need to let us switch runes

We need a way to remove runes and add new ones. This is honestly not avoidable towards end game gears where we want to optimize our setup. ALso, given how important resistance is, it's often critical to allow us to shift resistance around a little bit to cap out everything.

Not providing this doesn't add any value because we can't forsee what type of gears we end up crafting by chance. Often we get an upgrade that's perfect except our resistance is now screwed. There's no solution within the game design right now so I really hope you let us switch rune soon.

So, rune's not being removable from gear is a holdover from typical ARPG's because in those, half the end game content is grinding for loot that meets the necessities of that end game. This is because in most instances, classic ARPG's are a stat check - much of the gameplay comes down to pure math.

PoE2 has a much more 'skill' based system. I feel that this should be the game-play focus, not loot grinding. Getting slapped with hard 'stat checks' when the majority of the game was focused on utilizing tools and interactivity feels a bit like walking into a wall. As such, I agree that players should be able to tweak or remove runes from items. Soul-bind them if you're worried about econ.

They should add an item that can remove runes from sockets just like Diablo 2 have a recipe to remove sockets from gear.

I was just about to post something similar!

The system is sort of fine in the campaign. You probably just put resistances on your gear, and any resistance is likely to be useful. Once you get into the endgame and you might not need resistances in every slot you can look at the other options, but it's very hard to tell which ones are useful to you, and there is no way to experiment. As a result the system ends up feeling bad.

I currently got several pieces of gear with sockets, but no runes because I'm just not sure which ones will be useful/good/best and I don't want to make the wrong choice/brick them.

That's doesn't feel like a fun gameplay element, because the reason I can't choose is that the game doesn't give me the information I need. I have no idea how much additional mana or life I'll actually get from those runes after modifiers. I can't see the base stats of my armour so I don't know how much 20% increased defences actually is.

I'm fine spending more Artificer's orbs to reset sockets, it would also give you more of a use for them. But please let that be an option. The system at the moment just feels bad in the endgame.

I second this