Open Feedback on PoE2 – Time Investment, Rewards, and Loss of Agency Compared to PoE1

Open Feedback on PoE2 – Time Investment, Rewards, and Loss of Agency Compared to PoE1

I’m writing this as both a long-time PoE1 player and someone concerned about PoE2’s endgame longevity. I want PoE2 to succeed, but in its current state it feels fundamentally worse to play than PoE1, not because it’s harder, but because it consistently disrespects player time and agency.

PoE2 Feels Like a Gambler’s Game, Not a Progression Game

At the moment, PoE2 feels like a gambler’s dream: long stretches of very little, punctuated by rare “jackpot” drops. There is no satisfying middle ground.

I’m not asking for loot explosions or free rewards — I’m asking for reliable, incremental progression. Right now it’s dribs and drabs until something finally drops, and that makes the entire experience feel exhausting rather than rewarding.

To put this into perspective:

In PoE1, I can run maps I’ve chosen and prepared, clear them in under a minute, and in that short window still drop currency, fragments, maps, and visible loot.

In PoE2, a 15–30 minute map often yields a similar loot pool, just spread across vastly more time and effort.

The time-to-reward ratio is completely out of alignment.

Slow Gameplay Is a Design Choice — But It Isn’t Properly Compensated

The slower pace of PoE2 clearly feels intentional, but it isn’t offset with deeper rewards or stronger player agency.

In PoE1:

I stockpile maps I want to run

I prepare them with intent (rarity, tiers, atlas tree)

I run 20+ maps in 30–45 minutes with brief depots between runs

I sort loot after the session

This creates momentum, planning, and satisfaction. I can say:
“Run this map for an hour with this atlas strategy.”

In PoE2:

Waystones force long, mixed, unforgiving maps

There’s little control over layout or pacing

Hidden rares and mechanics punish forward momentum

Maps must be fully completed

Portal limits scaling with tier feel excessively punitive

If I die late in a long map, I lose progress, lose time, and often gain nothing for that effort. Being forced to re-run a 20-minute map after a late death, with no meaningful compensation, doesn’t feel challenging — it feels like time punishment.

This is not engaging difficulty; it’s attrition.

Loot Should Match Time Investment

If I’m investing 20–30 minutes into a single map, I should come out of it feeling rewarded.

I want:

Enough currency that I’m portaling out because my inventory is full

A sense that my time was respected

Tangible progression, not just the hope that the next map might be the jackpot

Right now, that simply isn’t happening consistently.

Crafting Feels Overly RNG-Heavy and Actively Discouraging

Crafting in PoE2 feels too far removed from what made PoE1 crafting engaging.

Yes, there is gear — but:

The system is extremely RNG-heavy

Mistakes are effectively irreversible

Annulments are not real recovery tools, just another gamble

There is little room to iterate, learn, or correct errors

As a result, crafting feels punishing rather than empowering. Instead of engaging with the system, I find myself avoiding it out of fear of bricking items.

At the very least, players need:

More currency to buy and experiment with bases

Or a crafting system with better safeguards and recovery options

Right now, the system discourages experimentation and reinforces the “casino” feeling rather than rewarding mastery.

Loss of Player Agency Is the Core Problem

Many of these issues tie back to one central theme: loss of agency.

Compared to PoE1:

Build experimentation feels riskier

Early decisions feel harder to undo

Time investment feels locked in rather than flexible

Systems feel hostile rather than deep

PoE2 is slower by design, but slower gameplay must come with:

More reliable rewards

More player control

More respect for time invested

At the moment, it feels slower and less rewarding, which leads to burnout rather than engagement.

Closing Thoughts

I want PoE2 to be great. The foundations are there, but right now PoE1 simply offers:

Better pacing

Better time-to-reward balance

Better crafting agency

Better long-term replayability

PoE2 doesn’t need to become PoE1 — but it does need to respect the lessons PoE1 already taught about progression, planning, and player satisfaction.

I hope this feedback helps steer PoE2 toward a future where difficulty feels rewarding, not exhausting.

It speaks volumes that you can make more currency in poe1 with a mediocre build than you can in the entirety of 2 after hours of playing WITH a meta build.

There's less loot here than there is in Diablo 1.

Crafting is a casino. Expensive, punishing and time consuming. You spend enormous amount of time to gather bases/magic items to play slot machine and most of the time get nothing out of it. 99% of the time it's just better, faster and cheaper to just buy things on trade. Trade matters that much it's insane to me.