without the ground effects I can't stand these maps.
- Severe lack of Spirit Gems, especially during the campaign, makes me almost never want to upgrade a spirit gem because I won't have another available if I want to choose a different persistent buff later.
- I'm going to restate here that visual clarity is really in a bad spot. Maps like Burning Fields and mechanics like Delirium make it literally impossible to see anything on the ground (which I assure you is covered in deadly effects)

My biggest hopes for 0.4 are a significant endgame rework and some big improvements in performance optimization. Really great job overall on 0.3, I'm still having fun this league and I can't wait to see what you guys have for us in 0.4!