Endgame review somewhat casual player.

For context. PS5 level 80 Ice strike Monk. I've completed up to Tier 8 of the map quest so far.

End game is boring. I don't enjoy slot machines and endgame has just been a giant slot machine. RNG controls gear. Not just BIS gear, it controls access to normal(white) gear and magic(blue) gear. All the currency is RNG based. Essences might have been helpful here, but it too is RNG based. I tried to use Essence of Torment to get % increased Physical Damage on a expert quarterstaff, but got leech mana of physical damage. I didn't even realize that was possible. Looking it up, it looks like accuracy rating is in the pool too. So even the thing that is meant to mitigate RNG is a slot machine. Worst RNG controls even getting essences mobs to show up.

RNG controls waystone drops but it also controls which Tier maps you have access to. If you place your atlas points right, it can help but it is still possible to run out of waystones of your current Tier. If you have bad luck in drops or have a string of deaths then I guess you're doing lower level maps. I enjoyed the Trial of Sekhemas & Chaos, but RNG controls access to those also. Breach seems fun but RNG controls which league mechanics you have access to.

Because of these things, when I turn on the game My mindset has been "kill some mobs and hope something interesting happens." Now combat is fun, but mindlessly killing mobs has grown dull. It's not about difficulty either. I've died a few times. There are plenty of mob packs that give me trouble. I've only done breach successfully once. There are plenty of areas I could improve my skill but RNG controls access to every scenario, so I can't focus on any area to practice. I can't control practice time, I can't control gear.

I get the sneaky feeling that what I'm suppose to do, is save every item I think is good and put it in to a trade stash to sell. I assume the dev's goal here is to "encourage" me to by more stash space. Okay. I wouldn't actually mind that, except the trade system is a link to a website and not in game. I tried using it once and immediately said nope. It was clunky and tedious. If trading is required at least make it fun and friction-less.

Overall Endgame is by far the worst part of Path of Exile 2.

PS: I've had a ton of uniques drop and not a single one has been useful to me. I've have so many I decided to get a tab slot for them. Maybe one day they will be good?