Casual Player Feedback - Loving Critiques for improvement

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been playing Path of Exile 2 far more than I usually would. Normally, I only have about two hours a day to dedicate to gaming due to life’s responsibilities. However, with the recent holidays, I had the opportunity to dive in and spend significant time with the game.

For context, I’ve been playing Path of Exile 1 since the Sentinel league. While I’m not an expert, I’ve always enjoyed the game, and much of my feedback compares mechanisms in Path of Exile 2 with features that were helpful in the original game.

As a softcore trade player, here’s my perspective:
My Path of Exile 2 playtime is represented by my two characters below:

Level 88 Titan (6 days, 13 hours played — abandoned due to frustration with the build)

Level 91 Stormweaver (4 days, 5 hours played)

I think Path of Exile 2 is excellent overall, but as a "filthy casual" player, I’d like to raise a few points for consideration.
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TL;DR Feedback

0. Rune Slotting: Allow overriding existing runes.

1. Economy, Trade and the Grind:
1.1: Rarity affecting currency drops feels amoral.
1.2: Introduce mechanisms for incremental currency progression to combat price fixing.
1.3: Add an in-game tool to identify "good mods" on items.
1.4: Fix the divine-to-exalt ratio on the trade site.

2. Death Punishments: Losing map mods on death feels overly harsh.

3. Citadels and Boss Invitations: Availability and reward incentives need improvement.

4. Melee (Warrior Titan): This class needs serious rebalancing.
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Detailed Feedback

0. Rune Slotting

Please allow us to override previously slotted runes. If I’m short on, say, 7% lightning resistance, I don’t want to buy an entirely new set of gear just because I previously slotted fire resistance runes, and now my fire resistance is over-capped by 30%. By overriding that fire resistance rune, I could fix my resists without needing a new set. Currently, I need to find alternative solutions like gloves or rings, which makes the system unnecessarily restrictive.

Currently, I avoid slotting runes "just in case" and won’t even buy gear with pre-slotted runes. This makes the rune system feel more like a hindrance than a feature.

1. Economy, Trade, and Grind

1.1 Rarity Affecting Currency Drops

Tying currency drops to rarity feels amoral. Character wealth should primarily be driven by the difficulty of the content and the time you are willing to sacrifice in the game to obtain that power, not by how much rarity you can stack on your gear to improve your RNG especially on currency . I Do however believe that Rarity Is excellent for ITEMS so that good / great players with in depth knowledge of the game and its mechanics can leverage that knowledge on items to increase their wealth through item trade. 

By Tying it to currency rarity incentivises exploitative behaviour of the games mechanics instead and leads to inflation on the economy 

1.2 Incremental Currency Progression

The economy lacks mechanisms for casual players to make incremental currency gains. In Path of Exile 1, farming bubble-gum currency like fusings, chromatics, essences, oils, or splinters allowed less-skilled players to grind their way to upgrades. By farming these currencies and selling them to skilled players who could use them for crafting, the entire community benefitted. Great players could create powerful items, while casual players like myself could earn currency and steadily upgrade gear through time investment and purchase those upgrades created by the great players. 

These routes seem absent or heavily supressed in Path of Exile 2.

A system to "upgrade" lesser currencies into greater ones would alleviate this issue. For example:

Combine many many lesser jeweler orbs into greater jeweler orbs, and then many many Greaters into perfect jeweler orbs. This would reduce RNG reliance and allow players to overcome bad luck by investing time and effort.

Similarly, uncut gems could be upgraded incrementally. Collect 400 level 18 gems to trade for a level 19 gem, or 1,500 level 19 gems for a level 20 gem.
(numbers are not suggestions just examples)

These systems would allow players to steadily progress toward upgrades, deflating the prices of ultra-rare items over time and countering the current inflationary trend caused by RNG reliance. It would also baseline the cost of the high value items to the lesser items and have a deflationary effect on the trade economy and allow SSF players with bad RNG to farm these items towards their upgrades should they need

Farming these lesser currencies would give players a reliable way to make progress and reward time investment into the content.

1.3 Item Trade Price Estimation Tool

A built-in tool to estimate item prices based on item level and selected mods would be invaluable for casual players. This could evolve into an in-game marketplace akin to the current currency exchange. (There was a third-party tool called Awakened POE for Path of Exile 1, which was excellent for this purpose. It’s worth exploring a similar concept to improve the game.)

1.4 Divine-to-Exalt Ratio

Please address the divine-to-exalt ratio on the trade site. The current imbalance enables exploitative behaviors like the "1 divine dump tab" trick, which negatively impacts the economy.

2. Death Punishments

I agree that deaths should matter, even in softcore, to incentivize defensive builds. However, losing map mods on death feels excessive, especially when combined with:

Experience loss.

Lost loot.

One-shot deaths from mechanics like "revives minions" bugs or on-death effects.

Perhaps allow map mods to persist for a limited number of retries resetting the entire map (e.g., two or three portals). This would balance the challenge while reducing frustration.

3. Citadels and Boss Invitations

After 10 days and 18 hours of playtime, I’ve yet to see a single Citadel. Some parts of my atlas are also inaccessible due to what seems to be a bug. If I ever find a Citadel, I’ll likely sell the invitation since the rewards don’t justify the risk of losing valuable character power (6-12 divines).

Consider improving Citadel spawn rates and offering better incentives for engaging with these encounters.

4. Melee (Warrior Titan)

Melee builds, especially the Warrior Titan, feel underwhelming. Here are the main issues:

Ascendancies: While Titans theoretically have 8 ascendancy points available, obtaining the final two points is unrealistic for casual players due to the poor balancing of ascendancy challenges. Additionally, two points must be wasted on the inventory expansion ascendancy just to gain a small amount of power.

Armour: Armour is so underpowered that it feels meaningless. This leaves the class with no real defensive options, especially given its inherently slow playstyle.

Currently, Titans lack clear strengths or a compelling identity. Players who stick with this class deserve immense respect—thoughts and prayers to all Titan mains!

Final Thoughts

Thank you for taking the time to read my feedback. I’m sharing these thoughts not out of criticism but out of love for the game and hope to see it improve for all players. Path of Exile 2 has incredible potential, and I’m excited to see how it evolves.