Feedback on Towers, Tablets, and Loot in PoE2

The new tablet system feels like a step backwards.
Towers no longer matter, exploration has less purpose, and loot feels unrewarding. Crafting is good, but rares and exploration rewards need serious improvement.

This isn’t only about balance, but also about player motivation and enjoyment.

What the old system was, and its issues

Hunting for a tower wasn’t the greatest experience, but at least it gave exploration a purpose. The downside was that the journey rarely felt rewarding—you’d clear maps, kill monsters, open chests, and still end up with mostly junk. Most rares rolled poorly, so even after putting in the effort, there wasn’t much sense of real progress.

How the changes have made things worse

Now, tablets no longer need to be placed at towers—they can be applied directly to the map device.

This removes the “journey” of reaching a rewarding tower. Instead of moving outward and revealing fog-of-war through towers, players now simply activate modifiers on maps directly. The feeling of infinite exploration across the Atlas has been diminished.

Loot has also worsened in many cases. Towers no longer act as meaningful landmarks or reward points, so the sense of achievement from traveling, unlocking, and progressing is lost. Many players on forums and Reddit report that rares feel like trash most of the time, and that loot quantity and quality no longer make up for the missing sense of exploration rewards.

It’s about purpose, risk vs. reward, and exploration

The old system, for all its flaws, gave a reason to push outward, risk maps, unlock towers, and reveal the Atlas. That momentum created a sense of progression. Now, many players feel they’re simply running maps with modifiers slapped on, without the emotional payoff of exploration and discovery.

Suggestions that might help

Scale loot and modifiers by distance from the Atlas center
The further from the center, the harder the maps and monsters—but also the better the loot. This restores purpose to exploration and brings back the thrill of “this area is riskier, but worth it.”

Improve the usefulness of rare items
As you move further from the center of the Atlas, rare items should have a higher chance to roll meaningful affixes—either strong on their own or solid crafting bases. This way, rares feel like potential upgrades instead of vendor trash. To keep balance, higher item level gear could also require more currency to craft effectively, making progression both challenging and rewarding.

Reintroduce meaningful “travel rewards”
Even if tablets stay map-device based, there should be nodes or regions (like towers or equivalents) that reward players for reaching them: temporary boosts, loot caches, or Atlas reveals.

Make mechanical interactions more visible and rewarding
Overlapping towers/tablets could be far more interesting if the bonuses scaled enough to really matter—reaching 2 or 3 overlaps should feel like a big deal. Additionally, clearing a corruption zone with one or more towers could give players a choice of specific loot rewards or temporary effects. These could combine a positive bonus with a negative drawback, making the encounter harder but also more rewarding.

What’s already good

Crafting: Many players (myself included) think crafting is currently one of PoE2’s strongest aspects. It gives control and satisfaction when it pays off.

Recent buffs to tablet modifiers in patches are also a positive step. Strengthening mods is moving in the right direction.

Closing thought
The main issue is not just “loot feels bad,” but that purpose, exploration, and emotional reward have been diminished. The old system had flaws, but at least it gave us momentum and a reason to explore. Bringing some of that back—while improving loot quality—would go a long way toward restoring excitement in PoE2.

I agree. The new tablet system is infinitely more efficient for casual players like me but equally more boring because you feel you're in the treadmill much sooner and quicker.

add better more rare precursors and make the mods on corrupted/cleansed zones better so we can use those precursors on those zones and get some juicy content

add aspirational mapping content like valdos that takes a while to gear for and is hard to do with party scaling

rework atlas to have mechanics in the centre and effects on the edges so people can come up with different strats and switch instead of just only all doing the same thing and maybe adding 1 thing with precursors

I hope they have some huge plans for the Atlas in 0.4 because since the rework it kind of feels pointless. Everything is automated now.

bump