PoE 2 Balance & Gameplay Feedback – Midcore Perspective

My General Feedback on PoE 2

First of all, I want to point out that I’m not a complete casual, but I’m also not a top-tier expert.
I’ve cleared most Pinnacle bosses on T3 - the only one I haven’t done yet is the Arbiter because I haven’t found the entrance fragments.

Character: https://poe.ninja/poe2/profile/Nsuidara-2315/character/Nsuidara
(i still testing many thinks)

Here’s my feedback:

1) Mana
At some point, mana costs become ridiculously high - especially for builds that don’t have 3k+ mana but only around 1–1.5k.

Possible solutions:
- Reduce overall mana costs.
- Provide better in-game guidance, e.g., tooltips or hints like:
“At level 20 you’ll need around 2k mana and +50% regen to sustain this skill.”
“At level 30 you’ll need…” etc.
I doubt most players have the time or tools to test this properly.


2) Spell vs Attack Scaling
Right now, attack skills scale much better due to base weapon damage (+quality), % bonuses, added damage, and levels.

Spells mainly scale with level and % bonuses (plus some “gain as extra” mods, but that’s usually just a late additive bonus).

This often makes Wand + Focus better than using a Staff, which feels wrong.

Possible solution:
Why not give Wands and Staves some kind of base “magical damage” that spells can scale from?
Then spells could benefit from that base, just like attacks do from weapons.


3) Unique Items
Honestly, 90% of uniques feel useless or extremely niche.

Possible solutions:
- Make unique mods non-removable (they define the item).
- Allow normal mods (like rares) to be added or modified.
Maybe some uniques could “take up” 2 prefix slots or 2 suffixes, etc.
Ideally, unique mods should work like implicits - fixed identity, but flexible build potential.


4) Tablets
I know people will say “then just don’t run 3 tablets,” but that’s not the point.
I usually die not because of lack of skill or damage - but due to invisible or unclear ground effects (and not even chaos ones).
For example, large green Abyss patches, or monsters that can teleport and one-shot me even with 9.5k ES.

Possible solution:
At least one additional portal when running 6 modifiers. Why not?
It would make these maps more forgiving and rewarding without being broken.


5) Rarity & Drop Info
Currently, item rarity and drop chances feel unclear and overcomplicated.
We rely on community data, not dev communication.

Example:
“150% EQ + 150% Waystone + rare mob with X mods = ~10% chance for Divine, ~60% for Ex drop” — but this info comes from players, not GGG.

My thoughts:
- Remove rarity bonuses from equipment entirely.
- Make drop info more transparent.
Developers said PoE2 should be clearer, but many systems are still opaque.
- There should be an in-game encyclopedia or database.
Click on a boss → see possible drops (X, Y, Z).
If devs want players to “discover” things, they could delay database updates for 2–4 weeks after league start.
- Also, each item could show historical pricing:
“Average price last week: X,” “Last month: Y.”
If third-party overlays can estimate prices, surely GGG could too (even if updated weekly, not live).


6) Bosses & Powerful Bosses
Overall, I love the boss fights - I enjoy challenges.
But sometimes, non-pinnacle bosses feel harder than T3 Pinnacle ones.

Since patch 0.3.1, map runs take me 10–15 minutes (vs 4–5 minutes before), and boss rewards feel very weak compared to rares.

Possible solutions:
- Improve boss rewards, or make tiered items more meaningful.
Example:
-- Tier 2 item: Choose 1 higher-tier mod from 4 random options.
-- Tier 5 item: Choose 3 higher-tier mods.
Something similar to Abyss crafting would make progression more satisfying.


7) Ground Effects / One-Shots
I really liked how in Last Epoch you usually couldn’t die instantly unless it was a clear boss mechanic.

Possible solution:
The problem isn’t just damage - it’s visibility and stacking of those effects.
They can overlap and deal absurd burst damage before you even see them.

Just wanted to add that I don't see an issue with mana costs in this state of the game at the moment. People seem really averse to using Mana Flasks for some reason and we have ways to leech, increase mana pool, and convert mana costs to health costs both partially and entirely. Even if using these options still resulted in running out of mana (impossible I'd say unless you threw Perfect Jeweller's Orbs onto a skill gem on your level 19 character), I think it's a good thing that limits are in place. I'm not coming at this from a balance angle, but from one that makes the player reconsider aspects of their build because something is not possible.