Trial of Chaos Progression + itm lvl issue / Crackling Quarterstaff Feedback

Feedback on Path of Exile 2: Trial of Chaos as an Endgame Activity

To get straight to the point: I really want to make Trial of Chaos my main endgame activity. However, I feel there aren’t enough mechanics or incentives in place to enable a satisfying gameplay loop for it. On top of that, there are significant disincentives for playing Trial of Chaos as an endgame option, especially when compared to other content like irradiated/corrupted maps with breach or even Trial of Sekhema.

Key Concerns:

1. Item Level and Farming Limitations:
One of my main goals in endgame is crafting a very strong quarterstaff. To
roll the highest-tier physical damage modifier (T10), the item needs to have
an item level of 82. Unfortunately, in Trial of Chaos, item level 82 drops
are limited to bosses because the base area level never reaches 82.

In contrast, irradiated/corrupted maps offer consistent item level 82 drops, making them significantly more rewarding for this purpose.
This disparity creates a frustrating “feel-bad” moment for anyone wanting to focus on Trial of Chaos, especially since you have to rely on rare boss drops instead of consistent access to high-level bases.

Trial Master Rewards Are Uninspiring:
The rewards from the Trial Master feel lackluster and uninteresting. Currently, volatile item rewards—which should offer an exciting dopamine hit—are almost guaranteed to be useless.

The corrupted nature of these items compounds the problem, as it prevents further upgrades unless they come with gem sockets and quality (which is extremely rare).
The volatility mechanic has potential, but it needs a revamp to feel rewarding and impactful.

Lack of Progression and Engagement:
Trial of Chaos lacks meaningful ways to progress or scale its difficulty as an endgame activity.

There’s no clear way to make it harder, more engaging, or appropriately rewarding for players who want to focus on it.
Adding progression mechanics, unique challenges, or scaling rewards could make Trial of Chaos a more viable and exciting alternative to mapping or other trials.

On Crackling Quarterstaff and Elemental Identity

Another issue I’ve noticed is with the Crackling Quarterstaff. Its identity is clearly tied to elemental damage, which makes physical modifiers undesirable on it. However, there’s currently little support for this design philosophy:

Weapon quality only upgrades physical modifiers, which discourages the use of elemental damage quarterstaffs.
Quality should also apply to elemental damage, aligning with the staff’s identity and making it more viable as an elemental weapon.
Additionally, elemental modifiers on quarterstaffs feel underwhelming compared to physical modifiers. Either elemental modifiers need a buff, or physical modifiers should be rebalanced to allow more options to quarterstaffs. Right now, the “elemental” staff concept simply isn’t viable, which feels like a missed opportunity.

Elemental weapons in general are in a terrible state right now. The elemental affixes are minuscule compared to what the physical affixes do, and especially considering there are base types that have non-physical base damage it's pretty suspect that quality only affects physical damage.

To me it is quite telling that the heaviest damage you can get on a crackling quarterstaff comes from merciless and flaring, rather than elemental affixes.