POE2 disrespecting our time (Post-0.4.0)
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People say the campaign is to long since day one. They shortened it a bit, but its still way to long.
Its a seasonal Game, nobody wants a campaign as long as a singleplayer story game. Its even longer than many games. If you rush Skyrim Mainstory it does not take this long. Another issue in POE2 is that every single area is mandatory. There is barely anything you can skip. The spirit Quests can be skipped, but thats it and not doing them makes it harder for you. The Campaign is very linear. And its mostly just simple qwuests, get there find this, kill this. Its very monotonous, because youre doing the same thing for 15 Hours straight. In endgame you have more variety. " For ARPG standards its a good campaign, including everything else its just okay. The replay value of the campaign tho is basically zero. Thats from an objective point of view. U dont find anything new in the campaign, the story is not changing and your approaches to fighting barely changing. After 3-4 playthroughs overall you absolutely know everything about the campaign. Yes your fighting style does change a small bit, but not enough to really impact the campaign in a meaningful way. Also SSF has many issues. The problem is time. Yes you can trivialize the content, but thats not the point. In SSF you need to grind extremely much to get an upgrade. Want a specific Lineage gem, go grind a 100 hours or more. Its correct that the game is balanced around trade. Mostly because of time investment needed to do everything. “The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame.” Last edited by Alzucard#2422 on Jan 10, 2026, 5:15:09 AM
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" I appreciate the reply, but there are two flaws in that logic regarding "Time" and "SSF". 1. The "2 Weeks vs 2 Months" Fallacy Leagues are temporary. If a streamer finishes their build in 2 weeks and it takes me 2 months because of the slow pacing/drop rates, I am effectively playing a dead league. By month 2, the economy slows down, the community hype dies, and the next league is already being teased. I want to play the content while it is relevant, not spend 8 weeks playing catch-up just because the game is artificially slow. 2. Adventure Mode is Optional If you love the campaign, that's great! An "Adventure Mode" wouldn't delete the campaign. You could still play it 3 times if you want. We are just asking for the option to skip it, like Diablo 4 or Last Epoch. More options are always better than forced restrictions. 3. SSF isn't about Knowledge, it's about Math. "Knowledge" doesn't change drop tables. The game's drop rates are balanced around thousands of players filtering items into a Trade Economy. When you apply those same rates to a Solo player, the math simply doesn't work without a massive time sink. I know how to craft and farm. The problem is that farming a specific Unique in SSF can take 100 hours of RNG, whereas in Trade, I could farm currency for 5 hours and buy it. Buffing SSF drops doesn't "trivialize" the game; it simply adjusts the math to account for the lack of trading. |
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" That's a good thing about SSF imo - you don't play builds based on specific uniques unless you already dropped them. You play self-sufficient builds, you play with what you get not with what you want to get. Biggest part of the challenge is make a build which is powerful enough even without optimized gear or build-enabling unique. Last edited by Sakanabi#6664 on Jan 10, 2026, 5:12:09 AM
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" I mean thats your opinion. I can say i see it different. In SSF you should be able to achieve stuff without a huge time investment. The time difference you need to invest compared to Trade is very steep. And i dont think people see SSF as a challange they see Hardcore as a challenge, but not SSF. People play SSF because they dont want to bother with trade, but they want to achieve the same stuff. Just slower, but not this slow. And yes SSF is not a challenge imo “The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame.” Last edited by Alzucard#2422 on Jan 10, 2026, 5:19:38 AM
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That's a good thing about SSF imo - you don't play builds based on specific uniques unless you already dropped them. You play self-sufficient builds, you play with what you get not with what you want to get. Biggest part of the challenge is make a build which is powerful enough even without optimized gear or build-enabling unique.[/quote]
That sounds romantic in theory, but in practice, it kills build diversity. The problem with "play with what you get" is that it forces every SSF player into the same 3-4 "Safe Meta Builds" every single league. We end up playing builds that don't rely on gear (like Minions or DoT) just to survive, because we know we can't target-farm the fun stuff. There is a difference between Min-Maxing and Build Enabling. I'm not asking for perfect gear to min-max my damage. I'm asking for reasonable access to "Build Enabling" items so I can actually play the mechanic I want. If I want to play a specific specific interaction or a niche skill that requires a specific Unique to function mechanically, the current SSF drop rates basically say: "No, you can't play that. Go back to playing your generic starter build." That’s not a challenge. That’s restricting the game’s massive potential depth to a tiny pool of "gear-agnostic" builds. I want to play the whole game, not just the parts that work on zero budget. |
