Path of Exile 2: A Frustrating Disappointment

Constant Punishment: XP Loss
One of the most frustrating aspects of Path of Exile 2 is the experience loss on death. Not only does it significantly slow down progression, but it also forces players boring playstyles instead of encouraging experimentation with different builds. At the end of the day, this mechanic serves as an artificial wall that makes the endgame more frustrating than rewarding.

Absurd Map Attempt Limitations
In a modern ARPG, you’d expect to be able to farm maps freely. However, Path of Exile 2 implements a limited attempt system. Losing a map just because you died one time? Ridiculous. Instead of encouraging skill improvement and build optimization, it punishes players for trying to progress.

Bugs and Terrible Performance
Despite years of development, the game is riddled with bugs. Frequent crashes, broken skill interactions, and connection issues make the experience incredibly frustrating. On top of that, optimization is terrible—even with a high-end PC, FPS drops are common, and loading times are abnormally long.

A Loot System Designed to Waste Your Time
Path of Exile’s loot system has always been problematic, but PoE 2 makes it worse than ever. You spend hours farming maps only to get absolutely nothing useful. On the rare occasion you do find something decent, the crafting system is a complete gamble—more often than not, you'll ruin the item instead of improving it. The result? You spend more time filtering useless junk than actually enjoying the gameplay.

A Trading System Dominated by Bots and Speculators
Trading in Path of Exile 2 is completely controlled by bots and price manipulators. Finding a legitimate buyer or seller is a nightmare, and you’ll often have to send dozens of messages just to get a response. On top of that, rare items are often hoarded and price-gouged by groups of players, making the economy toxic and frustrating. A structured in-game market would have vastly improved the system, but Grinding Gear Games refuses to adapt.

Final Verdict: Frustrating Endgame, Outdated Systems
Path of Exile 2 could have been a masterpiece, but punishing mechanics, a bot-controlled economy, poor performance, and a frustrating loot system make it exhausting rather than enjoyable. Unless you have infinite patience for unnecessary grind and frustration, it's hard to recommend this game in its current state.

Rating: 4/10 - Tons of potential, but a complete mess.

TO OP: This could be added to the "20 reasons why casuals will leave PoE" Thread ;)

(or whatever isn't duped) ;)

bump

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A Trading System Dominated by Bots and Speculators

This would be completely fixed by an in-game trading market that would automatically sell your item after you listed it for sale and someone clicked the buy button... Just like in WoW or every other game with player-to-player trading. You list an expensive item for 1 exalt to "manipulate the market"? Your fault. Someone just bought it and you get 1 exalt just as you wanted, no take backs. Fixed.

GGG doesnt care if you guys like the game or not. They care about numbers they can show the execs at Tencent. As long as you guys keep logging in every day nothing will ever change. Your opinion doesnt matter to them.

Uninstall and STOP PLAYING. This is the only way to send a message to them. Dont log back in until they make meaningful changes.

LOG OUT AND UNINSTALL or stop complaining

I will. If these huge issues won't get fixed on release, I won't play. So far it's just early access, so I still have hope and most of the time the game is fun for me, except for the performance which is horrendous on ps5. But that's because I already have a decent build. Up to the point I got to it, mapping was quite painful, which again reinforces Madir's points.

Bump.

deleted

Have 2 dudes at 97 still having a blast. Never die. Makes tons of currency. Really enjoy tgr atlas map system. Idk. I really don't see the issues everyone's having.

The game is a disappointment to me too. I strongly suspect that a lot of people that are in endgame now actually cheated or profiteered off of cheaters/dupers. Those who just want to play the game, have to face a difficulty curve based on exploitive builds and underhanded trading rather than on hard work and skill. This "Meta" gameplay is boring as hell. There are builds that either have a 1 button set up or those builds that do not require you to hit any buttons at all. I do not see how this would be fun for anyone. This is not skill, it is bad design. The developers either are sleeping at the wheel, or they are making the game to cater to those that want cookie cutter uber builds requiring no skill. It is sad that ARPGs are turning into this. There is no reward in this game for pursuing a non-exploitive build. Never mind Solo self found, it is a grueling, slogging, unrewarding horrible experience. I feel sorry to those who think they are some sort of leet gamer. Feeling good about using some of these builds when in fact they are just copying someone else. Cookie cutter role playing game.