End Game update removes "Make your own adventure"

I won't be alone in thinking POE2 only gets worse after each update.

I played the end game with a set of goals in mind, I made my own adventure.

I ran the three tower set up, added as much content to the surrounding maps as possible and then ran those maps, hopefully with every piece of content for added spice - some added chaos where the extra content would blend, such as strongboxes on ritual alters that also had abyss pits, detonating the expedition and running straight onto a breach and so on.

I usually have 4 toons which act as a team of heroes, each specialising in content and that made for fun streaming of the game, engaging and entertaining. Then the endgame update happened.

The new system leaves maps devoid of this fun, devoid of this chaos - they feel flat and stagnant.

Homogenising omens are broken - I refuse to listen to anyone who says they are not, I have tested the Regal and Exalt omens both I have rolled tags that are completely unrelated despite what the tool tip for the omen says - its says "will do this" and not "chance to do this". It's either incorrectly advertised or doesn't work, I lean toward the latter having experimented a lot with both.

Temp chains and frozen ground. I do not understand why GGG would remove the perma-curse temp chains only to just add the exact same thing as chilled ground later - then add another temp chains on top - this only adds to frustration, nobody with 30% movement speed or less would be insane enough to run temp chains and frozen ground, its just trash and gets sold -why is the game producing trash?

The useless stats on items, reduced attribute requirements and light radius are useless. If I play the game as GGG intended, play a Dex character with high Dex then what use is a reduced attribute requirement? To me this is merely trolling, a deliberate bad stat to infuriate. Again, why is the game producing useless trash?

I feel like every update only adds to reasons I don't want to play the game.

When will GGG chuck the players a bone? When will we get something we wanted?

I stream this game and each update makes me stream less and less to the point of making a rant about it on YouTube. My most popular shorts are from my "Insane one shot clips" - where I get one shot. Again, why is there trash added to the game?

Is this the vision? a bad player experience? Youtube filled with rants about how bad the game is? A shorts section filled with broken one shot mechanics?

Won't GGG just look at the reality of the players experience and do something about it? Why are they saying they play the game when clearly they don't play the game...

I realise it's early access but the level of "work" you have to put in as a player and the amount of "punish" players face is astronomical. I don't think another game exists with this level of punish and this level of work - even for a pre-release taster of what is to come, it's not an easy experience of players, it's broken.

Look at all the popular games right now, they can craft the gear they need easily, they can loot the gear they need easily, like WoW - your time is rewarded, your time isn't wasted, you don't farm for 200 div to craft a ton of broken items you can't use. PoE is literally the anti-christ of gaming.

This gets worse every update.

So what is the vision? To make everyone hate the game? You have one of the greatest IP's in gaming history and rather than make it the biggest ARPG in the world, you're actively punishing the players for playing the game. It doesn't even make any business sense, why will players buy skins in a game that punishes them for playing off-meta? Why did playing meta become the only way to play this game? Why punish new players with the same ferocity as the top 2% who buy all the skins? Just make uber content for the top 2% of meta players.

Playing meta is someone else's game, I don't want to play a build someone else played and built, I don't want the game to be too easy - the choice to play meta should be optional, if broken builds exist then that's GGG fault and not the players problem, but to counter meta GG are introducing mechanics which makes the broken builds a universal player problem.

As a streamer, I want new players to come to the game, GGG stop punishing new players and grow the community. No new player will reach endgame with 100 div for the choice of buying broken crafting materials where homogenising doesn't work as it should and a perfect orb can roll a T2 - imperfect stat. And buying massively inflated gear on market place. Stop catering to the top 2% of meta players and get some new players in... and I don't mean a free weekend. Fix the game based on player experience and get rid of the trash mechanics.

Here's how you can fix the issues.

There are hardcore and softcore leagues - so just make an "uber league" where all the top 2% of meta players can go play the hardest difficulty game with uber content without clutching their handbags at the prospect of dying in hardcore. That way you keep all of the whales in one league and bring new players into the softcore league.

Keeping the meta players and non-meta players together is ruining the game for everyone.

Keep the softcore league as it is, remove maps having a curse and an elemental ground - keep your temp chains and chilled ground, don't cry, just make it so you can only have one. If its temp chains then it cant be also chilled ground and enfeeble. Choose either one curse or one elemental ground. Such an easy fix.

Remove from the gear the stats for reduced attribute requirement and light radius, they are useless, why add them? The gamble mechanics for crafting are already difficult - you won't cry at how "less" difficult it is to craft items by removing those stats, it will still be hard.

Make a crafting bench - you won't do this but I should mention it. "But muh gamba!"

Make the towers a journey, the path to towers is reminiscent of LOTR - the journey to Mordor with the one ring. I think everyone would love towers if they were guaranteed a rare drop. But make it the way it was, maps aren't fun anymore when you cant journey your way to towers, figuring out a path and choosing tablets carefully. The previous iteration was fun and engaging. The update took the fizz away from my fizzy juice.

Play your game... and I mean play it, don't just console spawn in some max stat gear so you don't have to grind.

Stop with the gamble mechanics, you have two types of players, the ones who want gamba and the ones who don't. It's silly to advertise the game as an ARPG but under the surface it's a slot machine. Make the uber league the gamble mechanics and make softcore - "softcore", it's like fighting Mike Tyson on day 1 of learning boxing. Only the legacy players understand how it works, and because the crafting currencies are partly broken, this just confuses new players and they stop playing the game.

Look at the trend - 90% loss of player base. This is unique to PoE because of the problems above, I guarantee if you separate the meta and off-meta players you will see an increase in player retention. That 90% loss is mostly your off-meta player base and what's left is your meta player base. Give the meta their OWN league and stop trying to transform softcore into uber league because someone who paid $400 for a skin cried about towers.