Atlas Passives for Breach, Expedition, Deli, Ritual

I would like to see the first 1-4 passives be gained through regular gameplay of the mechanic. Passives 5-8 could be gated behind the pinnacle content. Maybe just the final 2 points as the ultimate unlock. Gating all of them is very frustrating and far too expensive with the rarity of entry keys.

The atlas in POE 1 was exceptional at letting us buff the content we wanted so we could farm in a style we liked. In early mapping we could start putting some points toward ritual if we wanted to run it and by yellow maps have at least one farming method that had some atlas passives buffing it.

I don't mind the new sub trees in POE 2, it has potential. What I do find frustrating is that the barrier to entry is gated behind pinnacle bosses. By the time I can finally run those bosses my char will be so geared that farming is pretty much done. With 4 passives I could start a farming method likely in T10-15 maps.

The 2nd issue behind pinnacle bosses is the entry keys needed. A single ritual attempt is 300+ ex right now. Doing 4 perfectly is 1200ex and more than likely I will die a few times to learn the mechanics. There is no scenario that 1200ex justifies a return on any investment I may get from farming ritual after unlocking. It's slightly mitigated with and adjustment to only passives 5-8 but that's still going to be a problem with the rarity of the drop. I expect most will just stop at 4.

An option could be that Doryani gives us a quest item after passive 4 is unlocked. We can ask for a new one whenever we want (to prevent green quest from clogging inventory). We can run the boss unlimited times but we get no drops. Drops are only given when using an entry key that costs 300ex. This hopefully prevents exploits. It also gives us a chance to practice against the boss on increasing difficulty, would still be gated by player power, and a chance to see what's coming before risking it all in an expensive gamble.

Some ideas for those first 4 passives could be something like 2 passives for complete # logbooks/breaches/rituals/mirrors. Next 2 as spend X favor, Kill # runic monsters, kill # rares in a breach / deli.

I agree, current deli tree only becomes active in the late endgame, but I liked specing in leagues right from the start of maping in POE1.

The time between atlas rewards is also too long, you only get them each 10 or 8 maps. League mechanic points could shorten those reward dry spells.

An example of how it could work in deli:
First deli quest: get 3 rewards from a single deli mirror
Second deli quest: complete a map with 1 deli layer
Third deli quest: complete a yellow map with 2 deli layers
Fourth deli quest: complete a red map with 3 deli layers
Fifth deli quest: kill a boss in a red map with 5 deli layers

Kill Omniphobia spawn in a map

Deli layers in map (as mentioned earlier)

Buy from ritual, ½ rarity to spawn compared to boss key

Logbook completition

Random drop from expidition chest

Random drop from large breach hand

X amount of mechanics in T5+ maps and/or Y amount of mechanics in T10+ maps

First boss kill, Highest tier boss kill

Might want to combine objectives, like "kill boss or do X amount"