ATLAS Mapping bad – some solutions

played poe 2 for many weeks now - the campaign is great / love it.
The big but is the mapping in poe 2 – it feels really bad …
Me as a poe1 veteran with about 13k hours in the game can say that the mapping system is superior- in my opinion the best in the ARPG genre.
Played tons of hours in D3 D4 and Last Epoch and Grim Dawn as well.
The Atlas in poe1 has a straight progress line … you can clearly see what you achieved and what u have to do next and prepare to come further.
In poe2 you have an endless hidden map, you start and running in random directions – what’s the point if you don’t see where to run. All is hidden and only a small number of waypoints are lighting up.
Why is there no straight line which leads the players to the goal? Give some points of interests on the map.
The players have to clear towers in order to light up the Atlas to get a better view - really ?! - this feels way to forced and playing this over and over is boring. Towers have no content, feels like a waste of time with no rewards except revealing the Atlas.
One next big disappointing thing is the “1 death - you are not allowed to rejoin the instance.”
I mean what is this. You have 6 portals and you are not allowed to use.
The worst is that you are loosing your progress – how do u expect the players to learn the endgame boss mechanics if u let them attempt the boss once a week – one attempt on SSF if you play nonstop btw. This is a big grind and loosing the endboss being oneshotted is tilting – I mean loosing is ok , just improve the gear but u also have to learn from the mistakes , but you cant if you are not getting the tries/portals.
I know this game should be different from poe1 but right now poe2 playing endgame / mapping is so much less fun which makes me sad.


Here are some ideas how to improve the mapping in poe2 endgame :

- Make the atlas fully revealed.
- No fixed maps on the Atlas make the points blank – make the waystones
drop like maps for example “Oasis waystone” (let the player choose
what map to run)
- Citadels make them fixed and revealed on the Atlas
- Or Citadels may spawn randomly if you cleared lets say 10 to 15 high
tier waystones
Like - a waypoint gets switched to a Citadel or High Endgame encounter
Maybe a progress meter that lets the player know – (like poe 1 maven
progress)
- No towers , not needed – let the players mod their waystones with
special currency
Maybe add some (very)rare waystone drops – with specific mod like
+ to breach , delirium etc.
- 6 portals = 6 tries on maps and bosses / let the players learn and
give them the tries – which are needed to not get frustrated / the
boss fights shall be challenging and fun!
The bosses in Campaign are so fun and there u are allowed to attempt
over and over –
So why not in the endgame?

Only 1 portal is because when you die in campaign, the map "resets".
It would be an game mechanic abuse for example reseting 10 breaches on death on purpose, or reseting a juiced map with 400% quant over and over again.

Although I agree with you, endgame mapping boring as hell. I have a lot of time on my hands and I can easily prepare farming spots, but man it takes forever to run maps that I don't want to. I mean who wants to grind for 2-3 hours of boring unwanted content just to finally be prepared and start doing what we wanted from the start.
Imagine a person who has "only" 2 hours a day to play, constant dying, setbacks, no juiced maps for days, no loot.

Also, your "improvements" would make the game exactly like poe1. Don't want to be rude but go back to poe1...
I agree that this game needs an overhaul but not like this.