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" Spot on. You hit the nail on the head. That’s the crucial distinction a lot of people miss. Hardcore is a challenge mode (Penalty = Death). SSF should be a playstyle preference (Penalty = No Trading). Currently, the game treats SSF as if we want to be poor. But like you said, most of us play SSF simply because we hate the friction of trading—whispering 20 people for a map, dealing with price fixers, tabbing out to a trade site, etc. We just want to kill monsters and get loot. We shouldn't be punished with an abysmal drop rate just because we prefer to engage with the game mechanics instead of a web browser. The time gap between Trade and SSF is just too wide right now. |
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+1
... but let's go step by step: 1 - STOP WASTING OUR TIME - a.k.a: Map zones are too large Yeah, 100% agree 2. WE NEED A CAMPAIGN SKIP / ADVENTURE MODE It is 2026. I don't know for the first character in the season... but we need definitely something for the second one. 3. SSF IS UNPLAYABLE (Forced Trade) There are few things I would change here for all Trade/SSF: > Gear attribute requirements should be more generous. Right now, to try to change a single piece of gear can become a "character brick" moment. > Lv 20 Gems shouldn't be this rare. > Perfect jeweler orbs shouldn't be this rare > Trials shouldn't be a gate-keeper for character progression. > Regular low tier runes during campaign should be available for purchase using gold on vendors. > Vendor refresh only on level up must go away after the campaign. Just make refresh-item from expedition to be usable on all regular vendors - This change is important for making sure maps are consistently sustainable in the end game. > There is missing a reliable crafting way to add +levels to Amulets. Maybe it can be added to abyss - Yeah, I know +Levels are OP, but I don't believe GGG has this as one of their priorities, so I rather prefer to try to live with it "comfortably" while it last. > Crafting should be less RNG based for creating "average" items. e.g.: After campaign, a +3 Level weapon should be a given. But for a +5 level weapon you will still need to have to work for it. > That said, a less convoluted and more deterministic crafting would be welcomed. As it is now, crafting is heavily penalized for making forward- compatible POE1 [already purchased] currency tabs. This is a cancer that will eat the game from inside if not changed. GGG - You need to change your crafting strategy or you will lose a chunk of new players soon enough. > Rarity of items modifier should go away. Developers should learn to balance their game drops instead of shifting the responsibility to the players. Specifically for SSF: > XP penalty on maps should be removed. As for the comment from "Last Epoch" to have "Circle of Fortune". Strictly speaking, Circle of Fortune is not needed in Last Epoch. That's just an extra. What carries SSF in Last Epoch is the fact that it has an outrageously good crafting system where: > A substantial amount of the loot can be savaged for your own usage > Crafting is "deterministic" enough to get usable gear... but top-notch equipment still requires good RNG. |
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" I mean with async trading the whisper isnt there. Also u have an ingame trade window now. So you dont have to tab out. And price checking is handled by a trade program. “The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame.” Last edited by Alzucard#2422 on Jan 10, 2026, 5:39:23 AM
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" Man, you basically just wrote the Patch Notes we all dream of. Especially your point about Crafting vs RNG. You are absolutely right about the Last Epoch comparison. It's not just the Circle of Fortune; it's the fact that in LE, crafting feels like building an item. Ground loot has value (shattering for shards). In PoE, crafting often just feels like gambling on a slot machine. And like you said, "forward-compatible currency tabs" holding back the game design is a scary thought, but it feels true. And that point about "Character Brick" moments with attributes? Painfully accurate. Changing one pair of gloves shouldn't force me to bust out a spreadsheet and re-balance my entire passive tree just to wear them. It’s just unnecessary friction. Great additions to the thread. I really hope someone at GGG is taking notes on this list. |
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" True, the async trading and in-game UI are huge improvements over PoE 1. I’ll give them that. But you kinda proved my point with your last sentence: 'Price checking is handled by a trade program.' That right there is the disconnect. I don't want to run 3rd party overlays, scripts, or external tools just to play the game efficiently. I don't want to play "Economy Simulator 2026." Even if trading is instant, it fundamentally changes the gameplay loop: In Trade: You farm Gold/Currency -> You buy the upgrade. (The monster drops money). In SSF: You kill the monster -> You drop the upgrade. (The monster drops power). I want the dopamine rush of dropping the item myself, not the convenience of clicking "Buy" in a menu. The UI being better doesn't change the fact that I prefer the gameplay of finding my own gear, but the current drop rates make that playstyle miserable compared to just farming gold. |
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